San Francisco - California's energy crisis struck home yesterday as mandatory blackouts affected an estimated one million people throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
The state's first mandatory blackouts since the second World War came as the agency that regulates California's electricity grid struggled to save the system from bankruptcy and collapse.
Affected areas were all in northern California, and included San Francisco's famous Mission and Haight Ashbury districts, where shops went dark and traffic lights stopped working, creating traffic jams. Other Bay Area communities were also hit, including parts of Oakland, San Jose, Fremont, Napa and Cupertino.
The blackouts started at 11:41 a.m. (1941 GMT) and were expected to last from two to four hours, said Terry Winter, president and CEO of California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO), the regulating agency.
Emergency fire, police and ambulance services are exempted from the power cuts.
The blackouts came in the middle of a "stage three" emergency as reserves again fell below 1-1/2 per cent of all available power, said Mr Jim Detmers of Cal-ISO.
Mr Detmers said there was simply not enough power being generated in California or available from out of state.
"We've come to almost the end of the road here as far as what supply capability is here in California, as well as the imports coming in," he told reporters. The rotating blackouts were expected to last until 9 p.m. (0500 GMT) he said.
Meanwhile, in the state capital of Sacramento politicians have adopted legislation amounting to an admission that California's sweeping 1996 deregulation had failed.
The state assembly passed an emergency bill late on Tuesday to allow the state to purchase power at fixed, long-term prices and sell it directly to consumers. The legislation must still be approved by state senators.
Also on Tuesday, Southern California Edison, one of two major state utilities, declared it could not make some $596 million in debt repayments. "Time has simply run out," the company said.
Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Company have run up $11 billion in debts and have warned of bankruptcy unless they can pass their higher costs on to consumers.
The companies' retail rates are currently capped by authorities, but power generators are free to raise or cut prices.
The utilities' financial troubles have made the crisis worse. Out-of-state providers have been reluctant to sell power, given Edison and PGE's precarious situation, Mr Detmers said.
Residents throughout California are being urged to help with the crisis by turning off lights, unplugging computers and avoiding doing laundry or using microwave ovens.
Officials said the crisis was likely to continue.