The sun almost always shines in Los Angeles, but it never seems to get too hot, even in the dog days of summer. This fourth of July holiday, the sun was much less forgiving, and the local utility struggled to keep up.

Several days into a record-breaking heat wave, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) was still working to restore power to some of its customers.

On July 6 and 7, temperatures shot past the century mark around the city. While triple digit heat is not uncommon in some neighborhoods, it is a rare occurrence in other parts of the city. The extreme weather pushed demand to record levels, and the utility’s delivery system buckled under the pressure.

According to the LADWP, power outages affected 34,500 customers, about 2.5 percent of its 1.5 million customers. As the city prepared for the hot weather, the utility asserted that it had adequate resources to meet surging demand, even as it encouraged customers to conserve. The utility continued to maintain that resources were adequate as the heat wave continued.

However, the city’s aging infrastructure was unable to deliver the power. Failures left residents without power in several communities. The hardest hit neighborhoods were Westlake, Koreatown and Encino, where a total of more than 12,000 thousand customers were without power.

The LADWP noted that the energy demand level on July 6 reached 6,256 Megawatts (MW), setting a new record for a July day, beating the previous record of 6,165 MW on July 24, 2006. It marked the fifth highest peak demand ever recorded in the City of Los Angeles.

By the end of the day on July 9, the LADWP reported that its crews were nearing full restoration of power, with about 1,900 customers still without power.