How Oregon is coping with the latest extreme heat wave

Extreme heat has again reached the Pacific Northwest. Portland temperatures have surpassed 100 degrees, and the dangerous heat continues Tuesday. What does that mean for important infrastructure like utilities? How are state agencies responding to the relentless weather? Larry Bekkedahl is the senior vice president of advanced energy delivery for Portland General Electric. Matt Marheine is the deputy director for the Oregon Department of Emergency Management. They join us with details of how Oregon is responding to the high temperatures.

Note: This transcript was computer generated and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. After a relatively mild summer compared to blistering temperatures across the world, the Northwest is finally in the grips of its own heat wave. Daily records fell across the valley yesterday when it hit 103 in Eugene, 108 in Portland and 110 in Troutdale. Dangerous heat continues today with a real cool down not projected until the end of the week. In a few minutes we’re going to hear how state emergency managers are responding to this heat and to wildfires. But we start today with Portland General Electric, which is working to keep electricity on despite high demand. Larry Bekkedahl is the senior vice president of Advanced Energy Delivery for PGE. He joins us now. Welcome to the show.

Larry Bekkedahl: Thank you, Dave.

Miller: So there are two most likely extreme weather scenarios right now in which people would lose power. One is that there is so much draw that it overloads the system. What does total energy use look like right now?

Bekkedahl: Well, as of yesterday and as you mentioned, 110 degree temperatures kind of harkens back to two summers ago when we had the heat wave come through at 116 degrees and when we did reach our all-time system peak of 4441 megawatts. And similarly, yesterday, we were at 4436 megawatts. So we were just 5 megawatts short of that peak in 2021. So running very very close to what we had during that heat bubble two years ago.

Miller: And what’s driving that increase in energy use? What’s the connection between heat and electricity draw?

Bekkedahl: Well, first, I would call attention to the fact that in 2021 we had a lot of homes without air conditioning. And I think everybody learned from that circumstance and saying no longer are temperatures in Portland cool during the entire summer. So we’ve seen a lot of air conditioners going into homes or heat pumps going into homes, so that there’s comfort and coolness in the summertime during these extremes. And so last summer, even though it was only 95 degrees, we were getting closer to our peaks again for summer. So we saw a real step up in the amount of load.

I would say also, we’ve had industrial growth here in the Portland area. We’re fortunate to have that with our chip manufacturing, data centers and as we look towards the future, electric vehicles also come into play. So all of those contribute to increases in what you’re describing as the load here.

Miller: Would the broader adoption of heat pumps make a difference? I mean, my understanding is they are significantly more efficient than air conditioners at providing colder air?

Bekkedahl: There absolutely is. Many homes didn’t have air conditioning at all. And so they switched to things like the window units. And if you can go to a heat pump, they are much more efficient than those smaller air type window heat units. So ultimately, yes, I like to see that efficiency in the system.

Miller: So, if I heard you correctly, two years ago for the heat dome event, it was a record in terms of electricity usage that you saw. But just last night, we were very close to that record within just a couple megawatts. What are you doing right now in response? How are you managing that super high usage?

Bekkedahl: First we try to think as we plan our system and how we operate our system. There’s been a real shift in where generation is coming from and so we’ve seen a lot of solar coming from California. We have a lot of wind that comes from the east. But unfortunately, when we have these high heat days, like we’re experiencing, it tends to be a high pressure area. And so there’s not a lot of wind in the Gorge, Hood River and beyond, where much of the wind production is. So trying to manage where the generation is coming from. We’re here in August where there’s not as much hydro facilities available this time of year. So you are trying to leverage generation from as far away as Montana or Canada or down in California, as I mentioned.

We’re working with the operator, the regional coordinator for the West which runs from Mexico to Canada. And all of us, as utilities, are working together very closely, especially Bonneville Power and ourselves here in the local area.

Miller: What can Oregonians do or people in Southwest Washington do to help avoid an outage?

Bekkedahl: Well, given the strains, this high temperature equipment can’t cool as well. What we would ask is be conscientious of your usage during the hours, especially at four o’clock to eight o’clock when the peak normally takes place. I’d ask that if you’re running your air conditioner, for instance, at 70 degrees, if you could run it at 72 degrees You probably won’t notice it a whole lot. But if everybody does that, it makes a really big difference on the system.

And, we call that a demand-response type program. And yesterday, we enacted that. We do have a specific program and at five o’clock yesterday, we had 90 megawatts of that demand response take effect and that was a huge benefit to the system. Those are all customers that sign up with our program. If anybody’s interested, please go to our website and you’ll see our programs for our demand response, our energy partners. And feel free to sign up and be a part of it and help out. So things like your air conditioner, maybe choosing not to run your dishwasher, your dryers or even charging your vehicles during that period of time from 4 to 8 p.m. today.

Miller: So we’ve been talking about basically an overload in the system leading to a brownout or some kind of power shut off. But another scenario is a proactive shut off because of extreme wildfire danger. How do you assess when that needs to happen?

