Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
Here in the United California Socialist Republic, we have an insane bunch of laws about electricity. Number one among them is a “Renewables Mandate” that requires the local utility, Pacific Gas and Electric (PGE) to purchase a huge amount of expensive, unreliable solar, wind, and other renewable energy. So of course, our electricity price increases have far outstripped those of our more sane neighboring states.
(As a side note, under California law large hydroelectric dams are NOT counted as “renewable” under the Mandate … why not? Because if they counted hydro we’d already have met the Mandate … but I digress …)
And what to we get for this investment in expensive generation schemes?
Unreliable energy. Yesterday at about 6:30 PM, they shut off the power to our entire neighborhood for three hours. Of course the public claim was that the hot weather just made it so the poor system couldn’t keep up, darn it, so we’re sorry but rolling blackouts are the new normal starting now … just kidding, they started before the announcement.
I assure you I was as surprised as our neighbors … started my little 2KVA Honda generator, strung out the extension cords, and got back to my life. Although I must confess, I did say some bad words, and I fear that I stated both clearly and loudly that the people in charge of this goatrope could go engage in anatomically improbable sexual congress with themselves and the horse they rode in on …
But this morning, I had a more sober thought, one I should have had the night before, one you might have already had, which was …
… if this pinche rolling blackout is because of the heat, why didn’t it start until after six PM, well past the heat of the day?
My next thought was, “It’s those cabrones with their abysmal renewable energy.” So I set out to see if it’s true.
In California, all of this is handled by something called “CAISO”, the California Independent Systems Operator. Here’s their graph of yesterday’s renewables generation, from the CAISO site:
Figure 1. Total generation by each type of renewables in California, August 14, 2020.
As you can see, the total of geothermal, biomass, biogas, small hydro, and wind is sweet Fanny Adams … and now, notice when the solar started to run out in the evening. Just about the time that our power went out.
But as we know, correlation is not causation. So here’s the other relevant CAISO chart, showing the net demand with and without renewables …
Figure 2. Net demand for electricity in California, split out by the type of generation of the electricity
Gotta laugh about the fine print where they brag about how they “maintain reliability while maximizing clean energy sources” …
Anyhow, there you have it. Here’s the bottom line.
If you add ten gigawatts of solar energy to your grid as shown in Figure 2 above, you perforce, must, need to, have to, add ten gigawatts of conventional fossil energy to cover times like yesterday when renewables simply don’t cut it …
And it is the ignoring of that fact above all that allows people to claim that renewables are ready for the market. They are absolutely not ready without huge ongoing subsidies and full fossil backup, and in the end, they are simply not up to the job.
ALL of this is the total and complete fault of the Democrats who have run this state since forever … too bad. When I was a kid it was a great place to live.
VOTE! The only solution to this nonsense is to throw them out on their ear. It’s not going to fix itself. Here’s today’s story.
Hot again today … not looking forward to the evening …
w.
PS—Again I ask, when you comment please quote the exact words you are discussing. This avoids all kinds of misunderstandings.
The UK system of giving “renewables” preferential access to the Grid is obviously flawed. The solution is simple.
Treat all generators the same and demand that they provide power 24/365 on pain of… well, pain. That will stop solar and wind leeching off the reliability of fossil fuels and nuclear which they make uneconomic by skimming off the easy money.
Then tax the wind farms.
JF
Yes – this.
A glimmer of hope: My CA city recently upgraded the resident oil fired generation plant to gas turbine. The planned demolition of the oil fired plant was put on hold for a couple of years while they assess the area’s energy needs. What’s to assess if we’re having rolling blackouts? I see a running reserve oil plant next to the gas turbines in our future.
Yeah. I remember a couple years ago your nuke energy being shut down. I wonder how much of the overpricing comes from that nuke shutdown.
Michael Shellenberger has some more background on how the Cali climate policy led to the blackouts:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2020/08/15/why-californias-climate-policies-are-causing-electricity-black-outs/
Reminds me of the days back in 2000-2003 when Enron cut generation offline and set the rolling blackouts in motion.
Of course, when Gray Davis agreed to pay the ransom, no more rolling blackouts.
Until now.
Clearly, we just need to keep paying the ransom.
Looking back:
I don’t seem to recall any rebates after the Execs were charged, and the energy traders went to Wall St.
