Because the clocks were off, Ballantyne had the dismissal bell rung by hand.
The blackouts rolled virtually to the ISO's own doorstep. An outage in south Folsom, near Sacramento, extinguished store lights, snarled midday traffic and stopped cash registers at the city's large outlet mall, less than a mile away.
Most merchants shut their doors, leaving shoppers simmering outside. Some posted apologetic signs. Others simply locked their doors.
For Melissa Koppel and her mother, Sarah, it was their second blackout of the day. They were shopping at a mall in nearby Citrus Heights, but were chased out by a noon blackout. They headed to Folsom, arriving just in time for the lights to go out there.
For some, the outages were more than an inconvenience.
At Delco Machine & Gear in Long Beach, a maker of precision parts for the aerospace industry, Monday's brief blackout shut off dozens of sophisticated metal cutting machines. The cost: at least $30,000 worth of damaged goods.
In Los Angeles, customers were spared any upset, thanks to the independently run Department of Water and Power. Still, general manager S. David Freeman used the occasion to scold state residents. Despite months of dire electricity problems and screaming headlines, Californians still do not seem to grasp the problem, Freeman said. "There is a shortage of electricity in this state," he said. "That is a fact. The general public doesn't seem to believe it, but it's true."
Customers of Edison and PG&E were shielded from soaring wholesale prices by a retail rate freeze. But the swelling electricity debt caused a financial crisis at the two utilities, which turned into a statewide supply crisis early in the year.
State lawmakers have been wrestling with various fixes, including the planned sale of $10 billion in bonds to buy electricity, the potential purchase of the utilities' power transmission systems, expensive conservation programs, and expedited power plant construction. Most of these potential solutions have yet to be enacted.
Throughout the crisis, Davis has been unremittingly optimistic, talking about steps he is taking to encourage conservation and get more power plants built by summer. And he has embarked on a costly program to keep the lights burning, at a rate of about $50 million a day or more than $2.7 billion so far.
But in a sign of lawmakers' frustration, Assemblyman Fred Keeley (D-Boulder Creek) said many legislators are ready to cut off funds for electricity purchases.
