Now here's an "unintended" consequence:  price caps cause less supply to be 
available (marketers cannot sell above cap and generators must be subject to 
cost filings if they do) and the result is black outs.

Alan
 
 Tuesday, July 03, 2001
Copyright , Las Vegas Review-Journal 

POWER SHORTAGES: LV valley endures blackouts
Utility officials expect supplies to stay tight as hot weather continues this 
week 

By JOHN G. EDWARDS 
REVIEW-JOURNAL 



The first rolling blackouts in Southern Nevada history hit the Las Vegas 
Valley on Monday with a speed that surprised even Nevada Power Co. 

The utility company declared a red alert and initiated rolling blackouts that 
left an estimated 10,000 customers without power. It had reported 70,000 
customers were affected but later revised the number of customers who lost 
electricity. 

The blackouts started at 4:10 p.m. and ended at 4:55 p.m., the utility said. 

Nevada Power attributed the power shortages to several factors: unusually 
high temperatures for this time of year, three generation unit outages, the 
area's rapid growth, power shortages in California and, possibly, the 
wholesale power price caps that federal regulators imposed last month. 

"What killed us was the temperature was unbelievable," said Paul Heagan, vice 
president of Sierra Pacific Resources, the holding company for Nevada Power. 
The Las Vegas temperature soared to a near-record 114 degrees. 

As for the rest of the week, "power (supply) is going to be tight," Heagan 
said. "The prospects this week are kind of tough to call." 

The company logged record demand for power: 4,421 megawatts at 5:05 p.m. 
Monday. The previous all-time high was 4,325 megawatts on Aug. 1. A megawatt 
is roughly the amount of power needed to supply 750 houses. 

By contrast, on July 2 last year, the utility hit 3,300 megawatts when the 
temperature was 107 degrees, Heagan said. 

The company targeted nonemergency areas for Monday's rolling blackouts, which 
affected mostly residential customers. 

Nevada Power spokesmen declined to identify the affected areas even after the 
emergency was over. Witnesses said power went out in one area of the 
Northwest and one area of the east valley. 

Electricity customers in the affected areas said the blackouts lasted between 
20 and 45 minutes. 

Several traffic signals went out, including those at the intersections of 
Buffalo Drive and Lake Mead Boulevard, Tenaya Way and Lake Mead, and Boulder 
Highway at U.S. Highway 95. Las Vegas Police Department officials reported 
few traffic problems because of the blackouts. 

For the most part, people reported few problems. 

"We only had a few customers, and we couldn't do Western Union transactions 
without a computer, but with the other customers we just winged it," said 
Michelle Hitt, a customer service representative at Mail Boxes Etc., 7500 W. 
Lake Mead Blvd. Hitt said power at his store was out about 45 minutes. 

Across the street, an assistant manager for the Vons supermarket at 7530 W. 
Lake Mead Blvd. said customers could not check out when the store's power 
turned off. 

The Roadhouse Grill at Lake Mead Boulevard and Tenaya Way was shut down for 
about 25 minutes shortly after 4 p.m., restaurant manager Kim Tuerk said. 

"We had to evacuate the building because of health department and fire codes, 
but it was no big deal," he said. 

Heagan said Nevada Power will start its rolling blackouts in other areas of 
the valley if it needs to cut power again this week. 

The utility's policy calls for no notification to areas that will lose power, 
unlike California, where a minimum of 24 hours notice is required. 

Nevada Power fears that notification would be used by burglars to locate 
unoccupied houses during the emergency. 

Tim Hay, state consumer advocate, said he thinks customers in affected areas 
should be notified of possible outages. "They need to provide notice to 
affected areas, at least in general areas" to help people prepare, Hay said. 

Elsewhere in the valley, consumers and businesses continued operating 
normally during the emergency. 

Meadows mall General Manager Frank Wheat said power was not affected at the 
shopping center. 

"We know rolling blackouts can occur," he said. "We do have backup generators 
for emergency lighting during hours of darkness, but not for all the stores." 

Spokespeople at University Medical Center and Sunrise Hospital also said they 
were not affected by Monday's blackouts and have their own backup power 
supplies. 

Minta Albietz, vice president of maternal-child services at Sunrise: 

"We have our own little power plant in the back. We can generate our own 
power for 30 days, longer as long as we have fuel." 

The company said its power woes began Friday when it internally declared a 
yellow alert and warned employees that it was running short of power, Heagan 
said. 

On Friday, Nevada Power customers were pulling down 4,300 megawatts, the 
second- or third-highest peak in the company history, he said. 

Meanwhile, one of Nevada Power's electrical generation units at the Reid 
Gardner site 50 miles north of Las Vegas has been down since Friday because 
of a leaking boiler, he said. Also, Southern California Edison, which 
operates the Mohave Generating Station at Laughlin for several utilities, 
notified the company Friday that two of Nevada Power's units were down. 

Nevada Power said it was able to obtain additional power on the spot market 
and avoid blackouts last week and did not need to seek any power use 
curtailment by major users. 

The yellow alert continued through the weekend, a period when electric 
consumption usually declines because businesses are closed and many people 
are driving around. 

The company made arrangements to buy another 250 megawatts of electricity 
Monday when most businesses reopened. "That got eaten up by early afternoon," 
Heagan said. 

The utility said casinos reduced about 50 megawatts by switching to backup 
generators and starting conservation measures. But several Strip casino 
operators said they received no requests to conserve power or to turn on 
their backup generation units. 

"Nevada Power hasn't asked us to shed (power) load," said Debbie Munch, Park 
Place Entertainment spokeswoman. "They asked us to cut our power usage a 
couple of times last summer, and we did so. If they do ask us, we'll do what 
we can to help the community." 

Mandalay Resort Group and MGM Mirage executives said they were not asked to 
cut their power use Monday. 

"Our facilities guys said nobody's asked us for anything, and we haven't done 
anything," said Fred Lewis, Aladdin spokesman. 

"At first glance, it appears the problem was handled very well," said Don 
Soderberg, chairman of the Public Utilities Commission, which regulates 
Nevada Power. 

"It's always hard to predict when we're going to have abnormal temperatures, 
and power plants are going to go off-line," Soderberg said. The situation, he 
added, "underlines the need to build more power plants." 

Monday's 114-degree high was one degree shy of the record for the date. The 
heat follows the warmest May on record, said Joe Nemeth, a senior forecaster 
with the National Weather Service. Temperatures are expected to stay warm but 
tapering off as the week progresses and the risk for thunderstorms increases, 
meteorologists reported. 

Highs will stay in the triple-digit range, but drop to 110 degrees today, 105 
on Wednesday, 106 on Thursday and 103 on Friday. A less than 20 percent 
chance for rain exists today, a chance that increases to 30 percent 
Wednesday. 

Forecasters expect a 40 to 50 percent chance of rain the rest of the week.

  
 

This story is located at:
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Jul-03-Tue-2001/news/16458159.html