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From regional emails on power situation * CALIFORNIA: Terry Winter and Elena Schmid, the two top dogs of the Cal ISO, unexpectedly quit on June 1, giving no reasons. Winters had run the ISO since '99 (in '02, his total compensation was $776,426). Schmidt "was pivotal in launching the . . . ISO's post energy crisis market redesign initiative." Jeff Tranen, Winter's predecessor ('97-'99), will be resurrected to run the ISO until a new guy is found. Four days later, on June 5, the Cal ISO issued a 34-page report (electronic copy available upon request) responding to a *spring '02*...

The California ISO hereby issues a STAGE 1 ELECTRICAL EMERGENCY Notice, effective 03/29/2004 13:50 through 03/29/2004 19:59. Reason(s): Due to higher than expected loads and loss of resources South of Path 15. Operating Reserves are currently, or forecast to be, less than amounts required by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council. If Operating Reserves deplete further, the ISO will declare a Stage 2 Electrical Emergency and may begin curtailing Interruptible Loads*. Monitor system conditions on the California ISO Website at www.caiso.com and check with local electric utilities for additional information. This message was sent by Market Operations at the California ISO.

After conducting a preliminary fact-finding investigation into the power outage that affected Southern California Monday evening, March 8, 2004, the California Independent System Operator (California ISO) found that operator error contributed to the slow response to a late afternoon spike in electricity demand. The California ISO issued a transmission emergency at 6:22 p.m. Monday night when power lines in the central portion of the state overloaded. ISO operators gave instructions to Southern California Edison (SCE) to “shed load” or interrupt electric service for 20 minutes between 6:30 and 6:50 p.m. The power outage affected about 70,000 SCE customers. The emergency...

Sunday’s Notable Events: At 1755 PST System frequency deviated from 60.017 Hz to 59.793 Hz and recovered to 59.885 Hz by governor action. Cause of the disturbance was due to a plane striking the static wire of the Adelanto-Rinaldi #1 500-kV line which caused the relaying of the Victorville-Adelanto #1 and #2 500-kV lines (1807 restored), Marketplace-Adelanto #1 500-kV line (1831 restored), Intermountain-Adelanto 1000-kV poles 1 and 2 (1933 restored) and the Intermountain Unit #1 while generating 875 MW (2013 unit paralleled). At approximately the same time the Mohave Unit 1 tripped due to SSR while generating 604 MW. PNSC...

Other Comments: CISO reported Spinning Reserve was deficient from 1606 through 1629 yesterday, attaining a minimum of 910 (2.5%). Cause was unknown and they manually dispatched resources to recover. The adjusted threat levels remain in effect: Homeland Security, Orange (High); NRC from level 3 to level 4 (of 5); NERC Medium to electrical system, although no specific threat, low to Cyber; DOE from SECON level 3 to SECON level 2 (1 highest on scale of 5).