While California’s electric grid operator this week said supplies could be in short supply this summer, that likely won’t be the case for Liberty Utilities customers.

“Liberty Utilities is a winter-peaking utility, with our peak demand typically occurring between Christmas and New Year’s. With milder temperatures during the day and cooler temperatures at night, Liberty Utilities’ customer demand during the summer is not as great as utilities such as PG&E and SMUD that experience their peaks during the summer months,” Travis Johnson, vice president of electric operations for Liberty, told Lake Tahoe News.

Liberty provides electricity for the California side of the lake, Truckee, Alpine County and other areas.

The California Independent System Operator, the grid operator, on May 9 said supplies could be limited because of below average hydropower production and reduced generation. This has to do with the snowpack in the Sierra being dismal this winter.

Liberty gets most of its power from natural gas, with less than 10 percent coming from hydro.

“About 25 percent of our total power mix is from our own Luning Solar Energy Center dedicated entirely to our own customers. By this time next year, we will have another 10MW of solar energy in our mix when the Turquoise solar facility is completed. At that time, a full 30 percent of our energy will be from solar that Liberty produces itself,” Johnson said.

For the rest of the state, though, there could be rolling power outages.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report