Category: Power outages

Australia Following California to a High Cost Unreliable Electricity Supply System

By Alan Moran

Matthew Warren in the AFR (August 16, 2020) was highly critical of the electricity market manager’s proposed spending on new transmission lines. The proposals involve a centrally planned network with over $17 billion of new transmission lines plus a further $10 billion for the Snowy pumped storage scheme. This spending is designed to shore-up the inherently inefficient and high cost wind and solar generators that regulatory subsidies have made possible. Continue reading “Australia Following California to a High Cost Unreliable Electricity Supply System”

Green California Has the Nation’s Worst Power Grid

By Steve Goreham

Originally published in Washington Examiner.

More than a million Californians suffered power blackouts last Friday evening. When high temperatures caused customer demand to exceed the power available, California electrical utilities used rotating outages to force a reduction in demand. The California grid is the worst in the nation, with green energy policies pursued by the state likely furthering reduced grid reliability.

At 6:30 pm on Friday, Pacific Gas and Electric, California’s biggest utility, began shutting off power in rolling outages to force a reduction in demand. Southern California Edison also denied power to homes, beginning just before 7 pm. Shutoffs impacted a rotating group of up to two million customers until 11 pm. Continue reading “Green California Has the Nation’s Worst Power Grid”