Western US heat wave putting pressure on energy use

The heat has been so intense that California state officials have been asking people to cut back on their energy use in an effort to decrease the number of customers that would be affected by rolling blackouts.

The unrelenting heat wave has pushed the power grid to the brink of collapse in recent days, and it has fueled wildfires from Los Angeles to Napa.

“We are deploying every resource available to keep communities safe as California battles fires across the state during these extreme conditions,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday in a statement declaring a statewide emergency. He also ordered an investigation into the reliability of the electric grid.

Also on Monday, grid operators warned they would have to cut power to as many as 10 million people, which would have been one of the largest outages in California’s history. But that crisis was averted as consumers throttled back their energy use.

Advisers in Newsom’s office made personal telephone calls to refineries, industries and the state’s port authorities, asking them to reduce their power consumption. This is according to Steve Berberich, chief executive officer of the California Independent System Operator, which runs the grid.

“If we can get the same sort of response that we got yesterday, we can minimize this or perhaps avoid it all together,” Berberich said.

The request means that container ships may have to use their diesel engines while in California ports until the heat breaks as opposed to plugging into onshore power sources.

The National Weather Service (NWS) is keeping excessive heat warnings posted through Friday evening for southern California, the Sacramento Valley, Death Valley and El Centro, in addition to the Phoenix and Las Vegas metropolitan areas.

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