Dangerous Heat Wave to Put CA Energy Grid Under Pressure

A potentially historic heat wave approaching California could have a disastrous effect on the state’s energy grid, according to state energy officials.

While the rest of the country is preparing to celebrate Labor Day weekend and the end of summer, Californians are preparing for dangerously high heat and an energy crisis.

An article in the Sacramento Bee published yesterday reported that the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state power grid, is issuing energy conservation warnings for state residents.

“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.”

The report also states that high temperatures across the west have made energy a scarce resource at the present moment, and could result in blackouts across California..

“What makes this heat wave so potentially troublesome is that high temperatures are forecast throughout the West. That will make it harder for California to import electricity supplies from other states, as it frequently does. A shortage of imports contributed to two nights of rolling blackouts in August 2020.”

This heat wave could have an incredibly detrimental impact on California.

A report published in NBC News stated that 52 million people across the West Coast are going to be affected by this heat wave. Their report cited the National Weather Service, which said this could be a record breaking event with temperatures as high as 115 degrees fahrenheit.

“’There’s a large dome of strong high pressure building over the Great Basin and it will shift westward over California tomorrow and Thursday and result in temperatures rising up to well above normal,’ said David Spector, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.”

Of course, this type of heat will make the already existing drought that much worse, and it will also increase the potential for wildfires to break out.

Sadly, our blog from May about a California summer filled with extreme heat, drought, and wildfires seems to have come true.

As usual, no one mentions the underlying reality that links all of this back to the overpopulation of our state. The more people that live in California, the more energy we need to create to meet consumer needs.

This is compounded by the effect of global warming, which is linked with global population growth.

Sadly, these different components have combined to create a very difficult situation for Californians and tens of millions of other Americans this weekend.

You can ignore overpopulations role in this crisis, but you can’t escape the effects. Unfortunately that’s something Californians will have to live with throughout the dangerously high temperatures this holiday weekend.