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Why the heat wave hasn't taken down the state's power grid
The sun shines behind electrical power lines during a heat wave.
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Patrick T. Fallon
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AFP via Getty Images
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Topline:
July has brought record-breaking heat for this time of year to much of the Southland, mostly inland. But we haven’t been hit with flex alerts or concerns about rolling power outages due to a boost in battery storage.
More battery storage: The state has nearly doubled its amount of battery storage in just the last two years. That’s kept the grid stable during hot evenings when solar power declines. Increased coordination and cooperation around the state and the West also helped. California has even had energy left over to share with other western states facing electricity shortages, helping avoid outages even when a power demand record was broken on the broader western energy grid.
The background: The last time we had flex alerts — calls to voluntarily conserve energy — was during a record-long heat wave in early September 2022. The state avoided rolling power outages because people heeded the call to conserve energy. And the last time we had rolling power outages was in 2020, when wildfires and heat put record strain on the power grid.
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What’s next: Peak energy demand so far has been about 10,000 MW short of the demand that prompted the September 2022 flex alerts. July is typically the hottest month across the state, but August and September are the hottest here in much of Southern California, when the marine layer burns off and the Santa Ana winds pick up. So upcoming months will be a big test, but the big jump in battery storage should be a significant help this time around.
Go deeper:
Can The Power Grid Keep Up With Worsening Heat And Fewer Fossil Fuels?
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