On Wed, 5 Jul 2000, W6YN Don Milbury wrote:
Signs of problems have already shown up in some areas this summer.
For most of last week, California was under a ``stage II power watch'' in which customers were asked to keep down electricity use and power was withheld from some commercial users because of tight supplies as temperatures soared in the 100-degree range. Two weeks earlier, rolling blackouts moved through the San Francisco Bay area after some power generators failed during a record 103 degree heat wave.
For real-time updates on these events, the following URLs may be of interest:
http://www.caiso.com/SystemStatus.html
gives current electric loads, temperatures, etc. for the California power grid.
http://www.caiso.com/awe/systemstatus.html
gives information regarding alerts, blackouts, etc.
http://www.caiso.com/newsroom/pw2000.html
for recent historical data (PDF format).
Note that temperature is a closely watched parameter for the power industry. Air conditioning loads are quite significant and variable.