Cold weather, high demand for natural gas and power plants shut down for maintenance are causing the latest shortage. One Energy reserve dips below 7 percent. Electric utilities ask customers to conserve power. Stage Two Occurred Monday in Southern California. Energy reserve falls below 5 percent.
Utilities ask interruptible customers to turn off power.
Stage Three Energy reserves fall below 1.5 percent. Utilities cut off power for customers in rolling blackouts. Register Don't blame it on the Christmas lights. Though December seems an unlikely month for power shortages in Southern California, the state's grid operator called an emergency Stage Two alert Monday as demand for electricity neared record levels. Hundreds of businesses were asked to cut power at 4 p.m. as the grid operator scrambled to find one-third of the daily energy needed to fuel California.