Thriving Storage and Solar in California: How is the ISO Adapting to Future Extreme Weather Events?

Report Summary:

Extreme weather events in summer 2020 led to CAISO's most recent grid reliability crisis, requiring rolling blackouts across the state on 14 and 15 August, with continued alerts through 20 August. This event exemplified potential future weather conditions and highlighted planning and infrastructure challenges for CAISO.

Furthermore, this triggered efforts across the state to prevent similar events and increase reliability while 'cleaning' the grid. As part of this effort, battery storage installed capacity has rapidly grown, adding more than 3 GW since 2020, of which 1.4 GW is solar-paired. This capacity now plays a key role in stabilizing the solar-induced duck curve by addressing fast evening ramp-down hours and net peak loads. Following CAISO's grid evolution since 2020, is it better prepared to address increasing abnormal weather patterns through 2022? And how is it setting the stage to reduce grid reliability risks for the future?