High wind helps set daily energy mark in California

High winds for the past several days have pushed California's turbines, including those in Solano County, to record levels of power generation, according to the California Independent System Operator Corp.

The ISO is the main operator for the state's high voltage network, serving about 80 percent of the state.

ISO officials reported that a new record was set when turbines spinning within the state power grid combined to produce 4,169 megawatts on Sunday evening. That broke the previous record, which had been set Friday, when wind levels passed the 4,000-megawatt milestone and hit 4,095 megawatts. The previous record peak for output for wind energy was 3,944 megawatts on March 3.

"With these impressive wind production levels, California is well positioned to meet the 33 percent by 2020 green power goal," said ISO President and CEO Steve Berberich in a press release. "Our control center operators are tracking a steady increase in renewable energy and we are leveraging the latest forecasting technology as well as complementary flexible resources to capture and optimize this carbon-free power supply."

California is the second largest producer of wind power in the U.S. behind Texas.

While all that wind power is good news for energy generators, it was less welcome by California residents after pounding winds left streets littered with trees, knocked out power to thousands and whipped up waves and wildfires.

Calmer weather is expected to move into the state, accompanied by cooler night temperatures and higher humidity, which will help firefighters at a wind-whipped wildfire in Fillmore, about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Enough progress had been made at the blaze, which destroyed two homes on Monday and threatened about 160 others, that officials lifted all evacuation orders by early Tuesday, said Ventura County fire Capt. Mike Lindbery.

The rest of the state contended with widespread outages as gusts downed power lines and trees. Wind sent a tree smashing into a Sacramento home where four friends were playing cards, but they didn't stop the game, according to KCRA-TV.

"It could've been worse," said Dodie Backus, who lives in the house. "It's not going to stop our bridge game," said her game partner, Marilyn Baker.

Northern California was first to feel the lashing gusts, which spread to the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. At least a dozen trees came down in San Francisco, police officer John Tozzini told KGO-TV, and a wide swath of outages occurred from the Bay Area through Sacramento.

The blustery system was fueled by a cold front, which Carol Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, said was "just a cold, really strong upper low" pressure system.