Here’s a truth: it’s been hot in Southern California this month. Very hot.
Here’s another truth: it’s always hot in Southern California in September. This heat wave may be bigger than some, but it’s not unexpected or a stunning surprise.
But if you went to catch a show featuring “Vance Joy, Grouplove and Tiny Habit” Sunday night (admittedly I have no idea who those acts are), you were disappointed—because the legendary Hollywood Bowl went dark due to a power outage. The Bowl has hosted numerous iconic musical acts over the decades, including most famously, the Beatles in 1964.
But not on Sunday:
California is a model for the nation. https://t.co/3xXoXoDMOd
— Julie Hamill (@hamill_law) September 9, 2024
It wasn’t the only place where the lights went out:
As of Sunday evening, Southern California Edison was responding to about 60 separate outages impacting more than 6,000 customers in a service area spanning five counties.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power had about 6,600 customers without power, out of 1.5 million customers total, as of Sunday afternoon. The agency said it had restored power to more than 71,000 customers since the start of the current heat wave.
How’s the electricity grid doing in California today? At 5:30 p.m., demand is 46,883 megawatts and “renewables” are supplying 15,067 MW, or 31% of the state’s needs. What keeps the AC running? Natural gas, supplying 47.3% of CA’s electricity. Also nuclear, hydro and imports. pic.twitter.com/sCD9DFyqBT
— Susan Shelley (@Susan_Shelley) September 7, 2024
LADWP blamed the outages on overheated equipment:
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, one of the providers in the area that was experiencing power outages, said that during extreme, prolonged heat waves, “our electric equipment can overload and overheat when it doesn’t have the ability to cool down overnight.”
Hmm. We live in the most technologically advanced society in history; we send people to outer space, we can video chat with folks on the other side of the planet, and residents in California pay mountains in taxes every year, yet we can’t keep the lights or the AC on because the equipment overheats? Seems like something someone would have figured out by now, considering losing power during a heat wave can be extremely hazardous for some people. What else is at play?
Turns out that despite paying massive taxes and huge energy bills, Californians are still subject to the whims of an outdated system:
Among the main causes of these power outages is an aging electricity grid that hasn’t kept up with a changing climate and evolving demands from utility customers. Energy economists are still trying to calculate the full business impact of these outages. One Stanford professor calculated that a single blackout, on October 7, 2019, likely cost small commercial and industrial businesses $2.4 billion. To further understand the scale, consider that the Department of Energy estimates yearly power outages cost the U.S. economy $150 billion annually.
This brings up the obvious question: how will we manage the switch to all-electric cars if our energy grid is this unreliable?
One of my all-time favorite RedState headlines:
Californians Told Not to Charge Electric Vehicles Days After State Banned Gas-Powered Sales by 2035
The power went out in Hollywood because it’s hot outside but everyone in California needs to buy an electric car and plug it into the grid by 2035. https://t.co/mWAsIJxaVq
— Storm (@stormrobinson) September 9, 2024
Sorry, Gov. Newsom and VP Kamala Harris, California is not a model for the nation.
