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chroem- | 3 years ago

Does the California power grid still need to perform load shedding during peak usage, or have they added additional capacity?

discuss

mdorazio|3 years ago

Not sure why you got downvoted. Yes, rolling brownouts are still very much a thing in California and probably will be for the foreseeable future: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/california-faces-...

mrguyorama|3 years ago

They are being downvoted because 1) California being shitty should have no effect on whether Texas is shitty or not and because 2) even IF California is shittier than Texas (an opinion rather than fact), that doesn't make it any better than the other 48 states that aren't regularly in the news for shitty electrical infrastructure that fails regularly.

lkjdsklf|3 years ago

Hasn't happened yet this year, but they're expecting more capacity related rolling blackouts.

This certainly isn't just a texas problem

while_true_|3 years ago

Since the Aug. 2020 blackout the state has added 2 GW of battery storage for solar and wind, as well as delayed closure of a natural gas plant. There's another 2 GW of battery storage planned for this year. If California had the extra 2 GW of storage in 2020, the blackout would have been averted.

Gibbon1|3 years ago

4GW gives California 100 wh per capita. Doesn't seem like much but if they keep adding that much a year. What if they have ten times as much. That would be something.

akvadrako|3 years ago

GW is pretty much irrelevant for storage, since power is rarely the bottleneck.

Kye|3 years ago

The California grid can pull from outside if needed. Most of Texas can't. That's the issue.

gruez|3 years ago

>Most of Texas can't. That's the issue.

Wikipedia seems to contradict your claim. Am I missing something here?

>The Texas Interconnection is maintained as a separate grid for political, rather than technical reasons,[1] but can also draw some power from other grids using DC ties.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Interconnection

lkjdsklf|3 years ago

This is true in theory, but in practice it makes little difference.

When California has increased demand, so do all the states it's connected to. Hence the rolling blackouts a couple years ago and more are expected for this summer.

collegeburner|3 years ago

california is also an ISO and still does load shedding. oh and Tres Amigas stil isn't done, like over 10 years later, mostly bc federal regulation held it up.

nativespecies|3 years ago

Texan resident here. Experienced more blackouts/brownouts when I lived in CA than I have in TX.