California:Memos show makings of power crisis

The San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Friday, May 10, 2002 | Mark Martin, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Sacramento -- In December 2000, Terry Winter was a desperate man.

As the state official charged with keeping power flowing throughout California, his task was getting tougher. Energy companies were abandoning the state's markets, apparently because prices were curbed and they could make more money in other western states.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Calpowercrisis:

To find all articles tagged or indexed using Calpowercrisis, click below:
	click here >>>	Calpowercrisis	<<< click here
(To view all FR Bump Lists, click here)

[Carry_Okie]

The power crisis started when moonbeam was elected. What these people are talking about is the battle plan for the coups de gras.

[d14truth]

LONG-TERM ENERGY CONTRACTS!!!

What Gov. 'Doofus' didn't have? He gambled on energy availability and lost. You play, you pay, governor.

"In the first three months of 2001, prices for power rose dramatically: During those months Californians would be charged about 30 percent more than the same months the year before. Megawatts that typically sell for between $30 and $40 at times cost $1,000."

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

My son just sent me a note on this:

12:35:26 GOVERNOR DAVIS ANNOUNCES $32 MILLION TO PROTECT 10,000-ACRE GATEWAY TO BIG SUR

Governor Gray Davis today announced that $32 million from Proposition 40 will be used to acquire the 9,898-acre Palo Corona Ranch in Monterey County, California.

The ten-mile-long property extends southward from Carmel to the Los Padres National Forest and ranges from near sea level to over 3,000 feet in elevation.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Does this connect in some way to some of the PG&E property that Davis was after?

[d14truth]

Manipulation

What you are subject to when you don't have a 'contract'?
*****
Only a 'DOOFUS' would constrain a retail 'unlimited quantity' price without similar guarantee on the wholesale price of the supply. Anyone knows to limit purchases at the 'sale price', guvner. If California had a few more power plants online(poor planning and NIMBY why we don't), the domestic California producers might have generated the domestic(California) needs.

Hey, 'guvner', it appears that today you are trying to 'manipulate' the budget. Some future bonds for some current spending, for your advantage. How is that different from energy suppliers taking advantage of the situation you offered them?

[d14truth]

"Enron, which supplied a share of this power, would intentionally overschedule the amount it knew the system could handle."

And, didn't the ISO know that the power was 'overscheduled'? Since when doesn't a 'responsible' sytem operator know the 'system limits'? DOOFI!!!

Too bad the 'Wrongical Chronicle' writer doesn't ask the 'obvious' questions of the bureaucRATS.

[d14truth]

"The state agency, unable to monitor the actual usage and believing that the power grid would be overloaded, then paid Enron to deliver the "excess" electricity somewhere else to avoid congestion. Often that was out of state where it was even harder to track."

Sounds like a pretty worthless, but well rewarded, state agency. If you can't monitor something, you can't manage it. DOOFI

[madeinchina]

One was nicknamed "Ricochet" by Enron traders but is referred to as megawatt laundering by many energy experts. The company bought power in California under the state's price limits, shipped it outside the state, only to buy it again and sell it back to the state. Because the energy was coming from outside California, it wasn't subject to price limitations.

Dont'ya just hate it when those free market b&^$&$^% undermine our best laid regulatory plans? What we need is a new tougher energy regulation regime which will stop these energy hustlers in their tracks.

[Carry_Okie]

I have never seen a map of the transmission line corridors.

[Pres Raygun]

Typical worthless business-libertarians at Enron. Just like their Russian counterparts, their gangster capitalism discredits the whole system, just so they can run off with a ferw dolars stuffed in their pockets.

Enough with the theatrics. Enron got theirs in the end. Yes Enron was corrupt and people got hurt by their corruption, but capitalism in the end got Enron. Enron though was small potatoes compared to the corrupt government of CA, which through its goofy regulatory system kept captialism from working properly enabling the Enron to apparently flourish all the while nearly bankrupted the state of CA. Whenever capitalism screws up, just remember there is a government somewhere that tried to game the system, resulting in a failure of the natural checks and balances built into capitalism.

[Neanderthal]

"Megawatts that typically sell for between $30 and $40 at times cost $1,000."

Another ignoramus reporter. It should say "Megawatts that typically sell for between $30 and $40 per hour . . ."

If he can't understand this simple concept . . .

[heleny]

Winter made the plea without telling Gov. Gray Davis or the ISO board.... He believes his action kept the lights on.
... Californians saw some of the highest-priced megawatts ever recorded
No, no, no, the author has it all wrong. Davis said he was the one who kept the lights on. He lost his temper telling the Union Tribune two months ago about his efforts. ("It just sounds a little presumptuous, but I think I should at least get a round of applause. I don't get squat.")
Also, the author had better not try scapegoating Winter now because we know Davis is responsible.

Enron could earn money by creating perceived congestion problems and then helping fix them.
Davis thinks he can earn brownie points by creating scandals and then "solving" the new problems while blaming others.
Enron's methods worked, but I hope Californians are too smart for Davis' tactics.

[willyone]

And the free market gets a black eye and the socialists get their agenda advanced. Another dividend that the marxists will exploit to get Hillary elected. And she will be elected president.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Davis thinks he can earn brownie points by creating scandals and then "solving" the new problems while blaming others.

Good observation!