SDG&E ready for summer power season

By: PATRICK WRIGHT - Staff Writer | Friday, June 2, 2006 9:11 PM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- As long as Mother Nature behaves herself, North County residents will have no problems keeping cool this summer.

California energy representatives said they have enough energy for an average to hot summer, as long as the area isn't hit with a series of natural disasters or plant outages.

"We are planning for a heat wave, but not a heat wave and wildfires, earthquakes and (power) plant problems," said Jim Avery, San Diego Gas & Electric Co's senior vice president of electric.

Avery and other energy representatives spoke about the area's summer power demands during the annual San Diego Power Outlook on Friday at SDG&E headquarters. Energy officials with SDG&E and the California Independent System Operator Corp. (ISO), a nonprofit agency that runs most of the state's high-voltage electrical system, said San Diego's power system looked good and could keep energy flowing to all customers even during a heat wave of 10 to 15 days.

The key word is "could." Any number of situations could tax the grid beyond its capabilities and force emergency measures, officials said. Most of those would require several acts of nature occurring at one time, such as a heat wave and a major wildfire outbreak that shuts down a power plant. While officials are preparing for a heat wave or a wildfire, they said the system would be in trouble if both or other disasters struck at the same time.

One emergency measure they could take would be to transfer energy from places with more energy to places with less.

Jim Detmers, ISO's vice president of grid operations, said residents shouldn't use this information to stop energy-conserving behavior.

"We need to have everyone prepared to ... deal with abnormal conditions," he said.

One plant that helps out the area's power situation is Escondido-based Palomar Energy Power Plant. Officials said the plant, which provides enough energy for about 548,000 customers and started operating in April, is one of the reasons the area's energy outlook looks positive.

Officials went out of their way to assure the public that customers were reasonably safe from the "rolling blackouts" experienced across the state during the 2001 energy crisis, in part because the state expanded the power grid to alleviate overloading the system.

Preparing for the power demands caused by a natural disaster puts officials in a bind. When the San Diego County area's temperature hit 72 degrees Friday, the area used 3,500 megawatts of electricity. Temperatures in the high 80s or 90s could push the system near or over its 4,300 megawatts capacity. One megawatt is enough to power about 1,000 homes.

But a string of hot days combined with a plant problem could decrease power output or cause an increase in demand. Officials said the price of protecting the San Diego area from any power outages through new plant or other expansion, about $750,000 to create one megawatt of extra capacity, makes it too expensive to consider. So officials can't do much more than plan as best they can to deal with a natural disaster and hope one never happens.

"We're apprehensive of the long, hot summer (weather officials) are talking about," said Jim McIntosh, California ISO's grid operations director."

Contact staff writer Patrick Wright at (760) 739-6675 or e-mail pwright@nctimes.com.