|
|
Enron Mail |
After months of effort, we have succeeded in putting together a Blackout
Notification System that will provide California employers, residents, and public safety officers with adequate time to respond to an impending rolling blackout. As you know, Governor Davis appointed me to the California ISO last February. Through the leadership of our Energy Committee at the Manufacturing Group, I introduced a motion at CAISO on March 30. The motion stated that California needed a better Blackout Notification System than the passive system previously in place. After the motion passed 5-0, the ISO and PG&E held focus groups with employers and residents throughout the state to ask customers what they need to more adequately prepare for planned rolling blackouts, and if possible to help prevent them from occurring. Then, Governor Davis stepped in and directed ISO, the Office of Emergency Services, and the Energy Oversight Board to work with the utilities to build a proactive notification system. This system provides not only a 1-hour advanced warning before a blackout could occur, but to also includes 48 and 24-hour notices that blackouts might happen due to predicted hot weather conditions, and/or a lack of energy supply, or planned and unplanned maintenance at generation facilities. The proactive approach sought by Governor Davis and by my motion at CAISO will include a system by which residents and employers can have their extensive contact information such e-mails, pagers, and cell phones listed in a database. All contacts can receive a 48, 24 and 1-hour automatic notification in advance. What is particularly exciting about this proactive approach is that we can better prepare for a blackout with adequate time to power down assembly lines and computers, and power up emergency generators. We can also prevent a blackout by taking action within that hour which reduces load and can even help avoid blackouts. Again, kudos go to the Manufacturing Group's Energy Committee for pushing this plan last February to take to the CAISO Board and to Governor Davis. By expanding this plan, we can make sure an even larger window of notice is proactively provided to Californians. The plan will be rolled out publicly tomorrow (Friday, June 15, 2001) and incrementally implemented as soon as possible. We will soon provide further updates on how employers throughout the Valley and state on how they can register in the new database for this proactive notification system. Sincerely, Carl Guardino - winmail.dat
|