POWER WOES WORSEN STATE CALLS FIRST BLACKOUT ALERT EVER; L.A. SUPPLIES REMAIN PLENTIFUL.

Byline: Daily News Wire and Staff

California officials declared an unprecedented Stage Three power emergency for about two hours Thursday, warning customers to cut back or face the possibility of rolling blackouts, officials said.

The power grid's managers, who called off the Stage Three alert about 7:30 p.m., said they hoped to avoid blackouts by tapping electricity intended for the enormous state and federal pumps that push water from Northern California to the central and southern regions of the state.

``We're hoping that with these resources we can avoid the blackouts,'' said Lorie O'Donley, a spokeswoman for the California Independent System Operator.

The Stage Three alert, which lasted from about 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., followed hours of increasing stress on California's electricity grid, which has been strapped by cold weather, power plants idled for maintenance and repairs, and dwindling imports.

But by temporarily halting the pumps - two-story structures that suck water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta east of San Francisco - authorities hoped to obtain at least an additional 500 megawatts, perhaps more.

While Los Angeles remains an island of abundant electricity, officials warned they could still begin cutting power to suburban Los Angeles neighborhoods and businesses - and to most of the state.

By putting the state on a blackout alert, officials were able to draw extra power from outside the state to ease the immediate crisis without resorting to rolling outages.

``This is the first time we have had to declare a Stage Three in our history, whether it was winter or summer,'' said Cal-ISO spokeswoman Kristina Werst.

For many commercial customers, rates 100 times normal have already been imposed. College of the Canyons, for instance, reports its electricity bill for the past week has surpassed $100,000.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, in contrast, has been able to earn more than $500,000 a day selling its excess power to ease the statewide crisis. It sold Southern California Edison Co. 950 megawatts of power Thursday.

No communities served by Edison experienced any outages during the Stage Three alert. But if rolling outages are needed to reduce power usage, Edison will be given less than 15 minutes to notify customers. Edison would de-energize circuits or groups of customers on a rotating basis until Cal-ISO can sustain reserve levels above 1.5 percent of energy demand.

The emergency declaration allows the state to receive help from the Western Area Power Administration and the California Department of Water Resources.

Today's Stage Three emergency declaration enabled Cal-ISO to receive emergency assistance from the Western Area Power Administration and the California Department of Water Resources.

At the same time, customers who voluntarily reduce their power consumption during power emergencies were told they could restore their full ``load.'' These customers are asked to curtail their load when the state's power reserves fall below 5 percent, but a Stage Two Emergency was scheduled to remain in effect until 10 p.m. All customers are urged to practice conservation during electricity emergencies.

A Stage Three emergency is declared by Cal-ISO, the nonprofit agency that manages 75 percent of California's transmission power grid, and secures power supplies for most of the state's consumers, when the state's power reserves fall below 1.5 percent. When that happens rotating outages could be necessary to prevent any potential widespread disturbance to California's electric transmission grid.

Local power customers were again asked to curb their power usage during the fourth straight day of power supply alerts.

Officials at College of the Canyons were forced to ignore the request to cut off power for the second day in a row, despite having to pay punitive rates of $9 per kilowatt/hour.

``We know that the taxpayer dollars being wasted are incredible, but we are in the last week of classes and we can't tell our students to stay home from a third shift like an industrial customer could,'' said Sue Bozman, a college spokeswoman.

According to Bozman, the power emergencies have cost the school $116,000 in punitive rates over the past week. The school has petitioned Edison to release them from their contract, or push the contract back until after Dec. 16 - when the school will be closed for winter break.

``We don't have the right or ability to shut down when our students are expecting to take finals,'' Bozman said.

Edison officials said the increased power costs statewide would not affect individual customers because of a legally mandated freeze in power rates during the deregulation process.

Cal-ISO officials said a 500-megawatt power plant unexpectedly went down in the afternoon, further stressing the system. The identity of that plant was not immediately available.

The ISO also said California utilities, which try to buy power at least a day in advance to obtain the best possible price, bought power with just one hour lead time most of the day as available supplies dwindled. By late afternoon, that lead time had been cut to 10 minutes, the ISO said, reflecting a dramatic tightening in the market.

The ISO also said a new cold snap was expected to hit Sunday evening, posing new stresses for the system.

Gov. Gray Davis said the problems stemmed in part from flaws in California's newly deregulated electricity system, including huge increases in the cost of wholesale power.

``We're simply not ready for deregulation in California,'' the governor said.