By KPIX - The PIXPage Staff
Duke Energy is facing new accusations of gouging California consumers. In an exclusive CBS News interview, two former employees claim the power company intentionally cut supplies to raise prices. They will testify before state regulators Friday.
The former workers at the South Bay Duke Energy plant in Southern California say their company shut down their plant arbitrarily, scheduled maintenance when no parts were ready, and ran the least efficient turbines, all to drive up Californian's electricity costs.
"This needs to be exposed," said Glenn Johnson, one of the former workers. "When I look at my bill every month, having had the knowledge of what's going on behind the scenes, it's a crime that everyone is paying the amount of money that they are."
Duke owns four California plants. The California Independent System Operator (news - web sites) has accused Duke of cutting off state users 80% of the time. But Duke blames the ISO, saying it ordered the power on and off. "The ISO often instructs us to move the plant up and down to manage the daily load," said Duke Spokesperson Tom Williams.
Duke may have charged the most for electricity in recent history: $3900 for a megawatt that used to cost $30. Experts were expecting to hear from employees at some point.
"This is something that there's been a lot of rumors about," said Jim Bushnell with the UC Energy Institute. "Certainly if you look at just the statistical evidence of how many outages there have been over the last couple of years, we've had an extraordinary level of plant outages"
Duke plans its own news conference in Sacramento today, after the former employees testify.
For more Bay Area news and information, visit the PIX Page at www.kpix.com
� 1997
Talk to me!
Get your own Free Home Page