California’s regulators are gearing up to conduct a post-mortem into the rolling blackouts that occurred in the state for the first time in two decades last week, affecting hundreds of thousands of customers in the midst of a record-breaking heatwave.
The blackouts, which were triggered last Friday and Saturday after the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) declared electrical emergencies, were the result of a series of events, including high demand due to the heatwave, the unexpected loss of generation resources, and the lack of available imports, officials from CAISO, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the California Energy Commission (CEC) told Gov. Gavin Newsom in a letter Wednesday.