Will Utah see rolling blackouts?
If the system were to become unstable and if we did nothing, then it would all shut off, says Colin Jack, the chief operating officer for Dixie Power. Jack says its what many Californians saw last August. They had 1,000 megawatts that they were short and they had to do rolling blackouts, nearly 300 homes had to take a turn being off, says Jack. Today, the city issued an orange alert, asking residents to reduce energy from peak hours of 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Residents shouldnt use large appliances like ovens, and avoid opening and closing doors leading outside. If we could all just kind of reduce our usage and maybe even eliminate some unnecessary usage, then maybe we could even prevent rolling blackouts, says Jack. On Thursday, St. George had its first ever red alert, asking citizens to completely cut use of electric appliances, set their thermostat to 80 degrees, even avoid charging electric cars. Were feeling heat here, but theyre also feeling heat all across the west and we could see that there was more demand in the western market than there was capacity, says Jack. Wildfire conditions and energy supply in nearby states will dictate whether or not residents will continue getting alerts this summer.