The Abilene/Brownwood Blackout: Is there more to the story ?
Abilene hit by rolling blackouts
Power also cut in Brownwood, Stephenville; hot weather causes statewide problem
By Staff and wire reports
April 18, 2006
HOUSTON - Unseasonably hot weather forced power utilities to conduct rolling blackouts around the state, including the Big Country, for several hours on Monday.
As temperatures climbed into the upper 90s and above 100 in some areas for another day, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which runs Texas' electricity grid, declared an emergency situation and ordered the blackouts because of the lack of electricity around the state.
By early Monday evening, ERCOT said things were better and operations were back to normal.
In Abilene, power was cut off to 1,600 residential customers for about 30 minutes about 5 p.m., said Greg Blair, regional manager of community affairs for AEP Texas.
The outages were in areas served by three power substations - one near Dyess, one at North 2nd and Shelton streets, and the Rainey Creek substation to the north of town.
''This affected residential customers,'' Blair said. ''We don't take out critical customers such as hospitals.''
Traffic lights tied into residential service areas were inoperative.
An Abilene police and fire dispatcher said the rolling blackout prompted calls about power outages and traffic congestion caused by non-functioning traffic signals, but no accidents were attributed to the outages.
Elsewhere in the Big Country, TXU Electric Delivery cut off power for 15 minutes at 4:30 p.m. in Brownwood and 4:45 p.m. in Stephenville.
''Each circuit handles up to 800 customers,'' said Jose Bernal, of TXU Electric Delivery in Brownwood. ''We had the customers back on in about 15 minutes.''
ERCOT said it declared the emergency after concluding there was insufficient generating capacity in the region to reliably serve the public's electricity demand. ERCOT said its power grid needed to decrease its load by 1,000 megawatts on Monday.
As much as 15 percent of the state's power supply goes off-line each spring so plants can perform seasonal maintenance before energy usage peaks in the summer, said Public Utility Commission spokesman Terry Hadley. He said maintenance is typically finished by mid-May.
But unusually high temperatures this spring have pushed demand for electricity, creating a shortage, he said.
The typical usage for Texas in April is about 40,000 megawatts a day, but the state pushed 52,000 megawatts on Monday, said ERCOT spokesman Paul Wattles.
''The good news is, (the blackouts) worked,'' Wattles said. ''This prevents region-wide outages. It isolates the outages so a few people share the pain to avoid a region blackout like we had in the Northeast in 2003.''
The rollouts were limited to the ERCOT grid, which provides electricity to about 80 percent of Texas.
Traffic backed up at intersections in Grand Prairie, just west of Dallas, and in Tyler in East Texas during the afternoon rush hour.
CenterPoint Energy spokeswoman Emily Mir Thompson said rolling blackouts every 15 minutes for the Houston area were ordered just after 4 p.m. Monday and ended by around 6:30 p.m.
In Houston, about 68,000 customers were affected during each blackout, Thompson said. CenterPoint Energy serves a total of 1.9 million customers in the Houston area.
Austin Energy said it began rotating blackouts about 4:20 p.m. to comply with its share of the load-shedding requirement.
Dallas-based TXU Electric Delivery also rotated outages every 15 minutes. TXU spokeswoman Carol Peters said the rolling blackouts were a success.
''They went exactly as we planned, as ERCOT set forward,'' she said. ''It's something we practice every year and it worked exactly as we expected it to.''
Peters said the rolling blackouts covered areas from West Texas to East Texas, as far north as the Texas-Oklahoma border and as far south as Round Rock. Towns around Kerrville also reported power blackouts.
ERCOT urged customers around the state to curtail their use of electricity to the lowest level possible, including setting their thermostats at 78 degrees or higher and not using electric lighting, appliances or equipment unless absolutely necessary for health or safety.
Abilene Reporter-News staffers Larry Zelisko, Jerry Daniel Reed and Celinda Emison contributed to this report, along with Associated Press writers Juan A. Lozano, Paul J. Weber and Steve Quinn.
source: http://www.reporternews.com/abil/nw_local/article/0,1874,ABIL_7959_4629497,00.html
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Today's high could challenge state's power grids again
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
By Mike Anderson and Mónica Ortiz Uribe
Tribune-Herald staff writers
Record-high temperatures today may continue testing the ability of Texas energy providers to fill a sudden jump in user demand, which Monday caused rolling brownouts statewide, leaving many Central Texans without power and many motorists mired in traffic jams.
