California Orders Rolling Electricity Outages for the First Time in Nearly 20 Years

Rolling blackouts were ordered by California energy regulators over the weekend as a persistent heat wave continues to increase the demand for energy from the state’s electrical grid. A Stage 3 power emergency alert on Friday resulted in 410,000 homes and businesses being cut from power and the Independent System Operator, which oversees most of California’s electric grid, warned on Monday that demand is expected to outstrip supply until the forecasted end of the heatwave on Thursdays. These outages may, or have the potential to, impact water utilities, resulting in knock-on effects to the Water and Wastewater Critical Infrastructure Sector. WaterISAC suggests California utilities assess their vulnerability to power outages, including considering actions similar to those explained in WaterISAC’s special report on the impacts of outages on water utilities produced after similar outages in Fall of 2019. Read more at Reuters and NBC News.