[30420] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: California electric power on the ragged edge
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mike Leber)
Fri Aug 4 04:33:35 2000
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2000 01:29:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mike Leber <mleber@he.net>
To: Roy <garlic@garlic.com>
Cc: Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com>, nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <398A671E.F61868CC@garlic.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.95.1000804010858.14469Q-100000@ruby.he.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
Not really. All the power plants that do or do not exist in California
are the result of the prior years of planning (under regulation) and not
result of the very recent deregulation.
Deregulation does not change the laws of physics so that power plants
spring into existance during peak loads. heh. ;)
On the other hand, the rate hikes in San Diego are the result of
deregulation.
As a long time resident of California witnessing the virtual inability of
PG&E to build new power plants due to various interest groups: pick one or
more 1) dam a picturesque valley 2) go nuclear or 3) burn fossil fuels.
Holding your breath? I didn't think so. The only way very many power
plants will get built is if we have more rolling blackouts...
On Thu, 3 Aug 2000, Roy wrote:
>
> This is an affect of electric deregulation. This is very little incentive
> for any power company to build generating capacity to absorb these peaks.
> The rolling blackouts are spread between the customers of all power
> companies so any one company can't benefit. Its going to get a lot worse.
>
> Sean Donelan wrote:
>
> > As you may remember in may the NERC, the National Electrical
> > Reliablility Council issued a press release announcing that
> > generation and transmission resources are expected to be
> > adequate in most areas this summer.
> >
> > Today's New York Times has a story about the close call
> > in California yesterday. Available electrical capacity
> > dropped near 3% reserve in the afternoon, leading to concern
> > CAISO would need to declare a "stage three emergency" and
> > begin controlled rolling blackouts across california.
> >
> > http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/080300ca-power.html
> >
> > In June, PG&E used rolling blackouts around the San Francisco
> > Bay area.
>
>
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