California did it one summer without flex awareness. Thank you batteries, experts say

For decades, rolling blackouts and urgent calls for energy conservation have been a part of life in California — a dubious summer tradition about as reliable as a repulsive heat wave. But the state has taken a quieter journey in recent years, and California’s independent program hasn’t offered one of those emergency letters, known as FLEX displays, since 2022.

Experts and officials say the Golden State has reached a turning point, reflecting years of investment in making the electric grid stronger, cleaner and more reliable. Much of that is new battery energy storage, which draws and stores electricity for later use.

In fact, the batteries were forform for California, state officials said. During daylight hours, when the sun stops hitting the solar panels and people are at home using electricity, the batteries now push the solar energy stored in the grid.

California has invested heavily in technology, helping it mature and become cheaper in recent years. Battery storage in the province has grown more than 3,000% in six years – from 500 megawatts in 2020 to 15700 Megawatts today.

“There is no doubt that the fleet of batteries that has grown rapidly since 2020, and the portfolio of the expansion of the state of other equipment for the purchase of the needs of trust,” said Elliot Mainzer, Caiso’s president and chief executive officer.

It was only five years ago that record burnings pushed the grid to its limits and many of the situation was plunged into darkness. After that incident, California’s energy leaders vowed to take action to make the grid more resilient.

Since then, Caiso has completed major construction of new energy and storage facilities, including more than 26,000 megawatts of new energy in total, and helped make the grid more stable, Mayzer said. The state hasn’t seen rolling blackouts since 2020.

“Extreme weather events, wildfires and other emergencies can pose challenges to the reliability of any bulk power system,” he said. “But caiso’s battery fleet, along with additional capacity and close connections with federal and regional partners, have provided an undeniable reliability advantage.”

Batteries are now central to California’s climate initiatives, including its mission to become 100% net neutral by 2045.

Already, batteries have enabled the Grid to operate with a dramatic reduction in the use of planet-warming fossil fuels. They are now becoming a cost-effective and reliable alternative to gas-fired power, according to Maia Leroy, founder of California Energy Consulting Firm LLC and a law firm in a recent report on the rise of batteries in California.

“Historically, variable warnings always go through in the summertime when it’s really hot and everyone turns out their ac,” Leroy said. “But even in the summertime, we see that the gas plants are running down because the fusion does not work well with a stable temperature, when we can meet the demand of the battery in the summer without having to depend on those underground gas plants.”

Battery power storage is not without its challenges, however. Lithium-Ion batteries – the most common type used for energy storage – usually have an amazing four to six hours. It’s enough to support the grid during peak hours as the sun goes down, but it could still leave some gaps to be filled by natural gas.

Nikhil Kumar, program director at the energy policy nonprofit gridlab, said the technology already exists in Cerdionies’ batteries such as oxidation, and flow batteries, which store energy in non-chemically reactive, flow-through batteries.

Those batteries are still immature and can be more expensive and bulky than their lithium-ion rivals, Kumar said. But a recent report by gridlab shows that the equation is changing, with the average cost of a new gas plant often having only lithium-ion batteries and more expensive than long-term battery technology.

“Batteries will die quickly,” Kumar said. “Gas is not.”

The shift to battery storage comes as the Trump administration takes steps to curb coal and other renewable energy sources instead of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal. At the end of September, management announced that it would happen open 13 million acres of Federal lands for coal mining and provide $625 million to rehabilitate or restore coal-fired power plants, officials said will help strengthen the economy, protect jobs and improve energy in America.

During an hour-long press conference, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum explained the wind and solar energy sources that “do not trust any other official that has more embryos.”

It’s not a component problem. Emper, which operates the Texas electric grid, has more than 14,000 megawatts of batteries online, a nearly annual increase from early 2023. California and Texas are consistently selling places as the top state for battery storage.

But Trump has acted to support US battery production right now, about three-quarters of the world’s batteries are made in China, and China’s proposed tariffs on China — which has been good for China-based battery maker Sparkz.

“Management wants significant material production to happen in the US,” said Sanjiv Malhotra, founder and chief executive. “Basically they liked the domestic production of batteries.”

Sparkz makes lithium-iron batteries that don’t use nickel and cobalt – a design that has long been popular but relies on imported metals. Instead, their lithium-ion phosphate batteries have a chain used in the US, which means they can take advantage of Federal tax credits that favor the production of domestically produced clean energy components, Malhotra said. The company’s customers include data centers and services.

Malhotra added that California has done a great job “reducing” the storage capacity of the grid over the past few years. He said batteries are the main reason why the State has not seen a Flex Alert since 2022.

“The numbers basically tell the story that it’s all because of, essentially, energy conservation,” he said.

Still working to do it. While the national grid has seen improvements, it has been more than a century since most gas plants were built. Experts and officials agree that it needs higher development and changes to meet the demands of power and voices.

Permits are also an issue, as California often requires lengthy environmental reviews for new projects. The situation, sometimes controversial, is now accelerating the review, and recently approved a large solar and battery farm, the Darden Cleate Energy Project in Fresno County, with a new fast-track program. It will make enough electricity to power 850,000 homes for four hours, according to the California Energy Commission.

Safety is always a major concern. In January, a fire broke out at one of the world’s largest battery storage facilities in Moss Landing, Monterey County. This facility is allocated almost all the Lithium-Ion batteries around, which are a special danger when they are removed because they are very hot and cannot be extinguished with water, which can cause a violent chemical reaction. Blaze released dangerous levels of nickel, cobalt and manganese that were measured within miles of the site.

“When you’re dealing with big technology overall, there’s always going to be some kind of risk,” said Leroy, of Lumeniergy. “This points to a greater need to diversify the technology we use.”

Other forms of energy, such as oil and coal, also have many health and safety risks including the release of air pollution – mercury, nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide to contribute to climate change.

California is in the process of phasing out coal power and expects to be completely free by November. And while natural gas still makes up a large piece of the state’s portfolio, renewables will account for nearly 60% of California’s electricity generation by 2024, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

The numbers continue to climb. For the first six months of this year, Caiso’s grid was powered with 100% clean energy for an average of about seven hours every day.

“We’ve already shown that California can run on very clean utilities, with backups from natural gas,” said Kumar, of Gridlab. “And it works. We don’t have dynamic alerts.”