Electric prices in the U.S. West soared to record highs as California consumers prepared for more outages on Monday after the grid operator ordered utilities to shut power over the weekend to reduce system strain during a brutal heat wave.
The California ISO, which operates the power grid for much of the state, told utilities late on Friday to start rotating outages that briefly left more than 350,000 homes and businesses sweltering in the dark after demand for air conditioning outstripped available generation resources.
The ISO urged consumers to keep conserving electricity through at least Wednesday when the weather is expected to start to cool.
Meteorologists at AccuWeather forecast high temperatures would reach the 90s Fahrenheit (35 Celsius) in the biggest cities in Northern and Southern California through the middle of the week. That is more than 10 degrees F higher than normal for this time of year.
PG&E Corp’s Pacific Gas & Electric utility said it restored all 220,000 outages in its Northern California service area by late Sunday.
Edison International’s Southern California Edison (SCE) said it cut power to about 132,000 customers for about an hour Friday night and to about 70,000 Saturday night for about 15 minutes.
The California ISO also told Sempra Energy’s San Diego Gas and Electric to impose rolling outages over the weekend.
The ISO forecast demand would reach 49,718 megawatts (MW) on Monday, which would easily top 2019’s 44,301 MW high but remain short of the all-time high of 50,270 MW in 2006.
Power prices for Monday at the Palo Verde hub in Arizona rose to a record $350.50 per megawatt hour (MWh), according to data on Refinitiv Eikon going back to 2010.
In California, prices at SP-15 in the southern part of the state rose to $270.75 per MWh, their highest since August 2018.
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