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It's super cool you can watch California's grid level batteries "breathe" every day here, https://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/supply.html#section-batterie

It's super cool you can watch California's grid level batteries "breathe" every day here, https://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/supply.html#section-batteries-trend https://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/supply.html#sectio... Yesterday we peaked out at 3GW discharging rate, and 4GW charging rate. We are plowing ahead in the transition to utilizing all of our excess solar! We peak at 25GW expected today, so we have a little ways to go but it's incredible how far and how fast they're replacing everything. Clean air FTW! Thanks sun!

ketzo 3y ago
the CAISO website is super rad in general -- so many real-time charts!! demand trend is really cool to watch during heat waves; things get spiky on both the demand side (for obvious reason) and the supply side (peaker plants & "virtual" power plants coming online)
usefulcat 3y ago
Kind of unrelated, but I'm wondering why TX uses so much more electricity than CA. Right now (afternoon of 1/26) happens to be a good time to compare: -- Temperatures are mild throughout most of TX (50s and 60s F); temps in CA are similar, perhaps a bit warmer; -- It's roughly mid-day in both places (3PM TX, 1PM CA); -- TX has a population of ~30M, CA has ~39M ..yet somehow right now TX is consuming ~47GW (per ercot) while CA is only consuming ~23.5GW (per caiso). What gives? ERCOT: https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards
- MichaelNolan 3y ago
  There are a few reasons. 1. TX has more heavy industry than CA. 2. CA has spent decades and billions on energy efficiency improvements. 3. CA prices are higher, which encourages lower demand, and encourages investments in efficiency. TX has lower prices which encourages more demand.
- ZeroGravitas 3y ago
  California takes a much more european approach to energy efficiency.
- dgacmu 3y ago
  It's a mix of a bunch of things. CA is more heating day dominated than TX, and as a result of that, more households use natural gas for heating, whereas you're more likely to see supplemental electric heat in TX than, particularly, NorCal. (2) high energy costs lead to more investment in electrical efficiency in CA; (3) high energy costs mean that if you're running an aluminum smelter (for example), you don't run it in CA. Or building a new mega data center. so there are fewer electricity-intensive industrial facilities in CA than there would otherwise be.
  - bradknowles 3y ago
    Natural gas is a by-product of much oil extraction, and commonly used for heating, cooking, etc.... Propane is also commonly used, in more rural locations. But what Texas has is much higher requirements for air conditioning, which can't be easily gas-powered at the level of individual houses. Thus the higher electrical energy requirements. Now, you can run gas turbines at the utility level to generate electricity, but that's much less common at the level of individual homes.
- HDThoreaun 3y ago
  Does home solar usage count on this graph? The electricity never hits the grid so I think it might not. If not California's massive push for home solar could be part of the explanation.
Gibbon1 3y ago
The amazing thing is there basically were no batteries three four years ago. And they can supply about 10% of the max power demand already. So it feels like the technologies we need are now good to go on an engineering an accounting basis. And adoption can be quite rapid. We're not saying in 50 years, 25 years, 10 years. We're looking at 5 years.
- XorNot 3y ago
  "power". This doesn't mean anything. LiFePO4 scales power to energy storage at a rate of about 1:3-1:4. 1GW of "power" they can supply for 4 hours if you completely discharge the battery. But that's it. Batteries could supply 100% of the grid briefly, and you still wouldn't be anywhere near having completed a switchover.
  - radium3d 3y ago
    You can see by the graph that the batteries don't piddle out that quickly already.
    - Gibbon1 3y ago
      I've looked and not seen numbers on the actual battery capacity. But I think it's about 3-4 hours at name plate power levels. I think from what I know capacity is a function of discharge rate. And wear is also a function of discharge rate and max/min charge levels. Makes the operating economics non trivial.

ketzo 3y ago

the CAISO website is super rad in general -- so many real-time charts!! demand trend is really cool to watch during heat waves; things get spiky on both the demand side (for obvious reason) and the supply side (peaker plants & "virtual" power plants coming online)

usefulcat 3y ago

Kind of unrelated, but I'm wondering why TX uses so much more electricity than CA. Right now (afternoon of 1/26) happens to be a good time to compare: -- Temperatures are mild throughout most of TX (50s and 60s F); temps in CA are similar, perhaps a bit warmer; -- It's roughly mid-day in both places (3PM TX, 1PM CA); -- TX has a population of ~30M, CA has ~39M ..yet somehow right now TX is consuming ~47GW (per ercot) while CA is only consuming ~23.5GW (per caiso). What gives? ERCOT: https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards

MichaelNolan 3y ago
There are a few reasons. 1. TX has more heavy industry than CA. 2. CA has spent decades and billions on energy efficiency improvements. 3. CA prices are higher, which encourages lower demand, and encourages investments in efficiency. TX has lower prices which encourages more demand.
ZeroGravitas 3y ago
California takes a much more european approach to energy efficiency.
dgacmu 3y ago
It's a mix of a bunch of things. CA is more heating day dominated than TX, and as a result of that, more households use natural gas for heating, whereas you're more likely to see supplemental electric heat in TX than, particularly, NorCal. (2) high energy costs lead to more investment in electrical efficiency in CA; (3) high energy costs mean that if you're running an aluminum smelter (for example), you don't run it in CA. Or building a new mega data center. so there are fewer electricity-intensive industrial facilities in CA than there would otherwise be.
- bradknowles 3y ago
  Natural gas is a by-product of much oil extraction, and commonly used for heating, cooking, etc.... Propane is also commonly used, in more rural locations. But what Texas has is much higher requirements for air conditioning, which can't be easily gas-powered at the level of individual houses. Thus the higher electrical energy requirements. Now, you can run gas turbines at the utility level to generate electricity, but that's much less common at the level of individual homes.
HDThoreaun 3y ago
Does home solar usage count on this graph? The electricity never hits the grid so I think it might not. If not California's massive push for home solar could be part of the explanation.

Gibbon1 3y ago

The amazing thing is there basically were no batteries three four years ago. And they can supply about 10% of the max power demand already. So it feels like the technologies we need are now good to go on an engineering an accounting basis. And adoption can be quite rapid. We're not saying in 50 years, 25 years, 10 years. We're looking at 5 years.

XorNot 3y ago
"power". This doesn't mean anything. LiFePO4 scales power to energy storage at a rate of about 1:3-1:4. 1GW of "power" they can supply for 4 hours if you completely discharge the battery. But that's it. Batteries could supply 100% of the grid briefly, and you still wouldn't be anywhere near having completed a switchover.
- radium3d 3y ago
  You can see by the graph that the batteries don't piddle out that quickly already.
  - Gibbon1 3y ago
    I've looked and not seen numbers on the actual battery capacity. But I think it's about 3-4 hours at name plate power levels. I think from what I know capacity is a function of discharge rate. And wear is also a function of discharge rate and max/min charge levels. Makes the operating economics non trivial.