Don't try to re-write history to fit your agenda AGAIN. The power producers were NOT being paid even when prices were relatively low.
I think if one remembers the history correctly, the first witch hunt was why were all the power plants not operating and a big reason was that a lot of QF renewables were not operating because they could no longer afford to pay maintenance workers, because they were not getting paid by the ISO and by PG&E
I also vividly remember BC Hydro/PowerEX at the height of the crisis cutting off all power delivery to California until an electronic wire transfer "cleared" their bank, because they were not going to supply power without being paid. California (I think it was DWR as opposed to the ISO) quickly paid their bill to Hydro and within a 15 minutes of the transaction clearing the bank, power again flowed south to California