Posted on 07/02/2021 1:09:38 AM PDT by blam
Maybe it’s time to admit that the whole “green” energy push is one big farce
Six months after a historic failure in the Texas power grid which collapsed when various “renewable” sources of electricity failed concurrently and dragged down the entire network, California – that liberal utopia powered by renewable power and/or unicorn flatulence – realizes it is about to get Enroned, and has made an urgent request for additional power supplies to avoid blackouts this summer, an extraordinary step after suffering from rolling outages less than a year ago.
State energy officials asked the California Independent System Operator, which runs most of the grid, to contract for additional power capacity for July and August on concern it won’t be able to meet demand during the evening when solar production fades, according to a joint statement Thursday from grid, utility and energy agencies. They didn’t say how much more power is needed but one can guess it will be a lot.
Of course, there was a convenient scapegoat on which to blame the collective lack of competence: global warming.
“California is using all available tools to increase electricity reliability this summer,” the heads of the California Energy Commission, California Public Utilities Commission, and grid operator said citing “unprecedented climate change-driven heat events, which are occurring throughout the West in combination with drought conditions that reduce hydroelectric capacity.”
Right, it’s always someone else’s fault that you could not properly budget even a few months in advance after keeping millions of people in the dark last year when California again blamed… global warming. But if you know there is global warming, and you suffer one nightmare summer in the dark because of it, can’t you extrapolate at least a year into the future?
In California, the answer is no.
Their statement underscores California’s challenges in the coming months as it begins summer already parched by drought that’s leaving hydroelectric reservoirs at historic lows. The state narrowly avoided rolling power outages recently as extreme heat came early this year, and with few new generation sources on the immediate horizon supplies tighten when hot weather hits.
California has taken a number of steps including adding battery storage (which some may recall was a complete disaster last summer) to prevent blackouts such as those in August, when demand overwhelmed the grid. However, the state has grown concerned that that the increases aren’t enough, according to the letter.
Procuring additional capacity “is taken out of an abundance of caution to ensure electric reliability and preserve the public health and safety of all Californians,” the officials said. Their letter also cited delayed availability for some thermal power plants and said some resources expected to be running during the hottest months have now been delayed.
Supply challenges are mounting less than a year after a heat wave forced the state’s first rolling outages in two decades, and meeting demand is likely to be even harder this year because long-range forecasts call for above-average temperatures through September.
What is remarkable is that even Bloomberg, which has been on a crusade to crush non-green sources of power, admits that California’s problem is the state’s aggressive push to cut carbon emissions by shifting to renewable energy.
Many gas-burning plants have closed, which means electricity supplies tighten at sunset as the production from solar generation fades around sundown (good thing there are no vampires or zombies in Cali, yet). What’s more, big batteries being built to store solar power during the day and resupply the grid in the evening won’t be available by August and September, the state’s hottest months.
In short, it’s time to admit that California’s “green” push has been a complete disaster, and is about to leave millions of people in the dark during hot, sweaty days, leading to countless deaths.
Of course, since we are talking about the socialist paradise, this will never happen, and instead locals have even more brilliant ideas like for example paying people not to use electricity.
“The short-term strategy needs to be centered around incentivizing demand reductions instead of increasing supply,” said Abe Stanway, co-founder of Amperon Holdings Inc., which provides analysis to utilities and power traders. “The best way to reduce uncertainty around demand resources is to simply pay consumers more to use less during peak events.”
Because while electricity may not grow on trees in California but at least money still does.
Soon, Kali will be like those photos from space that show North Korea mostly dark at night while all the normal countries have plenty of light.
I predict a national shortage of both portable and larger fixed generators as Californians do what people in 3rd World countries do in response to unreliable electric supplies. Good time to be in the business of installing same.
CA bans a lot of those generators, and those they do allow have strict pollution controls... You are no longer allowed to sell or buy a non-CA-approved generator there. https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/california-burns-generator-companies-make-power-grab-n1076611
“State energy officials asked the California Independent System Operator, which runs most of the grid, to contract for additional power capacity for July and August...”
Sounds like they are setting them up for something out of “Atlas Shrugged”.
Dateline Feb. 2022: “The California Independent System Operator was fined $2.5 million dollars for exceeding its quota of fossil fuel energy sources while gaining record revenues due to the high energy demands in 2021.”
My son lives, in LA, Sierra Madre, and I spoke with him Father's Day. I suggested he buy a propane generator and propane bottles....he wasn't interested at all.
“CA bans a lot of those generators, and those they do allow have strict pollution controls... You are no longer allowed to sell or buy a non-CA-approved generator there.”
That’s why there is Nevada.
At some point people either leave or take the law into their own hands. All they have to do is claim to be a minority and are doing it in the name of BLM.
There should be billboards across the country with bold print saying:
“ENJOYING THE HIGH GAS PRICES AND EXPENSIVE ENERGY?
THANK A DEMOCRAT”
Gee...Maybe have replacement systems that fulfill the same capacity of existing systems. And switching to All Green is “stuck in Stupid”.
Unless they haven’t already, we’re mere months away from one of these people pushing a grant to somebody to invent an electric generator that you plug in at your EV power station.
It’s doesn’t take a genius to see what lies ahead for California: buying electricity from power plants running on fossil fuels in MEXICO.
They VOTED for this CRAP and they will vote AGAIN for this CRAP!
This might take LA and SF off of the top 5 worst traffic list as all those electric cars stay parked, so they have that going for them, lol.
my reply: ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Annie, in light of the last few months, are you sure they voted for this crap?
If it was so popular, why does Deep State have to steal elections?
Hey...you can use those Tesla chargers!
They’re free and fulla juice!
Green energy isn’t really a farce, it’s time has not come yet. Maybe in a hundred years we’ll be ready to put together some sound ideas and not a bunch of individual agendas into some kind of a plausible way to make it shift off of fossil fuels but that’s why I said it will be a hundred years from now before any of that really can initially be realized with confidence. There is no confidence in this mishmash of loose ideas with less than optimum application that somehow has been cobbled together.
Gee... a cobbled together power grid... fools.
California had a crisis like this a few years ago, and it bought energy from other states, even if it meant paying the fines for energy sources which caused pollution. California didn’t learn then, and it won’t learn now. As long as there is some way to muddle through, the idiots in California will stay the course.
If the left wants infrastructure, how about a national power grid upgrade that can support 200% load as if every home, business and vehicle was 100% electric?
I don’t think it will ever be possible to power an industrialized economy with just “green” energy - ever. So the USA de-industrializes and becomes fossil fueled China’s bitch. Great.
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