California is facing the hottest temperatures of the year Tuesday and its highest chance of blackouts this year as a brutal heat wave continues to blanket the state with triple-digit temperatures.
If power reserves are exhausted, CAISO then orders the state's utilities like Pacific Gas and Electric to begin rotating outages until the demand meets available supplies.
"Californians have stepped up in a big way during this record heat wave, but with the hottest temperatures here now, the risk of outages is real. We all have to double down on conserving energy to reduce the unprecedented strain on the grid," Newsom said in a statement. As people crank up their air conditioners, the state forecasted record levels of energy use, said CAISO president Elliot Mainzer. The state has additional energy capacity at the moment"but blackouts, rolling, rotating outages are a possibility," Mainzer said, calling additional conservation"absolutely essential."The CAISO site Tuesday morning showed California could fall more than 5,000 megawatts short of its power supply at peak demand, forecasted for 5:30 pm. But by 2 p.m.
At CAISO's request on Monday, four temporary emergency power generators deployed by the Department of Water Resources in Roseville and Yuba City were activated for the first time since they were installed last year, providing up to 120 megawatts, enough electricity for 120,000 homes.
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