Weather & Science
California Skirts Blackouts With Heat Wave to Test Grid Again
- Electricity use in state surged to all-time high on Tuesday
- PG&E had warned 525,000 homes and businesses may lose power
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California narrowly avoided blackouts for a second successive day even as blistering temperatures pushed electricity demand to a record and stretched the state’s power grid close to its limits.
The state imposed its highest level of energy emergency for several hours late Tuesday and urged consumers to turn off lights, curb air conditioners and shut off power-hungry appliances after a day of extraordinary stress on electricity infrastructure as temperatures in many regions topped 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius).