As a historic heat wave scorches California and pushes the state's power grid to the brink, Bloomberg reports that the Golden State declared a power grid emergency on Monday.
''This multi-day event is going to get much more intense,'' the grid's chief executive, Elliot Mainzer, said Sunday. ''We are facing a load forecast of 48,817 megawatts and energy deficits between 2,000 and 4,000 megawatts for Monday, resulting in the highest likelihood of rotating outages we have seen so far this summer.''
''Because of the increasingly extreme conditions, we will need significant additional consumer demand reductions during the hours of 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday and access to all the emergency tools that the state and utilities have established for an extreme event like this one,'' Mainzer added.
The prolonged heat wave is expected to worsen as the week goes on, with much of the state under an excessive heat warning for the next four days, according to Bloomberg.
Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster with the U.S. Weather Prediction Center, told the news outlet that the temperature in Sacramento could reach 113 degrees on Monday and 115 degrees on Tuesday, breaking records for those days.
On Sunday, downtown Los Angeles hit 103 degrees, which marked the first time the temperature broke 100 degrees this year.
Officials have said the heat wave, which began the last week of August, is notable for both its intensity and duration.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an emergency proclamation ahead of the heat wave to make extra power available, according to Bloomberg.
As students return to classrooms and businesses reopen after the long holiday weekend, demand for power on Tuesday could break the all-time record, officials said.
The potential for blackouts highlights how power grids have become at risk when confronted with extreme weather, as they move from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.
According to Bloomberg, California is experiencing its worst drought in 1,200 years, which has reduced hydropower production, and the state has also closed natural-gas power plants in recent years in favor of solar farms that go dark as demand for electricity peaks late in the day.
The risk of power failures increases each day the heat continues, as soaring temperatures soak into concrete over time, making it more difficult to cool buildings. The likelihood of power plants breaking down also increases the longer they run at full capacity.
Complicating the situation, wildfires near Los Angeles and San Diego are threatening transmission lines and power plants, although there had been no major interruptions as of Sunday afternoon, according to Mainzer.
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