Power outages and shortages affect consumers around the state Filed: 09/21/2000

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  Almost 6,000 customers lost power and California's power regulator declared a stage one electricity emergency Wednesday afternoon after a major out-of-state power plant went down.

Around 5,700 customers in Sunnyvale and Mountain View lost power just after 4 p.m. though all but 60 had power restored an hour later said Rod Low, a spokesman with PG&E.

The cause of that blackout is under investigation.

Stephanie McCorkle, a spokeswoman with the California Independent System Operator said that the downed plant took 1,300 megawatts of power off the western grid, 900 of which were headed to California. As a result, power reserves fell below 7 percent.

Power demand peaked at 4 p.m. at 40,985 megawatts McCorkle said, about 1,000 megawatts less than expected.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 21, 2000