Heat Wave, Power Plant Crash Sap State’s Electricity Supplies

With the West gripped on Wednesday by a second day of record high temperatures, the sudden loss of a key Southern California power plant pushed the state’s electricity reserves to their lowest level in a year and forced a Stage 2 emergency.

Power supplies slipped dangerously low, state officials said, and they urged residents to conserve. The emergency ended at 6 p.m. and did not apply to Los Angeles, which is served by a city-owned utility with abundant reserves.

“If we had had this kind of weather last summer, the lights would be off from Eureka to El Centro,” said Gov. Gray Davis, whose administration has worked to stabilize California’s electrical system after a disastrous brush with deregulation. “Last year, the heavens smiled and we had a mild summer. This year, we may have a hot summer, but we’re far better prepared ... than we were last summer.”

State grid operators declared the emergency at 3 p.m., after Reliant Energy’s power plant near Oxnard unexpectedly shut down with mechanical problems. The plant had been producing enough power to supply half a million homes.

When the plant went offline, reserves in the state slipped below 5%, forcing utilities to disrupt power to businesses that had volunteered for such emergency cutbacks. That 1,000-megawatt curtailment helped the state get through the afternoon without blackouts.

Demand for electricity in the three-quarters of the state served by the California Independent System Operator rocketed to 42,441 megawatts, the highest of the year. Consumption peaked 603 megawatts higher than Monday, when a Stage 1 emergency was triggered, according to Cal-ISO.

The supply squeeze is not expected to disrupt service by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which is independent of Cal-ISO. The DWP has enough power to serve its customers for the rest of the summer, General Manager David Wiggs told reporters Tuesday.

“Barring a catastrophe, we should be in very good shape to assure we have no shortage of power for our customers,” Wiggs said. “But we need to encourage all Angelenos to use that power wisely.”

Broiling temperatures across the West drove air-conditioning use to 145% of normal, devouring electricity that otherwise could have been imported to California from other states. Seattle hit 88 degrees, Portland 98, and Phoenix and Las Vegas both sweltered at 108.

With California largely dependent on its own energy resources, state and utility officials beseeched residents to embrace conservation as enthusiastically as they did during the electricity crisis of 2000 and 2001, when wholesale prices soared and blackouts threatened even in low-consumption winter months.

Go easy on the air conditioning, turn off lights and avoid doing laundry until after 7 p.m., they urged.

“You can try to control every contingency, but the one you can’t control is how often Mother Nature wants to hit 110 or 115 and how widespread that is,” said Richard Katz, an advisor to Gov. Davis. “We’re asking people throughout the state to help us, as they did last year, meet our conservation goals.”

Conservation has slacked off in recent months. Californians conserved 3% less electricity last month than they did in June 2001, for example.

Davis blamed the power emergencies on weather, not on a lack of preparation.

Power plants capable of producing 3,000 megawatts, enough to supply more than 2 million homes, have been built in California since the last blackout in May 2001.

The state Department of Water Resources also signed tens of billions of dollars worth of long-term power contracts a year ago to serve the customers of three private utilities that were financially crippled by the power crisis. Several major contracts were renegotiated this spring.

“The contracts were restructured to give us cheaper power and power when we needed it,” said Davis, “plus I told DWR to err on the side of buying power because meteorologists have been wrong before.”

As a result of the contracts, the state had purchased 88% of the power it needed Tuesday in advance, Katz said. The rest of the electricity was purchased on the spot market.

Prices in that market were capped by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in June 2001 and recalculated after Monday’s power emergency, as dictated by the FERC order.

The price cap, which applies across the West, dropped from $92 per megawatt-hour to $57.14 on Tuesday, then was lowered in the evening to $55.26 per megawatt-hour.

Some generators warned that the lower allowable price for their electricity would discourage power production.

Richard Wheatley, spokesman for Reliant Energy, said Wednesday morning that the state should expect a spate of mechanical breakdowns as plants run harder.

Power plant owners within California are obligated to supply Cal-ISO if the electricity is available and needed.

“Nobody’s going to take their plants down deliberately,” Wheatley said. But he predicted that “you’re going to see things that you’ve seen in the past--you’ll see numerous plant breakdowns; we’ve seen some of that ourselves.

“The last thing any of us wants to see is a repeat of the California energy crisis,” he said, “but we have to have enough incentives to provide the power and to make a reasonable profit.”

The plant near Oxnard was tripped off after one of two large fans broke, causing a safety hazard, Wheatley said.

“We’ll be working all night,” he said Wednesday afternoon, “but I don’t know when it will be back in service.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

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Handling the Heat

Keep thermostats at 78 degrees rather than fiddling with the temperature.

Don’t try to cool a place quickly by setting the temperature very low.

Vacuum air conditioners weekly.

Install temporary window reflectors, such as aluminum-covered cardboard, to reflect heat back outside.

Stay indoors, on the lowest floor and out of the sun, as much as possible.

Avoid taking cool showers after coming indoors, since the extreme temperature change could cause hypothermia.

Learn how to give first aid in case of heatstroke, heat exhaustion or cramps.

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Source: L.A. Department of Water and

Power

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Times staff writer Claire Luna contributed to this report.