Officials: No fear of power shortage in Nevada

Friday, Dec. 8, 2000 | 10:43 a.m.

While some people are predicting blackouts from colder weather projected for next week, Las Vegas weather officials say things may not be so bad and Nevada Power Co. officials say they are ready for any increase in local power usage.

A group of electricity traders, meeting at the Day-of-the-Trader conference at the Aladdin on Thursday, said extreme cold could trigger a huge power demand Monday in the Western United States and Canada, causing blackouts in some communities.

Blackouts occur when power companies run low on energy and systematically shut off power to some consumers to provide adequate power to the bulk of customers.

The Dow Jones Wire Service reported that such a cold spell could cause Western heating demand to skyrocket from its current 77 percent of normal use to as high as 170 percent above normal.

"Some Western power traders ... said blackouts will be impossible to avoid next week, when some utilities could decide they can no longer pay extremely high prices for power," Dow Jones reported Thursday in a copyrighted story.

But local energy officials say the lights won't go out in Las Vegas.

"We have not scheduled any code yellow or code red alerts like we did last June," said Sonya Headen, spokeswoman for Nevada Power. "Our peak use is in the summer when the air conditioners are in use. It is a different situation in Las Vegas."

Headen said Las Vegas generates 50 percent of its own power -- which is unusual for a utility -- and has long-term contracts to obtain what it does not produce, thus lessening the potential for blackouts.

Officials at the National Weather Service at McCarran International Airport say it does not appear as though it will be as cold as originally thought.

"There has been a shift in the pattern (since 40-degree days and 20-degree nights were predicted earlier this week)," said Joe Nemeth, a meteorologist and lead forecaster for the local weather service station.

"There will be a trough of low pressure over the West that will mean colder temperatures, but not as strong or cold as we thought. There is a lot of uncertainty, but that is typical for this time of year."

Temperatures have been running about 5 degrees above the normal of 58-59 degrees for this time of year, Nemeth said. Starting Sunday, temperatures are expected to dip to the upper 40s to low 50s during the day and 30-35 degrees at night, he said.

Kathy Larsen, spokeswoman for McGraw-Hill Platts Unit, which is sponsoring the Day-of-The-Trader convention that runs through today, said California is expected to be hit hard if the weather gets too cold.

"The turmoil in the industry has focused on California the last six months, escalating from an early heat in May," said Larsen whose company publishes energy news reports.

"There is a shortage of supply, transmission limits and high demand during cold weather. We are looking at controlled blackouts if it gets colder."