Energiekrise in Kalifornien => Auswirkungen???

         calls this week with state officials to discuss
         becoming the state's financial adviser in the
         crisis.

         Credit Suisse First Boston, whose clients
         include independent power companies that sell
         electricity in California, has been retained by
         the speaker of the state Assembly to help draw
         up legislation intended, in part, to make sure
         such companies are paid the $12 billion they are
         owed by California utilities.

         In addition, Robert E. Rubin, the former
         Treasury secretary who is now chairman of the
         executive committee of Citigroup Inc., is
         advising Gov. Gray Davis on strategies for
         dealing with the state's energy crisis. Citigroup
         said yesterday that Mr. Rubin was acting as a
         private citizen, not in his corporate capacity.
         The Salomon Smith Barney unit of Citigroup
         has been a frequent adviser in deals between
         utilities and power companies.

         In San Francisco, the Utility Reform Network,
         a consumer advocacy group, issued a statement
         calling a measure introduced yesterday by the
         Assembly speaker, Robert Hertzberg, a
         "complete bailout of the utility companies," and
         said Mr. Hertzberg and Credit Suisse shared
         the blame.

         "Not surprisingly, the bill gives the financial
         markets exactly what they have been lobbying
         for — assurances that California consumers
         will pick up the entire tab for the state's failed
         deregulation experiment," the group said. The
         legislation would allow California to issue bonds
         to pay for power it would then resell to the
         state's utilities. ..."

Für Interessierte, hier der Rest des Artikels (vorher anmelden!):
www.nytimes.com/2001/01/26/national/26UTIL.html?pagewanted=all


Was meint Ihr? Wird sich das bald lösen lassen oder ist es ein Damoklesschwert, das über der US-Wirtschaft (speziell Tech-Companies im Silicon-Valley etc.) schwebt??

Experten sind der Meinung das eine baldige Lösung der Energiekrise in Kalifornien nicht in Sicht ist. Es fehlt die Infrastruktur und ach die fuinanziellen Mittel bei den unternehmen das Problem allein zu lösen. Selbst ein einkauf von Überkapazitäten aus den Nachbarstaaten ist nicht möglich, da notwendige Knotenpunkte fehlen.
Allerdings sollte man das Problem auch mal aus einem andren Augenwinkel betrachten. Der Stromverbrauch in Kalifornien ist unwahrscheinlich hoch. Eine regulierung des Problems wäre zum Bsp. über die erhöhung der strompreise möglich. Dagegen stehen aber gesetzliche Dregulierungsverordnungen und ausserdem müsste der Anstieg der Preise schon drastisch ausfallen.
Daneben sieht man das eine Deregulierung eines Versorgungsmarktes nicht unbedingt zu einer Verbesserung führen muss und dieses verfahren vorher besser geplant sein muss. Ähnliches sieht man ja bei der Telekommunikation und der Verkehrsbetriebe in Deutschland. Zwar sind die Preise für die Verbraucher auf einem erfreulich niedrigem Niveau, aber verdienen kann da kein Unternehmen mehr. ich frage mich ob da der " die unsichtbare Hand der Marktwirtschaft" (Markt-Preis-Mechanismus) wirklich zu befriedigenden Ergebnissen aller Seiten führen. Das ergebnis sind Plieten, Zahlungsschwierigkeiten, sinkende Unternehmensgewinne und letztlich doch nur Aufkäufe und Beteiligungen die zur erneuten Konzentration führen. Allerdings kann der Staat keinen wirklichen Einfluss mehr nehmen und letzlich wird es auch hier zu einer schlechteren Versorgung führen. Aber die Warnungen wurden ja nur belächelt und für völlig absurd erklärt.

Gruss make

anscheinend relativ ausführlich darauf eingegangen. Er legte dar, dass erst einzelne Regionen des Staates betroffen seien, aber die Gefahr besteht, dass sich das Problem ausweite.
Ich denke aber mal, dass die das schon noch in den Griff bekommen, bevor da ernsthaft volkswirtschaftlicher Schaden entsteht.


