Power Emergency Declared for 2nd Day

For the second straight day, the operator of the state’s electricity grid declared a power emergency Friday for Southern California after supply interruptions and soaring temperatures threatened to cause blackouts.

The California Independent System Operator issued the Stage 2 alert just before 2 p.m., when a coal-fired power plant in Utah that provides power for California was shut down. With the loss of the plant’s 1,600 megawatts of electricity, the state’s available power reserves plunged to within 5% of total demand, well below the minimum recommended threshold of 7%.

In addition, plants that produce about 4,300 megawatts remained off line because of mechanical failures. The loss of those plants Thursday triggered the state’s first Stage 2 emergency since 2002.

The outages, although not abnormally high for the summer months, are worrisome, Cal-ISO spokesman Gregg Fishman said.

“When demand is as high as it has been for the last couple of weeks, it really is a cause for concern,” he said.

Fishman said he couldn’t predict when the idled plants, which represent more than 10% of the state’s total generating capacity, would be back on line. He said power plant outages last summer averaged 3,500 megawatts.

“These are complex machines. Some of them are 30 or 40 years old,” Fishman said.

While supplies dwindled, demand remained high as temperatures broke records in Woodland Hills, where the mercury hit 109 degrees, and in Chatsworth, where it was 105. The thermometer rose to 90 degrees in Long Beach, 101 in Van Nuys and 102 in Riverside.

And more hot weather is on the way, at least for the weekend, when Cal-ISO expects to record its highest-ever Saturday and Sunday usage levels. The National Weather Service, however, is predicting that temperatures across the West soon should start moderating after a series of new highs were set in hundreds of cities from California to Phoenix and Denver.

Under a Stage 2 alert, Cal-ISO urges users to conserve power and asks utilities to implement voluntary conservation programs in an effort to stave off blackouts. Cal-ISO serves about 75% of the state, primarily the areas covered by Southern California Edison Co., San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

On Friday, Edison would have bested its record demand of 21,934 megawatts had it not saved 324 megawatts by remotely shutting down service to 155,000 air conditioning units whose owners joined a voluntary conservation program in exchange for discounts on their bills. A megawatt is enough electricity to power about 750 homes.

Cal-ISO conserved an additional 300 megawatts by asking the California Department of Water Resources and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to turn off pumps. The conservation efforts by homeowners and government water agencies helped Los Angeles-based utilities avoid having to cut service to industrial and commercial customers who had signed up for so-called interruptible power programs. But San Diego Gas & Electric Co. ordered a small number of cuts to businesses, Cal-ISO reported.

Despite the Stage 2 alert, late-afternoon demand in the Cal-ISO service area peaked at 44,047 megawatts, below a record set on Sept. 8, 2004, of 45,597 megawatts.

However, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which is not part of the Cal-ISO system, reported its second straight day of record demand. Temperatures hit 92 in downtown L.A., where high humidity pushed the heat index above 100.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa assured DWP’s 1.4 million customers that the city had “ample power supplies to meet the energy needs of our residents and businesses and stands ready to provide surplus power to the state.”

On Friday, the city sold 550 megawatts of excess power to other cities in California, a DWP spokeswoman said.

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Electricity warnings

Power emergencies each year

*--* 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Stage 1 7 4 55 70 2 1 1 0 Stage 2 5 1 36 65 1 0 0 2 Stage 3 0 0 1 38 0 0 0 0

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What the stages mean

Stage 1

Electricity reserves fall below approximately 7% of potentially available power; voluntary conservation requested.

Stage 2

Electricity reserves fall below 5%; commercial and industrial customers who receive lower rates by participating in OinterruptibleO programs may be called on to reduce usage.

Stage 3

Electricity reserves fall below minimum requirements (usually about 3%); rolling blackouts may be initiated.

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Source: California ISO

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Times staff writer Claire Hoffman contributed to this report.