With a hotter-than-average summer expected and the continued closure of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, power officials are urging Southern Californians to conserve electricity in coming months.
Backup plans and new technology are in place, but officials at a Wednesday press event in Alhambra said conservation will be critical this summer.
"We think that we'll be able to make it through the summer," said Lynda Ziegler, executive vice president of Southern California Edison, which operates the San Onofre plant. "If we have five or six or eight days in a row that are very, very hot, we will need people to conserve."
Despite the tight supply of power this summer, the region is unlikely to see major blackouts, officials with the California Independent System Operator, the California Energy Commission and Southern California Edison said Wednesday.
California ISO, a nonprofit that runs the state's aging power grid, said it will issue "Flex Alerts" in peak capacity days, asking electricity customers to:
- turn air condition to 78 degrees or higher
- shut off all unnecessary lights
- and postpone major appliance use until after 6 p.m.
Conservation measures, which can reduce electrical demand by thousands of megawatts, helped ease California's rolling blackouts during the energy crisis of 2000-2001. The crisis prompted adoption of the Flex Alert program, said Walter McGuire, the campaign's director.
Weather forecasts predict that highs in July and August will only be 1 or 2 degrees hotter than average, but officials said several days of high heat could prompt a Flex Alert.
The Flex Alert campaign comes as the San Onofre nuclear plant prepares to enter its sixth month offline. The plant provides a tenth of the region's power, enough to light up some 1.4 million Southern Californian homes.
San Onofre has been offline since Jan. 31. Since then, investigators have found unusual wear on tubes that power steam generators.
To make up for the loss of San Onofre, Southern California Edison has fired up two shuttered plants in Huntington Beach. And Edison has made plans to import more electricity as needed.
As part of program to stretch tight electricity supplies, the $2 billion Sunrise Powerlink in Imperial County went online this month with the goal of bringing in power from the east.
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Officials say that should be enough, but they can't be certain about what the summer will bring.
"We have wildfires that can take down a power line... a lot of things can happen," Ziegler said.
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