During Rolling Blackouts Last Summer, California Kept Exporting Power Out of State. There's Still No Permanent Fix

When hundreds of thousands of Californians lost power during a heat wave over two evenings last August, California was also — unbeknownst to most ratepayers — exporting thousands of megawatts of power to neighboring states.

Those rolling blackouts, the first in two decades, have been largely blamed on factors like climate change-induced heat waves and the state's large-scale transition to renewable energy generation. And while the California Independent System Operator — which manages 80% of the state’s grid — has acknowledged it also allowed power exports at the time, the state has yet to come up with a permanent fix to the problem.

The rotating outages didn’t last long, cutting the lights for only a small fraction of the state’s 40 million residents. Just under half a million homes and businesses went dark for as long as 2½ hours on Aug. 14, with another 321,000 utility customers losing power for up to 90 minutes the following evening. While relatively minor compared to last year's massive electricity shutoffs aimed at preventing power lines from sparking wildfires, the mishap exposed a host of statewide grid issues and poor planning, a cautionary tale as California heads into what promises to be another hot, dry summer.

California's first readiness test has already come this week, with a major heat wave that continues to hit much of the state. Those conditions have prompted California ISO to issue its first Flex Alert of the year — urging people to conserve energy between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Thursday to prevent a repeat of the 2020 blackouts.

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