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Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on Wednesday extended for a week an order requiring Western generators to sell electricity to power-strapped California. 

Richardson, who supports a  

regionwide cap on wholesale electricity prices, also urged Western governors to work together to solve problems that have created power shortages in California and tripled prices for some consumers. 

Richardson met with five governors at an emergency meeting of the Western Governors Association. 

The five, some of whom were skeptical of the price cap, called for several specific steps to help alleviate the problems, starting with major conservation efforts in California and other western states. 

In addition, they asked President-elect Bush to create a team to work with the governors, while he is forming his Cabinet. 

They also asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to investigate the cause of California’s skyrocketing electricity prices, who benefits from the prices and whether any generating capacity has been withheld. 

FERC Chairman Jim Hoecker said he anticipated that information could be given to the governors within several weeks. “We have audit  

teams looking at this market as we speak,” he said. 

Hoecker also speculated that a regional price cap would not be much help. 

“Nationally, we have not improved our infrastructure enough to meet demands,” Hoecker said. 

The governors at the meeting represented Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. California Gov. Gray Davis did not attend, staying home to address the crisis. 

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber supported the proposed cap. 

“Naively, perhaps, those of us in the Northwest thought ourselves immune to power shortages, but the energy emergency that started this summer continues and threatens to engulf the entire West,” Kitzhaber said. 

Last week, Richardson issued an emergency order forcing 75 Western generators to supply electricity to California. The producers had been reluctant to supply power because they were concerned about receiving payment from California’s two largest utilities, both of which are in financial trouble. The order expired at midnight Wednesday, when the extension went into effect. 

FERC approved a flexible rate cap of $150 per megawatt hour that allows suppliers to charge more if they can prove a higher price is warranted. Davis and California’s major power utilities ridiculed the flexible cap as ineffective. 

Davis wants a firm regional price cap of $100 per megawatt hour, a concept that appears to be winning favor among some Western states worried that California’s energy problems could spread. 

Wholesale electricity prices peaked at $1,400 per megawatt hour this month in California after a $250 per megawatt hour price cap was dropped. 

The California-only price cap exacerbated the state’s energy shortage because suppliers stepped up their sales to other Western states willing to pay higher rates. 

Energy suppliers, who have been raking in record profits, fiercely oppose price caps. They warn that restrictions could hurt California in the long run by discouraging construction of new power plants. 

California’s two biggest utilities, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric, have accumulated more than $8 billion in debt buying high-priced electricity they must resell to households and businesses at dramatically lower prices under a 3-year-old rate freeze. 

STAGE TWO ALERT 

The Independent System Operator, the group that oversees the transmission lines that handle about 80 percent of California’s electricity, declared a Stage Two alert shortly after 2 p.m. 

The action, intensifying an alert issued earlier in the day, means that reserves dipped to below 5 percent. 

The ISO said the Stage Two alert would remain in effect until midnight.  

Peak electricity usage was expected in the early evening, at 33,720 megawatts. One megawatt is enough electricity to power 1,000 homes. 

On the Net: 

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission: http://www.ferc.gov 

Western Governors Association: http://www.westgov.org