Unseasonably hot temperatures caused an overload in electricity use, prompting the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), an energy monitoring coalition, to move into emergency mode and order that power be temporarily shut off in sections throughout the state, TXU Electric Delivery spokesman John Hardesty said.
Beginning about 4:30 p.m., the outages rotated from one sector to another, specifically excluding areas where there were hospitals or nursing homes, he said.
The rolling brownouts ended at 6:15 p.m.
The outages were noticeable in Waco, then sweltering under humid conditions.
Businesses suddenly found themselves without power, and motorists became ensnared in 5 p.m. traffic jams on Valley Mills Drive because of traffic lights being shut off.
Robert Spikes, service manager at Jerry Stevens Firestone, 1111 Lake Air Drive, said the brownout that threw the shop into darkness and made a mess of traffic out front lasted only about 15 minutes, “but it seemed a lot longer.”
“It put us way behind,” he said late Monday. “You can’t lift cars and put tires on without air and electricity.”
Waco’s high Monday was 97, breaking the old record of 93 set in 1987.
Besides heavy utility use statewide, as much as 15 percent of the state’s power supply was already off-line for seasonal maintenance in anticipation of summer energy use peaks.
Also, four power-generating plants shut down unexpectedly, ERCOT spokesman Paul Wattles said.
Whether the meticulously engineered brownouts continue today depends largely on how much demand energy users place on the system, Hardesty said. He urged everyone to watch consumption.
Little advance notice about the brownouts was given by ERCOT because of the suddenness of the spike in demand. ERCOT advised power companies to reduce energy consumption in rotating, 15-minute shifts or face severe blackouts for longer periods, Hardesty said.
TXU’s share of energy cuts was 380 megawatts, he said. One megawatt is tantamount to about 10 homes, according to a news release from TXU.
Traffic lights out
Tony Flores, TXU district manager, said local brownouts stretched from Marlin through Lorena, Waco and into West.
The energy company shut down individual electric “feeders,” which are typically 5 to 10 miles long in Waco, for about 15 minutes each starting at 4:24 p.m., he said.
Waco police Sgt. Ryan Holt said the department was inundated with calls about traffic lights being out. Most of the city’s traffic lights went out at some point during the afternoon, he said.
Several accidents are suspected to be related to the signal outage, but Holt said he did not have an exact number Monday evening.
“We had to treat them as uncontrolled intersections because we don’t have enough officers to staff even the major intersections,” he said. “For the most part, people did well, so far.”
Police also responded to several home-alarm systems that sent out alerts after power was restored, Holt said.
For the second day in a row, Waco set a record high temperature Monday. The National Weather Service’s Fort Worth office said Waco reached a record 95 degrees Sunday, compared with a previous high of 92 in 1925.
Another record high is possible today with meteorologists predicting 97 — a degree higher than the current record of 1925.
Records were set across Central Texas on Monday, with Gatesville reporting a high of 100 and Hillsboro hitting 99. To the north, Fort Worth reached 101, the weather service reported.
NWS meteorologist Dan Shoemaker said the heat wave is caused by an area of high pressure parked over the state bringing in dry, warm desert air from the west.
Unlike the extended withering days Texans are accustomed to in summer, this heat wave will be short-lived, he said.
Cold front coming
A cold front is due to roll through late tonight, bringing a chance of rain and cooler temperatures, he said. Highs for the rest of the week are anticipated to be in the upper 70s to lower 80s, he said.
Local air conditioning repair services got an early hint Monday morning of the power drain to come. Eddie Morris, a service administrator for Waco’s Lochridge Priest, said the company received calls from more than 100 customers with air conditioning problems.
“The phones were ringing off the walls from the moment we got here, and they haven’t stopped,” he said. “This early temperature jump took people by surprise. They haven’t had the air conditioner on all winter, and they turned them on today and found out they have problems.”
Morris recommended people planning to use their cooling systems for the first time in months make sure they have a fresh air filter and that outside units be checked for any debris that might block airflow.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
manderson@wacotrib.com
757-5741
mortiz@wacotrib.com
757-5751
Tips for saving energy:
* Lower the thermostat to 78 or even 80. Ceiling fans can help make this a viable option.
* Insulate the attic. Badly insulated attics can lose nearly half of your cooling.
* Clean and regularly replace air conditioning filters. A dirty filter taxes your air conditioner, causing it to use more power.
* Don’t use the oven. Use a microwave oven or an outdoor barbecue grill.
* Check for holes in your roof and in your pipes. This can help save up to 10 percent of your heating and cooling costs.
