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California – so advanced they can keep the lights on quite a lot of the time

California Map.In LA temperatures are forecast to reach as high as 32C (90F) on Monday and 36C (97F) on Wednesday. (They call this a heatwave?) But gas is running so short that Californians are being asked to turn off non-essential lights and not use their biggest appliances from 5pm to 9pm.

Welcome to the future, where you need to plan ahead to run your washing machine or oven.

Back in the dark ages when we had coal plants, we just switched these things on hither, thither…

California power grid urges consumers to conserve energy in heat wave

(Reuters) – California’s power grid operator on Monday issued an alert to homes and businesses to conserve electricity on Tuesday and Wednesday when a heat wave is expected to blanket the state.

SoCalGas issued a gas curtailment watch on Monday, notifying customers to be prepared to reduce gas use if needed…  the watch would remain in effect until further notice.

The ISO said consumers “can help avoid power interruptions” by turning off all unnecessary lights, using major appliances before 5 p.m. and after 9 p.m., and setting air conditioners to 78 degrees or higher.

By 2020 California may get as much as 33% of its energy from renewables (they are not far behind South Australia). Indeed, the solar sector is on “fire” producing as much as 50% of total demand on at least one day at 1pm last year. Luckily, to get solar to peak at 7pm when it would be useful, they just need to legislate a plus-six-hour daylight savings plan, or keep the same time-zone and move California 90 degrees West.

If they adopt UTC-2 (instead of UTC-8) Californians will be three hours ahead of New York and share time zones with the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and pretty much no one else.) It’s a small price to pay to save the planet.

h/t Drudge Report

Wikimedia: Map adapted from USA Geographic. US Department of Interior

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