SDG & E cut power to large areas of San Diego County and southern Orange County Friday to deal with an increase in demand for electricity brought by the onset of a heat wave that will last well into next week.
The rolling outages began at 6:40 a.m. and ended shortly after 8 p.m., SDG&E said. The blackouts affected about 58,700 of the utility’s customers.
It was the first time since 2001 that the California Independent System Operator, which runs the city power grid, had asked SDG & E to set up rolling outages.
CAL-ISO “directed SDG & E to initiate rotating, one-hour service interruptions (rotating outages) through its service area in San Diego and southern Orange counties,” the utility said.
The first set of outages struck at about 6:40 a.m. and hit 28,000 customers, according to Helen Gao, a spokeswoman for SDG & E.
By about 7:40 a.m., the affected communities included parts of Escondido, Carmel Valley, Mission Valley, Sorrento, Ocean Beach, Torrey Pines, El Cajon, Solana Beach, Kearny Mesa, Lake Murray, Tierrasanta, and Scripps Ranch.
Power was also out in parts of Dana Point and San Clemente in southern Orange County.
The lights flickered back at 7.47pm in Carmel Valley, drawing happily on an apartment complex in Carmel Creek. SDG&E said the power was restored roughly at the same time to the first block of customers.
The utility initiated a second round at around 7:45 p.m. The affected communities included parts of Rancho Penasquitos, Rancho Bernardo, and Lake Hodges. SDGE estimated that the blackout affected about 30,500 customers.
But the utility claims that areas with high fires in San Diego County are exempt from the blackouts.
The outages occurred on a day when daytime temperatures ranged from the 1980s on the coast up to 120 degrees at Borrego Springs. The National Water System says the province will be unusually warm on Friday night and that the heat wave will continue on Saturday.
CAl-ISO said the heatwave in California plus record heat in the Southwest combined to stress the roster. CAL-ISO spokeswoman Anne
Gonzales said it did not appear likely that more rolling outages would be needed on Saturday.
The power shortage is fueled by what officials say is one of the worst statewide heat waves in years. The broiling conditions that began Friday in California may compete with the deadly seven-day hot event of July 2006, the National Weather Service said.
