California’s Independent System Operator, which coordinates the flow of electricity across most of the state, is forecasting power consumption of more than 52,000 megawatts by late Tuesday afternoon, a new all-time high. If it can’t meet demand, the operator would order utilities to cut off supplies to a rotating group of areas around California. “As the state faces its hottest day in this prolonged record-breaking heat wave, grid conditions are expected to worsen,” Caiso said. “Outages are a significant inconvenience for those affected, but it is better to manage emergencies in a controlled manner rather than let them cause a wider-spread, longer-lasting disruption.” The warning comes days after a heat wave has ravaged much of the western US. Temperatures soared above 43C in the interior of the state on Tuesday, with many areas breaking records before gradually falling later in the week, according to the National Weather Service. California was able in recent days to avoid a second set of rolling blackouts in two years by conserving during the early evening hours, when air-conditioning use rises and supply falls as the setting sun reduces output from the vast solar power sector of the state. Caiso said customers could limit their power use between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. adjusting thermostats, turning off lights that are not needed, avoiding using appliances and avoiding charging electric vehicles. Similar requests have been made by utilities in neighboring states, such as Berkshire Hathaway-owned NV Energy in Nevada. The situation shows how the increasing frequency of extreme temperatures is affecting even the wealthiest parts of the world. At $3.4 trillion in 2021, California’s economy is the largest in the US, surpassing that of countries such as the United Kingdom, India and France.

California is also at the forefront of a transition to a low-carbon energy system that relies heavily on electricity. Last month it enacted rules to phase out sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. The State Legislature also passed a law extending the life of California’s last nuclear power plant, the 2,240 MW Diablo Canyon, as a sustainable, zero-emission energy source. coal. Extreme heat last led to rolling blackouts in the state in August 2020 — the first in 20 years — after the grid was pushed to the brink by what officials called a “1-in-30-year weather event.” A report later blamed those blackouts on a combination of climate change, inadequate planning for the state’s transition to intermittent wind and solar power, and issues in the energy trading market. Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, said that while the state has since taken steps to address the problems, including adding 4,000 MW of supply to the grid and deploying emergency measures, this year’s crisis was exacerbated by drought conditions that limited availability of hydropower. as well as the length of the current heat wave. “Our energy grid is being pushed to the max. The risk of a holiday is real,” he said on Twitter.

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