Heat wave still threatens California power grid with outages
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California’s power grid operators avoided a third day of rolling blackouts but kept a wary eye on the thermometer Tuesday as an ongoing heat wave continued to stress the electrical system.
The California Independent System Operator had warned Monday that as many as 3.3 million homes and businesses would be affected by an evening emergency order that would have required utilities to stage rotating, two-hour outages among customers.
But the order never was issued and the warning was canceled shortly before 8 p.m.
Pleas for people to leave their air conditioners at higher temperatures and avoid using washing machines and other major appliances seemed to have worked.
“Thank you for conserving,” California ISO said in a tweet.
However, grid managers warned that the threat of outages remained as temperatures were expected to hit triple digits again in many areas of the state. The National Weather Service said it may take until Friday or Saturday before excess heat watches and warnings ease.
Michelle Leopold, co-owner of six Ace hardware stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, said she sold 56 wading pools, two air conditioning units and a number of generators Saturday. Fans were flying off the shelves, she said. She’s grateful her employees have not contracted the coronavirus and her stores are even hiring.
“You look at the blessings in this crazy time because there’s not much else to look at,” she said, laughing.
Scorching weather has hit other Western states, making it harder for California to import extra power.
“What we have is a situation where the entire region is more than hot, it’s extremely hot," said Steve Berberich, California ISO's president and CEO. “We can’t get the energy that we would normally get from out of state...
