Weather eases but Californians told to save power as blackout threat looms from Oregon fire
The manager of California’s electricity grid has issued another Flex Alert for Monday afternoon, pleading with residents to conserve power even as the intense weekend heat wave begins to fade.
Although grid operations went smoothly Sunday, without any call for conservation, the continued blackout threat from an Oregon wildfire prompted the Independent System Operator to urge Californians to turn up their thermostats and take other energy-saving measures Monday from 4 to 9 p.m.
The National Weather Service issued another “excessive heat warning” for parts of the Sacramento Valley and foothills, with temperatures reaching as high as 112 degrees in some parts of the Valley. The hot weather was easing in some areas, with Sacramento’s high temperature forecast at 97 degrees.
Even with temperatures cooling slightly, the electricity grid remained fragile following Saturday evening’s near-miss, when the Bootleg Fire in Oregon cut off California’s access to thousands of megawatts of imported power.
The fire, burning east of Upper Klamath Lake, had chewed through 153,535 acres as of Monday morning and was continuing to disrupt transmission lines that ordinarily bring hydro power to California from the Pacific Northwest. The Independent System Operator said California has lost around 3,500 megawatts of electricity as a result — enough to power more than 2.6 million homes.
At one point Saturday, officials with the Independent System Operator said they weren’t sure they could prevent rolling blackouts and begged residents to curtail energy consumption. SMUD, which isn’t part of the grid but was struggling with the loss of power from Oregon nevertheless, also put out a call for conservation.
As it turned out, residents saved enough power to prevent rotating outages. But the System Operator said residents on Monday should turn their thermostats to 78 degrees or higher and avoid using heavy appliances until the Flex Alert ends. Before the alert begins, residents were urged to cool their houses down as best they can.
Last August the state was caught short of power on two consecutive nights when temperatures topped 110 degrees in much of the West. It was the first time California had experienced rolling blackouts since the 2001 energy crisis, when power traders were deliberately withholding supply to jack up prices.
In the past year the state has added several thousand new megawatts of capacity, but the Oregon fire has temporarily erased that cushion. The state is also struggling with an epic drought that has curtailed more than 1,000 megawatts of hydro capacity.
This story was originally published July 12, 2021 at 8:24 AM.