* Close doors to unused rooms. Turn air conditioners off when no one is home.
* Install solar screens or films on sunny windows to reduce heat gain in your home.
Source: TXU Electric, AZoBuild, Entergy
source: http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2006/04/18/04182006wachotweather.html
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Enron/California Blackout Background.....Wonder how many in Brownwood saw the Enron Movie ?
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and while the Enron Trial is taking place in Houston (see below), Texas is experiencing Rolling blackouts !
Chipping at ex-Enron CEO
PROSECUTOR ATTACKS CREDIBILITY IN SKILLING CROSS-EXAMINATION
By Bruce Nichols
Dallas Morning News
HOUSTON - The lead prosecutor scored no knock-out punches Monday in his first day trying to pick apart former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling's testimony and claims of innocence in the 2001 collapse of the energy giant.
But he managed to chip away at Skilling's credibility.
``At the end of the day, it's your word . . . that is at issue, correct?'' prosecutor Sean Berkowitz asked early in cross-examination.
``I think it's more a question of figuring out what makes sense,'' replied Skilling, who argued in testimony last week that prosecutors' theory of the case makes no sense. ``I have nothing to hide.''
The long-awaited cross-examination is expected to consume the 12th week of the conspiracy and fraud trial of Skilling and Enron founder Kenneth Lay. Lay is expected to testify later. The December 2001 collapse of Enron lost shareholders billions of dollars and cost thousands of employees their jobs and retirement savings. Skilling also faces charges of insider trading and lying to auditors.
Prosecutors charge that Skilling and Lay oversaw an effort to exaggerate earnings and hide losses and debt to mislead investors. The defendants argue that the only wrongdoing at Enron was by a small group whose theft from the company panicked the stock market.
Although Skilling said he had nothing to hide, Berkowitz pointed out that he had produced no supporting personal notes taken during conversations or meetings to show the jury, and that his recollections often differed from those of other witnesses who did have notes.
``I didn't destroy them,'' Skilling said, explaining he tended to have mostly to-do lists. ``I think once I checked off all the things on the to-do list, I'd throw them away.''
He testified that he didn't use e-mail, that he had others send e-mails for him. And when his own calendar disagreed with his recollection, he cast doubt on the accuracy of his calendar.
Often, Skilling didn't recall events or conversations, or he recalled them differently from other witnesses. He said he learned about a lot of things after the fact. At one point, Berkowitz went down a list of eight witnesses, all former Enron executives, who recalled things differently from Skilling.
Berkowitz asked about an Aug. 22, 2001, meeting with Lay, eight days after Skilling resigned suddenly as chief executive. Lay had just received a now famous memo from accounting executive Sherron Watkins raising questions about Enron bookkeeping. And he was scheduled to meet with her four hours after meeting with Skilling.
But Skilling said they didn't talk about the Watkins memo.
``Absolutely not,'' Skilling said. ``The discussion I had with Ken was a very upbeat discussion about future strategies I just wanted to make him aware of.''
Controls not followed
Skilling testified he was a ``controls freak,'' meaning he wanted controls in place to make sure Enron's dealings were proper.
But then Berkowitz took him through a list of events related to off-balance-sheet financing arrangements by former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow. Skilling acknowledged he didn't carry out controls -- specifically, personally signing off on deals.
Skilling testified he grew weary of conflict-of-interest issues related to Fastow's running off-balance-sheet partnerships doing financing deals with Enron. But he acknowledged his own apparent conflict -- a personal relationship with a photographer whom he helped by funneling Enron business her way.
Berkowitz walked Skilling through his multimillion-dollar sales of Enron stock in fall 2000 and those of his ex-wife and his then fiancee. And he asked Skilling whether those sales were triggered by inside information of trouble at Enron.
``Coincidence,'' Skilling answered, noting that Enron stock was near its all-time peak price.
Skilling, acknowledged, however that the sales came about the same time as the unraveling of an attempt to sell underperforming power plants and other assets Enron owned in India, South America and other parts of the developing world.
California market
At one point, Skilling appeared to smile when he compared the risks of doing business in California with the hazards of investing in the developing world.
California deregulated its electricity market in 1998 under pressure from Enron and others. Two years later, the state experienced blackouts and astronomical prices before the market stabilized. Part of the blame has been assigned to Enron traders, who made millions.
``You think that's funny?'' Berkowitz asked. ``You previously made fun of what happened in California, publicly made jokes?''
Skilling squirmed, replying: ``A joke, yes.''
``Do you regret that now? Do you regret making that joke about what happened?'' Berkowitz asked.
