Threat to L.A. Power Lines Diminished, Officals Still Say to Conserve Energy

As firefighters get an upper hand on the Station Fire in portions of Acton, officials with the L.A. Department of Water & Power feel relieved enough to announce a decreased threat to two of their 500 KV lines. If those lines were to be cut off from the city's power grid, there was the potential of blackouts due to the mixture of hot weather with increased power consumption and reserve power plants not being able to handle that demand on energy.

The LADWP yesterday asked residents to conserve energy as much as they could and despite the diminished threat, are continuing to ask the same. "Although the danger of impacts to transmission lines is reduced, the Department asks customers to remain in energy conservation mode where possible as we continue monitoring the fire," a statement read. "As always, if there is reason to believe the LADWP system may be impacted by the fire, we will update the media and public immediately."

In any case--and we all know this already--it's always a good thing, emergency or not, to conserve energy. What's an easy thing to do? We once decreased our power bill by 40% with nine CFLs in an apartment.