Why are there only 270 MWs of surplus available for today's peek load of 48,000 MWs????
AT http://www.caiso.com/... there is a table which has all the forcasted power loads (demand) and generation available. There is a real squeeze for about 1600 hours (4pm for all you normal people). Seems that the 'reserve', our sort of power hedge fund, is only down to 270 MWs! Out 48,000 or more, that's less 1/2 a percent!
All the units that could be online are in fact online. About 20% of our power comes from "out-of-state", meaning tons of nuclear power from Arizona's Casa Grande nuclear power plant and tons of hydro out of Washingon and Nevada.
If the ends don't mean, we get rolling black outs.
There are many applications to build new gas turbines. They are considered 'dirty', and rightfully so, but lots better than coal. Oh, yeah, I forgot...we also get coal fired power, mostly to the ugly sourthern part of this state. The problem is that it seems we are getting all we can.
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California is considered a very blue state. In fact, it's not, it is quite...centrist, really, 'moderate' Repubilcan governor and 'moderate' Democratic Senators. Locally, it is mostly Democratic, but where bipartisan concensus building in the legislation has been rammed down everyone's throat, there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of different between Reps and Dems these day. Of course, in my view, I think the unions and various community groups out to break out or their addiction to the Dems and build a real Labor Party, based on our unions. They are doing this in the low-union membership state of S. Carolina, we could do it here too with the large 30% of the workforce being union.
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Well, there appears that Californians are going to be in the lucky position of overturning the reactionary 1976 ban on nuclear energy the State imposed on us then. A, "Orange County" Republican, Chuck DeVore is going to try to get a ballot measure on the Novemeber 2008 ballot that would overturn the ban. Their web site for this is:
http://www.powerforcalifornia.com
I endoresd this, how about you? If it passes, it doesn't mean there will be a building spree of NPPs. (I wish there would be, we could use about 12 of them to be honest [8 more than we have now] ). All the wasted regulations that were imposed to slow down and cause the price of these plants to go up are still going to be there, but at least the residents of the state could then actually debate it.
A group in Fesno in the states Centeral Valley has come up with unsubsidized funding to build a 1700 MWe French designed EPR.
The initative is based on overturning the law which states that until the Federal gov't has Yucca Mountain set up (or other geological disposal site) then we can't build NPPs. Silly, I know, but that's the way it is and why we all have to help overturn it. Democrats, being the majority party in this state, should be in the forefront of support for this initiative.
David Walters