California Projected to Suffer Energy Shortage Through Labor Day

The state of California is projected to suffer an energy shortage and “Flex Alerts” on Labor Day because of high-temperature weather. With this, reports say residents will be asked to conserve electricity, which may indicate that they would have to refrain from charging electric vehicles, among other things.

As per a Sacramento Bee report:

Hoping to avoid blackouts, the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state’s power grid, warned Tuesday that it probably will issue a series of Flex Alerts over the next several days. Flex Alerts are voluntary calls for conservation during the afternoon and evening hours, when energy use tends to soar. Residents will be asked to turn up their thermostats to 78 degrees or higher, avoid using dishwashers or other large appliances, and hold off on charging their electric vehicles, all during the 4-9 p.m. time frame.

Already, the grid manager has issues a “restricted maintenance operations” notice starting Wednesday — a directive telling power generators and transmission line operators to delay routine maintenance that would take generating or transmission equipment offline.

On the other hand, the San Francisco Chronicle reported:

The grid is expected to be under the most strain on Monday, with a projected peak load of 48,225 megawatts, [Anne Gonzales of the the California Independent System Operator] said. Peak loads on Sunday, when temperatures in parts of the Bay Area are most likely to reach triple digits, are also expected to reach more than 48,000 megawatts, according to Gonzales.
…
Because the weekend’s heat wave will align with high temperatures throughout the West, California’s ability to import power from neighboring states may be limited, according to the grid operator.

These projections and warnings came a few days following the state’s finalization of regulations that would ban gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. It forms part of the state’s Gov. Gavin Newsom’s effort to change all of California’s passenger fleet to only electric vehicles in an effort to help fight climate change. However, Newsom and state lawmakers are already having a hard time trying to save California’s last active nuclear power plant. Because of this, the state has been facing the risk of electricity shortages for a few years now, which has been attributed to the lack of new power plants and wind and solar power’s unreliability to produce energy.

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