There were rolling blackouts in California last month on two consecutive days. The reason for the blackouts wasn’t a mystery. There was a heatwave across the region and as the sun went down and California’s solar generation started to fade, the California Independent System Operator (Cal ISO) simply couldn’t find enough power from other sources to meet the demand. The blackouts were ordered to prevent the entire grid from entering a brownout.
Several outlets including NPR and the Wall Street Journal made the point that California’s push for green energy was partly responsible for the situation. In fact, as the LA Times pointed out, the California Public Utilities Commission had been warning about this exact scenario since last year.
Staff at the California Public Utilities Commission recommended this month that four natural gas plants in Southern California, which are now required to shut down in 2020, be allowed to keep operating up to three additional years. Without the gas plants, PUC staff said, the state may face power shortfalls as soon as summer 2021 — specifically on hot days when energy demand remains high after the sun goes down and solar farms stop generating electricity…