Herald staff
AND NEWS SERVICES
PORTLAND, Ore. — Emergency measures have temporarily eased the power crisis in the Northwest, but long-term solutions are needed, regional energy planners said Friday.
Larry Cassidy, chairman of the Northwest Power Planning Council, said short-term measures have included industrial power curtailments, temporary generators and reduced water spills at hydroelectric dams.
But the measures have come at the cost of heavier pollution, loss of thousands of jobs and a likely reduction in salmon survival, he said, adding that "this is not a model for long-term resolution" of the problem.
Dick Watson, the council’s power planning director, said it appears the Northwest will make it through the summer without blackouts. But, he added, "It all depends on how the system operates. Things can always go bump in the night."
If there are any plants forced out of service, either for maintenance or weather-related emergencies, the picture could change, he said.
Longer term, though, the reliability is less certain if reservoirs are not built back up by fall and the drought continues into next fall and winter, Cassidy noted.
He urged residents and business people to continue doing what they can in terms of conservation, noting that buying energy-efficient appliances and power pumps will pay off in the long run.
The predicament eased a little Thursday when PacifiCorp, Oregon’s second-largest utility, said it had agreed to stop buying Bonneville Power Administration electricity for the next five years in exchange for an undisclosed cash payment from the federal power marketing agency.
PacifiCorp and BPA announced the agreement Thursday, little more than a month after BPA’s acting administrator, Steven Wright, warned rate hikes could top 250 percent. At that time, he called for a two-year shutdown of the aluminum plants and 5 to 10 percent cutbacks by private and public utilities.
PacifiCorp is the first utility to agree to cut demand.
Meanwhile, the energy situation continues to be high on Vice President Dick Cheney’s agenda. He said Friday nothing more can be done to help solve California’s power problems this summer.
"They knew years ago they had a problem," Cheney said at an energy conference for small business. "They postponed taking action because all of the action was potentially unpleasant."
But the vice president’s analysis hasn’t stopped California leaders, who are desperately searching for a solution. They have pitched the idea of a regional buyers’ cartel, where they would band together with Washington and Oregon and refuse to pay high wholesale prices for electricity.
But the plan is getting a distinctly cool reception in the Pacific Northwest.
"It’s not something that we have embraced," Washington Gov. Gary Locke said in a recent radio interview.
Under the notion, floated by Democratic legislative leaders in the California, the states in the regional cartel would refuse to pay more for electricity than a predetermined price calculated to give wholesalers a reasonable profit.
The Northwest and California are not alone in facing energy shortages. In Brazil, a stubborn drought has left many reservoirs at record low levels, meaning the mainly hydroelectric driven power network cannot keep pace with demand from the expanding economy.
Facing legal challenges to an emergency plan to force Brazilians to use 20 percent less electricity, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso said Friday his government would review some of the unpopular measures.
"We must win this battle together … or we will all lose," Cardoso said, referring to the rolling blackouts and possible collapse of the national grid expected if Brazil fails to slash its energy use.
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