It has been lovely to see the spring sun emerge after a winter of historic rain and snow. As news stories shift from breathless weather forecasts about abundant rain to what-ifs about potential spring snowmelt flooding, you could be excused for easily forgetting about the potential for extreme heat this upcoming summer.
But it was just seven months ago , in the midst of a climate change-fueled western heat wave that threatened to cause rolling blackouts, that Governor Newsom sent out an emergency text message to every smart phone carrying person in the state imploring them to save energy. By all accounts – including that of my then 15-year-old son who ran around the house shutting off everything he could find – those who took action to conserve helped prevent grid failure.
Clean Power Alliance has not forgotten. As soon as the temperatures cooled down, our planning efforts for the summer of 2023 and beyond heated up. And now we are urging everyone – our customers, local government partners, state regulators, and the California legislature – to join us in these preparations. Even as we are building new clean energy production facilities as fast as we can, electricity supply will still be tight for the next few years when the thermometer pops, and we’ll need everyone to pitch in.
On our end, we’ve been active in the electricity markets trying to line up additional out-of-state resources as possible – in-state resources are contracted for already – and launching new programs, reaching out to customers with high savings potential on bills, and updating our customer communication strategies to deal with the potential of “message-fatigue” if heat waves are prolonged.
Here’s how you can participate:
Everyone has a role to play in responding to the changes in our climate and in avoiding the next crisis. We ask for you to join CPA in using this spring to get prepared for summer.