Rolling Blackouts in California

Harbour Lights has been hit by the resumption of the rolling blackouts to conserve power in California. They called and asked that it be posted here to let their collectors know, since their phones are out also.

They are sending a lot of their employees home for the rest of the day, hopefully tomorrow will be business as usual.

I actually was able to give them a little warning, although it probably didn't help much. I e-mailed Maureen about two hours ago, that the rolling blackouts had been resumed...... as that information came down as an Urgent on the newswires here in the newsroom at WISH TV8.

Paul L Brady


[This message has been edited by engbrady (edited 03-19-2001).]

Maureen reports back that they were able to keep working without their computers until the power came back about an hour later. She said there was still enough light coming in through the windows to see to work.

She repeated that she wanted to let everyone know why he or she couldn't reach Harbour Lights while the power was out as their switchboard was down.

From what I have seen from news reports on the national news this is going to be an on going problem for a while on the West coast.

Paul L Brady

It was along time coming [the energy crisis] and now that its hear I'm afraid it will get alot worse before it gets any better...and not just limited to California.

This Summer will probably be significantly worse. California should have permitted several clean coal technology plants. There is much to be said for fuel diversification.

Is this a good time to become a generator sales representative in California? Maybe if everyone had an auxiliary generator, of substantial size, they could sell the extra power back to the power companies when demand was high.

Bob

And I just happen to work for a company that builds power plants. The talking heads at my company predicted this situation about seven years ago. The General Manager I worked for at the time ended up being moved out of the position because we weren't making the numbers we should have been. There was cancellation after cancellation of service contracts because power companies did not want to spend to upgrade their plants or have a planned outage. Their theory at the time was to let it go a few years until financial times were better and face any forced outages that may come up in the interim. I hate to say that the spring is when the planned outages take place and that's coming up.

The energy crises were in now doesn't have much to do with oil it has to do with a lack of plants. Here in Central Florida, we have built three plants in less than ten years. The people of California do not want powerplants in their areas so how is the electricity supposed to be produced?

Joanne

NIMBY strikes again.

We have seen the enemy and he is us.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Any more cliches out there. They may be overused phrases, but the explain the real problem. you can only push the problem into the future for so long- eventually the future is now.

The powers that be will probably use this to gut as many of the environmental progresses that have been made. The administration is already backing off from the promises that were made in the campaign.

It should be very interesting in the next few years.

Dennis

Pay me now, or pay me later...

Population increases, new homes are built, new businesses start up, etc. All our resources are strained even more.

Pay me now, or pay me later...

Bob

I hope this will not slow down the shipment of my Boca Grande!!!!! LOL
Although I am sorry for the inconveinance to the californians I am saying thank you because just when I thought my husbands job was at an end the coal demand went up! Hey guys I would be more than glad to ship some candles??!!! Just kidding! Truly I hope this is resolved soon and nothing more than a little inconveinances come from it!!

Ah, the price of paradise...the weather may be great here but the infrastructure leaves a LOT to be desired...now they're thinking of raising everyone's rates to get us to cut back on power use! Gee, that should work....NOT!

There's a lot of blame to go around but the local city/county politicians and developers are at the top of my list...they're the ones allowing for unchecked growth...you should see the size of the homes that are being slapped up around here...

I'm told that an ostrich will bury its head in the sand so aas not to see what's coming. THe only problem that I see with that is what that ostrich leaves exposed to the elements.

Oh well!

Bert

Believe me folks when I tell you this is just the beginning of the bad days ahead in the electric industry! Deregulation didn't work with the telephone, trucking or the airline industries and it won't work here either!

I have worked for Cincinnati Gas & Electric for the past 22 years. 7 of those years were in power plants. 3 of them in a nuclear plant(This plant never produced nuclear power and was converted to coal because of pressure from all sides about nuclear power).

No one wants nuclear or coal, but they still want their electric! Gas power plants cost 10 times more to produce electric than coal. I guess we need cleaner coal plants, but who's going to pay for it? I think everybody knows the answer to this! Coal is abundant in this country where gas is not.

In case you haven't noticed, most of all the electric companies in the USA are trying to take over other electric companies or merge with each other. The new motto is "Bigger is Better". This of course is going to do away with alot of the future competition. Without competition, the rates will rise. Deregulation will not make competition. It will just make a few big companies and do away with all the smaller ones in this country.

I agree with alot of the comments mentioned above in the other posts. You can't have it both ways! We need power plants to made the electricity. That's the bottom line!

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[This message has been edited by Randy Kremer (edited 03-27-2001).]

Rock,
I'm with you on this one. Both the politicians and the head haunchos for the big power companies wanted deregulation and they got it at the cost of selling off their own generating plants. Housing in California has been reduced to putting the biggest sized house on the smallest sized lot. Wonder if the neighbors can now shake hands through their windows without ever leaving the house?

Marilyn

What surprised me is the cost of electricity in California was relatively inexpensive compared to the rest of the country. The average cost in CA was $70 per month whereas in Florida it is $88 per month. The majority of states were in the $80/$82 per month range. I guess they've gotten off easy for a long time and it's finally catching up.

Joanne

Well, Joanne, I guess you can stop being surprised because last night's news broadcasts said our electrical rates will go up as much as 42%, especially for any customers who use more than the baseline rate which must be based on someone who lives in a shack and has only one wall plug.

Marilyn

Remember the push in the 70's for the ALL ELECTRIC "GOLDEN MEDALLION" homes? Well, Edison's prediction came true. Electricity is not cheaper that natural gas!!! Well, maybe not for long. Edison is trying to kill its own prediction. Anyway, I plan to spend my summer in the pool to heck with air conditioning!!!

Keepin' the Flame, Rich

Hopefully it won't effect us too much while in Anaheim at the convention. You all know how hot they get inside with all those people. Should be interesting.


Ruthie

How about solar power? Works for lighthouses. Windmills?

Should we all grow coconuts in our backyards?

This was in our technology report and I find it fascinating.

"AND FINALLY…First Country to Use CPO to Generate Power - Malaysia has become the first nation in the world to use Crude Palm Oil as fuel to generate power. Blended with medium fuel oil, the mix has been successfully tested at the TNB Generation power station in Prai, Malaysia. "I am very happy with the tests,” Dr Lim Kheng Yaik said after attending a briefing on the use of CPO as a fuel to generate power. However, Dr Lim also said more tests were needed to tap CPO's potential as an alternative form of fuel. During the tests, which started on April 4, CPO was mixed with medium fuel oil at a ratio of 30:70. The fuel mix was later burned in a conventional steam boiler that produced 120 megawatts of electricity. Despite its “high potential”, he said, CPO could not be immediately used by all Malaysian power stations or independent power producers. "This is because they are already using gas for power generation which is cheaper than CPO or diesel." Industries in Malaysia consume about 3.6 million tons of diesel annually to generate its power needs."

Joanne

[This message has been edited by Joanne (edited 04-20-2001).]