California just cannot get a break this year. A pandemic, a challenged economy, lightning-induced wildfires, and … most recently ... rolling utility power outages.
In mid-August, California experienced a profound heat wave. With more people in their homes because of the pandemic, people relied on air conditioning for relief. On the evening of August 14, public utilities could not provide all of the power needed to meet the demand in the state. With the rest of the western USA also sweltering, insufficient surplus regional power was available to import into California. Blackouts subsequently affected hundreds of thousands of customers as utilities shut down power to specific communities on a rolling basis. When this article was written, another more severe heat wave was expected in the region.
Some commenters have pointed out that the initial situation developed about the time of day that solar electrical power sources diminish, reducing the amount of available power. Others have asserted that the situation resulted from poor reserve capacity planning by power authorities. Whatever the circumstances, the point here isn’t to analyze the causes of the outages, but rather to emphasize that they do and will occur.
Earlier this year, ASCO Power Technologies’ White Paper entitled California Power Outages discussed a California utility’s planned outage policy, which is intended to limit on-going wildfire risks. That publication provided options for small and mid-size businesses to access backup power. These include the availability of transfers switches and quick connect panels that make it easy to connect a temporary or transportable generator to a facility’s power distribution system. An example is shown in the following diagram.
In mid-August, California experienced a profound heat wave. With more people in their homes because of the pandemic, people relied on air conditioning for relief. On the evening of August 14, public utilities could not provide all of the power needed to meet the demand in the state. With the rest of the western USA also sweltering, insufficient surplus regional power was available to import into California. Blackouts subsequently affected hundreds of thousands of customers as utilities shut down power to specific communities on a rolling basis. When this article was written, another more severe heat wave was expected in the region.
Some commenters have pointed out that the initial situation developed about the time of day that solar electrical power sources diminish, reducing the amount of available power. Others have asserted that the situation resulted from poor reserve capacity planning by power authorities. Whatever the circumstances, the point here isn’t to analyze the causes of the outages, but rather to emphasize that they do and will occur.
Earlier this year, ASCO Power Technologies’ White Paper entitled California Power Outages discussed a California utility’s planned outage policy, which is intended to limit on-going wildfire risks. That publication provided options for small and mid-size businesses to access backup power. These include the availability of transfers switches and quick connect panels that make it easy to connect a temporary or transportable generator to a facility’s power distribution system. An example is shown in the following diagram.