Bekkedahl: Well, this is fairly new for all of us here in the Northwest. We started those plans about 2018 and have been evolving here and learning from many utilities, internationally, Australia and California primarily. But we look at the fuel that is along corridors where we have power lines and then the types of construction that we have there - if it’s underground, if it’s overhead, if it’s bare conductor. And then we consider with that fuel, and fuel meaning vegetation of all types and trees. Then we consider the temperature, we consider the humidity. And then primarily at this point, it becomes wind. And if the conditions are right and there is a threat there then we have areas which we refer to as high fire risk zones. And they tend to be where the red flag zones are as well.

And as I speak to that today, I know the foothills, Mount Hood, and along the foothills of the Cascades, those are the high risk areas today. But if we had the winds in that area, we would proactively shut off the power. That is our last resort. But it also becomes a real tool to make sure that we take an abundance of caution with regard to customers and customer safety. We want to make sure that our customers are safe and that we’re not putting their homes at risk.

Miller: When you look at the projections right now, in terms of weather in the coming days, what’s the likelihood that you will have to do that kind of proactive safety shut off?

Bekkedahl: During this heat spell, what we’re seeing right now with no wind, is that we will not have to enforce any shutoffs. But that certainly can change quickly. We try to give at least 48 hours notice to customers but what we see right now is no public safety power shutoffs in the next couple of days.

Miller: Larry Bekkedahl, thank you.

Bekkedahl: Thank you, Dave.

Miller: I’m joined now by Matt Marheine. He is a deputy director of the Oregon Department of Emergency Management. Welcome to the show.

Matt Marheine: Thanks, Dave.

Miller: You know, sticking with this question of public safety power shut offs for a second. In the past, we’ve talked about emergency kits that people should have in anticipation of things like the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. What about a case of a public safety power shut off? What should Oregonians be thinking about for that eventuality?

Marheine: That’s a great question, Dave. As we work with our local communities who are really working with their individuals and community partners, what is best for the hazard profile for their areas? So power shutoffs, most certainly regardless of what the cause was, whether it be flooding or fires or a preemptive case to deal with the public safety power product shut off structures. The issues are really what do those community members need to most certainly sustain life and make themselves as comfortable and capable as possible? So, we have our At Least 2 Weeks Ready Program which talks about how to store food and water, regardless of power usages or outages. Having water and food is important. Having medications and an excess of cash on hand and all those things that a family might need food for their dogs, water for their animals. Those are the kinds of things that power or not, regardless of the cause, are things that will help maintain that level and most certainly to save their life as well as provide a certain amount of comfort.

Miller: We have a couple of things going on right now which I guess is no longer unusual for you at your emergency office. I’m thinking about extreme heat in a lot of parts of Oregon, a lot of parts of the Northwest and some significant fires, east of Eugene, in Southern Oregon. What’s your biggest concern right now?

Marheine: Yeah, this is an issue of priorities, so it’s a great point. Emergencies and the hazard profile of Oregon… we have those things that we see every year, then we see the expansion or the significantly more impactful events occurring on a more regular basis, like heat, as you were talking with the gentleman from PGE earlier.

We’re seeing these impact the population and most certainly those drains on that critical infrastructure are challenges. It means that we work with our communities. And that’s an example of what we do. We work with all of our local communities to make sure that they’re preparing for the hazards that impact their areas and that there are education and support structures to avoid and or mitigate the problem, but also to respond if those things occur.

So our biggest concern today is the hazard that’s impacting most lives in the state of Oregon. And today that’s heat. We do have isolated fires happening throughout the communities and some communities on evacuation notices, but clearly the heat challenge and the challenge of lack of resources or air conditioning or to maintain that environmental comfort. It potentially brings that issue to folks who do not have those resources and may need those support structures just to maintain that life functionality. And we’re working very closely with our counties, tribes, and local communities to ensure things like sheltering structures for cooling, water resources, and just medical support and information availability.

Miller: What fires in Oregon are top of mind right now?

Marheine: Well, right now we have several fires that are happening in Marion County and the Lane County area. Today we have the Bedrock Fire, the Salmon Fire, and Lookout Fire, which are all in Lane County. And then we have the Wiley Creek Fire in Marion County. And all of these fires right now have evacuation notices. And again, for everyone’s benefit, evacuations are level 123. And the perspective is 1: be ready, 2: be set, 3: go. And this is a very important campaign that we provide a lot of information so that people know what to do when their public officials announce an evacuation notice and that they can take action to protect themselves and their family.

Miller: How can Oregonians know if they are signed up for emergency alerts, if they’re actually going to get pings or alarms on their phones, if you know when those alarms are sent out?

Marheine: Yeah, David, that’s a great question and one that I’ll start off with giving everyone a web address: oralert.gov. [It’s] an extremely important website in the state of Oregon. You can go to that website and you select a county, put in your zip code and you can register for your local community’s alerts by going to that web page.

It is critical that people understand that alerts don’t always come out in a way that is convenient. They come out in a way to tell you that there’s critical information for you to take action and be aware. And sometimes we’ve heard that folks get those alerts and they think, “Oh, I don’t want to get these anymore,” and they turn those off on their phone. So again, our huge push from this organization is to remind people that to get the alerts, you must have it turned on in your phone. And to verify that you’re getting your alerts, you can go to: oralert.gov, and make sure that you’re signed up or provide your information to get information from your local community.

Miller: Matt Marheine, thanks very much for your time. I appreciate it.

Marheine: Thank you, Dave.

Miller: Matt Marheine is the deputy director of Oregon’s Department of Emergency Management.

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