Southern California Edison prepares for possible power outages

San Diego Gas and Electric officials warned residents in San Juan that meeting power demand during the upcoming months will be much tougher without the San Onofre Nuclear Plant that has been offline since January.

During Tuesday's City Council Meeting, Duane Cave, the external relations manager for SDG&E, said the loss of SONGS will negatively impact Southern California.

While the plant is operated by Southern California Edison, SDG&E owns a 20 percent stake in the plant that generated 16 percent of their company's power output when it was online.

"Without SONGS it is going to be very difficult," Cave said.

SDG&E provides power to San Diego County and South Orange County.

Cave said the months of August and September are the hottest in Southern California leading to late summer peak days in which the power grid is tested.

Peak demand is estimated at 46,352 megawatts statewide while the total instate generation of power is just 48,091 megawatts (without SONGS), according to SDG&E officials.

Read More...