Across California, a severe heat wave causes rolling blackouts and dangerous conditions
The valleys, mountains and deserts of Southern California are likely to see both daytime and nighttime temperatures challenge records through at least Thursday, and elevated humidity will make conditions feel two to five degrees warmer during the day.
On Friday afternoon, ozone pollution in some areas reached its highest level in a decade as a result of high temperatures and wildfires, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Anne Gonzales, spokeswoman for the California Independent System Operator, said it does not expect to have to order rolling outages for the rest of the weekend.
In fact, the utility, which has never had to implement rolling blackouts due to excess demand, was able to sell 225 megawatts to California ISO between 5 and 9 p.m., spokesman Joe Ramallo said.Still, he said, the heat put strain on local power distribution networks, leading to isolated outages unrelated to the statewide rolling blackouts as some equipment became overloaded and failed. About `1,000 of the DWP’s 1.
“Typically what happens is [the blackouts] will be done in small blocks that include portions of communities, so we don’t shut down a county or something like that,” he said. He said the utility is also careful to avoid cutting off power to critical facilities like hospitals and public safety buildings.
Pasadena Power and Water shut off power to about 1,500 of its 65,000 electrical customers for 30 minutes on Friday, said spokeswoman Margie Otto.
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