Heat Wave Still Threatens California Power Grid With Blackouts, Energy Regulators Say
ONTARIO, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 5: The sequestered worker site at the Mira Loma grid management system for South California Edison on June 5, 2020 in Ontario, California. Edison has had sequestered strategic workers living in RVs on site at its most important locations. These workers have not been able to see family or leave the site. Some of these workers have been onsite for as long as 56 days, the others are part of a new shift who are on site for two weeks so far. The continuity of power with outages is the mission of these workers in response to the COVID-19 threat. Brent Stirton/Getty Images

The top energy regulators in California said the state is better prepared to prevent the rotating blackouts experienced by the state last summer.

However, they cautioned that the power grid of the most populous state is still vulnerable because of extreme heat waves. The energy regulators noted that the heat waves could force more outages later this year.

State officials also mentioned that they had acquired an additional 3,500 megawatts of capacity ahead of a likely blazing summer that threatens the increasing demand beyond what the grid can handle.

It also includes 2,000 megawatts of batteries designed to store energy generated from renewable sources like solar. Reports said that one megawatt of energy is already enough to power hundreds of homes, depending on how it is generated. But these sources of renewable energy stop working, especially solar, when it gets dark.

According to Associated Press, the president and CEO of the California Independent Systems Operator, Elliot Mainzer, told state lawmakers during an oversight hearing Tuesday that it does not mean they are already "in the clear."

Mainzer noted that the most significant risk factor for grid reliability remains extreme heat, specifically heat spreading across the broader western United States. Mainzer also said that it gets hotter every year.

Aside from the inconvenience, power outages during a major heat wave can also be deadly for those vulnerable individuals, especially those who depend on electricity.

During the pandemic, the online transactions were greatly appreciated, which means that even the business sector can also be affected if there will be power outages.

California Blackouts

Blackouts have become more common in California as utility companies will often intentionally turn off the power when it gets too windy during the dry summer months in preventing powerlines from starting wildfires.

It is what happened in 2018 when the incident killed 85 people and destroyed the majority of the town of Paradise.

Also, the blackouts in August were the first in close to 20 years due to an energy shortage. It put the state of California in the quest to have 100 percent of its energy come from renewable sources under more scrutiny.

Assemblyman Chris Holden, a Democrat from Pasadena and chair of the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee, noted that this summer would be an important test for California.

He said that the state is at the vanguard of renewable energy policy. Holden added that not only the nation but the whole world as well are watching how California will integrate renewable sources and ensure its reliability moving forward, The Seattle Times reported.

The California Public Utilities Commission president, Marybel Batjer, also told lawmakers on Tuesday that the plan of California is to survive the summer, including the purchasing of power from places even they are not clean.

She did not specify those sources, but she stated that the regulators chose to buy them because they wanted to do everything they could to prevent blackouts this summer.

Batjer also clarified that their planning and implementation of their clean energy progress would only accelerate in the months and years to come, CBS San Francisco reported.

WATCH: California Once Again At Risk For Rolling Blackouts - From CBS Sacramento