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by gsbraitberg 1345 days ago
In 2021, California produced about 200 TWh in-state and imported about 85 TWh, meaning they imported about 30% of total electricity. Not exactly "almost exclusively" imports.

Also, California regulations certainly permit building new power plants (and many new plants have been built in the past decade), just not new coal fired plants.

https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/califo...

2 comments

> just not new coal fired plants.

Or hydro-electric, or nuclear, or anything that would have meaningful impact on the state's situation.

More solar and wind are great, but they do not respond well to surges in demand, and there is no current way to store energy either.

So some impressive total production number might sound great, but the reality does not follow unfortunately. For a non-trivial portion of the state, electricity isn't a guarantee throughout the year anymore.

When I lived in LA it was frustrating explaining (to my out of state friends) how bad the power situation was. I cancelled many a DnD game because of it.

I eventually got so sick of it , that I left the state for good. I've never been happier.

If you chew through the numbers you just posted, you will find that imports from out of state are increasing year over year.

Hence, my statement "they almost exclusively purchase power from other states at sub-optimal rates for any new power demand"