It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area

Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by WalterBright on Sunday August 16, 2020 @04:18PM (#24180889)

I've been reading about rolling power blackouts in California due to excessive demand. Shouldn't this situation be ideal for solar power? high power demand during the day, lots of daylight hours?

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Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by lawguy on Sunday August 16, 2020 @04:26PM (#24180974)

Look at the "Net demand trend" graph here, and take a look at yesterday: http://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/default.aspx

Non-renewables (edit: all minus solar and wind), hit their peak at 6pm and stayed there until 8:30pm.

The problem is that solar isn't available during the late evening hours, where, e.g., A/C demand remains high.

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Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by sliken on Sunday August 16, 2020 @06:51PM (#24182063)

Provide a financial benefit for those who use during peak power (to day get their home down to with AC 65F) while solar production is high, and then turn off their AC from 5-9.

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Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by beamatronic on Sunday August 16, 2020 @09:06PM (#24182800)

I’ve heard of people charging up their powerwall at night with cheap power. (TOU plans) And then they consume that power when electricity is normally expensive

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Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by beamatronic on Sunday August 16, 2020 @09:05PM (#24182795)

I’m starting to think a power wall is more useful than solar

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Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by dehrmann on Sunday August 16, 2020 @05:15PM (#24181389)

The other problem with renewables is that when it's hot in the Bay Area, the wind isn't blowing as much.

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Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by ghouse on Sunday August 16, 2020 @04:26PM (#24180972)

The rolling blackouts that happened on Friday were initiated around 6:30 PM PDT. On Friday, at 6:30 PM solar was 3,460 MW (from a high of 10,875 MW mid-day) and by 7:30 PM PDT was 133 MW.

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Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by bleepblorp on Sunday August 16, 2020 @04:28PM (#24180994)

Peak indoor temperatures (and, therefore, peak air conditioning demand) on the west coast of North America tend to happen from early evening to sundown.

Needless to say, the ability of solar power to cover this peak is highly limited because the solar peak is earlier in the day.

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Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by WalterBright on Sunday August 16, 2020 @05:09PM (#24181339)

The trick is to cool the house down as much as possible while the sun is up and generating power. It'll take the house a while to warm back up once the sun goes down. I.e. take advantage of thermal mass.

I know it takes my house hours to move 10 degrees if the HVAC is off and the windows closed.

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Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by p1mrx on Sunday August 16, 2020 @04:22PM (#24180938)

The blackouts start around sunset, when solar drops off the grid but people still want A/C.

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Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by ed25519FUUU on Sunday August 16, 2020 @04:30PM (#24181026)

If only we had some sort of energy clean generation technology with a high duty cycle which could ramp up regardless of sunshine or wind...

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Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by lightgreen on Sunday August 16, 2020 @04:46PM (#24181159)

Is that sarcasm?

That technology is nuclear power plant.

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Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by booi on Sunday August 16, 2020 @04:27PM (#24180980)

If only there were some way to store power so we could use it when solar drops off...

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Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by sliken on Sunday August 16, 2020 @06:51PM (#24182065)

Or just run your AC down to 65F till 5pm and turn off the AC till 9pm.

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Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by beamatronic on Sunday August 16, 2020 @09:07PM (#24182801)

That’s true. Your house becomes a negative thermal battery

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Re:It's been a pretty insane 12 hours across the Bay Area by dehrmann on Sunday August 16, 2020 @05:17PM (#24181409)

How does the cost of storage for p999 events compare to the cost of natural gas or nuclear?

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