California ISO extends Flex Alert through Friday

Triple digit heat in Concord had many families looking for a place to cool off. 

"I hear tomorrow is going to be even more hot so I’m not liking it," said Lydia Hines who went to a sprayground with her 3-year-old son. "But the water is definitely cooling us down."

Much of the Bay Area is roasting in extreme that is threatening the state’s power grid. The California ISO has extended its Flex Alert into Friday. Experts warn high temperatures and high demand could cause outages.

"It concerns me a lot because it’s very hot," said Hines. "So if the power goes out then the a.c. goes out, I don’t like the heat. It makes me have attitude."

Residents are being asked to conserve power and avoid using large appliances like washing machines during peak hours from 4 to 9 p.m. Owners of electric cars are being told to limit charging.

A Tesla charging station in Concord was busy, with people preparing for the holiday weekend.

"When we first got here we noticed it was pretty full," said Victoria Pallotta from Benicia. "It’s not normally this full this time a day so we were lucky we got a spot."

Gloria Bossi from Hercules said, "It’s concerning because we have a lot of warm days here especially in the East Bay. And what are we supposed to do? Not get around? So thank goodness I have backup gasoline vehicles as well.’

The request to cut back on charging came just days after the state announced it was moving toward electric-only vehicles - banning the sale of new gas vehicles by the year 2035.

"Let’s call it an unfortunate coincidence," said Sven Beiker, with Silicon Valley mobility.

Beiker said this stress on the grid shows the infrastructure is not there yet.

"In this case with the heat wave everybody is cranking up the a.c. and so charging an electric vehicle might be a challenge, which means by just selling all these electric vehicles we are not done. We need to get infrastructure ready," said Beiker.