Gruß Dampf

die Parallelen zu einem Bananenstaat häufen sich, ist wirklich nur mehr eine Frage der Zeit bis das Vertrauen der ausländischen Investoren spürbar nachlässt.

haha  

Das Problem "kein Strom aus Nachbarstaaten" wollte ich auch grad noch ansprechen... kann ich mir dann ja sparen :)

@ Hams Dampf: Danke für die Bestätigung! Ich hatte es nicht selbst live gesehen, war deshalb etwas unsicher. Man kann nur hoffen, das da nicht die nächste große Krise heranwächst... aber wenn die US-Banken involviert sind... die werden schon sehen das sie ihr Geld bekommen - wie sie es bis jetzt ja immer geschafft haben ;)

NEW YORK (CNNfn) - After the lights go out, it's too late to start thinking about your energy management strategy. But while the electricity is still running, you have time to figure out how you will deal with a power crisis at your business.

Although it sounds like a flashback to the bad old oil-embargo days of the 1970s, the energy crisis of the 21st century is a different phenomenon, the product of a long-regulated utility industry adapting, creakingly, to the deregulated marketplace of the new millennium, at a time when the U.S. economy is in the midst of unprecedented growth.

California teetered last week on the brink of a "stage three" electricity shortage, as a West Coast heat wave combined with breakdowns at generating plants, putting electric demand in the state within 5 percent of the maximum output that was available.

Had reserve capacity fallen below 1.5 percent, authorities would have imposed "rolling blackouts" that would have shut down the electrical system, mostly in residential neighborhoods, during the heat of the afternoon, when demand typically peaks.

                 This week, the California crisis seems to
                 have eased somewhat. But scarcely
                 noticed in the face of the West Coast
                 drama was an action last Thursday by the
                 New York Power Authority, which asked
                 some of its business and government
                 customers to reduce their demand under
                 a voluntary program.

                 The World Trade Center in lower
                 Manhattan was one of those affected.
                 Employees turned off some of its lobby lights and shut                   down some elevators for
                 part of the day, a spokesman said.

                 
Crunch in the midst of a boom


Why the energy crunch? Gilligan said it was in part the timing of utility deregulation, coming in a period when the U.S. economy was enjoying the longest uninterrupted growth cycle in history.

Each state typically takes two-to-three years to write the legislation to open its electricity market to competition, and it takes another two years for state utility commissions to rewrite their regulations after that, Gilligan said.

All of this means a great deal of uncertainty for risk-averse, regulated power companies. "They don't do anything unless they're sure of reimbursement," he said, adding, "Right now, you've got utility regulators in several states that are just paralyzed."

Consequently, power plant construction has been on hold now for several years across much of the nation, as 25 states are now at some stage of utility deregulation, according to the Edison Electric Institute, a trade group representing investor-owned utilities.

And as calls for reform now ring out in California, it appears the environment of political uncertainty is likely to persist."

Eben in heute:
"Intel hat angekündigt keine Investitionen mehr in Kalifornien zu tätigen!

Bereits tausende in Cal. zu Kurzarbeit "verdonnert" - angeblich Milliarden Verluste für die Wirtschaft!"

to be continued???


Associated Press zur Lage heute & zu Alan Greenspans Kommentar:

"Calif. Power Supply Falls Again
Story Filed: Friday, January 26, 2001 12:32 PM EST

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- California's power supply briefly fell to a dangerously low level again early Friday, just hours after a maximum alert warning had been lifted for
the first time in days.

The energy managers had lifted a Stage 3 alert one minute before midnight Thursday, for the first time since Jan. 9. The California Independent System Operator, keeper of
the power grid, reinstated the Stage 3 alert at 4:32 a.m. PST, when a small Northern California power plant went down. The ISO said the alert would run through midnight
Friday, the 11th straight day.

On Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned that if the crisis isn't resolved soon, it could cause a ripple effect throughout the U.S. economy that could
undermine the nation's decade-long expansion.

``It's scarcely credible that you can have a major economic problem in California which does not feed to the rest of the 49 states,'' Greenspan said in congressional
testimony, adding that the crisis could reduce investment in the West, which in turn could shake consumer confidence.

He called the situation ``a significant problem that this country is going to have to address, and ... rather quickly.'' "