‘We’ll need help.’ California’s power grid urges conservation to avoid more blackouts
Bracing for another major heat wave, the manager of California’s electricity grid Thursday issued a call for conservation for most of Labor Day weekend to avoid a repeat of last month’s rolling blackouts.
“We’ll need help,” said Eric Schmitt, vice president of operations at the California Independent System Operator.
The California Independent System Operator, which imposed two nights of rolling blackouts during the mid-August heat storm, on Thursday issued a Flex Alert taking effect Saturday at 3 p.m. The alert runs through 9 p.m. Monday.
A Flex Alert is a voluntary call for energy conservation in which Californians are urged to turn up their thermostats and defer the use of major appliances.
Officials stressed that they aren’t yet predicting blackouts, but said widespread energy conservation will give the ISO the cushion it needs to get through Labor Day. The demand forecasts are slightly lower than what California experienced during the August blackouts.
The ISO had already issued a “restricted maintenance operations” directive that forbids generators from shutting down much of this weekend for routine maintenance.
“We’re lining up everything we can to be as prepared as we can,” John Phipps, the ISO’s director of real-time operations, told reporters.
First outages since Enron energy crisis
The National Weather Service predicted at least three days of 100 degree-plus temperatures, with Sunday’s high expected to reach 110 degrees in parts of the Sacramento Valley.
The mid-August blackouts were the first rotating outages in California since the 2001 energy crisis, when supplies were being manipulated by traders at Enron and other companies. This time, grid managers blamed the blackouts on genuine power shortages caused by excessive heat.
The problem was exacerbated by the state’s heavy reliance on renewable energy sources like solar power, which dissipated as the sun went down. Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed not to retreat from the state’s plan to build an all-renewable power grid but insisted that the ISO do a better job of planning for shortages during the transition to green energy.
On Tuesday, the State Water Resources Control Board did take a step back from the state’s commitment to green energy when it agreed to postpone the planned closure of nine high-polluting fossil fuel plants on the Southern California coastline. The water board said the postponements are needed to shore up grid reliability.
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 9:43 AM with the headline "‘We’ll need help.’ California’s power grid urges conservation to avoid more blackouts."