Operators of California’s power grid expect to issue calls for voluntary conservation of electricity during a prolonged heat wave building over the West and warned there could be energy shortages if conditions worsen.
The National Weather Service on Wednesday issued an excessive heat warning for the Bay Area beginning Saturday morning and lasting through Tuesday.
The excessive heat warning begins today for all of Southern California and northward into the Central Valley.
Temperatures could shoot past 100 degrees in the Bay Area and 110 degrees in the Central Valley on Sunday and Monday.
This level of heat can be particularly dangerous for people who work outdoors, or who don't have adequate cooling in their homes. For people in the Bay Area, who aren't adjusted to living with high heat, even temperatures in the high 80s can be dangerous to health.
The climate emergency has also made nights warmer than they used to be, meaning people don't cool down as readily during sleep. So heat continues to build up in their bodies day after day as temperatures rise.
Elderly people are particularly vulnerable to heat illness; they tend not to notice thirst as quickly, and their bodies don't sweat as readily as younger people's bodies do, reducing their ability to cool off.
The California Independent System Operator said in a statement that it was taking measures to bring all available energy resources online, including issuing an order restricting maintenance from noon to 10 p.m. daily through September 6.
The peak load for electricity demand in California is projected to exceed 48,000 megawatts on Monday, the highest of the year, the grid operator said.
Calls for voluntary conservation, known as Flex Alerts, urge consumers to reduce use of electricity from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., when there is most stress on the grid and solar energy production is declining.
“The power grid operator expects to call on Californians for voluntary energy conservation via Flex alerts over the long weekend,” the statement said.
The primary ways to reduce household energy use are to raise thermostat temperatures, avoid using major appliances and electric car chargers, and turning off lights.
“If weather or grid conditions worsen, the ISO may issue a series of emergency notifications to access additional resources and prepare market participants and the public for potential energy shortages and the need to conserve,” Cal ISO said.
The heat wave arrived amid concern about California’s power grid. In August 2020, a record heat wave caused a surge in power use for air-conditioning that overtaxed the grid. That caused two consecutive nights of rolling blackouts, affecting hundreds of thousands of residential and business customers.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed extending the life of the state’s last operating nuclear power plant by five years to maintain reliable power supplies in the climate change era. The proposal would keep Pacific Gas and Electric’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant running beyond a scheduled closing by 2025.
Forecasters, meanwhile, warned of triple-digit temperatures with little overnight relief, as well as elevated risk of wildfires in much of the West.
“The big weather story this week will be a prolonged and possibly record heat wave building across much of the Western U.S. associated with a strong upper level ridge,” the National Weather Service wrote.
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