California Utilities

California's power system manager declared a Stage 2 emergency Monday, the fourth time in eight days it has warned that the state's power reserves have dipped below 5%. A Stage 2 warning means the independent system operator may cut off electricity to users who have volunteered to go off line during power crunches. Also Monday, the power manager issued its fifth Stage 1 emergency in eight days, urging households and businesses to conserve energy.

UTILITIES: Investor-owned gas and electric utilities face the same old gruel of thin returns on equity. In California, consumers will benefit from lower prices. Natural gas will increase its market share at the expense of coal and other energy sources.

Air conditioners worked overtime Friday, sapping California's electricity reserves and pushing power officials to declare a moderate Stage 2 emergency. California's energy diet could become even stricter next week. The mounting heat wave is expected to continue through Wednesday and the ability to import electricity may be hampered by damage to transmission lines by wildfires in the West.

California power officials declared a Stage 1 power emergency Friday as hot weather and afternoon air conditioning demand drained available electrical supplies in the state. The California Independent System Operator, or ISO, which oversees operation of about 75% of the state's power transmission system, said the emergency would be in effect from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m., the hours when electrical demand typically peaks this time of year.

California electricity authorities declared a moderate Stage 2 emergency Wednesday as the state power grid successfully sweated through near-record electricity use during the sixth day of a stubborn heat wave. Meanwhile, the board of the California Power Exchange, which runs the state's primary market for wholesale power, on Wednesday asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permission to cap electricity prices at $350 per megawatt hour in the day-of and day-ahead markets.

It's being called the largest wind power project in the country, with plans for thousands of acres of towering turbines in the Mojave Desert foothills generating electricity for 600,000 homes in Southern California. And now it's finally kicking into gear. The multibillion-dollar Alta Wind Energy Center has had a tortured history, stretching across nearly a decade of ownership changes, opposition from local residents and transmission infrastructure delays. But on Tuesday, the project is officially breaking ground in the Tehachapi Pass, a burgeoning hot spot for wind energy about 75 miles north of Los Angeles.

Joseph Aguon believes in preparing for the worst. So even though he makes most of his calls using a cellphone, he maintains a landline at his home in L.A.'s Fairfax neighborhood -- just in case an earthquake or storm knocked out wireless service. But Aguon, 61, is finally ready to cut the cord, not because he's less mindful of potential disasters, but because AT&T keeps jacking up his rates. I've heard from dozens of AT&T customers in recent weeks about big jumps in their bills for basic landlines and measured phone service, which provides customers with a fixed number of local calls each month.

California energy officials are preparing for another summer without the San Onofre power station while facing the growing possibility that the nuclear plant will never return to service. The nuclear plant, one of only two in the state, was powered down more than a year ago when a small amount of radioactive mist leaked from one of the thousands of tubes in the plant's steam generators. Southern California Edison officials said in financial statements last week that if federal regulators do not agree to the utility's proposal to restart one of the plant's two units at partial power, they might elect to retire the plant completely by the end of the year.

You don't have to be a tinfoil-hat-wearing paranoiac to be worried that the electromagnetic radiation from modern wireless devices may be harmful to your health. But are the "smart meters" being installed by utilities throughout the state frying homeowners' brains, as many consumers and even municipal governments fear? The risks are vanishingly small, while the economic and environmental benefits of smart meters are wide and obvious. In fact, we wish L.A.'s municipal utility would get busy installing the devices, though that isn't likely to happen any time soon.

OAKLAND - Grief and disbelief reverberated from the Bay Area to the Central Valley on Monday as questions multiplied about a limousine fire that killed five women and injured four on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. Although officials said they had yet to review the limousine's maintenance record or examine its burned-out shell, California Highway Patrol Capt. Mike Maskarich said the 1999 Lincoln Town Car was licensed to carry only eight passengers, though nine were inside. The Saturday night inferno trapped the women as they headed for what was to be a celebratory bridal party at a hotel.