CAISO settled with the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the
North American Electric Reliability Corporation for $6 million for violations of standards related to the
2011 Southwest blackout. Starting August 5, 2020, CAISO ordered the utilities operating on its power grid to cut off power to 200,000–250,000 customers. While CAISO stated the high temperatures and corresponding high demand for air conditioning necessitated
rolling blackouts, it enacted the blackouts with significant power reserves still being available. When causing the rolling blackouts, CAISO acted contrary to its own policy, with its 2019 resource assessment calling for stage 3 emergency only with 3% or less available power resources. When stage 3 was first enacted on August 15, the CAISO power grid had 8.9% available resources, about three times the required threshold. On September 6, 2022, during one of the longest and hottest September
heatwaves on record, which encompassed multiple Western states, California's peak
electricity demand of 52,061
megawatts occurred. Widespread rolling blackouts were narrowly avoided due to conservation efforts, though several thousand customers in
Palo Alto and
Alameda had their power cut when CAISO told those cities' municipal power companies to shed load. The CEO of CAISO stated that the 3,300 megawatts of
grid storage batteries added since the August 2020 rolling blackouts were definitely helpful during this event. ==See also ==