2.87% of my latest true up bill from PG&E was to pay for the Department of Water and Power contracts Gov Davis negotiated to ensure supply during the last energy crisis. Who knows when the ransom ends.
Does voting matter now that vote harvesting has been implemented?
No, voting no longer matters. I just found out my grandmother will be voting Democrat. I am so disappointed. She would have never voted Democrat when she was alive.
“Sweet Fanny Adams”
Wait…LOL…what?
“Sweet Fanny Adams” is time-tested British slang for “sweet FA”, which in turn is slang for “sweet Fu*k All”, meaning less than nothing.
w.
And isn’t “fanny” British slang for a certain part of the female anatomy?
Thanks for the clarification.
I, too, drew a blank on “Sweet Fanny Adams”
sorry, so late to the conversation – – again. But last time I was in the Bay Area (2 years ago) I was reading the Pleasanton News (?) and the article said residents can now (like other cities in the area) pay a little more for 50% of their electricity from renewable sources, or pay even more and get 100%! Looking at the charts at the top that is a few 1,000 customers….. and they run out of renewable…. (somebody correct me if I’m wrong). And when I was reading it the first thought that came to mind was how does the electrical system tell the difference between 1 KW of renewable from 1 KW of non-renewable? If 1 customer on a street is paying for renewable and the next door neighbor is not…. Do they have REALLY smart meters that can tell the difference?? Hmmm, I’m thinking the more likely answer is just REALLY dumb customers.
Is there any way to ensure that these customers are the first to have their power cut when renewables aren’t enough to meet the demand?
Welcome to the club of areas with frequent blackouts California! You have joined us of color in South Asia, Africa and South America.
For India the situation was improving, but the last few years they have also added a lot of solar to the mix inspired by “Paris2015” and Chinese and Western solar panel producers. Luckily thermal is not cursed here nor is nuclear. Our windmills run only 4 months a year during summer monsoon but that “could” supply extra air conditioning in offices and agricultural pumping peaks in the same hot season.
We have seen the Light, for you it is back to the Dark Ages.
Hey, Presto…
Humongous Tesla Battery Plant Approved In California Is 10× Bigger Than World’s Biggest Battery Plant,
February 27th, 2020 by Johnna Crider
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/02/27/humongous-tesla-battery-plant-approved-in-california-is-10x-bigger-than-worlds-biggest-battery-plant/
Market Summary > Tesla Inc
NASDAQ: TSLA
1,650.71 USD +29.71 (1.83%)
Closed: Aug 14, 7:59 PM EDT · Disclaimer
After hours 1,646.31 −4.40 (0.27%)
Tesla stock has risen from $220 a year ago to its Friday closing price of $1,650. Might as well buy shares because soon we’ll all be lighting candles and cursing the darkness.
I figure the price for the batteries is $109 per KWh of storage … they’re gonna have to do some plain and fancy tap dancing to have that make money.
w.
Who needs to make money when you can have the tax payers foot the bill?
This situation occurred primarily due to the failure of “renewable energy sources” during a time of high demand and no backup systems could take up the power load. Note: this weekend’s high demand was below the peak demand in prior years so the power demand (usage) was not something failed in the past by the power system.
I’m not sure if this info is hidden in the above chain, but some relevant published news… (if you want to check you can cut and paste the links I’ve included as the source for my info)
https://www.kcra.com/article/california-blackouts-2020-pge-heat-wave-august-15/33614032#
“California ISO declared a Stage 3 Electrical Emergency around 6:28 p.m. due to increased demand, as well as the loss of a 470-megawatt power plant.
They also cite the loss of nearly 1,000 megawatts of wind power.
However, the system was ordered back online 20 minutes later at 6:48 p.m. as wind resources increased, California ISO said.
As of 8:20 p.m., there were nearly 70,000 residents still without power, according to the California Office of Emergency Service dashboard.
At its peak, 67,401 customers in San Joaquin County experienced the outage.
A Stage 3 Emergency is declared when the demand outpaces the available supply. When this happens, grid operators tap electricity reserves to balance the grid, officials said.
The heat wave throughout the area increased electricity usage, leading to the strain on the power grid for the second night in a row.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/16/business/california-blackouts.html
New York Times actually reported the rolling blackouts “even though this weekend’s demand fell below the state’s peak years.”