In response to higher demand and a lack of extra supply from the Northwest, the California Independent System Operator ordered the state's cash-strapped major utilities--Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison--to begin cut power to about one million business and residential customers on Monday, and another 500,000 on Tuesday.
The ISO is expected to have enough power in reserve to avoid rolling balcouts today, but things remain tight, and are expected to get worse later as summer nears. Prior to Monday, the last rolling blackouts occurred Jan. 17 and 18, affecting 675,000 homes and businesses in Northern California for more than two hours at a time. The power emergencies stopped in February in part due to more imported electricity and more power plants being online.
The ISO says the state's peak demand for power is expected to exceed supplies from the beginning of May and the end of September. Specifically, the demand could exceed supply by by as much as 3,030 megawatts in May and as much as 6,815 megawatts in June, according to the ISO. It takes about 1,000 megawatts to power one million homes.
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