Dozens of power users think they should be exempt from rolling blackouts and they're asking regulators, the Legislature or Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for relief. The list includes water agencies and oil companies, which say outages would threaten public safety, to hospitals, jails, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and Roseville Electric. One megawatt can power 1,000 homes. SMUD has projected that statewide electricity shortages could result in up to 100 hours of rolling outages this summer.
Utilities decide how to cut power, initiating rolling blackouts if needed.
Roseville Electric follows basically the same procedure. NCPA manages the transmission lines and jointly owned power plants of 14 municipal utilities. Municipal utilities take a financial blow when they participate in rolling outages, SMUD general manager Jan Schori said last month. Meanwhile, SMUD still has to pay the company that produced the power. Fire and police stations.