California ratcheted up its energy emergency as a blistering heat wave boosts demand for electricity.
(Bloomberg) — California ratcheted up its energy emergency as a blistering heat wave boosts demand for electricity.
The state’s grid operator raised the emergency to the second of three levels after 1 p.m. local time Wednesday. It warned California could face power shortfalls — a day after the state narrowly averted widespread blackouts.
PG&E Corp., the state’s biggest utility, notified more than 525,000 customers to prepare for rotating outages, according to a statement Wednesday. The outages would last as long as two hours, it said.
The relentless heat wave risks overextending the old natural gas-fired power plants that California has relied on to help stave off vast outages this week. The longer these conditions endure, the higher the chances of plant failures.
Tuesday’s conditions “showed us that we are facing very serious grid conditions that require a serious response,” said Elliot Mainzer, chief executive officer of the California Independent System Operator, or Caiso, in a video statement Wednesday. “Today, with the heat and high demand for power continuing, we are facing another challenging day for the grid.”
Read: A Text Alert May Have Saved California From Power Blackouts
Electricity demand Wednesday was expected to reach 50.8 gigawatts at 3 p.m. local time, according to Caiso’s website. That would be just short of Caiso’s all-time high of 52 gigawatts, which it hit Tuesday.
Caiso said emergency measures Wednesday will be in effect from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. local time, and again asked residents and businesses to reduce consumption. The grid operator’s level-2 declaration allows California to dip into emergency resources — such as temporary generators and unplugging ships from the grid — that wouldn’t otherwise be available.
Much of the US West has been gripped by excessive heat. The heat is expected to dip, but only slightly.
Also read: Confusion Reigns With Muddled Messages of California Blackouts
“It will be 105 to 110, so we won’t say it’s cooler — just not as hot,” David Rowe, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said Wednesday.
Clouds and moisture filtering in across the West from Hurricane Kay, now off Mexico’s Baja California coast, will help cool things down, he said.
(Updates with utility notification of potential rotating outages in third paragraph.)
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