How CA Avoided Mass Blackouts Amid Historic Heatwave

CALIFORNIA — Californians apparently scrambled to shut off lights and unplug energy-draining appliances Tuesday afternoon after a text message alert was sent en masse, asking residents to conserve energy.

The text message, sent by the state's Office of Emergency Services, may have helped the state avoid rolling blackouts in the midst of an oppressive and historic Western heat wave.

The message was sent to residents at 5:45 p.m. and within five minutes, grid officials recorded an "immediate and significant" drop in energy use, the state said.

Californians were warned Tuesday that a huge uptick in energy usage could outstrip the state's power supply as people continued to seek refuge indoors and crank up air conditioners and fans.

The grid operator ordered its highest level of emergency and warned that rolling blackouts were imminent for swaths of communities as peak energy demand on Tuesday surpassed 52,000 megawatts, far above the previous high of 50,270 megawatts set on July 24, 2006, authorities said.

After Tuesday's alert, power demand dropped by 1.2 gigawatts between 5:50 p.m. and 5:55 p.m. and would continue to plunge in the hours following, according to data from the California Independent System Operator, Bloomberg reported.

Consumer and commercial demand response, including Flex Alerts, has been helping to extend tight resources over the past week, with a load reduction of around 1,000 MW for each of the past several days.

Officials ended Energy Emergency Alert 3 at 8 p.m., declaring "consumer conservation played a big part in protecting electric grid reliability."

Even without intentional blackouts, however, tens of thousands of people found themselves without power in Northern California.

Some 35,700 people lost electricity in Silicon Valley and southern and inland areas of the San Francisco Bay Area and most of the outages were heat-related, Jason King of Pacific Gas & Electric said Tuesday evening. Power is slowly being restored.

Another Flex Alert was issued Wednesday as the swelter persisted. Residents will be asked to reduce power yet again between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. as the state hopes to avoid leaving communities in darkness during the heat wave.

The alert was extended for the eighth consecutive day Wednesday, urging residents to take the following power-saving steps:

• setting thermostats to 78 degrees or higher
• avoiding use of major appliances
• turning off unnecessary lights
• avoid charging electric vehicles

Residents were also advised to pre-cool their homes as much as possible and close blinds and drapes to keep interiors cool.

The state's record heat wave was on track to be the hottest and longest in California for September ever while peak summer heat for the state is normally in July and August, emergency officials reported.

California’s state capital of Sacramento hit an all-time high Tuesday of 116 degrees, breaking a 97-year-old record. Other records were set or tied in Northern California:

• Livermore, 116 degrees (tied a record set Monday)
• King City, 116 degrees (broke 2017 record)
• Santa Rosa, 115 degrees (broke 1913 record)
• Napa, 114 degrees (broke 1961 record)
• Redwood City, 110 degrees (broke 1972 record)
• San Jose, 109 degrees (broke 2017 record)

Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the last three decades and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. In the last five years, California has experienced the largest and most destructive fires in state history.

A wildfire that started Friday in the Northern California community of Weed killed two people and one that erupted Monday and spread rapidly in the Hemet area of Southern California also killed two people. Authorities said they apparently died while trying to flee the flames.

The Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.