Expansionary Institute

Michael Zey
futurist3000@aol.com

By JENNIFER COLEMAN
.c The Associated Press

 
FOLSOM, Calif. (AP) - Cold weather in the Northwest again caused electricity shortages in Northern California on Monday, but the power crunch in the southern part of the state eased slightly after a nuclear reactor was put back in service.

Cold weather in other states means less electricity for California, which buys some of its power from out-of-state utilities. As a result, California grid operators declared a power alert Monday during peak hours.

Ed Riley, director of power grid operations at the California Independent System Operator, said the shortfall, which resulted in a Stage 2 alert, could mean large commercial customers like Intel Corp. would be asked to cut back on electricity use.

Southern California had enough resources Monday, Riley said.

There was no indication that California was in danger of a Stage 3 alert, when reserves dip so low that the state can impose hourlong, rolling blackouts affecting thousands of homes and businesses.

Utilities in Oregon and Washington have asked commercial users to conserve power but stopped short of declaring an alert.

``Our system is stretched thin and supplies are tight, but we don't anticipate any lights being cut off,'' said John Harrison, spokesman for the Northwest Power Planning Council, which represents Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana.

The California crunch was eased by the speedy repair of one of the two reactors at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant near San Luis Obispo. The plant generates power for 2 million homes.

The power shortage also was helped by the 10-month closing of the Kaiser Aluminum Corp. smelting plant in Mead, Wash. The company decided to sell its unused power for $52 million.

``The power we had been using was worth far more on the open market than it was in making aluminum,'' Kaiser spokesman Scott Lamb said.

Electricity deregulation, the cold and the shutdown of some power plants for maintenance have been blamed for the crisis.

The overall problem - demand that is consistently greater than supply - isn't going away anytime soon, said Jim Detmers, ISO managing director of operations,

He said there has been no been significant power-plant construction recently, and power managers like the ISO are paying high rates to buy electricity when reserves drop. On Thursday, the ISO paid $81 million to keep electricity flowing; it usually pays about $5 million a day.

California approved a phased-in deregulation of the electricity market in 1996 in an effort to lower prices for consumers through competition, but so far it has led to higher prices.

On the Net:

California Independent System Operator: www.caiso.com

AP-NY-12-11-00 2058EST

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