WHILE ENERGY-RICH LOS ANGELES CONTINUES TO ENJOY BUSINESS AS USUAL.

Byline: Jason Kandel and Erik N. Nelson Staff Writers

L.A. is doing power lunches, not this power crisis thing. The tanning booths are still operating at full power at the Acapulco Sun Tanning Center in Studio City. The lights are still on at the Lights Plus store in Northridge.

In fact, it's business as usual in Los Angeles, despite the national media reports that say L.A. is at the epicenter of the state's gnawing power crisis.

``The good news is, in the city of Los Angeles, we don't have any problems,'' Mayor Richard Riordan said. ``We have an excess of energy,'' thanks to the city's Department of Water and Power, which is not regulated and has been selling its surplus power to energy-strapped utilities around the state.

But on CNN, in The New York Times and in The Washington Post, reports tell of California all agloom, with nary a reference to the sunny state of Los Angeles.

``California on the brink,'' read the front page box in Wednesday's New York Times.

The state is ``reeling from the nation's most serious energy crisis,'' screamed the headline in Wednesday's Washington Post.

And according to The Boston Globe, ``The blackouts are relatively random, meaning they could affect both Beverly Hills and South Central Los Angeles . . .''

Correction: Power outages could affect the city of Beverly Hills, which contracts with financially troubled Southern California Edison, but South Central is part of Los Angeles city, which is serviced by the DWP.

``They think we're going through Armageddon with all the rolling blackouts and everything in the state,'' said Debra Azer, who just got back with her husband from Illinois, where they had to school their relatives on Los Angeles' power situation. ``But not here. What you see on the news and what actually happens when you're living in that area are two different things.''

Left in the dark

The reports were true for many of L.A.'s suburbs, with the exception of Burbank and Glendale, which also have their own power utilities, and like L.A. never joined the state power grid.

In northern Los Angeles County, the cities of Palmdale, Lancaster and Santa Clarita faced the threat of rolling blackouts Wednesday afternoon.

In Santa Clarita, workers bundled up in winter coats while others went home early as their factories cut electricity to meet conservation requirements set by Edison contracts.

By afternoon, the city braced for possible rolling blackouts 90 minutes at a time for the second time in a week.

``This has been really a very trying situation,'' said Donna Nuzzi, the city's emergency preparedness coordinator. ``Everyone is very tense.''

Rolling blackouts were also a threat for those unfortunate entities unto themselves, such as the city of Beverly Hills, which will host the 58th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton on Sunday. Producers of the Golden Globes will have two backup generators, said Diane Herzog, a spokeswoman for NBC, which will air the show.

``They should have considered the Convention Center,'' which resides in the well-lighted confines of Los Angeles, said center spokeswoman Sheila Gonzales. ``We have had some of our clients call and express concern; they just wanted to know how it would affect their event.''

``Once they hear that we're not powered by Southern California Edison, and we have our own power, they're relieved,'' Gonzales said.

Business as usual

There was enough Los Angeles power Wednesday to keep tanning salons like the Acapulco Sun Tanning Center in Studio City buzzing. The shop expected about 100 clients to soak up ultraviolet rays from nine glowing beds.

``Our electric bill is 120 percent to 130 percent more than the restaurant next door or than any other nearby business,'' said Shawn Kaye, who co-owns the business with his wife, Azer. ``We average about $1,500 a month in electric bills.''

With 100 light bulbs burning bright, it was just another day at the office Wednesday for David Roufi, manager of The Lighting Place in Sherman Oaks.

``I have called the DWP and they have assured us that nothing like that will happen here,'' Roufi said. ``We are fortunate in that way.''

Electric bills at The Lighting Place average between $1,500 and $1,800 a month, Roufi said, as the shop showcases such products as crystal chandeliers, and modern and classic lamps with the lights on eight hours a day, six days a week.

Roufi was worried, though.

``We're very afraid it can happen here. We are a lighting store, so if there's no light, it will hurt.''

At Los Angeles International Airport, the new neon-color LAX pylons glowed into the night, despite recent calls by a television consumer advocate to darken them as a gesture of energy conservation.

But LAX spokesman Scott Read said the airport has no reason to conserve. Not only is it on the flush-with-power DWP grid, but it has its own power-and-steam generation plant that sells about $3 million worth of electricity back to the DWP annually.

In Burbank, plastic surgeon Richard Stone said he wasn't worried, thanks to the fact that both the cities of Burbank and Glendale have their own power plants and, like Los Angeles, aren't forced to share with the rest of the state. It also helps that his surgical center has a backup generator, he said.

What he didn't know, however, was that rolling blackouts were imminent at his home in La Canada Flintridge, which depends on Southern California Edison power.

``I'll probably give my wife a call,'' he said, just in case he needed to pick up ice on the way home.

Even before the rolling blackouts hit Northern and Central California, educators in the Antelope Valley struggled to keep classes in session at the same time Southern California Edison wanted to cut power to classrooms.

Officials of Antelope Valley College and the Antelope Valley Union High School District said they expected electricity costs to be thousands of dollars higher than normal for the day because they did not follow a power-curtailment order.

``It's costing us,'' high school district spokeswoman Linda Solcich said, estimating that keeping the six high schools open was costing the district $20,000 an hour despite conservation measures such as turning off some lights and computers.

Antelope Valley College officials closed campus offices and sent more than 100 nonteaching employees home at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, interfering with registration for new students who wanted to sign up for the semester starting Jan. 29. To save energy, most of the nearly 900 winter intersession students were moved into one building.

Both the high school and college are on Edison's interruptible power plan to save energy costs. Under the rules of the contract, the curtailment can last no more than six hours.

Staff Writers Lisa Mascaro, Heather McDonald and Charles Bostwick contributed to this story.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Jean Riley, above left, tends bar at Monterey's Mucky Duck Pub by the light of a propane lantern during a rolling blackout Wednesday. The lights burned bright for Debra Azer, above right, owner of the Acapulco Sun Tanning Center in Studio City.

Vern Fisher/Monterey County Herald

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer