California ISO warned of tight summer operating conditions, concerns for 2021

摘要

The California Independent System Operator warned a year ago that summer 2020 would be tough and the grid operator has “huge concerns” for summer 2021, board member Severin Borenstein said during a Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative event. Although the coronavirus pandemic cut loads compared with normal, summer demand still spiked high enough during a nearly week-long heat wave that the ISO ordered rotating outages Aug. 14 and 15 to maintain grid reliability. “We built the system to be a one [outage] in 10-year scenario and it’s been 20 years,” Borenstein said about the system working as planned, adding: “We’re going down a road where it could get worse.”