The organization that keeps electricity flowing through most of California's power lines says it’s upgraded its system, which should help the state avoid blackouts during future heat waves.
When temperatures soar, Californians often push the limits of the state's ability to access electricity.
The California Independent System Operator (Cal ISO) maintains the power grid for 80 percent of the state and some of Nevada too, evaluating the energy supply and demand for at least 30 million people every second of the day.
Those managers plan for heat waves, but have been using technology purchased 20 years ago that was discontinued, so regular updates to the software were no longer being offered.
Cal ISO says its new energy management system, the Siemens Spectrum PowerTM 7, was launched on Oct. 2 after five years of study, bidding, design and implementation work.
“The ISO now has the most sophisticated energy management system in the world,” said ISO President and CEO Steve Berberich in a press release.
Petar Ristanovic is the ISO’s vice president of technology. He said the new technology will make the state’s electric grid far more flexible.
"We will see all the scenarios that can result from that heat wave in advance and be able to prepare in advance whatever controls we have to deal with that when it comes," said Ristanovic.
He said California is unique in the world for its size and the amount of renewable energy sources it has to juggle, so its new system was custom made by Siemens.
"This system has much more advanced situational awareness for our operators to be able to faster figure out if there is trouble coming and to react properly on that,” said Ristanovic.
He says the system’s cost is confidential.
Cal ISO is a non-profit, public-benefit corporation funded by what it refers to as “market participants,” but those include the state’s three largest investor-owned utilities: Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edision, and San Diego Gas and Electric.
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