California’s “green dream” of going to 100 percent electric vehicles by 2035 is hitting a major reality roadblock.
Last week, during a major heatwave, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), the agency charged with managing the state’s electric grid, sent out a tweet suggesting electric car owners shouldn’t be charging their electric vehicles.
In the accompanying media release, CAISO had this to say: [emphasis mine]
“…grid operators again ask the public to conserve electricity to help balance supply and demand on the grid and avoid service disruptions due to extreme heat across much of the Southwest.”
“To be as comfortable as possible during the Flex Alert hours, consumers are also strongly encouraged to take these steps earlier in the day:
…
Pre-charge electronic devices · Close window coverings to keep your home or apartment cool · Pre-charge electric vehicles”
That’s right, you should NOT charge your electric vehicles during a heatwave in California. Why? Because, like the power supply system in many third-world countries, California’s electric power generators can’t deliver enough electricity to CAISO to meet demand.
Even Tesla got into the act, pushing this message out to Internet-connected Tesla interior LCD screens during last year’s August heatwave:
“The current heatwave is impacting the grid in California. If possible, we ask that you reduce Supercharging and home charging between the hours of 4pm and 9pm to support the statewide efforts to manage demand.”
“Additionally, proactive utility shutoffs may limit charging options.”
Meanwhile, in Sacramento, the Governor, legislators, and regulators still think electric vehicles are vital to California’s plan to reduce emissions over the next two decades.
In 2020, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, by executive fiat, set 2035 as a target date for ending the sale of gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles as the way to fight “climate change” in the state.
At the same time, California has been looking to expand electric vehicle ownership and make charging stations more accessible.
California suffers from an electric grid problem because the state has eschewed reliable fossil fuels in favor of unreliable green energy, such as wind and solar power.
This presents a problem because such sources don’t work when the wind stagnates during heat waves, or at night when there’s no sunlight.
Simultaneously, the state is exacerbating this problem, creating ever more demand for electricity by promoting electric vehicles and shutting down access to natural gas appliances.
Deliberately redesigning the state’s electric grid from one that historically supplied power 24 hours a day, seven days a week, regardless of the weather, to one that can only supply power reliably when weather conditions are Goldilocks-like “just right,” was foolish; political malpractice, if you will.
Last year, California’s electric grid came within minutes of collapse due to heavy loads at the same time solar power slumped at sunset.
On August 17, during the CAISO Board of Governors Meeting, CAISO President Steve Berber let loose with this bit of reality. From transcript:
“You are trading the loss of 3,000 megawatts for the collapse of the entire system of California and perhaps the entire West. … When you’re at the very edge and you have a contingency and you have no operating reserves, you risk entire system collapse.”
Nothing has changed significantly since then, so power shortfalls, perhaps even more severe than last summer’s, are likely to occur again this summer. That’s a sobering thought.
California has traded energy security to kneel before the false prophet of green energy. Instead of using reliable and affordable coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants, they are increasingly relying on intermittent and unreliable industrial wind and solar facilities.
The people of California, and perhaps the West in general, may pay the price for that homage if the power grid collapses during the ongoing heatwave.
A new heatwave looms on the horizon this week, even bigger than the one last week. This alert from the Sacramento National Weather Service Office tells the story.
National Weather Service Sacramento CA
147 PM PDT Wed Jun 23 2021
…Dangerous and long duration heatwave to impact the northern
and central Sacramento Valley…
Triple digit heat will return to northern California as early as Friday with further warming through the weekend with highs of 105 to 114 degrees.
The key phrase is “long duration event” and the key number is 114 degrees. And guess what? Lithium-Ion batteries should not be charged at such high temperatures, as they risk going into thermal runaways and are nearly impossible to extinguish the fire.
As for the grid, with that heatwave looming, renewables, more appropriately called “unreliables,” will once again be tested. California’s green dream may very well be a bunch of electric vehicle owners that can’t get a charge.
The poor and lower-middle class, the people least likely to be able to afford California’s expensive power, or those who have no power due to the likely rolling blackouts to keep the grid from collapsing, will suffer the most.
Of course, the media will blame the heatwave on “climate change” while at the same time giving a collective shrug as to why electric vehicles are found on the road with dead batteries, while vehicles with internal combustion engines continue to reliably deliver people to their homes, shopping, and places of business.
Read more at Climate Realism
Sorry Californians, you are finding out what electing all these “progressives” are doing to your state. Will you wake up and vote them out of office and elect people who will change directions, adding real power plants, stop shutting down your last nuke plant, get rid of mandates for electric cars, etc.
California’s situation makes me glad I live in Florida. With the threat of hurricanes it would be impossible for Florida to go 100% renewable. One hurricane hit like Irma in 2017, the hurricane that went up the spine of the state, would wreck Florida’s economy for months if not years.
I know some media will say that 114 degree heat is unprecedented and therefore proof of climate change so I’ll post what I have in the past. In the 1970’s I drove through the Sacramental Valley when it was 120 degrees. I left Klamath Falls at an elevation of 4100 feet when it was 71 degrees and I was wearing a long sleeve shirt. My car had excellent air conditioning but at the time most cars did not. At a rest stop it seemed as if everyone was staring at me. I finally realized it was the long sleeve shirt. The women had shed their tops and were only wearing their bras above the waist.
If someone set out to deliberately design a power grid that would fail they would design the California power grid in its present form. Perhaps failure was their goal. They are shutting down reliable power such as fossil fuel. They are relying more on wind, which is typically fails in the stagnant air of heat waves, and solar which fails every night. Then they add the load of electric cars. California is a very liberal state and liberals don’t learn well from their mistakes. Things will have to get very bad before they replace their leaders.
Most of the EPA regulations on American kvehicles are derived from CARB, the California Air Research Board.
The Los Angeles basin 50 years ago was filled with smog, a local problem that may have been alleviated by mass transit. NOBODY walks in LA. The California market for cars was so big that Detroit decided to build cars that satisfied California’s demands, rather than a California version and a 49-state version. This emboldened the Ralph Nader’s out there.
Does Los Angeles have a mass transit system today? The tail is wagging the dog. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.
Will it come to pass that EV’s will be used as the electrical grid’s back – ups? You get in your car and it’s dead cuz Sacramento’s lights were blinking? The governor’s face was leaking brine?
The simple minded have come full circle.
Don’t plug in your battery car in the day or if it has been sitting out in the sun. The car will heat up really hot even if the outside temp well below 100°F and it liable to experience the loveable thermal runaway and subsequent fire. Just another convenience for owning the latest technology.