Newsom Calls to Free Up Energy Capacity

In response to the growing wildfire in Southern-Central Oregon that is impacting transmission lines used to import energy to California and extreme temperatures in the West, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed an executive order to free up additional energy capacity. Building on his emergency proclamation which suspends certain permitting requirements to enable the use of back-up power generation, the latest order allows the emergency use of auxiliary ship engines to relieve pressure on the electric grid.

The California governor’s office of emergency services deployed firefighting equipment and personnel to Oregon through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact to assist in fighting the Bootleg Fire.

Since last summer, the state’s energy agencies have taken swift action to ensure grid reliability to build the state’s climate resilience. This includes requiring utilities to procure additional energy resources to meet forecasted demand during extreme weather, bringing on additional storage and launching the revamped “Flex Your Power” campaign to help California conserve energy.