Power loss complicates life for Californians

Firefighters rescue people trapped in an elevator shut down by rolling blackouts     WEB EXCLUSIVE Greg LaMotte: How California is coping with its ongoing power crunch

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From Don Knapp, CNN Correspondent

SACRAMENTO, California (CNN) -- A woman and two children were caught in an elevator between floors when the lights when out on Thursday, after California authorities imposed an electricity blackout on Thursday to conserve power.

The woman and her children were trapped in the elevator in San Francisco's Mission District for about 20 minutes until firefighters could rip open the elevator doors and pull them to a floor above.

In communities throughout much of northern California, the lights, computers, fax machines and business phones went dead.

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The blackout may also have figured in a traffic accident at a San Francisco intersection after traffic lights went out.

Doing office work by candlelight

Sales assistant Sabina Fowler sat it out, unable to work on spread sheets without her computer.

Around her, officemates whose work spaces lacked windows sat at desks with burning candles or hung out in the lobby. Receptionist Neysa Fowler laughed at her suddenly very active job -- walking from her desk to the front door to open it since the electric buzzer no longer worked.

California has been locked in a power crisis for the past two months as supply failed to keep up with demand and debt ridden utilities couldn't always find suppliers willing to sell them power on credit.

Further complicating Thursday's crisis was a lack of water for hydropower in the Pacific Northwest.

But much of the blame for shortages revolves around California's 4-year-old policy of deregulation. Backers said it would create competition and drive down costs. But after big utilities began selling off power plants, (as required under deregulation) an anticipated abundance of cheaper power failed to materialize on the open market.

With the power off, offices are dark, and workers have little to do

Supply tightened, and prices skyrocketed. Utilities spent billions buying power at high, spot market prices, while a rate freeze prevented them from passing the costs on to customers.

Now California is trying to legislate a solution with a dozen emergency bills making their way through the sate Legislature.

The main thrust of the bills is to put California in the electric power business to buy power at long-term low rates, then resell it at cost to utilities.

'It's manipulated'

But some Californians suspect the crisis is intentionally overblown to drive up prices. Even after Thursday's blackout threatened special brewer's yeasts in the refrigerator of his home brewery shop business, Greg Miller remains skeptical.

"It's manipulated," he says. "They sit up there in their board rooms and try to figure out how they're going to get more money than they've already got."

Political leaders are confident they'll have a legislative fix by February. But they also concede the crisis won't really be over until new power plants come on line.

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Dynegy
PG&E Corporation
SoCal Edison
  • Deregulation - What this means to you - Electricity Market Issues
California Power Exchange
System Conditions - The California ISO
California Public Utilities Commission
California Utilities Emergency Association

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