California invests in battery energy storage, leaving rolling blackouts behind
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Re: California invests in battery energy storage, leaving rolling blackouts behind
#2> California and Texas are constantly trading places as the top state for battery storage.
Re: California invests in battery energy storage, leaving rolling blackouts behind
#3> California hasn’t issued an emergency plea for the public to conserve energy, known as a Flex Alert, since 2022.
Feels like that statement deserves to be contextualized with weather data. There were a few summers leading up to that where all of the major metro areas shared concurrent record high heat days, and sometimes coincided with poor air quality from wildfires (meaning more people closed their windows and ran AC even if they wouldn't have otherwise.)
> It was only five years ago that a record-shattering heat wave pushed the grid to its limit and plunged much of the state into darkness.
They mention it here, but then don't talk about whether similar circumstances have been faced since. Don't get me wrong, this is encouraging, but the article invited this kind of reaction by putting "leaving rolling blackouts behind" in the title.
Funny enough, if you look at the article's original title via the URL slug, it was much more measured:
california-made-it-through-another-summer-without-a-flex-alertRe: California invests in battery energy storage, leaving rolling blackouts behind
#4This is the way. It's become standard practice in China, which now leads to the world with half of all battery installations.
Re: California invests in battery energy storage, leaving rolling blackouts behind
#5> California hasn’t issued an emergency plea for the public to conserve energy, known as a Flex Alert, since 2022. Feels like that statement deserves to be contextualized with weather data. There were a few summers leading up to that where all of the major metro areas shared concurrent record high heat days, and sometimes coincided with poor air quality from wildfires (meaning more people closed their windows and ran…
Yeah, I think you are correct, 2022 was a hot summer with a September heat wave which broke some records for power demand. Also keep in mind that there was a big increase in hydropower generation in 2023 and 2024 due to the really wet/snowy winter seasons.
Re: California invests in battery energy storage, leaving rolling blackouts behind
#6> California hasn’t issued an emergency plea for the public to conserve energy, known as a Flex Alert, since 2022. Feels like that statement deserves to be contextualized with weather data. There were a few summers leading up to that where all of the major metro areas shared concurrent record high heat days, and sometimes coincided with poor air quality from wildfires (meaning more people closed their windows and ran…
> There were a few summers leading up to that where all of the major metro areas shared concurrent record high heat days, and sometimes coincided with poor air quality from wildfires (meaning more people closed their windows and ran AC even if they wouldn't have otherwise.)
This is underselling it, if anything. The multi-day heatwave around Labor Day 2022 extended across most of the western US, not just California. The electricity demand during that event set what was at the time the all time record for the entire Western Interconnection (since surpassed in 2024) and set what is still today the all time record for CAISO.
Re: California invests in battery energy storage, leaving rolling blackouts behind
#7This is the way. It's become standard practice in China, which now leads to the world with half of all battery installations.
China is a mixed bad, they also lead the world in new coal power plants.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1160441919/china-is-building-...
Re: California invests in battery energy storage, leaving rolling blackouts behind
#8> California hasn’t issued an emergency plea for the public to conserve energy, known as a Flex Alert, since 2022. Feels like that statement deserves to be contextualized with weather data. There were a few summers leading up to that where all of the major metro areas shared concurrent record high heat days, and sometimes coincided with poor air quality from wildfires (meaning more people closed their windows and ran…
There’s also the more forgiving fire season in some areas. This is relevant since a lot of the power transmission goes through forests and nature preserves.
Re: California invests in battery energy storage, leaving rolling blackouts behind
#9This is the way. It's become standard practice in China, which now leads to the world with half of all battery installations.
China is a mixed bad, they also lead the world in new coal power plants. https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1160441919/china-is-building-...
Less mixed than the states, more manufacturing and install momentum for renewables and far lower kwh install costs.
So many people told me 10 years ago we shouldn't even bother trying to reduce global emissions because China would burn us all to the ground. So many brain dead takes.
Re: California invests in battery energy storage, leaving rolling blackouts behind
#10This is the way. It's become standard practice in China, which now leads to the world with half of all battery installations.
China is a mixed bad, they also lead the world in new coal power plants. https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1160441919/china-is-building-...
Just because they built it doesn't mean it gets used: https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-why-china-is-still-bu...