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SACRAMENTO — California wrapped up a desperate power auction Wednesday, hoping to find electricity supplies on a long-term basis at a price that won’t break the state. 

At the end of the 27-hour bidding period, governor’s spokesman Steve Maviglio would say only that at least one bid was received. A formal announcement was expected later Wednesday. 

“I predict that what those bids will look like will not cause people to do back flips for joy,” said Assemblyman Fred Keeley, the Legislature’s lead negotiator during the power crisis. 

Power managers have called on Californians to do everything they can to conserve, even suggesting people planning to watch Sunday night’s Super Bowl do so in groups. 

The state has been frantically scrounging power for days to avert rolling blackouts, buying megawatts on the expensive spot market from as far away as Canada. 

State officials say they have already spent more than $113 of a $400 million fund approved last week by lawmakers to buy power for cash-strapped Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric, which are on the verge of bankruptcy. 

At that rate, the remaining state money would be depleted in less than a week, said Kellan Fluckiger, chief executive of the Independent System Operator, which manages most of California’s power grid. 

Gov. Gray Davis began accepting bids Tuesday for electricity contracts ranging from six months to 10 years. He hoped suppliers would agree to sell for $55 per megawatt, though wholesalers have suggested they are more interested in the $80-per-megawatt range. 

Spot market prices have soared as high as $600 per megawatt in the past year. 

Energy suppliers also said they have sold most of their generating capacity for the next year or more, leaving little to offer to California in the near future. 

“We are 90 percent sold for 2001, and a substantial portion is sold for 2002,” said Tom Williams, spokesman for Duke Energy, which owns four power plants in California. 

The crisis is blamed largely on the state’s 1996 deregulation law, which ordered utilities to sell their power plants and buy wholesale power, but capped the rates they could charge customers. 

As a result, when energy prices began to rise last year, SoCal Edison and PG&E were unable to raise their rates. Other problems, including a shortage of new power plants, transmission glitches, low hydroelectric output and plant maintenance, have left the state precariously low on megawatts. 

Lawmakers are pursuing other solutions, including one in which California would take over hydroelectric plants or transmission systems of SoCal Edison and PG&E. 

There is little time left to develop a plan – perhaps only a matter of days, said Keeley, D-Boulder Creek. 

The state’s two largest utilities, both nearly bankrupt, are losing about $250 million per week and trying to ward off creditors from seizing their assets in court, Keeley said. 

Both utilities went to court to block the Power Exchange, the state’s largest electricity marketplace, from seizing energy contracts to raise cash. Both have missed multimillion-dollar payments to the exchange. 

A Los Angeles judge temporarily barred the power exchange from selling Edison long-term power contracts. Superior Judge David Jaffe’s order came after the attorney general’s office intervened, saying the governor wants to retain the option to seize the contracts. 

Davis declared a state of emergency last week, giving him a wide range of powers to address the electricity crisis, including the power to commandeer any private property he considers necessary. 

The attorney general’s office filed a brief arguing that the auction of the long-term contracts would “have a severe effect on California’s already calamitous electricity situation.” 

The judge gave Davis a week to decide whether to seize the contracts. David Chaney, senior assistant attorney general, said he didn’t know whether Davis was considering such a seizure, but added that the governor “wants to keep his options open.” 

President Bush made it clear Wednesday that California cannot look to Washington for a solution. 

Federal orders requiring wholesalers to sell electricity and natural gas to California despite concerns about utility solvency will stay in effect for two more weeks only, White House officials said. 

“The federal arsenal is not well equipped to get California out of this problem,’ Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said. 

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