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             California Public Utilities Commission
505 Van Ness Avenue, Room 5301            San Francisco, CA 94102
CONTACT: Armando Rendon           August 13, 1996        CPUC-070
         415-703-1366

               CPUC ANNOUNCES POTENTIAL EMERGENCY
                ELECTRICITY STATUS IN CALIFORNIA

     President P. Gregory Conlon of the California Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC) today expressed concern that
electricity being generated by the Bonneville Power
Administration may be reduced and put California in an emergency
situation affecting residential and business users throughout the
state.
     "We appreciate Bonneville declaring an emergency in order to
operate the Dalles Power Plant.  Bonneville received permission
from the National Marine Fisheries Service to increase production
from Dalles by 800 megawatts.
     "We hope Bonneville continues to operate the Dalles
plant at the higher level until California's utilities can bring
back on-line over 3,000 megawatts of power plant that are still
off-line as a result of last Saturday's power outage.  These
power plants may be back on-line by the end of the week," Conlon
said.
     "It's vital, meanwhile, that California customers reduce
their electric use, especially of air conditioners during the
peak hours between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m."
     Last Sunday, Conlon asked the Governor's office to issue a
directive to state agencies to curtail electricity use in state
buildings, and they have complied.  Today, Pacific Gas & Electric
(PG&E) has curtailed service to all customers who are on
interruptible status during the peak afternoon period.
     Conlon noted that Bonneville had declared an emergency
yesterday in order to increase production at the Dalles Power
Plant on the Columbia River and provide an added 800 megawatts
of electricity when power was reduced due to overloads last
Saturday that halted service on the California-Oregon intertie.
The intertie usually provides 4400 megawatts but fell to zero
                             -more-
when a power plant shut down, and now operates only at 3600
megawatts  as a safety precaution.
     PG&E has lost 20 percent of its electric generation and
transmission capacity due to the outage.  As of 5 p.m. Tuesday,
the state's utilities were operating at 5 percent reserves, below
the preferred minimum of 7 percent reserves.
     PG&E is predicting tight but adequate generating reserves on
Wednesday, and requesting that customers continue to conserve
electricity.
                               ###