Grid is mostly fine. California’s electricity use varies a ton over the course of the year; in late summer the heat is most intense and peak demand is highest,

Grid is mostly fine. California’s electricity use varies a ton over the course of the year; in late summer the heat is most intense and peak demand is highest, roughly 50 GW. The state is facing a historic heat wave this week, and the grid operator (California ISO) is asking people to voluntarily reduce demand. It’s not clear whether there is enough supply for peak demand without voluntary reduction, there probably is, but asking for voluntary reduction in the use of resource X (power, water, you name it) is par for the course in California these days. It costs almost nothing to do, and saves the utilities the high cost of marginal extra X. It’s unlikely that the push for renewables has played the definitive role — peak load is after 4pm, when solar generation drops anyway, and baseline power like nuclear don’t help as much at peak because you can’t just spin them up for part of the day. If anything the push to EVs has the potential to mitigate peak demand by tapping a fleet of grid-connected batteries at peak load, but that’ll require some coordination with manufacturers.