What should be especially scary is B.C. Hydro has just announced that their reserviors aren't doing to well and that they are going to need to make some market purchases of electric power to support their own needs and contracts.
Hmmmm...economic laws of supply and demand? Major drought. Low hydro reservoirs in British Columbia. BC Hyrdo major seller of low cost hydro power to California being in the market competing against California for surplus electricity. Hmmm....could be an interesting and expensive summer in California. Yes, there is a difference between a transmission problem and a bulk power supply problem. But when California's major interties don't bring in the hydro power from the PNW, it gets hard to push electricity from California power plants through the California transmission system to southern California.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/05/04/BAGDS6F8K91.DTL
Some Southern California businesses were asked to curtail energy use Monday as a heat wave increased power demand and led to transmission problems.
Power lines near Chino became overloaded as average temperatures hovered around 101 degrees in Southern California, creating the highest demand for electricity so far this year. The unusually hot May weather came as several power plants in the southern part of the state were off-line for maintenance, and not enough power could be sent from north to south.
Statewide, the peak demand for electricity was nearly 3,000 megawatts higher than forecast. A megawatt is enough to power about 750 homes.
Northern California was not affected by the power squeeze, and the problems did not threaten a return to rolling blackouts.
However, the "transmission emergency,'' declared for late afternoon by the California Independent System Operator, forced Southern California Edison to ask several large-energy users to use less power. The customers, mostly manufacturers, pay less per megawatt if they agree to cut electricity use during high demand periods. It was the first time in nearly two years that power grid managers called on businesses that participate in the program to cut usage.
Grid operators also called on homeowners to avoid using appliances like dishwashers and washing machines until after 6 p.m.
Despite the unusually hot temperatures Monday, the state had enough power, according to Stephanie McCorkle, director of communications for the grid operator.
"It just wasn't in the right place,'' she said.
The emergency came a few weeks after the agency issued a summer forecast, warning that electricity supplies would be tight this year as the state faced record demand for electricity. Other agencies such as the California Energy Commission say new power plants must be built or the state could face serious shortages by 2006.
But along with increasing supply, experts also say transmission lines must be upgraded. Along with some shortages in 2001's energy crisis, blackouts were caused by overloaded power lines.
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If water levels continue to fall, [Lake] Powell will be unable to generate electricity as early as 2007 or sooner, some hydrologists say. And it would be reduced more or less to the old riverbed channel of the Colorado River not long after that. Even now, the lake's managers say, it would take a decade of historically normal rainfall to refill it.