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Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 10:15:17 -0600
From: "Tracey Bradley" <tbradley@bracepatt.com>
To: "Aryeh Fishman" <afishman@bracepatt.com>, "Andrea Settanni" 
<asettanni@bracepatt.com>, "Charles Ingebretson" 
<cingebretson@bracepatt.com>, "Charles Shoneman" <cshoneman@bracepatt.com>, 
"Deanna King" <dking@bracepatt.com>, "Jeffrey Watkiss" 
<dwatkiss@bracepatt.com>, "Gene Godley" <ggodley@bracepatt.com>, "Kimberly 
Curry" <kcurry@bracepatt.com>, "Michael Pate" <mpate@bracepatt.com>, "Paul 
Fox" <pfox@bracepatt.com>, "Ronald Carroll" <rcarroll@bracepatt.com>
Subject: California faces Tuesday blackouts
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FYI

California faces Tuesday blackouts
Power shortage continues a day after rolling outages
By Myra P. Saefong, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 10:47 AM ET Mar 20, 2001


FOLSOM, Calif. (CBS.MW) -- California's electricity grid operator said 
rolling blackouts could continue Tuesday as idled generating plants and the 
lack of payments to small suppliers prompted a drop in operating reserves to 
critically low levels.

"We are projecting the possibility of outages sometime between 10 o'clock 
(Pacific time) this morning and 8 o'clock this evening," Jim Detmers, vice 
president of operations at the California Independent System Operator, said 
at a Tuesday morning conference call.

Detmers said that two large generation units that had been expected to be 
back online by Tuesday morning, failed to be repaired on time.

The Cal ISO now expects one unit to return by noon Tuesday, with the other 
coming back online at midnight.

Additionally, power imports are down by 800 megawatts compared to Monday, 
Detmers said, citing exhausted water resources.

The tight power condition "will exist today and may even exist into tomorrow 
as well," he said. "A lot depends on what all of California does to conserve 
energy."

As of Tuesday morning, the state had more than 12,000 megawatts of planned 
and forced generation unit outages.

Power levels from small generators remain "extremely low" with only about 
3,000 megawatts of the total 5,000 to 6,000 megawatts of electricity in 
operation.

The Cal ISO has said that the small generators are suffering from "financial 
concerns and an inability to purchase fuel to run the plants."

California suffered 32-straight days at its highest power alert earlier this 
year in part due to the inability of the state's utilities' to purchase 
enough power for their customers.

Southern California Edison (EIX: news, msgs, alerts) and another of 
California's big utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric (PCG: news, msgs, alerts) 
, have combined debts of more than $13 billion from buying wholesale power on 
the open market that they must supply to customers at rates capped by state 
regulators. See related story.

Blackouts hit electric customers around the state on Monday, from San 
Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf to Beverly Hills. Bay Area media reported Cisco 
Systems was forced to stop work at one of its Silicon Valley plants.

The blackouts began at noon Monday and continued until about 8 or 9 p.m. 
Power for most customers was interrupted for only about 60 to 90 minutes.

The Cal ISO will reassess the power situation and hold a conference call at 
10:30 a.m. Pacific time.

Myra P. Saefong is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com in San Francisco. The 
Associated Press contributed to this report.