NARUC Annual Meeting
Ann Rendahl is a commissioner at the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.
The National Association of Utility State Regulators held its 2020 Annual Meeting in November. Outgoing NARUC President Brandon Presley presided over a most unusual year.
A global pandemic. An unprecedented heatwave. Raging wildfires. Widespread smoke. Public safety power shut offs and rolling blackouts. Californians and nearby Western States will never forget summer 2020. Experts look to understand what happened and why.
Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, Commissioner Ann Rendahl: I'm going to set the stage for the events of August, 2020 so our panelists can provide you with greater detail and help us with lessons learned and ideas for how to move forward.
On August 14 and 15 during a west wide heat event, California ISO declared a Stage 3 energy emergency, and as required under NERC reliability rules instructed several distribution utilities to shed a certain amount of load to avoid a cascading blackout.
It had significant impact for about half a million customers. We lost power and created headlines and concerns. We are all in an unprecedented pandemic with most people across the country working and going to school at home.