California Warns of Power Shortage as Heat, Fires Arrive Early

(Bloomberg) -- California faces a white-knuckle evening of possible blackouts with grid officials warning that power supplies may not meet demand as a triple-digit heat wave grips the western U.S.

The Golden State could run short of electricity between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. as solar power production fades with sunset, grid managers warned Thursday. All available generation sources were either already in use or expected to be at that time, according to officials, who also urged Californians to turn off unneeded lights and appliances to prevent outages.

The early start to summer woes underscores the scale of challenges officials have been dreading, with most of California mired in extreme drought and vegetation parched by a nearly rain-free winter already catching flame. The drought across western states is already testing power grids as hydro generation dries up just as residents blast air conditioners, and adding to signs that climate change is bringing more extreme weather and exacerbating strains on the western power grid.

“Summer hit us a little earlier than expected,” Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Richard Glick told reporters Thursday. “We are seeing extreme conditions happen earlier. We are seeing them happen with more ferocity than we have, clearly related to climate change.”

Temperatures climbed above 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius) from near the Oregon border to the southeastern desert, though the heavily populated coast was spared. Many Central Valley areas were expected to hit 110 degrees Thursday. In neighboring Nevada, Las Vegas reached 116 degrees Wednesday, a degree short of an all-time high, National Weather Service data show.

“It’s a pretty big heatwave for this early in June,” said Cory Mueller, a weather service meteorologist in Sacramento.

Power grid managers asked consumers to cut electricity use Thursday evening as solar plant output begins to fade. They want to avoid rolling blackouts, like those that struck during an historic heat wave in August.

“We will be doing everything we can across the next 24 hours to keep the lights on,” Elliot Mainzer, head of the California Independent System Operator, said Wednesday. He added that potential supply shortfalls Friday look “rather modest.”

State officials spent the winter and spring working to prevent a repeat of last year’s rolling blackouts, the first in two decades. They delayed planned retirements of old, gas-fired power plants and tweaked electricity market rules to encourage imports during periods of high demand. In addition, power companies started installing large batteries to store solar power during the day and feed it back onto the grid in the evening.

Nonetheless, traders betting on electricity shortages across the western U.S. have driven a key spread between prices in Arizona and those in the Los Angeles area to the widest ever. Electricity regularly travels between Southern California, the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest, depending on regional needs. But the record spread reflects an uncomfortable truth: Climate change has brought about such extreme weather for all three regions that there isn’t always enough power to go around.

California officials have been bracing for a difficult season. Winter brought few storms, the second year in a row that the rainy season fizzled. And the ensuing drought couldn’t come at a worse time for Governor Gavin Newsom, who faces a likely recall election this fall. He’s trying to avoid a repeat of last year’s devastating fire season and the heat-triggered blackouts that briefly plunged more than a million Californians into the dark as they were stuck at home by the coronavirus pandemic.

“My mind is immediately focused on issues of energy security, immediately focused on issues of wildfire season,” Newsom said Wednesday at a press conference.

Texas endured a similar test of its electricity system this week. The same heat gripping California struck the Lone Star State first, arriving four months after a brutal cold snap knocked power plants offline, triggered massive blackouts and killed at least 150 people. As electricity demand rose with temperatures this week, many power plants unexpectedly shut down, limiting supplies. The number of plants online, however, rose Wednesday, easing risk of blackouts.

Although California and Texas have garnered most attention, the heat and the problems it highlights stretch across the western U.S. Outside of Texas, states there have grown dependent on importing power from one another when demand is high, but that has become increasingly difficult as extreme temperatures blanket the entire region.

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