The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) has issued a statewide Flex Alert, a call for voluntary electricity conservation, from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday, October 1, 2020).

With high temperatures in the forecast, the power grid operator is predicting an increase in electricity demand, primarily from air conditioning use.  Reduced capacity, along with fire activity and heat, has led to a potential shortage of energy supply tomorrow evening.

Earlier this afternoon, a Grid Alert was issued for a possible electricity shortage in the day-ahead market, for one hour beginning at 6 p.m. tomorrow, and a Restricted Maintenance Operations (RMO) notice was issued for the period 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. tomorrow to power plant operators.

The Grid Alert allows operators to call up demand response supply, while the RMO allows operators to call all available generation onto the system and bring back transmission that may be offline for planned maintenance.

Consumers are urged to conserve electricity, especially during the late afternoon and early evening, when the grid is most stressed due to higher demand and solar energy production falling.

According to the CAISO, tomorrow’s peak demand is expected to be 43,401 megawatts.  Since that is not a high peak, we assume the CAISO is anticipating the impact of lack of available supply from out of State resources.

Govreport will be tracking supply and provide posts as we see anything interesting developing.