California is heading toward planned blackouts as scorching temperatures caused by a prolonged heat dome drove the state’s electricity demand to an all-time high.
Regulators said Tuesday evening that the state’s grid operator was authorized to order rotating power outages to balance out soaring electricity demand from Californians turning to air conditioning for relief. As the weeklong heat wave shattered temperature records, California Governor Gavin Newsom said it’s heading into the “worst part” as regulators urged residents of the country’s most populous state to ease their reliance on air conditioners.
The California Independent System Operator (ISO) said in a notice Tuesday that peak electric demand was forecast at more than 52,000 megawatts, which it called “a new historic all-time high for the grid.”
The last time California saw heat-related electricity shortages was in August 2020, when peak demand increased to 47,121 megawatts.
Despite taking emergency measures earlier to shore up the state’s electricity supply, ISO said “controlled power outages are now imminent or in process according to each utility’s emergency plan.”
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), which provides electricity to 5.5 million customers primarily in northern California, asked residents in a tweet to avoid using major appliances or charging vehicles while setting their thermostats at 78 degrees or higher if doing so wouldn’t harm their health.
Southern California Edison, which serves about 15 million people, asked customers in a tweet to hang-dry their clothes and use fans to give their air conditioners a break.
But Alameda Municipal Power said on Facebook earlier that it had enacted rolling outages for one hour to parts of the East Bay it serves before supply stabilized.
Sacramento saw temperatures jump to 116 degrees on Tuesday, breaking a record that stood for nearly a century, according to the National Weather Service. Six cities in the Bay Area and California’s central coast also broke records with triple-digit heat, according to the service.
Newsom called the temperatures “simply unprecedented” in a video posted to Twitter Tuesday thanking residents for cutting back on energy use but asking them to increase their efforts as the state faced blackouts.
“In fact, this heat wave is on track to be both the hottest and the longest on record for the state in many parts of the West for the month of September,” Newsom said.
The heat wave, which began August 30, was caused by a heat dome, a concentration of atmospheric pressure occurring when hot ocean air gets trapped over a large area, keeping clouds and wind from cooling it. The National Weather Service expects temperatures to subside later this week.
Newsweek has reached out to California ISO for comment.