With wildfires, threatened transmission systems and triple digit statewide temperatures, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) ended another week of consecutive all-time peak-demand records, topping the 45,000 MW level twice, but managing to avoid calling any power alerts.

By Friday operations were relatively calm, although the peak-demand was still forecast at 44,000 MW. CAISO’s spokesperson said the grid operator feels it was fortunate during Wednesday’s all-time record peak because “everything was working,” but there are concerns longer term that the state may be falling behind load growth, which for June was above 6%.

The latest record came Wednesday — 45,596 MW — erasing a 45,165 MW standard set the previous day. As the statewide heat wave eased, the forecast for Thursday was for a peak of 44,160 MW, but even then the demand was considerably higher (44,984 MW), although short of the new record.

CAISO’s spokesperson said on Wednesday the state had 9,000 MW of imports and all of the system’s major generators were on line. “When everything works, we can handle loads of this magnitude, but what worries us is that everything doesn’t work all of the time,” said Gregg Fishman, the grid operator’s spokesperson.

Prior to September, the old record — broken three different times last month — was 44,872 MW.

From Labor Day throughout the week, the grid operator for about 75% of the state’s power supplies issued daily “restricted operations” orders, banning any discretionary maintenance of electricity generation units between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. CAISO again warned market participants against “actions that may unnecessarily jeopardize generator availability.”

However, CAISO steadfastly continued to avoid issuing any full-scale power alerts. Power generation out of service totaled only about 3,300 MW on Wednesday, for example, according to CAISO reports, with 2,100 MW being unplanned.

Early in the week coming out of the Monday holiday that helped ease peak demand that day, the power lines and power plants at the Geysers geothermal production area about 100 miles north of San Francisco were shut down due to a wildfire in the area. However, by Tuesday afternoon, the power units were brought back. The fire threat had prompted both Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and CAISO to issue calls for conservation, which were repeated several days during the week.

The nation’s largest municipal utility, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, reported that it had adequate supplies for its system, which is not part of CAISO. LADWP hit a peak-demand of about 5,400 MW midway through the week, a utility spokesperson said, short of its record of 5,600 MW. LADWP has more than 7,000 MW of capacity available in its system.

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