In addition to Canadian supplies, power was found at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the municipal utility that serves most of the state's biggest city. The department was also tapped to find emergency supplies during a similar crisis last week. He said he had no warning about the blackout but was fortunate enough to have a uninterrupted power supply device that gave him about 20 minutes of extra time on his personal computer enough time to save his work and shut it down. In San Francisco, at least two students were trapped in an elevator that stopped between floors at the Hastings School of Law, and automated teller machines on several blocks of downtown San Francisco shut down immediately. The city of San Francisco plans to sue power generators over the outages, accusing them of artificially manipulating supplies to keep prices high, said Marc Slavin, deputy city attorney.
Wholesalers vehemently deny such allegations.
The commercial paper defaults are only the third such corporate defaults in the last six years. On Wednesday, the ISO told a news conference emergency power was flowing into the state, putting desperately needed megawatts into the system just in time to meet the peak evening load. Earlier, the ISO ordered utilities to cut power for 60 to 90 minutes to neighborhoods throughout northern and central California as electricity demand, surging due to cold weather, outpaced what power plants could provide. Following three hours of cuts midday, extra supplies from as far away as Canada helped ease the crunch, allowing utilities to switch the lights back on. Rapid growth in California's strong economy and population, which now stands at 34 million, has overwhelmed available electricity supplies in a state that has not built a major power plant in 10 years.