Dive Brief:
California s energy agencies will soon release a final root cause analysis of the rolling blackouts that affected the state this past August, and the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) has focused its efforts on preparing for summer 2021, according to executives.
The final analysis is expected to point to three contributing factors the climate-change induced heat storm in the Western U.S., changing supply and demand patterns, as well as market practices that exacerbated the problem, CAISO s new Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President Mark Rothleder said during a webinar organized by the Clean Coalition on Wednesday. Our efforts are currently focused on preparing for the next summer, summer 2021. While additional capacity is coming online, vulnerabilities and the need for additional capacity will exist for several years, as the system navigates the retirement of a slate of natural gas plants by 2023 and the Diablo Canyon nuclear facility by 20