A swath of Marin County lost electricity Friday night when the city power grid was hit by extreme heat.
The cluster of small outflows span from the coast of San Rafael in the Fairfax area, and from southern San Rafael to Terra Linda, according to Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
The larger outages included 948 meters in the Peacock Gap and China Camp areas and 610 meters in Terra Linda.
Later Friday, about 4,600 meters had no service in parts of San Rafael, Kentfield, Larkspur and Ross.
The outage occurred when he declared a California Independent System Operator (California ISO), which manages the power grid, an emergency shortly after 6:30 p.m., and direction programs around the state targeted to hide their power loads.
Pacific Gas & Electric, the state’s largest utility, tweeted that it would turn off power to about 200,000 to 250,000 customers in rotating outages for about an hour at a time until about 11 p.m. Other utilities were told to do the same.
“Extreme heat is really the driver behind this,” said Anne Gonzales, spokeswoman for the power grid 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 emerging, 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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
