What to Know
- A Flex Alert goes into effect again Monday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., asking residents to conserve power.
- Temperatures reached all-time highs over the weekend in Southern California.
- Utility crews worked Monday to restore power to tens of thousands.
The holiday heat wave took a toll over the weekend, leaving tens of thousands without power in Southern California.
Nearly 70,000 Southern California Edison and LA Department of Water and Power customers were without power early Monday, but that figure had been reduced to just shy of 40,000 by late Monday afternoon. Electricity for some not expected to be restored until Tuesday.
The DWP reported at 4 p.m. Monday that more than 10,700 customers remain in the dark, down from 45,000 at 6 a.m. and 70,000 Sunday night, according to the DWP. The estimated time of total restoration of services is 48 hours from the time an outage began, according to DWP spokeswoman Dawn Cottrell.
The following communities are currently effected the most: Central-Alameda; Vermont Square; Mid-Wilshire; and Fairfax.
By Monday afternoon, Edison reported outages on its website affecting more than 27,400 customers, including nearly 20,000 in Los Angeles County and nearly 2,300 in Orange County.
In addition, SCE reported 831 customers without power in Riverside County, 1,779 customers in the dark in San Bernardino County and 38 customers without power in Ventura County.
Another statewide Flex Alert goes into effect Monday from 3 p.m to 9 p.m. The alert is a request by the state’s power grid operator to conserve power.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state has already taken the following actions to free up capacity.
- Working with large commercial and public energy consumers to shift their energy usage away from peak hours.
- Ramping up appeals to Californians to flex their power, pre-cool their homes before noon and conserve energy from 3 p.m. onward.
- Partnering with third party energy producers to bring back-up energy generation resources online, from the State Water Project to DWP and the state's investor-owned utilities.
- Asking the Navy and commercial ports to use on-ship electrical generation instead of pulling resources away from the grid.
Photos: Scenes From SoCal's September Heat Wave
At about 6 p.m. Sunday, the California Independent System Operator, which oversees the state's bulk electric power system and it utility companies, declared a Stage 2 Emergency, announcing its operators were "taking all the steps to protect the grid, manage transmission loss and avoid outages.''
A Stage 2 Emergency means "the CA ISO has taken all mitigating actions and is no longer able to provide its expected energy requirements. A Stage 2 warning requires ISO intervention in the market, such as ordering power plants online,'' according to the agency's website.
The Stage 2 Emergency was lifted just after 9 p.m.
Temperatures set new records around Southern California Sunday, including 121 degrees at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, which broke a 2006 record of 119; Van Nuys hit 118 degrees, breaking a record of 117 set in 2018; and the high of 114 degrees at Burbank Airport tied a previous record set Saturday.
An excessive heat warning issued by the National Weather Service will be in effect until 8 p.m. Monday in the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains, Santa Catalina Island and the San Fernando, Santa Clarita, San Gabriel and Antelope valleys as well as Orange County.
