Apparently not. While some people suspect that the failed energy broker was the real reason for power "brownouts" in California between November 2000 and May 2001 (and it was at least a contributor), the state has once more been suffering a shortage of distribution capacity - and this time the crooked company isn't there to blame.
Among the casualties earlier this week was MySpace.com, whose servers in Los Angeles collapsed due to record-breaking temperatures, in turn leading to peak electricity demand overloading the distribution network. MySpace.com was off the air for half a day.
California set a new record for energy demand earlier this week, consuming 46,561 megawatts in mid-afternoon on Monday. That left it with 7,000MW of spare capacity - a 15% margin.
High temperatures in the state led to high power demands for air conditioning, which overwhelmed ageing plant in the distribution network. Some sections of the transmission network were built in the 1920s and 1930s, and the line-to-home transformers (which reduce voltages) are too small to handle the power demands of modern houses.
"When these transformers were installed, you had neighbourhoods that weren't air-conditioned, homes without two computers and five television sets," Ron Deaton, the general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, told the Los Angeles Times.
California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, tried to terminate the excessive use of power by ordering state agencies to turn off unneeded equipment and cut power use by a quarter. But it hasn't been enough. The state-wide heatwave is the most intense since 1998 and has led to a total demand for electricity 40% higher than in the 2001 energy crisis.
It's an exceptional summer. Some parts of the state are experiencing temperatures that would be expected, on average, only every century, according to Joseph Desmond, deputy secretary for energy at the California Resources Agency.
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