4 ms·
With "some diversification and some storage" you can have 100% availability, sure. For some value of "some". But you actually have to build for the worst cases
by BurningFrog 4y ago
With "some diversification and some storage" you can have 100% availability, sure. For some value of "some".
But you actually have to build for the worst cases, and include the costs in your calculations.
Sweden did not, and had a disastrous electricity winter. I expect California to be even less competent.
For context, I'm a Swede emigrated to California.
- mbfg 4y agoI suspect california winters are far more moderate than swedens.
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoWhat happened that was bad in Sweden, was it the record electricity exports? > Sweden sent 33 terawatt-hours to other nations in 2022, making it the No. 1 exporter for the first time, according to Entso-E data analyzed by Rystad Energy AS.
- BurningFrog 4y agoSweden exported when they had extra electricity. In December they had much less than they needed, because some plants needed maintenance, the wind wasn't blowing, and the sun was down. Not sure if any actual blackouts happened, but electricity prices went insanely expensive to drive down demand. There is now a big political issue about how to compensate people ruined by their electricity bills. They had built a system with very little backup capacity. When a few components stopped producing, there was nothing to replace them. California has similar episodes, as do other parts of the US. I'm unconvinced anyone is making sure the system works under stress. https://www.thelocal.se/tag/energy/ https://www.thelocal.se/tag/energy/