CA has had blackouts, not for lack of power, but recently, rather for liability reduction vs wildfires sparked by woefully behind the times maintenance of the grid.
A program known as convergence bidding, in particular, is meant to help keep electricity prices steady but instead “masked tight supply conditions” during the August heat wave, the analysis concluded.
and
Energy providers collectively under-scheduled the amount of electricity they expected to need.
As a European, it always baffled me that power outages are such a common phenomenon in the US. I've heard stories about rolling blackouts due to heat/cold from people in all areas in the US. Whereas in Europe, I cannot remember a single instance rolling blackouts were used because of a gap in supply.
Sure, Europeans pay more for electricity, but maybe that spare capacity and inter-connectivity is worth it.
The only power outages I have had in Chicagoland have been due to trees and those get resolved in a few hours. I'm pretty sure TX and CA are the outliers.
In most of the US they aren’t common. Outside of that debacle in Texas, I can’t recall any rolling blackouts in the US from lack of supply. The rarity is quite likely why that event made international news and got so many people around the country talking about it
I know it's not issue free. But Europeans tend to pay a premium to avoid its shortcomings rather than have blackouts. And I prefer that over having cheaper electricity but with a threat of blackouts.
On any given day this month I've had an 87% chance of having uninterrupted power. 27 hours of total downtime, despite paying some of the highest rates.