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's largest electric utility declared a rare Level 1 Alert on Wednesday after it discovered the power grid that serves the Wasatch Front was running short of electricity and the system's power reserves were dwindling.

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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