Real-time internet display of California power consumption?

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John Peter

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Southern California
I realize this question deviates from the straight and narrow of this forum, but I expect some of our readers might know something here.

I am interested in observing real-time power consumption on a macro scale... for California. Can anyone direct me towards California ISO consumption? We get to read about this in the newspapers, on exceptional days, but I'm interested in seeing this on demand.

How about Southern California Edison?
San Diego?
Pacific Gas and Electric?

Thanks!

John
 
Thank you for your replies!

That $$ information from the Ontario site is interesting. And unexpected.

Here is a source for historical information:
http://oasis.caiso.com/

On Monday, Sept. 3 (Labor Day), our neighborhood "went dark" at 3 PM. Based on the graphs I've seen, peak demands occur just after 3 PM... so that implies we "barely qualified" ... for a new transformer. This involved a load of about 100 homes and no businesses...so I presume one step-down transformer was involved. In the 43 years this housing tract has existed, I would venture that this is the first time this has happened. I have lived here for 19 years. (As an aside, we have no overhead lines here; everything is underground.)

We stayed dark for 12 hours... lights turning on at about 3:30 am. That's better than the predicted 24-hour outage.

I'm just wondering if my furtive efforts to get the problem fixed were of any value. As soon as the power went out, I got on my bicycle and surveyed the neighborhood, exhorting neighbors to call Edison (as I had done, logging my residential address into their automated system), on the theory that "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." I seemed to be the only person (one in a hundred) that bothered to file with the utility. Most folks agreed to my suggestion that they call, though they wouldn't have done so otherwise. Some insisted the outage was "planned" and would disappear shortly; I didn't debate it with them, though I sensed otherwise.

I went to bed at sundown, rose at 1 AM, and with a flashlight, dialed SoCal Edison. I waited about a half an hour, and eventually spoke with a woman, to whom I reported the coordinates of the outage. Remarkably, power was restored two hours later.

Do you suppose that Edison helps those who help themselves?

I believe that the utility is shorthanded in off-hours, and over holiday weekends, notwithstanding their recorded messages to the contrary. At 7 AM, that same Tuesday morning 9/4, I called again, for an entirely different reason. As our meter reading was imminent, I wanted to declare that we had recently obtained a dog. I waited and waited... presumably in a different queue than I had encountered to report the outage coordinates. To my amazement, I was received by the SAME WOMAN who took my call at 1 AM.

Coincidence? Or skeleton crew?
 
...California power consumption

...California power consumption

John Peter said:
Thank you for your replies!

That $$ information from the Ontario site is interesting. And unexpected.

Here is a source for historical information:
http://oasis.caiso.com/

On Monday, Sept. 3 (Labor Day), our neighborhood "went dark" at 3 PM. Based on the graphs I've seen, peak demands occur just after 3 PM... so that implies we "barely qualified" ... for a new transformer. This involved a load of about 100 homes and no businesses...so I presume one step-down transformer was involved. In the 43 years this housing tract has existed, I would venture that this is the first time this has happened. I have lived here for 19 years. (As an aside, we have no overhead lines here; everything is underground.)

We stayed dark for 12 hours... lights turning on at about 3:30 am. That's better than the predicted 24-hour outage.

I'm just wondering if my furtive efforts to get the problem fixed were of any value. As soon as the power went out, I got on my bicycle and surveyed the neighborhood, exhorting neighbors to call Edison (as I had done, logging my residential address into their automated system), on the theory that "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." I seemed to be the only person (one in a hundred) that bothered to file with the utility. Most folks agreed to my suggestion that they call, though they wouldn't have done so otherwise. Some insisted the outage was "planned" and would disappear shortly; I didn't debate it with them, though I sensed otherwise.

I went to bed at sundown, rose at 1 AM, and with a flashlight, dialed SoCal Edison. I waited about a half an hour, and eventually spoke with a woman, to whom I reported the coordinates of the outage. Remarkably, power was restored two hours later.

Do you suppose that Edison helps those who help themselves?

I believe that the utility is shorthanded in off-hours, and over holiday weekends, notwithstanding their recorded messages to the contrary. At 7 AM, that same Tuesday morning 9/4, I called again, for an entirely different reason. As our meter reading was imminent, I wanted to declare that we had recently obtained a dog. I waited and waited... presumably in a different queue than I had encountered to report the outage coordinates. To my amazement, I was received by the SAME WOMAN who took my call at 1 AM.

Coincidence? Or skeleton crew?
Click to expand...

With the recent heat we have experienced here in So. California, I'm prone to think Edison will respond quicker to those who are able to help themselves than those who just sit around waiting.

I have had occasion to call Edison and have ended up with the same person with whom I spoke with before- perhaps it's not so much a coincidence, rather a person (maybe a small crew) who are handling incoming calls for specific areas. During a long holiday weekend, I would imagine the crew has diminished in manpower and the sole worker is sympathetic to customers who follow up with their complaints.

In any event, thank God our heat-wave has passed and your electricity is once again flowing.
 
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