Power Stayed on (mostly) in California

For ten days in a row California was under a Flex Alert, issued when extremely hot weather drives up electricity use, making the available power supply scarce. This typically happens in the evening hours when solar generation is going offline and consumers are returning home and switching on air conditioners, lights, and appliances. In the middle of this around 5:30 p.m. pacific time on Wednesday last week, California's grid operator, CISO, ordered its highest level of emergency, warning that blackouts were imminent.

A dispatcher in northern California misinterpreted CISO’s order to prepare to cut power and immediately cut 46 megawatts in the cities of Alameda and Palo Alto. Though not intended this did help cut demand.  Then, shortly thereafter, the state's Office of Emergency Services sent out a text alert to people in targeted counties, asking them to conserve power if they could.

The following text message was sent in Spanish and English through the Wireless Emergency Alert system to 27 million cell phone users in California: “Conserve energy now to protect public health and safety. Extreme heat is straining the state energy grid. Power interruptions may occur unless you take action. Turn off or reduce nonessential power if health allows, now until 9 p.m.”

Within five minutes the grid emergency was all but over. Power demand plunged. Governor Newsom’s staff had also been calling industrial and commercial electric customers to ask them (or pay them) to cut back on power consumption during high-stress hours. That’s on top of the Flex Alerts CISO has issued every day during the heat wave, asking all Californians to use less electricity during the crucial hours of 4-9 p.m.

The California Public Utilities Commission had previously created an incentive, the Emergency Load Reduction program, that pays consumers who reduce their electricity use when a Flex Alert is in effect. For consumers who sign up for the program, smart thermostats automatically have their temperature set to 78 degrees and water heaters are turned down. Pacific, Gas and Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDGE) each manage their program slightly differently for their customers. 

For ten days the vast energy network that includes power plants, solar farms, and a web of transmission lines strained under record-setting demand driven by the need for air conditioners. Californians responded by conserving enough energy to avoid rolling blackouts or grid failure, though thousands of customers did lose power at various times for other reasons. On Friday, with smoke from wildfires potentially interfering with solar power generation, the tenth and hopefully final Flex Alert was issued by CISO.

The long-awaited cooling trend finally arrived across the state Friday with temperatures falling through the weekend as the remains of a tropical storm brought relief. Temperatures are also set to steadily drop in the Sierra Nevada, where firefighters are still fighting wild fires.

In addition, Governor Newsom had been busy issuing emergency declarations and executive orders to secure additional energy supplies — including starting up natural gas fired plants and diesel backup generators. Officials reported peak demand of 52,061 megawatts on the state’s main power grid — nearly 1,800 megawatts above the old mark on Wednesday of last week. The future when 24/7 electricity and 24/7 water and sewer are no longer guaranteed is upon us.  We need better plans and load management.