Eclipse not expected to impact local power supply

EUREKA – The eclipse is just three days away. Redwood Coast Energy Authority says the North Coast shouldn’t experience any disruptions to the power supply.

PG&E and California power grid operators have been planning for the eclipse for more than a year. The state boasts twice as much solar power as it did for the partial eclipse two years ago, but Humboldt County relies on a bio mass facility and purchases solar power from areas not effected by the phenomenon.

RCEA says that even though the temporary loss of sun won’t impact local customers, the eclipse is a good opportunity to assess energy use.
RCEA Community Strategies Manager Nancy Stephenson said, ” If everybody took this as a very serious exercise to try to flex down our power use that morning in particular, it might be the first time that people actually did that and went and unplugged their panel strips. They might say ‘oh yea this is that time I can shift and I don’t have to dry my clothes before I run off to work, I’ll just wait until I get home’. So I think it just gets people thinking.”