California Warns of Potential Blackouts This Summer

By Christian Roselund

On 6 May, officials from three California state energy agencies warned that modeling indicates a likely deficit of 1,700 megawatts of electricity this summer during times of highest demand. The state experienced blackouts due to lack of available capacity in August 2020, and narrowly evaded blackouts during a heatwave in July 2021.

The California Public Utilities Commission, the California Energy Commission, and the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) made these comments at a briefing for press and did not provide written statements or analyses. However, CAISO’s annual assessment of summer reliability is expected within the next two weeks.

California’s grid is suffering under a combination of threats. These include higher peak temperatures, lower hydroelectric capacity due to an ongoing drought, and wildfires that are spurring the state’s utilities to proactively shut off the power in forested areas when it is hot and windy.

The warning by energy officials also comes as California governor Newsom warns that solar plus battery projects to meet evening demand are being held up by the anti-circumvention investigation against solar cells and modules from Southeast Asia (see the 2 May 2022 U.S. Energy Transition Report for more on Governor Newsom’s letter to Commerce Secretary Raimondo). Governor Newsom has also proposed cancelling the planned retirement of the Diablo Canyon nuclear
power plant.

In December, CAISO estimated that there was than 2.5 gigawatts of battery capacity deployed on its grid, with more coming. However, this is still a long way from what is needed. In both 2006 and 2017 demand on California’s grid peaked at more than 50 gigawatts.

Read more:

News coverage: California says it needs more power to keep the lights on (Reuters)