CityofSantaBarbaraSource: City of Santa Barbara
Extreme heat forecast; consumer help will be key to preventing outages
The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and state agencies are closely monitoring temperatures and grid conditions across the state during this heat wave. CAISO has issued a Flex Alert for TODAY, Thursday, June 17 asking consumers and businesses to conserve energy between the hours of 5 p.m.-10 p.m.
A Flex Alert is typically issued in the summer when extremely hot weather pushes up energy demand as it reaches available capacity. This usually happens in the evening hours when solar generation is going offline and consumers are returning home and switching on air conditioners, lights, and appliances.
Learn more Flex Alerts HERE.
Conservation Tips
Before a Flex Alert is in effect, consumers can take specific steps to manage their electricity usage to maintain comfort during days that conservation is needed. Specifically, consumers can:
- Pre-cool your home by lowering the thermostat
- Use major appliances, like your dishwasher, and clothes washer and dryer
- Close window coverings to keep your home or apartment cool
- Charge electronic devices
- Charge electric vehicles
From 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. TODAY, when the statewide Flex Alert is in effect, consumers can help by:
- Setting your thermostat to 78 degrees or higher, if health permits
- Avoiding the use of major appliances
- Turning off all unnecessary lights
- Using fans for cooling
- Unplugging unused items
Perfect timing. The blackouts in 2000-1 are part of the reason that Gray Davis was recalled. 20 years later and the same thing is set to happen again. Bye-bye Newsom.
How dare you question the courageous and infallible leadership of chairman Newsom! The voters of california are enlightened and appreciate that reducing the availability of electricity is a good thing.
Wrong again. You’ll see. Sanity will prevail.
This summer half of Californians will be plunged into darkness, while the other half is bathed in the spectacular golden light of the homeless fire that engulfs their house. Elections have consequences.
Some people seem to live in a fear-filled fantasy world.
I hope City Council remembers these Flex Alerts next time they discuss banning natural gas.
I agree, and natural gas is a good stepping stone in that direction. Clearly were not ready for all electric if we’re still having flex alerts, and that’s while we still have gasoline cars and natural gas connections. It be like living in a 3rd world country if we went all electric right now. Modern nuclear power plants are the best long-term, sustainable, green solution until (if) they perfect fusion reactors
VOICE – while I agree with most of that, I wouldn’t consider nuclear anything a “green solution.” Nothing that has the ability to cause that kind of mass destruction and death is “green.”
Pinch yourself to see if you’re asleep, because you’re commenting on a fantasy-article about preventing outages.
Please read up on newer nuclear technology. 1 – no nuclear incidents have lead to mass destruction and death and 2 – where there were incidents, (Chernobyl Fukishima) those were plants built 50-60 years ago with technology about 10 years older still from just after WWII. Modern designs and technology avoid a lot of the issues relating to potential meltdowns as well as spent fuel.
VOICE – when nuclear energy is 100% safe, not just very safe, I’ll reconsider my statement.
There is no safe method yet devised for dealing with the waste products of fission reactors.
Will these situations get better when we all are enrolled in Monterey Bay Community Power?
Things not making sense is a sign of dementia, and it’s indeed the norm for you.
Probably not. Riverside’s CCA recently filed for bankruptcy: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/story/2021-06-02/riverside-county-community-choice-energy-program-becomes-first-in-california-to-file-for-bankruptcy
I’m all for renewable energy but I don’t see how inserting another layer of government bureaucracy between power providers and customers is going to reduce costs. SCE already has a 100% renewable energy option. It’s not like you get your own set of electrical wires from the provider.
@Sacjon, unfortunately, nothing in modern life is “green.” Our very lives are assured destruction and death at some point. New nuclear energy – the vast, vast majority of it – is worth a look at in order to save our vital resources that the earth literally requires in order to survive. There is deep risk involved in literally every facet of sustaining our modern societies, and we who choose to live in it, make those deals with devil every.single.day. Even when we don’t realize it.
It would not surprise me that someone not well versed in the science would be completely unaware of the Canadian Shield—the igneous/metamorphic plateau that is both deep and geologically stable. You could bury something there and it would not see the light of day for billions of years.
That’s funny! Cheap and easy! Just get Canada to pay for it, irradiated gophers to dig the hole, and self-driving Ubers to transport the waste. So glad there’s a scientist here who’s familiar with real-world problems!
Gophers and Ubers. That has to be the weakest comeback in the history of the internet. It’s so cringeworthy in fact that I’ll pretend it doesn’t exist and give you a do-over out of pity. Okay, go for it…..now really impress me!
CHANNEL: The trefoil symbol for radiation is pretty well recognized. Like the cross, I’m sure thousands of years from now people will still recognize its meaning.
Sacjon, I think you’re confusing nuclear energy and nuclear weapons, which operate differently. Nuclear energy uses a chain reaction that is carefully controlled via control rods, with the goal being to use the heat the reaction produces to heat water, turn a turbine, etc. Nuclear weapons use a chain reaction too, but their goal is to maximize the speed and power with which the reaction happens. That kind of explosive energy would be difficult to accidentally create in a modern nuclear reactor setting because of all the safety precautions. Admittedly, there have been some accidents with nuclear power, most notably Chernobyl and Fukishima. In Chernobyls case, the nuclear energy was absolutely not at fault for causing the meltdown, explosion, and subsequent disaster. We must remember this was located in the former Soviet Union before pointing to a sole source of the fault. Beaurocracy in creating the plant, faulty reactor design, and manual operator error all contributed. I could go into more detail if you are interested, but there are several books and documentaries I recommend if you’d like to learn more.
SEABIRD – So, because we’re all going to die anyway, no need to worry over keeping our energy sources safe? Nah. Name one catastrophic potential side effect of a wind farm.
HADO KEN – thanks, but I know the difference. Again, until you can prove nuclear energy to be 100% safe, it’s not a better option in my book.
Fire from various combustion sources, heat from the sun, wind, geo-thermal, harnessing animal or water power —were all traditional and basic energy sources – each with their own environmental impacts, each with their own inherent limitations for modern society. Which ones shall we go back to so we can turn the clock back to pre-industrial, pre-fossil fuel burning times? Central America should be a hydro-electric power house, but it is not. Why not?
CHEM- It is arrogant to assume that any of our knowledge will survive 10’s or 100’s of thousands of years. The trefoil may seem like a pretty, or sacred symbol to future inhabitants of the planet, rather than a dire warning. I did not make this up, it is a very real problem for Humanity.
LOL–he’s back. And he mad.
Since our current mayor, now running for re-election, boycotted the annual Chamber of Commerce state of the city event because one of the sponsors was SoCal Gas Company, we need to be reminded elections have consequences if you want to hang on to natural gas.
ChannelFog, what event do you foresee that would break the chain of successive generation communications, over something as important as this nuclear waste taboo? it would require all forms of communications – written, oral, aural, storage, translations be 100% wiped out. “Civilization” goes back approximately 10,000 years, and agree it remains hard to translate the very earliest communications, but there was also nothing as important to protect as nuclear waste storage. But today there are many forms of indestructible visual communications that can easily exceed our current 10,000 year human written communication track record – including the fire hardened cuniform tablets.
As we have seen time and time again, electricity has the ability to create that kind of mass destruction and death. So is electricity “green”?