California’s power grid operator blamed miscommunication with utility operators for some residents experiencing “unnecessary” rolling blackouts amid Tuesday night’s heat.
Officials from the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) confirmed Wednesday that despite reaching record-level power demand, operators did not need to order rolling blackouts Tuesday evening. However, CAISO did confirm that a handful of utility operators moved ahead with rolling outages anyway, saying “miscommunication” led some providers to believe outages had been requested.
“We did not need, nor was it our intention to signal the need for rotating outages,” President and CEO of CAISO Elliot Mainzer told reporters Wednesday. “We’ll work with [utility operators] to make sure there is no miscommunication at all tonight.”…