California citizens should not charge their electric cars at certain times of the day for the next few days.

The urgent request comes from CAISO, the manager of California's largest power grid.

He fears extensive power outages because a heat wave has hit the state.

As a result, many citizens turn up the air conditioners to protect themselves from the heat.

Winand von Petersdorff-Campen

Economic correspondent in Washington.

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Temperatures around 40 degrees are expected in all parts of the country.

The power requirement is highest between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.

During these hours, Californians are urgently asked to save electricity by only letting the air conditioners turn on when the temperature is above 26 degrees, not turning on the dryers, washing machines and dishwashers and not charging the electric cars.

Just a few days ago, the state banned the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines from 2035 and at the same time issued a timetable for the reduction of conventional cars.

From 2026 onwards, one third of new cars will have to be electric, and in 2030 two thirds.

Currently, 16 percent of new cars sold are e-cars, and their market share of the 30 million Californian car fleet is 2 percent.

Nuclear power plant should continue to run

The call to reduce the charging of e-cars in critical consumption phases highlights the enormous demand for electricity that California also has to meet with the electrification of the car fleet.

The California State Energy Commission sees a need for an additional 5 gigawatts by 2030, assuming that the number of electric cars will then be 7.5 million instead of the current 600,000.

If the entire fleet is to be powered by electricity, an additional 20 gigawatts would be required.

This corresponds to the equivalent of 15 to 20 additional nuclear power plants, 40 average coal-fired power plants or thousands of wind turbines.

Electricity demand is likely to increase further as California urges its citizens to ditch gas and oil heating and electrify their homes.

Governor Gavin Newsom and the Chamber of Deputies have taken a small step to relieve the tense situation by allowing the last nuclear power plant in the state that is about to be closed to continue operating.

In order to avoid a collapse of the power grid, the grid operator CAISO has revived power plants that are particularly harmful to the environment, including a power plant in Oakland that burns aircraft fuel to generate electricity.

The operators were given the condition that the system should now run until the end of the year.

Four years ago, the operators had promised to shut down the power plant after many years of protests by environmental groups who had criticized the air pollution and the climate damage of the power plant.