California grid urges conservation amid heat, fires

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — With fires still causing concern among California power grid operators, this week brings high heat that may lead to near-record electricity demand throughout the state, the grid manager said Monday. A "flex alert" will be issued midday Monday to ask consumers to curb power use during the peak-demand time of about 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., said Stephanie McCorkle of the California Independent System Operator, which manages lines owned by the three big investor-owned utilities that handle 80% of the state's power flow. "This is going to be the first significant heat wave of the summer," McCorkle said. "Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday will be when temperatures spike, and then they should fall off a bit on Friday." Fires in the Santa Barbara area have caused outages as a high-voltage line near Goleta continued to go... [read full story]