It seems that with the heat wave continuing and tomorrow promising 44-45C temperatures officials are worried that electricity will be stretched to the limit. On Monday power demand almost outstripped supply.
This continues to highlight the ongoing problem in California of continued population growth with no new power plant construction. Excess demand is usually alleviated by buying power from out of state but with the heatwave suffocating the entire southwest this will not be an option.
If they institute rolling blackouts tomorrow I will be pretty pissed.
I'll take rolling blackouts over fried grid any day.
There was a flex alert yesterday, which had been predicted to be the hottest day, but now it's looking like more of the same right through the 4th. The decision to permanently close San Onofre was announced nearly a month ago, and then, a week ago, one of the reactors at Diablo Canyon was taken offline due to a small radiation leak. They say they have completed that repair and are in the testing phase, but aren't sure exactly when they'll have it back in operation. Today would be nice. Yesterday, it was too hot to
swim. Still, they're saying that peak demand stayed under the all-time record of 50,270 MW set in July 2006 -- and that's with the extra AC load typical for the first day of a work week following a hot weekend, when buildings have had time to build up a lot of thermal inertia. Maybe that flex alert system is doing some good.
It seems reasonable to expect problems with actually obtaining the promised power purchased from other states when they are also being impacted by the heat wave, but last I heard (and that was
after the Diablo Canyon incident) CAL-ISO was still saying that the state's power supply was in good shape -- so I'd be interested in seeing your sources.
It's probably worth noting that records have also been broken for solar generation. We need more of that. The solar panels on my roof are more than enough to run the (very efficient) fridge and AC, but as it's a grid-connected system, if the grid goes down, the electricity generated by those panels goes... somewhere. Never have been clear on that. To ground?
I've been getting up early (real early; like 3:30 - 4 o'clock in the morning) so as to take advantage of the cool of the morning (which is like 75º F this morning). Open the windows, fans on low for an hour or so to get some fresh air into the place while I do whatever work needs done. Middle of the day is for sleeping. Basic desert survival strategy.
Yesterday, necessity forced me to make a trip to the store during the hottest part of the day. Reminded me why I no longer live in Phoenix. I passed up an excellent deal in the meat department because it required a minimum purchase of five items. I figure it's a better time to be stocked up on bottled water and canned fruit than frozen meat.
