Sweltering, prolonged heat has plunged thousands statewide into blackouts and sent utility companies scrambling to replace failing equipment.
After a record-setting weekendand a high of 105 Monday, Tuesday temperatures are forecast to clear the century mark yet again. Utility officials said the combination of heat and consistently high power demand was straining their systems and causing outages.
"It's like a severe winter storm," said PG&E spokeswoman Jann Taber. She said the company had lost hundreds of transformers statewide since Friday. "The prolonged heat and prolonged usage is literally frying the equipment."
PG&E, Southern California Edison and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District were all facing outages of varying sizes on Monday, although Yolo County appeared to have dodged most problems.
A PG&E crew finished replacing a faulty transformer affecting residents near the Davis Municipal Golf Course on Highway 113 before noon on Monday. The outage, which occurred on Sunday, had affected about 40 homes in the area. Sporadic outages were also reported overnight in Woodland and Davis.
Early Monday, some 100,000 power customers in Northern California and the Central Valley still had no electricity, along with 44,000 in Southern California. That was down from a high of 180,000 customers affected over the weekend.
"We called Southern California Edison yesterday at the same time they were calling us to see if we could get mutual aid," Taber said.
High demand is also an area of concern for the state's power grid. The California Independent System Operator issued a stage one emergency Monday morning, warning that rolling blackouts were possible as power usage was forecast to reach record levels.
The ISO also asked residents to conserve energy by not using major appliances during peak hours, setting thermostats to 82 degrees or higher and turning them off when not at home.
Weather forecasts show temperatures dropping to the mid-90s by the end of the week. Highs of 109 on Saturday and 110 on Sunday set records for Woodland.
Heat was being blamed for a handful of deaths statewide and the evacuation of two Northern California nursing homes over the weekend, including one in Woodland.
Emergency crews evacuated 86 residents from the Woodland Skilled Nursing facility on Sunday because the building's air conditioner was not operating at full capacity. No injuries were reported.
More than 100 patients were evacuated from the Beverly Healthcare Center in Stockton on Sunday after the nursing home's air conditioner gave out. In that incident, one resident died and another was in critical condition from heat-related stress.
--BEN ANTONIUS--
- The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach Ben Antonius at 406-6233 or bantonius@dailydemocrat.com.
