ISO gains new power to prevent blackouts
http://www.sacbee.com/103/story/27389.html
Federal officials Thursday approved new rules for California's electricity-transmission grid that can be summarized this way: No more 11th-hour scrambling for power.
The rules give the Independent System Operator, a quasi-state agency that runs the power grid, the ability to buy electricity and make other adjustments in power flow a day before it's needed.
That could prove significant. Since its inception, the Folsom-based ISO has labored under a major handicap: It had to wait until the last minute before it could buy the electricity needed to smooth out the ebbs and flows of California's power demands.
This led to major problems during the energy crisis of 2000-01. The ISO was forced to beg for huge gobs of power -- as much as 30 percent of what was needed -- literally minutes before it was used. The results included blackouts and soaring wholesale prices, which were passed on to the state's three investor-owned utilities.
which Houston-based Enron and others exploited to carry out their schemes.
Yeah, they "schemed" to make California a liberal state so that it would regulate itself into an energy crisis.
The only new generation that can gain approval in California is fueled by nat. gas. Thus the very high heating bills last winter. The legislature is stocked with liberals.