Officials with California’s power grid operator said Tuesday to expect more power outages in the Bay Area and across the rest of the state as people try to keep cool during the ongoing heat wave.
California Independent System Operator CEO and President Steve Berberich said California is on track to use about 1,000 megawatts more than Monday, when the state was forecasted to use about 49,700 megawatts.
Berberich said the state was on track Monday to see power outages across the state in the run up to the flex alert from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., which the CAISO issued Sunday morning for each day through Wednesday.
“We had a dramatic flattening of the load curve like we’ve never seen before,” he said. “And we believe it’s all attributable to the great work that people did to conserve (energy).”
Berberich said residents, particularly in Northern California, should expect outages during the flex alert window on Tuesday if the state fails to conserve enough energy.
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an emergency proclamation Monday to free up additional energy capacity across the state, which CAISO officials said has allowed them to access an additional several hundred watts of energy.
PG&E, much like Monday, projected rotating power outages on Tuesday throughout the flex alert window. Such outages are expected to last about two hours, the utility said.
PG&E customers can check if they are in a coverage zone that may be affected by a power outage at pge.com/rotatingoutages. Those who fall into “block 50,” according to PG&E division spokesman Denny Boyles, share an electrical circuit with critical facilities like hospitals.
CAISO officials said the prolonged heat wave could affect the energy grid for the immediate future.
“Conditions (Wednesday) look like the low (temperature) levels are coming down a light bit and things are looking better for tomorrow,” said CAISO Vice President for Market Policy and Performance Mark Rothleder.
“However, the load does start to go back up as a result of the temperatures going back up, starting as early as Thursday and on through Friday into next week.”
so the politicians build more homes and all you climate fear mongers say it is only going to get hotter, so how will this NOT keep happening? you all can’t be that progressive/left/optimistic to be blind to that.
I have no problem whatsoever about my power being cut off, possibly having my food spoil, not being able to use the internet to work, and getting heatstroke or possibly worse as long as Auntie Nancy’s artisan ice cream doesn’t melt. We also must save electricity so Hunter, Brooklyn, Montana, and Dutch Newsom have power to use their personal computers while being taught by personal instructors who their family is able to afford thanks to hard work….tax payers’ hard work. Providing proper education to the children of average citizens is not important and neither is the well-being of regular people who need power. We all need to stand together and learn from Aunt Nancy and Gavin’s on how to be selfless because they sacrifice a lot for us. (Sarcasm)
(thumbs up!)
did you see how newscum is saying all this is unacceptable? pretty funny since he is likely in part at fault. i bet he has a study done to find out what the problem is and like the ones that Kalama Harris did for the gas prices, nothing will come of it.
Well put!!
I still believe conservation helps. Regardless of what the nay sayers proclaim.
And I still believe we shouldn’t have to conserve and wouldn’t have to conserve if the people we elect to represent our best interests did their jobs.
I still believe we need a lot of new and better people representing us.
We don’t leaders, we are the leaders.
As I’ve said before – how can the grid be overloaded when everything is shut down? Malls, schools, high rise offices, restaurants, bars, gyms, hair salons, etc, are usually open during this time and using a LOT of energy. But PG&E is telling us that having those places closed makes no difference?? We’re supposed to stay in our locked down houses and swelter in the dark? Now we’re expected to “ flatten the load curve”? What a bunch of crap. I guess they figure – “hey those dummies bought that line with the Covid – let’s see if we can sucker them into this one too”.
…… but more of us are staying at home, hence using more power there.
I am so thankful we have not had any brown-outs!
Nope – ABC News, July 29, 2020: “US energy use hit 30-year low during pandemic shutdowns”.
It’s just another way to torture us.
So now we live in a 3rd world country. Thanks environmentalists.
any one that compares this situation to living in a Third World country needs a reality check
More of the same BS from Aunt Nancy, Uncle Chuck and Gruesome Newscum. A lot of this is smoking mirrors double speak.
Wake up California and the rest of the nation.. Time to take back our country and get these fools out of office forever. Term limits immediately and no continuation of cadillac benefits and lifetime pensions and being on the dole for their entire lifetimes..
Let’s see how long it will take for them to stop running for office!!!
“We had a dramatic flattening of the load curve like we’ve never seen before,” he said. “And we believe it’s all attributable to the great work that people did to conserve (energy).”
I too saw and was very surprised by the flattening. Normally the graph of the power usage at http://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/default.aspx is a nice smooth hump with the peak around 6pm. The hump was flattened starting at 3pm on Saturday Aug 15th, Monday Aug 17th, and on Tuesday Aug 18th the hump started going flat at 1:40pm. Sunday’s usage was a normal hump.
Did millions of people move their thermostats from 72 to 78 and refrained from doing things that use significant amounts of electrical power? It seems unlikely.
After it got dark I saw that that street lights and other significant sources of light had not been turned off. The retail stores and restaurants continued to operate as usual with no obvious signs that they were doing their part to flatten the curve.
It seems more likely that commercial and industrial users flattened the curve. Maybe the refineries switched to internal generator power? The California Energy Commission has a database of who uses power at https://ecdms.energy.ca.gov/ I selected Electricity Consumption by Entity and then did select-all for all categories. Here’s the summary:
In other news, Generac stock is up, due in part to increased sales in California.
We haven’t bought one yet. We just have a 2200 watt portable that keeps our refrigerator and freezer running, powers the wifi, tv and a couple of fans.
we’re shopping for a portable ourselves – need one now and figure we’ll use it for RVing after we leave Calie ….