SACRAMENTO (CBS SF/AP) -– With California in the grips of a historic heatwave, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed an emergency proclamation aimed at freeing up energy capacity even as power executives warned of additional statewide rolling blackouts.
Newsom warned customers across the state that more rolling blackouts over the next 72 hours were “very likely” as the state struggles to meet the demand for electricity during a
historic, record-breaking heatwave.
The governor warned in his midday news conference that California was short about 4,400 megawatts to supply energy to everyone who demands it Monday, but by late afternoon, California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) officials said they might be able to delay outages until Monday evening.
Officials with Cal-ISO – which oversees roughly 80% of the state’s power grid through Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and San Diego Gas & Electric — said statewide rolling blackouts affecting up to 3.3 million California homes could begin as early as 4 p.m.
LADWP was not expected to be impacted by the outages since the utility is locally-owned runs its own plants and will help supply 900 megawatts of power to the state grid Tuesday.
All California households including homes supplied by LADWP were asked to take measures to conserve energy during the hours of 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. as part of a statewide Flex Alert.