LOS ANGELES (CNS) - About 4,800 Los Angeles Department of Water & Power customers were without power this morning due to a strain on the utility's distribution system caused by high temperatures.
At the height of the outage Tuesday evening, at least 12,000 customers were without power, according to DWP spokesman Joe Ramallo.
“Extreme heat and electricity demand has caused outages in parts of Los Angeles, currently affecting some LADWP customers,'' Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Twitter Tuesday night. “Crews are working hard to restore power as quickly as possible.''
LADWP said it could take between four and 12 hours for power to be restored.
As of 4 a.m., 4,813 customers were without power, mostly in the Sun Valley, West Hills, Elysian Valley and Echo Park areas. Smaller outages were reported in Canoga Park, Panorama City, Arleta, Tujunga, Beverly Grove, Westlake and Mid-City affecting 160 or fewer customers
As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, 12,000 customers were without power, according to Ramallo. At 5 p.m., the number of customers offline was 9,000.
An outage in East Hollywood affecting 57 customers was connected to a fallen tree that took out some power lines, he said.
The outages were not related to a dip in power supply but caused by the utility's distribution system being strained by the high temperatures, Ramallo said.
Repair crews took advantage of cooler temperatures overnight to make progress in restoring power to affected customers and teams will work around the clock to get customers back online, Ramallo said.
LADWP provided assistance to the state grid in the form of surplus energy to keep blackouts from occurring throughout the state. The utility provided 500 megawatts of power on Monday and between 400 and 700 megawatts to the state power grid on Tuesday, Ramallo said, adding LADWP provided 20 megawatts to the Imperial Irrigation District in Riverside County's Coachella Valley to help prevent blackouts in that part of the state.
The DWP provides power to 1.5 million customers across Los Angeles.
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