Power Pinch Steals a Bit of Christmas
‘Tis the Christmas current crunch: State electricity officials on Monday urged Californians to conserve electrons in any way possible, including squelching their holiday lights for a few hours.
Officials declared a Stage 2 power emergency as electricity demand peaked at slightly more than 34,000 megawatts, close to the wintertime record. Several power plants were out of commission or operating at reduced capacity around the state, bringing the state within 5% of running out of available power, according to the California Independent System Operator, which runs the electricity system for about 75% of the state.
With colder weather looming later in the week, electricity supplies could get even tighter. If reserves fall below 1.5%, Cal-ISO would declare a Stage 3 emergency and rolling blackouts would be likely. California has never endured a statewide Stage 3 emergency, although localized voltage problems caused rotating blackouts in the San Francisco Bay Area on June 14.
“This is going to be another challenging week for the ISO,” Cal-ISO spokesman Patrick Dorinson said. (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers were unaffected because the municipal utility, like others in the region that are not part of the Cal-ISO grid, has more than enough electricity to meet demand.)
Southern California Edison on Monday urged its electricity customers to delay turning on holiday lights until after 8 p.m. and to eliminate nonessential electricity use to ease the stress on the system.
“We don’t want to put anybody in a position where they can’t enjoy their holiday lights,” SCE spokesman Steve Conroy said. “It’s just another level of conservation that customers can consider.”
SCE, a subsidiary of Rosemead-based Edison International, also was asked by Cal-ISO to cut power to businesses that agreed to that possibility in exchange for lower rates. Similar requests were made of PG&E; Corp.’s Pacific Gas & Electric subsidiary and Sempra Energy utility San Diego Gas & Electric in an attempt to eliminate 1,200 megawatts of consumption.
Officials can’t agree on how much power Christmas lights draw. Cal-ISO estimates that holiday lights add about 1,000 megawatts of consumption statewide, whereas Edison figures the total for its 50,000-square-mile territory alone to be about 1,400 megawatts. By comparison, one unit at a nuclear power plant produces about 1,000 megawatts of power, or enough to supply about 1 million homes.
In any case, Cal-ISO’s technicians have been fretting for weeks about the potential strain of holiday displays, which in past years was of little concern. It matters this season because electricity supplies have been extraordinarily tight, leading to five Stage 2 emergencies in the last three weeks.
Power plant operators have been performing needed maintenance on their aging facilities that was delayed because of power shortages in the summer. In addition, some operators have reached their yearly pollution limits because they ran their plants so much during the summer, leading to reduced or curtailed production now.
Cal-ISO has said that 4,000 to 7,000 megawatts of power will be unavailable throughout the fall and winter because of scheduled maintenance. On Monday, 4,371 megawatts were unavailable because of planned outages, and 7,165 megawatts were unavailable because of unforeseen problems.
The increased demand on the grid was clearly seen Sunday, Dorinson said, when consumption was 1,100 megawatts higher than on the same Sunday last year. It is not known what portion of the growth came from holiday lights, weather or increased consumption attributable to a strong economy, he said.
