Right, but you said "Large chunks of California where power is actually needed are essentially deserts.." My point was that power can be shipped, in-state, jus

Right, but you said "Large chunks of California where power is actually needed are essentially deserts.." My point was that power can be shipped, in-state, just as easily (more easily?) than it can be shipped from out of state. Here's a source that discusses maximum power demand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_California I'm not sure to what extent solar offsets this, but it's worth noting that it was in 2006, before solar was nearly as popular as it is now. Your source discusses power sales, where, I think you're right, rooftop generation would be netted out. In realtime demand, I think the only cancellation would be the realtime net of production vs consumption. The all-time peak of around 2pm would be a time with lots of solar generation, to your point, so solar during peak times would cancel out some observed demand. Also it sounds like they did a lot of work to time-shift power usage, rather than outright decrease it.