3 Power Plant Outages Tax Electricity System
California’s electricity supplies were stretched Monday by three plant outages and a transmission glitch that occurred when a logging truck drove under a high-voltage power line.
About 1,500 megawatts of power was lost Sunday night when two Northern California power plants tripped off-line, said Stephanie McCorkle, spokeswoman for the Independent System Operator, the manager of the state’s electricity grid.
A 750-megawatt power plant in Southern California went off-line a few hours later, McCorkle said.
The outages came on a day when peak electricity use was expected to top 41,500 megawatts because of hot weather throughout the state, she said. A megawatt is approximately enough power for 750 homes.
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