Big Users Cut Power So Region Keeps Its Cool

As Southern California sagged under a third straight day of oppressive summer heat, major energy users in Orange County--from big businesses to colleges to amusement parks--juggled operations Wednesday to avoid rolling blackouts.

Power regulators called for voluntary conservation measures and people responded. By evening, Southern California Edison stopped short of doing what it had not done in decades but feared it might have to do: shut off power to neighborhoods.

Temperatures were expected to dip into the more comfortable range today but could shoot up again next week, forecasters said.

On Wednesday, demands for electricity were slightly less than the day before, when the all-critical reserve level dipped to 3%. It dipped to 5% at about 4 p.m. Wednesday, the peak usage time, said Patrick Dorinson, spokesman for the California Independent System Operator, which manages the flow of power among California utilities.

That didn’t mean, though, that power was flowing freely. Golden West College officials agreed to an Edison request to close down the Huntington Beach campus, and Newport Beach chip maker Conexant Systems Inc. dimmed its lights and cut back on air conditioning.

“It does get a little warm in here,” said Conexant spokeswoman Lisa Briggs. “We are doing our best to be good corporate citizens.”

Customers at Knott’s Berry Farm found the heat reduced their entertainment options. Park officials shut down four rides for just over three hours in the middle of the afternoon Wednesday, the second straight day such measures were taken. The theme park also turned down air conditioning and lights in employee areas.

Although the popular Big Foot Rapids was among the closed rides, Knott’s spokesman Bob Ochsner said that most park guests took the news in stride. HammerHead Gran Slammer and Mystery Lodge, a multimedia show with special effects, were also closed.

“Out of 65 rides, there are only four down,” Ochsner said. “The public generally understands.”

At Disneyland, power use was curtailed but mostly in places invisible to park-goers, said park spokesman Ray Gomez. Lights and air conditioning in employee areas were shut down, but the rides kept going.

“It doesn’t impact us out in the park or affect our guests in any way in terms of park experience or safety,” Gomez said, “We will not be shutting down any rides at all.”

The power crunch came as California baked under intense sun that sent inland temperatures soaring into the 100s. The heat was accompanied by relatively high humidity from a flow of moist subtropical air drawn into the region by a stationary high-pressure system that’s “been anchored over the western third of the nation for several days,” said Stacey Johnstone, a forecaster for WeatherData Inc., which provides weather information for The Times.

Cooler Weather Likely On the Way

Johnstone said the heat and humidity would likely lessen today as a weather system moves into the Pacific Northwest, bumping the high pressure system to the east and allowing Orange County surface winds to shift onshore, bringing cooler ocean air.

Another high-pressure system could develop next week, though, sending temperatures back up again, she said.

The power crunch affected operations across the Southland.

Under special rate programs, some 1,000 Edison customers pay reduced prices for power in return for an agreement to cut usage during Stage 2 emergencies, designated when reserves in the state power grid drop below 5%. While compliance is voluntary, those who do not cut consumption are billed at a much higher rate--as much as $9 per kilowatt hour, compared to the agreed-upon rate of 7 cents per kilowatt hour, said Southern California Edison spokesman Tom Boyd.

Orange County joined in 1992, and has saved about $900,000 over the past five years, officials said. Before this summer, the county had been asked to cut power only once, in 1998.

So far this year, it has been asked to close down four times, including Monday and Tuesday. But county chief executive Michael Schumacher declined to shut operations when asked Wednesday, deciding to pay as much as $10,000 an hour rather than disrupt work again at a cost of more than $100,000.

And at least two county Supervisors said they would vote against the deal when it comes up for renewal in the fall.

“I would never have agreed to it,” said Board Chairman Chuck Smith. “We can’t shut down the business of government. It’s obvious we have to do something about this.”

Supervisor Todd Spitzer called the voluntary power shutdown “an incredible waste of valuable resources.”

About 1,000 Orange County government employees were sent home Monday and Tuesday. The shutdowns came at busy time for county records processing.

Treasurer-Tax Collector John Moorlach, Assessor Webster Guillory and Clerk-Recorder Gary Granville asked employees to start work at 6 a.m. Wednesday to make up for lost time.

“It’s unbelievable that this building would be shut down,” Granville said as employees apologized to people who found their records transactions cut short. “I had a fellow drive down from Los Angeles in the heat and smog and we couldn’t help him.”

For county workers, going home early meant coming in early the next day. Tax collector Armando Azpeitia, 35, was at work about 5 a.m. Wednesday to catch up with the work load, mailing out billings and payments, and with his hours--new employees only get paid for hours worked.

“I’ve made plans for the entire next month based on this month’s paychecks. I’m currently trying to pay off my credit cards,” Azpeitia said. Like a lot of the employees in the tax collector’s office, Azpeitia said he’ll probably work on Saturday.

Elsa Becker, a 19-year veteran, commuted in from Upland at 5 a.m. to try finish a list of tax delinquent notices by Friday.

“When they said we were going to have to shut down yesterday, I said “Please don’t! I have to finish this thing,”’ Becker said.

In the auditor-controller’s office, employees rushed to catch up on work like having the payroll done for the county’s roughly 17,000 employees. For the first time in nearly a decade, Friday’s payroll was in danger of being missed, said Chuck Hulse, chief deputy auditor-controller.

“We do our darndest not to miss a payroll, and we never have, but yesterday there were some doubts,” Hulse said.

Wednesday marked the fourth time this summer Edison had asked Golden West to shut down. The first three times the college couldn’t because final exams were underway.

At Fullerton College, officials consolidated a light load of summer classes into one building and began shutting off power to the rest of the campus. But the shutdown did not affect fall registration, counseling and admission services, said Pat Spencer, the college’s executive vice president.

“Until this summer, we’d had almost no interruptions in power service,” Spencer said. “But this summer is extraordinary, with the heat wave.”

The heat has been good for some business. At the Kaleidoscope shopping center in Mission Viejo, matinees at the 10-screen Edwards theater have picked up more customers than usual, said Teri Kasa, assistant property manager. But keeping customers cool isn’t cheap. The electric bill for the mall’s common areas, including the parking structure, rose 90% in July compared to June, Kasa said.

And keeping cool isn’t easy. The mall’s Marble Slab Creamery stopped making rum, peach and French vanilla flavors about a month ago because warm weather makes them watery, said Erika Myers, the shop’s ice cream maker.

“We’ve actually had to toss ice cream out,” she said.

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Times staff writers Hector Becerra, Jean O. Pasco and Greg Hernandez contributed to this report.

* DEREGULATION COSTLY

Californians will pay billions more for electricity because of the industry’s deregulation. A3

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The West’s Power Grid

Formed in 1967 to ensure reliable electrical service, the Western Systems Coordinating Council serves 59 million people through an 113,000-mile-long system of power lines. During a heat wave, regions low on power borrow electricity from their neighbors.

HOW WE GET ELECTRICITY

Before reaching a home or business, electricity travels from generating plants through a series of substations that “knock down” the power to a manageable voltage. The flow of power:

Power plant

AC to DC converter

500-volt line

DC to AC converter

220-to-66 volt substation

66-to-12 volt substation

Customer

* A substation cluster includes at least one group of 220-, 66- and 12-volt substations

Graphics reporting by BRADY MacDONALD / Los Angeles Times

Source: Edison International, Independent System Operator