In 'Era of Extremes,' Calif. Asks Residents to Turn Off Lights

Grappling with brutal heat this week, Californians were faced with a big ask, and it was a rare one, per KTLA. The state's Office of Emergency Services pushed out an alert Tuesday evening requesting that residents switch off any nonessential power, in an attempt to conserve energy and prevent blackouts. The warning was sent out to cellphones statewide around 6pm local time, as peak electricity demand was forecast to hit (and maybe even surpass) 52,000 megawatts—an all-time record for the state's power grid. "We have not called for rotating power outages yet," a tweet from California Independent System Operator (ISO) read in announcing its "Emergency Energy Alert 3."

It did warn, however, that such outages, also called rolling blackouts—described in a release as "small-scale, contained, controlled interruptions in power" to "help maintain reliability" and avoid larger-scale "cascading blackouts"—were still on the table, such as those employed in August 2020 that affected about 800,000 homes and businesses, per the Mercury News. Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted around the same time as the ISO, suggesting that, until 9pm that evening, people keep thermostats at no lower than 78 degrees, refrain from using large appliances, and switch off "unnecessary lights." "The reality is we are living in an era of extremes," Newsom said in a videotaped statement, per KTLA, referring to the unprecedented heat wave, and imploring citizens to "do a little bit more" to help.

"On the supply side we're challenged by these extremes, and on the demand side, not surprisingly, people are turning up the [AC]," Newsom added. And indeed, the power grid's peak demand did exceed 52,000 megawatts, the ISO announced a little over an hour later, though the EEA 3 was able to come to an end around 8pm. "Consumer conservation played a big part in protecting electric grid reliability," the ISO noted. The News reports that two cities—Palo Alto and Alameda—did experience rolling outages, with 1,700 customers losing power in the former and an unspecified number in the latter. A similar alert is set for the state for Wednesday between the hours of 4pm and 9pm. (More California stories.)