Modesto, Turlock districts keep producing power in heat wave but face record temps, demand
The Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts, which provide electricity to nearly all of the homes, businesses, schools and other consumers in Stanislaus County, continue to power through the prolonged heat wave.
Spokeswomen for both districts in Tuesday emails thanked their customers for conserving and urged them to keep at it, especially from 4 to 9 p.m. The two districts have about 230,000 customers.
While the National Weather Service had forecast a high of 113 degrees for Modesto on Tuesday — which would have made it the hottest Sept. 6 on record and tied the record high for any day — the weather service reported Tuesday’s high was 111 degrees.
The National Weather Service forecast calls for daytime highs of 105 to 109 degrees Wednesday through Friday, with nighttime lows of 76 to 80 degrees. The National Weather Service has had Modesto under an excessive heat warning since Sunday. The warning is expected to end at 8 p.m. Friday.
Saturday is expected to have a high of 97 and a low of 71. Sunday is expected to have a high of 88 and a low of 70.
MID Public Affairs Manager Melissa Williams said her utility district anticipated setting a record Tuesday for peak demand with 727 megawatts and is looking at a peak demand of 700 megawatts each for Wednesday and Thursday.
“Given the extreme heat conditions all over the state, (Tuesday) tonight is expected to be the biggest hurdle of this heat wave,” Williams wrote in an email. “We do expect to get through the peak hours without having to conduct any rolling blackouts. However, heat wave operations are dynamic as weather and resource conditions can change.”
TID Communications Manager Constance Anderson wrote in an email that her district also expected to set a record for peak demand Tuesday, but said TID remains well-positioned to weather the heat wave.
The districts are not required to participate in California’s statewide system of rolling blackouts.
Both spokeswomen reported a handful of isolated power failures during the heat wave, though TID reported Tuesday on its website at 2:34 p.m. a power failure affecting Ceres, Keyes and Hughson. Another power outage was reported west of Keyes in the area of West Zeering and Vivian roads, with a third in west Turlock.
Updates are posted at www.tid.org/outages.
Anderson said some of TID’s “larger customers have come through for the community and have adjusted their energy needs to allow some tremendously helpful flexibility for TID’s grid.”
Williams said besides asking customers to conserve from 4 to 9 p.m., MID is “also calling for conservation from our large industrial and ag pumping customers as any load reduction will benefit MID’s operations.
“... We know there’s a potential for conservation fatigue, however, we applaud our customers’ conservation efforts thus far and encourage all to please continue to do their best to conserve across peak hours to avoid power outages.”
More information, including conservation tips and how to report a power failure, is available at mid.org and tid.org.
This story was originally published September 6, 2022 at 4:09 PM.
