I & I Editorial BoardFederal data show that no state had as many power outages across more than two decades as California. The nearly 500 grid breakdowns correlate with increases in renewable energy. Maybe there’s been no causation, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be in the future, because the intermittency of renewables is a mismatch with the power grid.
Using U.S. Department of Energy reports, Texas Electricity Ratings found that California had 493 power outages from 2003 through 2023. Texas, which is No. 2 to California’s No. 1 in total renewable energy consumption, was close behind with 468.
California’s recent blackout history began with five in 2003. The number doubled in 2004 and continued to rise, reaching 20 in 2010, 25 in 2015, 56 in 2020 and a peak of 69 in 2022.
Totals fell in some years from the year before, but the overall trend is sharply upward.
Texas Electricity Ratings says California’s major grid disturbances coincide “with a clear seasonal rhythm tied to storm and heat-wave patterns.” Some outages are caused by physical attacks and vandalism, and in some instances cyber events. But California still had the most blackouts attributed to equipment/system failure (125) and fuel supply emergencies (35), and its outages don’t track cleanly with the national figures, which have peaked and valleyed but were roughly the same in 2023 as they were in 2003.
What does move along a line consistent with grid failures is the growth in California renewables. Solar energy surged from near zero in 2003 to more than 19% of in-state generation and 17% of the state’s total power mix in 2023. Wind power grew from a blip in 2003 to 6.5% of in-state generation and 11% of the total power mix in 2023.
Nothing more than coincidence? Maybe. But we know that the power grid and renewables are an imperfect match.
Today’s grid was built to accommodate the fossil fuels that provide dispatchable power, meaning that it can be adjusted as demand rises and falls. It was not designed to handle electricity from wind and solar, which have wide swings based on natural conditions. Existing infrastructure, says Norton Rose Fulbright, a law firm with a global energy practice, “is struggling to keep pace with the proliferation of dispersed, intermittent renewables projects, many of which do not provide grid forming capability and all of which require connection.”
According to Anthropocene magazine, “because wind and solar projects are naturally intermittent, they can cause instabilities in the grid and even blackouts if dropped into the grid without changes.”
The massive blackout that hit Spain last year was not officially blamed on renewables compromising the grid, likely because the functionaries pushing green energy could not afford to make the admission. But there’s reason to believe that is exactly what happened.
According to Red Electrica, the partly government-owned company that operates the country’s power grid, Spain’s system disconnected “from the European system” due to a “very strong oscillation in the electrical network.” This led to “the collapse of the Iberian electricity network.”
Energy author Robert Bryce wrote at the time that the grid had been “weakened by its heavy reliance on solar.” It was only “a few minutes before the blackout” when “some 60% of the electricity on Spain’s grid was coming from solar.”
But solar, like wind, is intermittent, and grids need consistency, not volatility.
“The easiest way to comprehend grid inertia is to think of electricity like water,” says Bryce. “Unlike the water system, which can tolerate significant changes in pressure and flow rates, the electric grid operates under very tight tolerances that require voltage and frequency to stay within narrow ranges regardless of load or power production changes.”
When those tight tolerances are exceeded, systems break down.
This is not a secret known only to the Knights of the Templar but an acknowledged fact. Yet California continues to blindly plunge toward 2045, the deadline for the state’s net-zero greenhouse emissions crusade.
Blackouts are not minor events to be breezily dismissed. If they last long enough, they can cause economic damage, suffering and even death. Does this matter to the climate zealots who control California policy? Clearly it doesn’t, because if it did, they would cool their ambitions, and there’s no sign that they’re capable of even considering the possibility of doing so.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
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