Calif. Narrowly Averts Blackouts

Friday, January 12th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) â€” California was pushed to the brink of rolling blackouts after the state's biggest storm in three years cut electricity generation at a key nuclear plant.

The storm Thursday came as other electric generating stations shut down for maintenance, which coupled with the crippled nuclear plant cut the state's power output by one-third. Regulators declared a Stage 3 alert as reserves dropped below 1.5 percent.

Officials from the state's grid manager, the California Independent System Operator, credited an influx of power from Oregon and Washington state with fending off outages. Gov. Gray Davis planned to meet Friday with the governors of the two states to discuss the energy crisis.

Electricity shortages linked to California's botched deregulation of the power industry have produced soaring prices and sporadic threats of blackouts in California since last June.

``We can expect these alerts daily,'' said Jim Detmers, the ISO's general manager.

The governor says ISO managers aren't doing enough to find energy. His spokesman, Steve Maviglio, said the power generators on the ISO board benefit from the higher wholesale electricity prices brought on by the power alerts.

``They have an inherent conflict of interest,'' Maviglio said.

Detmers said they were ``not crying wolf'' in calling the alerts. He also noted that the board's members include state officials, along with people in the power industry.

A state Assembly committee, urged by the Davis administration, has approved a bill to replace the ISO board with a three-member panel appointed by the governor. Members of the new board could have no ties to the electricity industry.

California's power production fell more than 15,000 megawatts â€” enough to power 15 million homes â€” as Thursday's storm arrived with high winds and heavy rain, and plants were struck by unrelated mechanical problems.

At the Diablo Canyon nuclear station in San Luis Obispo, north of Los Angeles, output was reduced to 20 percent of normal after high surf blew sea kelp into intake valves. The station normally provides enough electricity to serve about 2 million people.

At least five plants shut down Wednesday night or early Thursday because of maintenance needs, the ISO said. A few were to return to operation Friday, but the ISO estimated the state would still be down 13,500 megawatts.

outages were reported near San Francisco.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson extended an emergency order Thursday requiring out-of-state power suppliers to direct excess power to California and to keep selling to Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and SoCal Edison despite their poor credit.

PG&E and SoCal Edison â€” hit by high wholesale prices and battered on Wall Street â€” say they face bankruptcy if they don't get more cash soon. The two utilities, which serve some 25 million people, estimate their losses at more than $10 billion.

State regulators have approved rate increases of 7 percent to 15 percent for PG&E and SoCal Edison customers, but Wall Street and the utilities said it will not be enough.

PG&E laid off 325 employees Thursday and said it expects to let go another 675 if its finances do not improve, spokesman Ron Low said. Low said those cuts would save the company $180 million.

PG&E, already denied credit to buy electricity, also warned Davis this week that it is running low on credit to buy natural gas.

Davis and Clinton administration energy officials planned to resume talks over the weekend on possible solutions to the energy crisis.

In an effort to alleviate the power crunch in the interim, the governor and the ISO are urging consumers across the state to conserve energy.

Near Los Angeles, California State Polytechnic University in Pomona closed down Thursday to conserve energy. In San Francisco, Mayor Willie Brown dimmed the lights in his office and instructed all city departments to scale back power use.

``It's almost to the point where the working class is being held hostage,'' said Naomi Willis of Oakland, who started burning candles to cut down on using lights. ``What can you do without electricity? Nothing.''

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On the Net:

California Independent System Operator: http://www.caiso.com