The California Independent System Administrator (California ISO), which manages the power grid, declared a riot shortly after 6:30 p.m., targeting utilities around the state to hide their power loads.
Pacific Gas & Electric, the state’s largest utility, tweeted that it would switch power to about 200,000 to 250,000 customers in rotating outages for about an hour at a time. Other utilities were told to do the same.
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The emergency declaration ended just before 10 a.m. and California ISO said power was restored statewide.
“Extreme heat is really the driver behind this,” said Anne Gonzales, spokeswoman for the network’s operator.
The move came as temperatures around the state hit triple digits in many areas, and use of air conditioning skyrocketed.
Temperatures were 10 to 20 degrees above normal in some areas, Gonzales said.
In addition, cloudy weather from the remnants of a tropical weather system reduced energy production from solar plants, she said.
The state tried to prepare for the expected rise in electricity consumption by urging conservation and trying to buy more power, but a building with high pressure over Western states meant that there was less available.
Temperature and energy consumption were expected in the evening, and ISO ISO of California expected the outages to end at midnight.
The expectation of the heat wave will last new week and the power grid operator will decide if the outages continue on a day-to-day basis, Gonzales said.
“We are dealing with weather, clouds, wildfires … these are situations that are evolving rapidly, changing rapidly,” Gonzales said.
The last time the state ordered rolling outages was during an energy crisis in 2011. Blackouts occurred several times from January to May, including one that hit more than 1.5 million customers in March. The cause was a combination of energy shortages and market manipulation by energy wholesalers, shamefully including Enron Corp., which kept prices going up by holding supplies.
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Counties up and down the state reported widespread accidents, although the city of Los Angeles, which has its own system for generating power, was not affected.
Police departments warned people to look out on roads where there were traffic lights.
In Sonoma County in the wine country, Santa Rosa Police Department received a flood of calls and pleaded with residents, “Please do not call 911 unless you have an emergency.”
The heat wave brought dangerously high temperatures, increased danger of wildfire and fears of coronavirus spreading as people flew to beaches and parks for relief.
Heat records fell in several cities. Downtown San Francisco hit 90 degrees, topping a height before the date of 86 set in 1995. Salinas hit 102, 18 degrees above the record set just last year. Palm Springs hit 120, breaking a 2015 record by several degrees.
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Swelter weather was expected to continue through greater Los Angeles, the Central Valley, the Sierra Nevada frontiers and parts of the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday.
Counties of Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa have opened cold stores that welcome people this weekend from noon to early evening. San Francisco officials said the city recommends that people stay home and that if the heat inside becomes irresponsible, go outside to a shady spot where they can stay cool and away from other people.
“Congregate interiors are not necessarily safe during COVID-19. It is better to follow other instructions during this heatwave,” said Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of the Emergency Management Department.
Carroll encouraged residents to check on family, friends and neighbors, especially elderly adults and people in vulnerable health, and reminded people to always wear a face mask near people who do not share their families.
“We know it’s going to be wonderful this weekend, but we just want everyone to remember that we’re in a very serious reaction to this COVID-19 virus,” Carroll said.
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Los Angeles opened cooling centers, but with limited capacity due to social distancing representations of viruses.
The rising temperatures are a cause for concern for firefighters who are struggling with fires that have destroyed several homes and created in the vicinity of rural and urban suburbs, driven by tinder-dry brush.
In addition to the possibility of heatstroke and other hot weather diseases, health officials were concerned that people would wrap beaches, lakes and other recreational areas without following mask and social distancing commands – a major concern in the state that has seen more than 600,000 coronavirus fallen.
Israel saw a COVID-19 resume after a May hot wave inspired school lights to remove children’s masks, Drs. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, The San Francisco Chronicle.
“People will want to take off their masks when it’s hot,” Rutherford said. “Do not do it.”
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