Utah Power issues electricity shortage alert for hour-long crisis
By Steven Oberbeck, The Salt Lake Tribune -- June 25
Summer is only a few days old, but Utah Power already has confronted its first energy crisis.
Utah Power issued only one similar alert, in 2003.
The emergency quickly forced Utah Power to contact several of its large
industrial customers whose contracts allow the utility to turn off electricity
to their plants in times of need. The utility warned those companies they soon
could be plunged into darkness so that electricity could continue to flow to
residential and smaller business customers.
"Fortunately, we didn't reach the point where we had to take anyone
offline," Utah Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen said, noting the problem
developed around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday and was over about an hour later.
The crisis was caused by routine but unexpected maintenance issues at several
of Utah Power's generating units, Eskelsen said.
And the problem does not portend any future crisis for the rest of summer,
when the weather will be hotter, Eskelsen added. "It was just one of those
rare combinations of events that came upon us suddenly and that no one
expected."
The Utah Office of Energy, which runs the Power Forward program designed to
warn Utahns a day in advance of the need to take steps to conserve electricity,
said it was unaware of a problem with the state's electrical grid on Wednesday.
The Power Forward program, however, typically receives a day's prior notice
from participating utilities about the conditions they expect on the power
system. So if there is a problem that arises suddenly and is dealt with quickly,
the Power Forward program would not reflect that short-term event.
"We had a Green Day on Thursday and Friday will be another one,"
said Kim Mellin of the Utah Energy Office.
She noted that on green days, Utahns should consider normal electricity
conservation measures, such as running dishwashers and washing machines only
when they are fully loaded, and turning off unneeded lights and electrical
appliances.
Eskelsen said that Wednesday's problems did not reach a point where Utah
Power needed to exercise the options available to it under the new Cool Keeper
program.
About 20,000 homes and businesses have signed up for the Cool Keeper program
that allows Utah Power to cycle air conditioners on and off during times of peak
demand. Normally, though, Utah Power will not turn to that program until the
temperature rises to 97 degrees or more.
"The Cool Keeper program was put on standby, though," Eskelsen
said.
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