SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two years after the last wave of rolling blackouts, California officials said Friday the state could face potential shortfalls in electricity this summer as drought, extreme heat and wildfires pose threats to the fragile power grid.
Leaders of the Public Utilities Commission, the state’s Independent System Operator and the California Energy Commission said the state could face a shortage of as much as 1,700 megawatts — the equivalent of one major power plant — on the hottest days.
“We know reliability is going to be difficult,” said Alice Reynolds, president of the utilities commission, during a media briefing. “We know climate change is putting Californians at risk of further outages.”
