Emergencies frequently spawn heroes, and California’s summer 2000 power shortage has produced 127,000 unsung heroes within the ranks of SCE customers.
On summer days when the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) encounters significant power supply shortfalls, thousands of SCE customers voluntarily interrupt their normal use of electricity. To help relieve the temporary imbalance between supply and demand, many of our residential customers go without air conditioning for several hours, business customers shut down production lines and agricultural customers turn off irrigation pumps.
Granted, SCE’s “interruptible” customers have an incentive: They receive a special rate discount in return for their willingness to reduce power consumption during Cal-ISO emergencies. Nevertheless, their cooperation is voluntary and they are to be commended for complying, when possible, with an agreement made when far fewer power interruptions were needed.
This summer, their commitment is helping to keep the lights on for all of us. That is because these 127,000 customers can reduce demand on the power grid by as much as 2,400 megawatts, helping Cal-ISO avert the most serious power supply condition: a “Stage 3 Emergency.”
Stage 3 represents the worst-case of three emergency declarations used by the Cal-ISO, one that California has never faced statewide. This is when reserves drop below 1.5% and Cal-ISO directs investor-owned utilities to reduce demand involuntarily. In response, SCE would begin involuntary controlled rotating circuit interruptions, commonly called “rolling blackouts,” to prevent a potential widespread disturbance to California’s entire electric transmission grid.
While new power plants are being built, energy conservation by every home and business has emerged as the most effective approach for maintaining service reliability for all Californians. By far, it is the medium- to
