the evening because everyone would have their A/C on until at least 9:00pm. Sometimes the brownouts would lead to total blackouts.
However, now, a lot of us (me included) have been moved from using SDG&E electrical power to SDCP (San Diego Community Power). With the majority of its electricity solar/wind generated, we put less strain on the electrical grid. In fact, checking the CAISO website today, the capacity was about 70,000 megawatts. Current load at the time I checked was around 68,000. So, we still had several thousand megawatts to spare, and we could always add in "seemlessly" SDG&E power if we needed it (it is a 'backup' in my setup). SDCP also has a bunch of "solar farms" and "wind farms" all over the southwest, including states like Arizona and Nevada.
In fact, earlier this year, SDG&E was powering down some areas for a few hours. I and most in my neighborhood, were unaffected, because we were on SDCP and it didn't apply to us.
The power rates are about the same (+/- 5% of SDGE). We still get bills through SDG&E, and I pay through it's online website. However, it looks slightly different in the detail breakdown.
I haven't had a brownout or blackout since moving to SDCP several years ago. Even the heavy rains in January left me unphased. The current heat wave isn't causing any electrical issues for me either.
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