Voluntary curtailments of electrical use by some medium- tolarge-size customers was implemented Wednesday in the northern halfof California as officials and utilities continued to monitorclosely a lingering heat wave in the inland parts of the state,driving natural gas loads to the max for electric generationplants.

The state grid operator issued a Stage One Alert for the secondconsecutive afternoon as northern California broke some 35-yeartemperature records.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. began seeking voluntarycurtailments among nonfirm customers totaling about 200 MWcollectively. Peak demand was expected to exceed 45,000 MW by lateafternoon yesterday, according to the California Independent SystemOperator (Cal-ISO); in the mid-afternoon it was more than 43,000MW.

“We had a good day (Tuesday) and burned our 300 MMcf-plus [ofnatural gas],” said a source at the City of Los Angeles Departmentof Water and Power, the nation’s largest municipal utility.ÿ”Wehave no problem finding gas at market prices.ÿI think one of thereasons is that SoCalGas is on schedule or maybe ahead of schedulein its storage program.ÿSome of the gas we are using is to supportwholesale electric sales.ÿYesterday was a good day [for wholesalesales into the market] as it was hot in the Southwest.”

According to Cal-ISO, the weather is expected to stay hot againtoday and then abate, although the southern half of the state whereSouthern California Edison Co. and San Diego Gas and Electricoperate on average was 14 to 21 degrees cooler than PG&E’sutility service territory. The Cal-ISO is predicting a slightlylower demand — less than 45,000 MW — for today.

A PG&E utility spokesperson said peak demand yesterday wasnearing the company’s all-time record set in 1998 of 23,138 MW. Theutility was contemplating meeting or exceeding that record leveleither yesterday or today.

Earlier in the week, California’s three major individualutilities were reporting demand well below their all-time peaks,and they were not expecting record demand during the current heatwave that is supposed to ease by Friday. As expected, natural gasuse for electric power generation in the state was running at ornear maximum volumes, and hydroelectric power was fully available,too, following another “wet” year — particularly in the northernSierra.

Cal-ISO’s day-ahead alert predicted triple-digit temperatures inthe inland valleys statewide, creating a peak demand of 45,329 MW,just 555 MW short of the all-time state record set last July 12.

“It doesn’t look like we’ll get to an all-time peak (19,935 MW);we’re somewhere around 18,000 MW,” a Southern California Edison Co.spokesperson said late Tuesday.

PG&E did not reach 20,000 MW on Tuesday, having predicted aload even higher at the beginning of the week (all-time record is23,128 MW).

Complicating matters was the unavailability of what the Cal-ISOcalled “key generating units ” in the Bay Area on Wednesday, andcontinued reports of available hydroelectric power being belownormal. Part of the concern about hydro relates to reports that thePacific Northwest will be below 1999 levels that were quite a bitabove normal.

“With respect to hydro, we have all of our facilities fullyloaded with plenty of water and nothing curtailed,” PG&E’sutility spokesperson said. “The system is running full out.”

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