LOS ANGELES – For decades, rolling blackouts and urgent calls for energy conservation were part of life in California – a reluctant summer ritual almost as reliable as the heat waves that drove them. But the state has undergone a quiet shift in recent years, and the California Independent System Operator hasn’t issued a single one of those emergency pleas, known as Flex Alerts, since 2022.
Experts and officials say the Golden State has reached a turning point, reflecting years of investment in making its electrical grid stronger, cleaner and more dependable. Much of that is new battery energy storage, which captures and stores electricity for later use.
In fact, batteries have been transformative for California, state officials say. In late afternoon, when the sun stops hitting solar panels and people are home using electricity, batteries now push stored solar energy onto the grid…