Was your power cut off Friday or Saturday evening?
If you live in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside or San Bernardino county, you may have been among the 132,000 Southern California Edison customers left without power during rotating outages on Friday evening or another 70,000 customers who briefly lost power on Saturday, caused by a statewide emergency as demand for electricity shot up amid a scorching heatwave.
What emergency?
Before 7 p.m. Friday, the California Independent System Operator declared a Stage 3 Electrical Emergency because of increased electricity demand across the state, in part boosted by the intense heat, which reached the triple digits in many parts of Southern California.
The operator is a nonprofit that oversees the state’s power grid. David Song, a spokesman for SCE, refers to the operator as the “state’s referee” that is constantly balancing the demand for electricity with the state’s supply.
Earlier on Friday, the operator ordered a Flex Alert, which urged Californians to voluntarily conserve energy to help the power grid and to prevent outages.
However, as customers continued blasting their air conditioners, demand for electricity continued increasing so the operator issued a Stage 2 Electrical Emergency and then the Stage 3.
The California Independent System Operator (ISO) is declaring a Stage 3 Electrical Emergency due to
high heat and increased electricity demand. The emergency initiates rotating outages throughout the
state. https://t.co/43vSSVldNq— California ISO (@California_ISO) August 15, 2020
In a Stage 3, without warning, a utility may shut off your power for about one hour to help make sure the state’s supply of electric power is not exceeded.
On Friday, the operator said that it had dipped into its reserves. But if the demand had continued to exceed the electric power supply, the state’s electrical power transmission equipment could have been damaged and power could have cease statewide.
As the heatwave continued to persist into Saturday, the operator declared another Stage 3 Emergency in the evening, after 6 p.m., prompting SCE to issue more rolling blackouts for 70,000 of it customers, said Robert Villegas, an SCE spokesman.
The second night of outages lasted only until 6:44 p.m., when the state operator lifted the emergency order.
Who decides when and where the power is shut off?
As long as the operator’s emergency is declared, your local utility company gets to decide which specific customers lose power.
In this case, SCE referred to a pre-made list that designates certain blocks of residential and businesses areas of various cities throughout its customer map.
From Augora Hills to Anaheim, San Bernardino to San Gabriel, Rialto to Rosemead, SCE went along its list, cutting off power to thousands of customers, until about 9 p.m.
The group on Saturday that briefly had their power shut off included customers living in Azusa, Irvine, Long Beach, Ontario, and Santa Clarita, according to the SCE website.
Is this rare?
Song said during his 12 years at the utility, he had not seen the state’s power operator order a Stage 3 Emergency. According to SCE, the last time the utility had to do rotating outages or rolling blackouts was on Nov. 7, 2008.
The Mercury News reported that Friday was the first time since 2001 that the state operator ordered a Stage 3. In the Bay Area, between 200,000 and 250,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Company customers were affected by the order as well.
Are we using more power because of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders?
According to Song, power usage among SCE customers has actually gone down since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Yes, use among residential customers has gone up, but commercial and industrial businesses use most of the grid’s power.
Why was the city of Los Angeles spared from Friday’s outages?
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the city’s main utility, said in a statement that rolling blackouts did not hit their customers because the agency independently generated enough power on its own.
“We own our own power plants and transmission lines and had enough supply to meet demand plus required reserves,” said the utility, which provides water and power to Los Angeles, including the San Fernando Valley. “We encourage our customers to conserve to help the state grid and reduce strain on the system.”
Can we expect more outages in the future?
With the heat wave expected to continue scorching Southern California, Song said the demand for electricity would continued to be high.
Current temperatures in the Inland Empire.
Toasty pic.twitter.com/vpkL1ZTvH4
— NWS San Diego (@NWSSanDiego) August 15, 2020
Temperatures will remain high into Monday, Aug. 17, at least and it was unclear whether the state operator would be able to meet demand.
Song said residents could do their part and reduce electricity use when possible, such as by turning off lights when leaving a room or, if possible, cracking a window open and turning down the air conditioner.
Most of a home’s power, he said, is used by an an air conditioner and the refrigerator.
“Everyone can chip in to save demand,” he said.
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