Some good news for the steamy summer in Sacramento.
State's energy outlook OK
No blackouts expected but conservation is stressed.
By Dale Kasler - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Thursday, March 8, 2007
Nearly six years after the last rolling blackout, California expects to have enough electricity to get through the summer.
But while supplies are expected to be adequate, the California Independent System Operator said Wednesday there are likely to be days when the temperature soars, and consumers are asked to conserve.
"We will count on consumers to do their part to reduce electricity use on peak days when the California appetite for megawatts rises with the mercury," said Jim Detmers, the ISO's vice president of operations, in a press release. The quasi-governmental ISO, based in Folsom, runs the California transmission grid.
Released Wednesday, the ISO's annual summer forecast says there's only a 3 percent likelihood of a so-called Stage 3 alert, the point at which the agency begins implementing rolling blackouts.
The state hasn't experienced rolling blackouts since spring 2001, during the peak of the energy crisis, although there have been scattered, localized outages because of equipment failures. And because a heat wave can create a significant spike in electricity usage, California officials are always nervous about avoiding a repeat of 2001.
