A long, brutal heatwave is expected to grip California at least through the holiday weekend, stressing the power grid. Officials are begging residents to conserve electricity in an effort to prevent outages. <\/p>\n

The state is now in its second day of a \u201cFlex Alert\u201d issued by the state\u2019s power grid operator, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). Under the Flex Alert, Californians are urged to voluntarily curb their electricity use between 4PM and 9PM. That\u2019s the time of day when the grid is under the most pressure because it\u2019s when power demand typically rises as people come home from work, and there\u2019s less solar energy available as the sun sets.<\/p>\n