California rolling blackouts, who here is affected?

Thinking of our BLF members on the west coast right now.
Also taking comfort if you are a regular member, you probably are prepared like a good Boy Scout with lots of backup battery power.

Anyway, take care and let us know what’s going on in your area.
Later,

Keith

Is this for real or another Enron chapter? Never underestimate the power and inventiveness of greed. Sorry for those affected.

i feel for anybody affected by this in such hot weather, especially the elderly and those with medical issues.

found this on a science websticle, Rolling Blackouts - How California's Power Crisis Works | HowStuffWorks

When California’s power supply dips, the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO), who manages the state’s power grid, notifies the California utilities that there must be a load reduction on the statewide power system. The individual utilities than determine how the load reduction will be accomplished. Usually, it’s done by blacking out certain blocks in their area for hours at a time.

California ISO is an independent agency charged with managing the flow of electricity along the long-distance, high-voltage power lines that make up the bulk of California’s transmissions systems. It also has the task of safeguarding the reliable delivery of electricity. The Cal-ISO does not, as some reports have stated, order black outs. Only local electric suppliers have the ability to do that.

Rolling blackouts are typically used only in severe cases, and are designed to prevent a complete collapse of the state’s power system. It signals that the state’s operating reserves have fallen below 1.5 percent.

Here’s how California’s rolling blackouts work:

The state is divided into large blocks by the various utility companies. For example, PG&E divides their service area into a number of blocks.
When an energy crisis reaches a Stage 3 emergency, California ISO notifies local electric suppliers that there will be a load reduction on the statewide system. These local suppliers than implement a system of rotating power outages.
These outages proceed in numerical order, beginning with block number one. If the crisis continues, number two will be the next block affected by the rolling blackouts. PG&E customers can find their block number on their service bill.
Hospitals, police stations, fire departments and some residents located near these emergency agencies are unaffected by the rolling blackouts.

I’m in Southern California, so far no blackouts in my area as of yet. It’s so hot it would be miserable without power. And due to Covid, malls and many other places of entertainment are shut down. So there is not much we can do.

Absolutely not affected by this, hard to believe that this still happens in a modern industrial country. Planned outages are much better than a complete failure, but feel wrong.

On the other hand… My Meter shows something around 30 to 50 W during the day (with some spikes when the refrigerator is running). No air conditioning (it is very uncommon in Germany). With good isolation and ventilation during the night I start the day with 20 °C (inside and outside) and it ends with 25 °C inside and 35 °C outside.

Don’t remember when I had an unplanned power outage the last time. 15 years ago for 10 seconds? And maybe every few years for a few hours due to maintenance work somewhere at my street.

No rolling blackouts here.

I haven't seen Saturday's news yet, so I don't know who is affected.

EDIT:

According to a Google search, it's PG&E that's doing it.

We have Southern California Edison.

It was 120° on Friday, so rolling blackouts would be devastating here.

There have been rolling blackouts in Placerville, Santa Cruz and a few other locations. Pg&e mostly, but they expect increased usage will require other metropolitan areas to be cut.

It’s hot, you can’t go anywhere to escape the heat, and social distancing measures prevent spending time indoors where you might normally “hide out.” So, were screwed.

I was going to head up the hill to a lake in the sierras this morning with the kiddos, but it was going to be 90deg at 5700ft. No thanks!

Btw - some of my kids asked to try to cook an egg on the car tomorrow. I conceded.

I'm watching Monday's news.

They said that some desert cities will have rolling blackouts!

I don't know the details yet, but I hope that our home doesn't lose power this summer (again.)

Last time was absolutely horrible.

Rolling Blackouts are not unplanned. Residents in blackout areas receive notification in advance.

.

After the 2019 fire lawsuits, PGE filed for bankruptcy protection, and instituted rolling blackouts.

Instead of clearing brush, and upgrading their unsafe transmission lines.

There are presently rolling blackouts in Santa Cruz, which is NOT in the fire danger area.

This allows PGE to comply with overload limitations, instead of upgrading their infrastructure.

It is more profitable to use rolling blackouts, than to invest in infrastructure maintanance and transmission line upgrades.

May 2019
PG&E Transmission Lines Caused California’s Deadliest Wildfire, State Officials Say

Southern California Edison might be doing it, too.

On the local news, they didn't mention Palm Desert, so my place might be good for a while, but that may change in the future.

Are blackouts uncommon in all Germany or just your area?

We’re in the Napa area and went through a short one on Friday. No power for about 3 hours. I have a generator but it’s not big enough to run the a\c. We just grabbed a few cold adult beverages and used a dozen of my lights and lanterns. Hot as heck right now but the house is well insulated so it stayed comfortable enough.

If it had gone on much longer I would have cranked up the genny to keep the fridge cold and maybe power up the cable and internet.

For those that don't know, the entire state of California (and other places as well) are currently having a heat wave.

For my county, if we have rolling blackouts, they're only supposed to last one hour.

Bay Area. I did not have any rolling blackouts.

However, on at least one day last week 250,000 did experience rolling blackouts.

Power flickers early this morning, no blackouts yet.

I’m very glad we reroofed using a high emissivity “cool roof” material.

The attic temperature on peak hot days used to reach 150 F, and now only hits 110F. And the living space remains bearable even when the outside air temp is passing 90F.

I expect blackouts — word is PGnE did not want to bring expensive generating backup systems online to cover the need around sunset when solar PV drops off but heat lingers.

I’m thankful to have SMUD (a municipal utility company) and they’re fricking fantastically amazing compared to PGE. If I move a couple miles over, I’d be on PGE experiencing this crap.

It boggles my mind how inept they are.

Some of you won’t have any issues depending on what else is attached to your electric grid. Any grid with a hospital on it is supposed to be exempt from planned outages.

congratulations
26% less unbearable

Im wearing a wet T shirt and wet bandana on my head, sitting in front of a fan. I do not have an Air Conditioner

Thankfully atm it is below 90F here.

We do not have PGE, nor rolling blackouts here

haven’t heard of any yet, but a co-worker participates in a voluntary power shut-off program, so I’ll have to ask her if that happens to her.

my car said it was 111 when I left to grab lunch. Usually it’s lying and it drops after I drive around a bit. That didn’t happen. I checked my home weather station (8 miles away), it said 104…

we tried that “voluntary power shut-off program” one year.

it didn’t work for us because they “un-voluntarily” reduced
(not shut off) power as well…and they did it once when
we had lots of guests in town for a wedding.
the women weren’t happy with that.
warm (not hot) showers.
weak lights for makeup.
we bought ice for cold beer
and the guys were good.