By Gary M. Pinkston
First published in the Record Gazette, March, 2001. SAN GORGONIO PASS - Power blackouts came to Southern California yesterday for the first time since the beginning of the state's energy crisis. Most significantly, yesterday's crisis proved so severe that even municipalities like Los Angeles, Pasadena and, locally, Riverside and Banning who own their own generating capacity, were asked by Edison and the ISO to cut back to relieve the load on Edison's over stressed power grid. "Yesterday we got calls from both Edison and the ISO asking us to cut back," said Banning City Engineer Paul Toor. "We participated in a conference call with all the other municipal electric companies in Southern California and we all agreed that, even though we all own our own generating capacity, we would cooperate with ISO and Edison because of the severeity of the problem. We all agreed to initiate temporary blackouts." According to Toor, yesterday's problems were a result of a combination of factors not seen previously at the same time in the state's struggle to keep the lights on. A large generating plant in Nevada went off-line unexpectedly. Transmission problems lessened the amount of power available from sources in the Northwest. A number of smaller generators refused to sell power into the Edison grid because of unpaid past bills. The combination of problems left Edison thousands of megawatts short of the required demand. "The problem had never been this severe before," said Toor. "In the past we (the city of Banning) have cooperated with requests from Edison and the ISO to cut back on our usage by switching our water well pumps and our wastewater treatment plant over to backup generators. But the problem yesterday was so bad that they asked us to do more." According to Toor, the blackout in Banning was limited in scale and short lived. "Our outage here in Banning lasted 21 minutes. It affected the area between 8th and Hargrave Streets north of George Street to the city limits. Only about 350 customers were affected; mostly residential." Edison also reported short blackouts in Beaumont and Cabazon. According to Toor, the Power plant in Nevada that went off-line yesterday is expected to be back in service today. "One thing I want to make clear," said Toor, "is that Banning owns enough generating capacity to manage its own needs. Yesterday's blackout in our city occurred because we agreed to cooperate with Edison and the ISO to help relieve a serious under supply problem to the Edison grid. We here in Banning have done our home work and provided for our own needs. Yesterday we simply fell victim to the under supply of the state's overall generating capacity. It does us no good to own our own generating capacity if the grid fails and we can't get that power delivered to us, so it is in our own best interest to cooperate. And it is in everyone's best interest for all of us to conserve as much as we can. |
