California electric power on the ragged edge

[Sean Donelan <sean () donelan com>]

As you may remember in may the NERC, the National Electrical
Reliablility Council issued a press release announcing that
generation and transmission resources are expected to be
adequate in most areas this summer.

Today's New York Times has a story about the close call
in California yesterday.  Available electrical capacity
dropped near 3% reserve in the afternoon, leading to concern
CAISO would need to declare a "stage three emergency" and
begin controlled rolling blackouts across california.

http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/080300ca-power.html

In June, PG&E used rolling blackouts around the San Francisco
Bay area.