California utility grid reliabilty faces questions as state phases out natural gas plants

Source: New York Post

California energy officials are making the decision to let go of three aging natural gas plants that have served as a backup for when high energy demand stresses the grid — with nothing to immediately take its place. That decision, some worry, could put the reliability of the state’s grid at risk for the sake of the state’s wider push to move away from fossil fuels toward more electricity from cleaner energy. Earlier this month, Delphine Hou, deputy director of the California Department of Water Resources energy office, said during a California Energy Commission meeting that the state’s grid reliability contracts with the plants will sunset at the end of the year.