Power Imports From the Northwest Help Save the Day

With the help of imported electricity from the Pacific Northwest and a jolt of conservation across the state, California kept the lights Tuesday despite high temperatures and several power plant outages.

State power authorities project even higher energy demand for today and are urging electricity users to save as much electricity as possible.

Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric interrupted power to a few hundred large commercial and industrial customers, dozens of agricultural pumping operations and several thousand air-conditioner users on orders from the California Independent System Operator.

The Folsom-based nonprofit that runs the power grid for most of the state declared a Stage 2 emergency Tuesday when electricity reserves fell below 5%.

It ordered the two utilities in Southern California to reduce electrical load by about 700 megawatts, or enough power for nearly 700,000 homes. These customers get reduced rates in exchange for agreeing to reduce usage when electricity supplies are tight.

“It was a tough challenge today,” Cal-ISO spokeswoman Stephanie McCorkle said.

Demand for electricity in the state peaked at 42,246 megawatts Tuesday afternoon and reached 18,682 in Edison’s 50,000-square-mile territory. Neither was a record, but usage in Southern California was heading for new highs early in the day before thunderstorms in the high deserts began to dampen demand, Edison spokesman Steve Conroy said.

Cal-ISO made last-minute purchases of 4,100 megawatts, primarily from the Pacific Northwest, to keep the grid supplied.

Air conditioners were working overtime on a day when 19 power units were not working, which removed 2,000 megawatts from the electricity grid. Power units representing another 200 megawatts of generation were offline elsewhere in the state, and a major north-south transmission line was operating at reduced capacity while another developed the electricity version of a traffic jam. That limited how much power the state could import.

But conservation saved the day, Cal-ISO said, citing reduced usage by government and members of the California Grocers Assn. Supermarkets alone saved more than 100 megawatts at 2,000 stores statewide on Tuesday, Cal-ISO said. That’s enough to power nearly 100,000 homes.

Tuesday was the first day of the grocery store energy diet, and the electricity savings were higher than expected when the program was announced last Wednesday because more stores are volunteering, association spokesman Dave Heylen said. Grocers are aiming to use 10% less electricity per store by cutting lighting by half, using less air conditioning and shifting some energy-heavy work to off-peak hours.

“We’re not talking about changing refrigeration levels in any of the refrigeration cases,” Heylen said. “Food integrity and food safety is still the top priority.”

Several consumer advocacy and minority business groups called Tuesday for the resignation of California Public Utilities Commission member Josiah Neeper. Neeper, appointed in 1995 by then-Gov. Pete Wilson, helped push deregulation of the state’s electricity industry. His term expires at the end of this year.