Calif. Officials Impose Rolling Blackouts
Jan. 17, 2001 -- After weeks of warnings, rolling blackouts became a reality for California residents today when regulators ordered utility companies to turn off the power to thousands of people in parts of the state.
But the California Independent System Operator, which managesCalifornia's power grid, says the state now has enough electricity tolast it through midnight Pacific time tonight.
Earlier Wednesday, the blackouts were ordered shortly before noon local time in areas of northern and central California and affected between 200,000 to 500,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers in the San Franciscoarea, and thousands more in Sacramento, Modesto and Turlock.
California regulators lifted the blackout order around 2 p.m. local time but had said they might reissue the rolling blackouts later Wednesday evening during the peak power period.
Terry Winter, the CEO of California's Independent Systems Operator — which controls the power for most of the state — warned consumers they should find ways to cut back their power use or the blackouts could go beyond today.
"I hate to say this, but if people don't conserve and really make a concerted effort to not use power, we're right in the same situation tomorrow," Winter said.
San Francisco, Sacramento Affected
The blackouts are controlled by individual utilities which turn off circuits in local areas for an hour at a time. Downtown San Francisco felt the blackouts immediately as ATMs shut down and at least two students got stuck in an elevator at Hastings School of Law.
While traffic lights went out in several San Francisco Bay communities, motorists used their cell phones to check if their homes were without power. Others were making calls to find out which restaurants were going to be without power so they could make dinner plans. In a San Jose sandwich shop, lunch was served with the doors open so that light could seep through.
Despite several close calls in recent weeks, today was the firsttime the Independent System Operator had failed to come up with enough electricity at the last minuteto avoid outages. Utility companies were trying to avoid cutting power to blocks with essential services such as hospitals. Meanwhile, ISO officials said the blackouts are necessary to prevent other blackouts in neighboring western states.
"We need to make sure that we do not drop below an unacceptable level and put the system at risk, which would actually put the overall western United States at risk of a blackout," Jim Detmer, the ISO's managing director of operations, told ABCNEWS.
Looking for a Solution
California's power crisis is rooted in its months-long struggle to cope with the effects ofderegulating its electricity market. A rate freeze has blocked utilities from passing on higher wholesale costs to their customers. Another problem, Detmers said, has been a national power shortage and a lack of snow and rain in the hydroelectric-dependent PacificNorthwest.
State lawmakers are struggling to find a proper solution. On Tuesday, legislators approved a plan that would allow the state to buy electricity from wholesalers and sell it to struggling utilities at aboutone-fifth the going market rate. The proposal awaits state Senate approval.
Still, various utility companies maintain that they can't pay their bills. Southern California Edison, which serves 11 million people, said this week that it will run out of cash Feb. 2 and cannot pay $596million in bills due. This has prompted Standard & Poor's to downgrade the creditratings of SoCal Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to junk-bond status.
PG&E, which serves 14 million people, had just $500 million incash left as of Jan. 10 and faces bills of $1 billion due nextmonth. Between them, PG&E and SoCal Edison say they have lost at least $10billion.
ABCNEWS Radio's Don Fair in Los Angeles, ABCNEWS' Brian Rooney, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.