Skilling paused for a long moment, before saying: ``Yes, now I do.''
source: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/14367545.htm
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Brownwood Republicans, listen to how your guys act ! You'll know them by their walk and their talk !
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Tell me again how the Republican Party is the Party of Morals and Ethcis !
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The Plant shut-downs were coincidental !
POWER BLACKOUTS
Blackouts possible into May
Power official says Texas could see more outages if triple-digit temperatures continue
By Robert Elder
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
The manager of the state's electric transmission grid promised a "major investi- gation" of Monday's rolling blackouts across Texas but didn't rule out a repeat performance if temperatures spike to dead-of-summer levels in the next few weeks.
Sam Jones, the chief operating officer of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, told a state House committee Tuesday that much of generating capacity currently down for repairs will not be up and running until early May. If 100-degree-plus temperatures return, he said, equipment breakdowns, combined with reduced capacity because of repairs, could mean more blackouts.
Ralph Barrera
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
(enlarge photo)
Kevin Brown, an electric system controller supervisor for the energy control center of Austin Energy, monitors the flow of electricity use in the city Tuesday. The map pinpoints mainline units in neighborhoods, with the red dots showing power flowing and the green dots showing no power flowing.
"I'm very hopeful we won't see another heat wave in the next two, three weeks. . . ." Jones told the House Committee on Regulated Industries. "I shudder to think we'd see higher than low-100-degree days between now and May, when we get generation back."
ERCOT said there were no major grid-related power outages Tuesday, when temperatures were at or near 100 degrees in much of the state, including Central Texas.
A little more generating capacity was available compared with Monday, ERCOT said, in part because some operators agreed to delay planned maintenance.
About 14,000 megawatts of generation — about 20 percent of the statewide system's total capacity — was offline Monday for seasonal maintenance. The shortage turned critical when four plants unexpectedly shut down Monday afternoon.
Jones said it was a coincidence that the plants shut down at a time when so much capacity wasn't available.
ERCOT was prepared to handle a peak load of 53,575 megawatts Tuesday, and the system could handle up to 56,000 megawatts, Jones said.
By contrast, ERCOT officials had predicted that the grid could handle up to 48,000 megawatts Monday, a total that proved inadequate once the four plants shut down. The plants' locations are confidential under ERCOT rules, Jones told the committee, but will be available 60 days after the shutdowns.
An ERCOT spokeswoman said the names of plants taken offline are kept secret so other power companies can't take advantage of the knowledge to charge higher prices. Many parts of Central Texas had no blackouts Monday, but some areas of Austin were without power for as long as three hours, and others had several shorter blackout periods. The outages were spotty, including parts of South and South-Central Austin, the Zilker neighborhood, Cedar Park, Pflugerville and Hutto.
ERCOT said the blackouts don't foreshadow widespread outages this summer because plants under repair should be running by about May 10.
Jones said ERCOT ordered utilities to reduce the amount of power they were generating Monday, the first time that has happened since Dec. 22, 1989, when temperatures near zero degrees enveloped much of the state.
The ERCOT grid covers 75 percent of Texas and 85 percent of the electricity load in the state. Only the El Paso area, the Panhandle and parts of East Texas are outside the ERCOT grid.
Austin Energy spokesman Ed Clark said customers of the city-owned utility used 2,060 megawatts of power Monday, the highest for any day in April during the agency's 111-year history. Customers used 2,050 megawatts Tuesday.
He said officials project that customers use about 1,870 megawatts on an average 85-degree day. On an average 100-degree day, customers use about 2,300 megawatts during peak demand.
ERCOT said there was little danger of widespread outages like those that disrupted service to 50 million people across the northeastern United States in the summer of 2003.
Some lawmakers were not assuaged. Regulated Industries Committee member Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houson, suggested that ERCOT "should anticipate a worse scenario than we've anticipated in the past."
Texas experienced a power plant building boom in the late 1990s, as it headed toward partly deregulating the retail electric market.
But energy experts predict that Texas will run short of electricity generation in about three years because not enough new plants are on the drawing board, and the ones that are planned will have a hard time getting financing.
Cambridge Energy Research Associates warned in February that a shortage of investment capital would hamper the construction of enough new plants to meet demand, particularly in fast-growing states such as Texas.
The report, released in Houston, said the country would likely face "power shortages in some areas within the next five years." It said Texas could face severe constraints in 2009.
relder@statesman.com; 445-3671. Staff writer Tony Plohetski contributed.
source: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/19ercot.html
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