California sent a scary text message urging residents to cut their power use, and it worked
Explanation Twenty-seven million Californians received Tuesday, September 6, late afternoon, an emergency message inviting them to turn off their electrical appliances. The network, pushed to its limits by a new heat wave, was on the verge of saturation. The message has been received, allowing the break to be avoided.
At 5:45 p.m., 27 million cell phones vibrated in unison. They had just received an alert message sent by the authorities in the middle of a heat wave. “ Extreme heat weakens the electrical network, he said, in Spanish and English . Cuts
About 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, millions of Californians' cellphones lit up with a new type of emergency alert: "Conserve energy now to protect public health and safety."
That text message proved crucial in helping avoid rolling blackouts during one of the worst days of a grueling heat wave that has roasted the state for more than a week, taxing California's power grid daily.
"Within moments, we saw a significant amount of load reduction showing up, to the tune of approximately 2,000 megawatts over the next 20 to 30 minutes," said Elliot Mainzer, president and chief executive of the California Independent System Operator, which runs the state's power grid. "That significant response from California consumers to the wireless emergency alert allowed us to restore our operating reserves and took us back from the edge of broader grid disturbance."
The unprecedented demand and oppressive temperatures have imposed continuous stress on the state's power grid, where capacity is already stretched due to diminished hydropower supplies because of the drought. In addition, solar energy levels off in the evening. Other neighboring regions from which California imports energy are facing the same challenges.
So despite California's impressive conservation efforts Tuesday, the close brush with power interruptions renewed questions about how the state's energy system will manage going forward, especially as climate change is projected to intensify extreme heat events. On Wednesday evening, officials again warned of potential outages as the heat wave dragged on and demand soared.
"The heat wave highlights really well that California is really behind in our resource build-out," said Carrie Bentley, chief executive of Gridwell Consulting and a former California ISO policy designer, adding that the state has failed to "plan holistically" for maintaining energy reliability while confronting climate change.
The emergency messages flashed across cell phones at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday with a jump-out-of-your seat alarm telling Californians this was serious stuff. Extreme triple-digit heat had pushed the state’s energy grid to its limits and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services issued an all-points emergency alert telling residents in two-dozen California counties to shut down and save power or face rolling
blackouts: “Conserve energy now to protect public health and safety. Extreme heat is straining the state energy grid. Power interruptions may occur unless you take action. Turn off or reduce nonessential power if health allows, now until 9 p.m.” It worked. Californians by the millions unplugged and ISO, the California Independent System Operator, “saw an immediate and significant drop in energy use, providing some relief to the state’s grid,” state emergency officials said in a statement
Tuesday night. The message, also sent in Spanish, targeted urban centers in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, the arid counties of the southern San Joaquin Valley, north state counties like Butte and Shasta, where high temperatures can climb past 110 degrees, and in Sacramento, which broke an all-time record with a 116-degree day on Tuesday.
The Office of Emergency Services officials on Tuesday said the 24 counties were targeted “because they are in areas of significantly above average temperatures, high population density and high concentrations of air condition use.” Californians may have to answer the alarm again Wednesday. The ISO held a briefing Wednesday morning to update the status of the state’s exhausted energy grid after Tuesday’s unprecedented strain on the system and urge Californians to continue to conserve power.
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