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Valued Customer,
The City of Palo Alto Utilities has been communicating with you over the past few days about the need to conserve energy due to the historic heatwave. The agency that manages the state’s electric grid, the California Independent System Operator (ISO), issued a Flex Alert today asking all utility customers to reduce power use between 4pm and 9pm. The City of Palo Alto Utilities has received further information from the ISO.
The ISO has now declared a Stage 2 Electrical Emergency due to some potential interruptions to power supplies and is urgently appealing to consumers to conserve energy immediately to avert or limit potential power outages today.
A Stage 2 Emergency is the last stage before a Stage 3 Emergency, when the ISO may require utilities to “shed load” (shut off customers temporarily). If system conditions worsen, the ISO will declare a Stage 3 Emergency, which will require utilities to curtail electric load in order to help the state balance the electric grid. This means that the City of Palo Alto Utilities (CPAU) may need to implement rolling power outages for some of our customers to comply with instructions from the ISO.
CPAU will do its best to limit impacts to electric customers in our service territory. Outages will proceed by specific blocks and circuits and not all customers will lose power. These power outages are expected to last up to two hours.
This condition is not unique to Palo Alto. It is impacting other electricity providers and utility customers across California. Please note that these outages are not a public safety power shutoff that may be called during specific high fire threat conditions, and they are not related to any issues with CPAU’s equipment or our ability to deliver energy locally.
We are asking our residents and businesses to voluntarily conserve energy to help us lower demand, avoid additional power outages, and lessen the likelihood of an outage. Consumers are urged to reduce energy use through 9pm tonight and the rest of the heatwave during the most critical time of the day, between 4pm and 9pm. This is when temperatures remain high and solar production is falling due to the sun setting.
Visit www.cityofpaloalto.org/efficiencytips for information on ways to conserve energy and stay cool. For updates on power outages, please consult our outage webpage at www.cityofpaloalto.org/outageinfo and if you have other concerns about power outages or downed lines, contact Electric Operations Dispatch at (650) 496-6914. Please do not call 9-1-1 unless you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency.
Thank you for doing your part to help our community!
Sincerely,
The City of Palo Alto Utilities
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