Aaron Johnson, PG&E’s Regional Vice President for the Bay Area, talked about the importance of conserving power later in the day between 4:00 and 10:00 pm to prevent power outages.
"So, we really encourage anyone, anything you can do run the dishwasher, charge your EV, do a load of wash, if you can do that outside of that window, that is when the grid is strained the most in this weather."
The California Independent System Operator has also called a Flex Alert, these alerts are urging customers to reduce energy consumption which will help reduce stress on the statewide power grid.
PG&E confirmed that there were no rolling blackouts Monday. So far, all outages have been attributed to equipment failures. More than 45,000 customers were without power at 7pm Monday night. As of 11:00 am Tuesday, about 4,000 customers remained without power.
For those who do not have air conditioning at home – or are experiencing a power outage – cooling centers are a great way to escape the heat. Again, Aaron Johnson:
“We’re here in Alameda County, there are over 30 in Alameda County, we’ve added this one here in San Leandro, we’re giving away some of the resources that we normally do during a power shut off event, we’ve got snacks, we’ve got a charging device for your phone, we’ve got water."
Bay Area residents can go to the PG&E website and locate a cooling center near them.
