Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumTX & CA Blackouts Show That Neither State Is Prepared For This Century's Destabilized Climate
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Californias power system is facing pressure on two fronts: delivery and demand. For the past few years, the states large electricity providers, Pacific Gas and Electric in the north and SoCal Edison in the south, have shut off power when its equipment is at risk of setting off wildfires amid dry conditions and high winds. Across the state, old, faulty power lines have sparked deadly wildfires and the companies have said that updating their grids will take years.
The rolling blackouts during the heatwave in August came after state agencies failed to line up enough power to allow millions of residents blasting their fans and air conditioners all at once. The heat storm was an extraordinary event, the states Energy Commission, Independent System Operator and Public Utilities Commission said in a report. But it is our responsibility and intent to plan for such events, which are becoming increasingly common in a world rapidly being impacted by climate change, they acknowledged.
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Texas, like California last summer, failed to plan for the extreme weather it is now facing. And as in California, its equipment was overdue for upgrades. Last weekend, the states grid operators found their estimates of just how much energy residents would require this winter were off. At the same time, officials had allowed several power plants to go offline for maintenance. As temperatures dropped, households used more and more energy to keep warm triggering rolling blackouts. By Monday, the icy conditions also disabled power plants, further diminishing the states power supply amid the deadly storm. In a state that relies heavily on natural gas for power generation, infrastructure wasnt equipped to withstand heavy snow and cold temperatures wells froze, and the power outages made it impossible to pump the gas. You need electricity to generate electricity, which really causes these disasters to escalate, Nateghi said. And because most of the state operates its grid separately from the rest of the western region, largely to avoid federal regulations, Texas wasnt able to easily import power from neighboring states.
In Texas and California, power issues have endangered elderly, poor and disabled residents most. When PG&E started pre-emptively shutting off electricity during the 2019 fire season, many disabled people found themselves in a precarious situation after their medical devices lost power and life-sustaining medications that required refrigeration began to go bad. Last year, when the heat storm triggered blackouts, the outage caused a failure at a wastewater treatment plant forcing working-class people of color in Oakland to choose between opening windows to cool their homes, and closing them to shut out the smell as 50,000 gallons of raw sewage flowed in the nearby bay. Likewise, this week in Texas, the states poorest neighborhoods were the first and hardest hit by the prolonged outages.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/19/power-outages-texas-california-climate-crisis
Auggie
(31,060 posts)Not all of California nor do wide areas undergo blackout conditions anymore either. Local utilities have updated the grid making it easier to isolate areas in the path of wildfire. We're making headway, albeit slowly.
I also think Californians heed blackout warnings and reduce consumption. It's easier in the more temperate Bay Area anyway, allowing power to be diverted to warmer areas. Finally, heat is a tad easier to put up with than cold IMO.