Ed. Note: The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) has issued statewide “flex alerts” (blackout alerts) for six days running. Today’s post describes the in-place demand reduction program. Part II tomorrow will update the current situation and the familiar reasons why: dilute, intermittent energies being forced on the grid by state and federal policy wounding the reliables generated from mineral energies.

A major theme of political economy is: one government intervention or program leads to another and yet another. In “green electricity” California, supply-side distortions have required demand-side management (DSM) within the central planning exercise of Integrated Resource Planning. That began in the 1980s; today, there is centralized wholesale power grid planning. And supply side mismanagement means demand-side programs and exhortation to use less energy in the peak-demand hours.

It is back to Amory Lovins’s soft energy path within his “whole-systems planning,” whereby a “negawatt” (usage forgone) is as important as a kilowatt (see the conclusion below).…