While the West is making headlines now for its heat, with California reaching summer-long highs for temperatures as well as energy pricing, that was not the case at all during August.  By contrast, most of the month of August was characterized by unusually cool weather in the West, especially in California (and Southern California in particular).  The figure below shows daily average population-weighted temperatures for the state, which came in below the 7-year average consistently from the 12^th of the month on.  This trend was even more pronounced for Southern California, especially over the last third of the month.  The moderate weather resulted in CAISO system load declining compared to July, averaging 30.9 GW compared to 32.2 GW

Figure 1. California Daily Average Temperature and Difference from Normal (F)