San Diegans asked to conserve power for a 9th day amid unrelenting heat

Californians will be asked to conserve power for a ninth straight day on Thursday as record temperatures hammer the state, especially in San Diego County, where the readings will range from the upper 80s to low 100s.

The county also will be hit by strong offshore winds that will greatly increase the risk of wildfires.

The California Independent System Operator at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday issued a Flex Alert for Thursday, which calls on customers to voluntarily reduce energy usage. Over the past eight days, consumers have been asked to reduce power usage from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. The alert for Thursday goes a step beyond: Asking Californians to reduce power from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Unlike Tuesday, the grid manager did not issue a stage 3 Energy Emergency Alert, a measure that warns energy users that rotating outages may be imminent due to sustained electricity demand eating into reserve margins.

Millions of Californians received messages on their phones Tuesday alerting them to “conserve energy now to protect public health and safety.” The alerts were credited for preventing blackouts Tuesday night.

The state was already under a Flex Alert on Wednesday afternoon from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. It was the eighth day in a row and the longest number of consecutive days of alerts since 2001. California had 12 consecutive Flex Alerts, called a “power watch” back then, in January 2001 during the energy crisis that saw large-scale blackouts.

Electricity demand Tuesday evening surged to 52,061 megawatts on the ISO system, a new record. The previous all-time high was 50,270 megawatts, set on July 24, 2006, when California’s grid looked much different than it does today. The forecasted peak was 50,184 megawatts as of 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

SDG&E spokeswoman Hadley Candace said Wednesday afternoon that conservation efforts were working and everyone needs to keep up the effort by not using major appliances, if safe to do so, during the Flex Alert.

“We’re all in this together and everyone is doing a fantastic job,” she said.

SDG&E has a list of locations it plans to turn off first if the ISO calls for rolling outages. The areas will experience an outage for roughly an hour. Among the first areas to be shut off would be Casa de Oro, west El Cajon, Point Loma, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Fletcher Hills, and north La Mesa.