“The regional energy crisis is turning out the lights for Oak Harbor and Coupeville high school sports teams.During basketball practice at Oak Harbor High School on Monday, preparation for upcoming games was cut short. Practice usually runs from 2:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. for both boys and girls teams. But the practices were called at 3 p.m. on Monday.Coupeville had to cancel a C team basketball game scheduled for Monday evening and Oak Harbor canceled its wrestling showdown against Snohomish Tuesday night. The wrestling meet is to be made up on Jan. 16.It’s all part of an energy curtailment plan set forth by Puget Sound Energy. The utility company gives local schools a reduced rate on energy prices and school officials in turn agree to shut down their power usage if the utility declares an energy emergency, said Bruce Worley, head of business and operations for the Oak Harbor School District.In effect it’s a voluntary blackout during non-class hours, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. As a result, several high school sporting events have been left in the dark.Worley said the deal only affects all-electric schools. In Oak Harbor these include Oak Harbor High School and Olympic View, Clover Valley, Crescent Harbor and half of Oak Harbor elementary schools. He said the district already reduces its power consumption after school hours but now cuts it completely except for essential systems.I have a feeling that this could happen quite a bit, said Jeff Stone, Oak Harbor High School athletic director. This could be a weekly occurrence. But I think that the district will be able to accommodate their people.Although Stone was not sure whether the girls basketball game set for Wednesday evening would be played at Oak Harbor or moved to North Whidbey Middle School, he is confident that the school district will find venues to hold the sporting events. Coupeville High School Athletic Director Ron Bagby thinks the blackouts are just temporary and that the curtailment will not be a problem for his athletic department, as he will just reschedule games.Worley said the school contracts with Puget Sound Energy have been in place for many years, but before this winter the utility had not seen the need to exercise its half of the deal.Up until Sunday, this had never happened, he said. Worley said it’s possible that the same kind of energy emergency could happen again, but for the moment he expected the current shutdown to end Tuesday.For athletic programs, the blackouts could mean snarled schedules. According to Stone, 200 schools in the region are in on the agreement. “