A text alert may have saved California from power blackouts
A timely mobile alert may have prevented hundreds of thousands of Californians from being plunged into darkness in the middle of a heat wave Tuesday night.
We’re in a #FlexAlert, California.
— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) September 7, 2022
Do your part to save energy from 4-9pm:
🌡️ Set your A/C at 78° or higher, if health permits
🚫 Avoid major appliance use
💡 Turn off unnecessary lights
Learn more https://t.co/j4p2wmoZob pic.twitter.com/RmCVyKS8GW
Just before 5:30 p.m. local time, California’s grid operator ordered its highest level of emergency, warning that blackouts were imminent. Then, at 5:48 p.m., the state’s Office of Emergency Services sent out a text alert to people in targeted counties, asking them to conserve power if they could.
Within five minutes the grid emergency was all but over.
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By 8 p.m., the grid operator canceled the highest level of emergency without calling for power cuts. More than 500,000 homes and businesses had been warned earlier in the day that they might lose service.
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