Pleas being made by L.A.-area businesses to obtain advance warnings of power blackouts are receiving a cool response from state and utility officials.
A bill that would require utilities to inform large energy users of upcoming power outages within four minutes after the utility receives notice from the Independent System Operator is expected to have a tough time getting out of an Assembly committee. The bill, ABX1 52, introduced by Assemblyman John Campbell, R-Irvine, has the support of the California Manufacturers & Technology Association.
Only seven legislators voted in favor of the bill earlier this month, far fewer than the majority needed for it to pass out of the 21-member committee. The measure is to be reconsidered in coming weeks.
Chairman and Assemblyman Roderick Wright, D-South Central Los Angeles, is among those opposing the measure.
If businesses know they will get some advance warning, they will be less likely to reduce their energy use, Wright contended, thereby making blackouts more likely,
“(Advance notification) defeats the system,” he said. “This would make the problem worse.”
“I firmly disagree,” countered Dominick DiMare, a lobbyist for the California Chamber of Commerce. “(Providing advance notice of an imminent blackout) is not going to affect how much you do cut back or don’t cut back because you don’t want a blackout.”
Some businesspeople believe that frequent blackouts without warning this summer would result in large losses for companies, and could pose health and safety hazards.
State and utility officials predict about 30 days of rolling blackouts this summer due to the current power crunch.
To further the push for prior notifications, the manufacturers’ association hopes to hold conference calls on peak energy days with officials of the Independent System Operator, which manages most of the state’s power transmission.
But providing prior notification would be very difficult, said ISO spokesman Patrick Dorinson, because it’s hard to predict when a blackout will need to be instituted.
“We don’t have all the energy we need scheduled in the day ahead,” he said. “Even though you forecast you get to situations where you’re monitoring minute by minute.”
The amount of time that elapses between the ISO notifying a utility of the need for a blackout and the utility instituting the blackout can range from 15 minutes to six hours, Edison officials said.
Before summer begins, the ISO hopes to have at least a plan developed for notifying public safety officials and businesses of coming blackouts, Dorinson said.
“I don’t think we can ever give as much (notice) as (business owners) might want,” he said. “Everybody thinks this issue is a nice-and-neat thing, but it ain’t Electricity doesn’t work that way.”
PG & E;, which provides power to Central and Northern California, gives its customers some idea of where they stand in the blackout rotation by providing outage block numbers on bills.
Southern California Edison does not provide such information, in order to ensure flexibility and avoid confusion, a company official said.
