A weather pattern that’s brought stifling heat and humidity along with scattered thunderstorms continued to cause problems in Southern California overnight as heavy power demands and lightning strikes cut electricity to thousands. In all, about 14,000 DWP customers lost electricity overnight as crews worked to reroute power to less-used equipment, the agency said. The heat wave and the inevitable spike in power usage triggered the California Independent System Operator’s third flex alert of the year. According to the city of Colton Public Utilities’ Facebook page, a lightning strike hit the city’s main substation, which receives power from Southern California Edison, knocking out power. “PLEASE USE EXTREME WATER CONSERVATION DURING THIS OUTAGE OUR PUMPS DO NOT HAVE POWER,” the agency wrote about 8:30 a.m.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 31, 2017 18:18 UTC