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| Tony Branco |
"California depends on 25 percent imported power, mainly hydropower, from other states. However, the grid operator has been unable to buy much imported power during the regional heat wave. The only remedy for this problem is a diverse mix of power sources with green power no more than 20 to 30 percent of the mix. This heat wave shows the folly of shifting to 100 percent green power during hot spells.
"Even Gov. Gavin Newsom has been forced to admit green power falls short and blames planners. But the power grid has been deregulated and decentralized to allow local communities to buy their own power, resulting in a lack of diverse enough power sources during hot weather.
"Source of Power Outages Claim to be Unknown
"The New York Times of August 16 reports that “Rolling Blackouts in California Have Power Experts Stumped.” Bill Powers, a San Diego power engineer stated, “This should not have caused blackouts.”
"The technical reason for the rolling blackouts was the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) could not find enough power reserves from out-of-state hydropower suppliers after three in-state power plants had to shut down and wind power dropped as it typically does during the daytime.
"The reason for the high demand for electricity is obviously the heat wave combined with humidity that spiked the temperature to 130-degrees in Death Valley. This resulted in a Stage 3 alert where mainline electric utilities had to ask customers to curtail use or they would start cutting power by rolling blackouts. The ISO asserted it was not grid congestion or downed power lines from wildfires, but a true lack of available power plants to come online when other plants failed, causing the shortage.
"Contributing to the blackouts was that California depends on 25 percent of imported power from other states, mainly hydropower to reduce smog in air basins. But the entire southwest was hot leaving little surplus power available.
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