California’s planned power outages are the new normal
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Over the weekend, California utility company Pacific, Gas and Electric shut off power in 12 counties as a countermeasure to ‘wind spikes and fears of wildfires.
This is a rather new “normal” in California. As a native of California, this never happened. The only time power went out was due to powerful winter storms knocking down power lines.
Now, it’s a regular occurrence – not the lines going down, but the power being deliberately shut off. A few years ago we called these “rolling blackouts” when the utility companies didn’t have the available power during summer heat to keep everyone’s air conditioning on. People died.
It’s an actual thing… PG&E calls them “Rotating outages.”
And, they tell us…
“Outages are preventable, if we all conserve.”
“Heatwaves may strain the grid. To reduce the impact, CAISO may enact rotating outages.”
“When demand for electricity is higher than supply, such as during a heat wave, Californians might be asked to use less energy. If enough people conserve electricity at once, rotating outages can be cancelled or postponed by an hour or more.”
So, it’s our fault when demand for electricity is higher than supply. Maybe California should lean-in on natural gas a little more so that we don’t have “rotating outages.” After years of restricting natural gas production, this government created shortage bites California in the tush every year. And Gov. Gavin Newsom is doubling down on gas and oil restrictions knowing that renewable energy isn’t up to the job of providing enough energy for 39 million Californians.
The Associated Press reported:
A California utility shut off power in 12 counties in the northern part of the state as a major “diablo wind” — notorious in autumn for its hot, dry gusts — spiked the risk of power lines sparking a wildfire.
About 13,000 customers woke up without electricity Friday after Pacific Gas and Electric shut off power.
California officials now give wind scary sounding names – “diablo wind” – it helps with the justification of shutting power off for thousands of homes across the state.
However, not just a little ironic, only one week after Florida’s Hurricane Milton caused power failures to 4 million people, Gov. Ron DeSantis reported, “Just a week after Hurricane Milton, all school districts in the state of Florida are back to operations today.”
Last week, Gov. DeSantis announced “Over 4 million Florida power accounts were restored; ‘fastest ever done.’”
Adding insult to injury, Climate Depot posted this eye-popping national map last week graphically depicting the power outages:
Agree, this is partly due to energy shortages, but also because PG&E just cannot locate or access ALL of its remote wires in forested areas. I don’t recall any major wildfires during the last NE wind scare, so if the power shutoffs prevent even a single Camp fire, it may be a good interim move. But first PG&E needs to bulk up its energy supplies with LNG, nuclear or whatever else is available 24/7.
Or just maybe more Californians need to buy into the solar program to beef up California’s utility companies?