California power use soars to highest in years during record heat wave

Orange County Register CA ^ | September 5, 2022 | By Brian K. Sullivan and Joe Ryan

[Oldeconomybuyer]

California’s power grid will be pushed to near its limit Monday as the state wilts under a blistering and sustained heat wave.

With millions of homes and businesses cranking air conditioners to cope with temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit, electricity use in the largest US state is forecast to hit 48.9 gigawatts Monday, the most since 2017. The state’s grid operator has asked residents to conserve as much as possible, warning the system could be short up to 4 gigawatts.

“California has been ridiculously hot and will be hot for a good part of the week,” Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster with the US Weather Prediction Center, said in an interview.

The prospect of blackouts underscores how grids have become vulnerable in the face of extreme weather as they transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. California has aggressively closed natural-gas power plants in recent years, leaving the state increasingly dependent on solar farms that go dark late in the day as demand for electricity peaks. At the same time, the state is enduring its worst drought in 1,200 years, sapping hydropower production.

[joshua c]

what do you call a CA EV?

lawn ornament

[kiryandil]

[TnTnTn]

Aww c’mon man, just put up a few more windmills and solar panels…which ironically are environmentally disastrous….da libs…

[Fungi]

” electricity use in the largest US state” Two authors and they got it wrong. California is dwarfed by Alaska and Texas.

[TalBlack]

110 degrees huh? Sounds like God is trying to help them. Wonder if they’ll listen?

[caww]

Imagine declaring an economic war on your energy supplier while surrounding him with military bases, biolabs and waging a proxy war via neighbor-country Ukraine against him.... and then crying about the shortages after.

[Walrus]

Couldn’t happen to a nicer state.

[joshua c]

and a million acres of battery farms

gee i hope none of the batteries catching fire

[eyedigress]

The prospect of blackouts underscores how grids have become vulnerable in the face of , illegal immigration and libtard policies in general.

[ifinnegan]

This is not a record heat wave by any stretch of the imagination.

[Dilbert San Diego]

They meant largest state by population, not by land area. Perhaps they should have clarified that point.

[Right Brother]

I believe they are referring to population, not land mass.

[CodeToad]

TexasGator said EV charging was no worse than AC use in the middle of the day. Seems she has no idea what the numbers are concerning electricity usage and power generation.

[Fungi]

You are correct. It should have been written “in the most populous US state.”

[who_would_fardels_bear]

I would say largest state by the size of egos, but then Texas would win that prize as well.

[The Westerner]

One after another, California shut down clean, safe, nuclear power plants because the “karens” demanded freedom from fear of an accident. They shut down logging camps, they took over the Forestry Service operation, they Nationalized the forestry land, they stopped controlled burns, they stopped clear cutting, they stopped building reservoirs, electrical plants, oil refineries, they sent the farmer's water into the ocean so fish could spawn...in my home state, all of this took place since the schools were taken over by Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Americans. I was a product of their teaching...until I read “Atlas Shrugged”. Then it took a decade of hard work, brain work, to untangle the anti-reason propaganda.

And here we are...able to understand the nihilism in every act of destruction, but unable to do a damn thing about it.

[TexasGator]

“TexasGator said EV charging was no worse than AC use in the middle of the day. “

I thought you said you would quit lying about what I said? Apparently the truce you offered has been violated.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

California seems bent on committing Green Energy suicide.

But I wonder how much energy would be saved by deporting just one million of the illegals living there. Assume 4 kilowatts per illegal at peak, and there’s your shortfall right there. Not to mention reducing the demand for welfare, the pollution spewed from the old clunkers they drive, und-und-und.

[Terry L Smith]

blame all those newsom loving illegals enjoying ac for the 1st time.