Daylight Savings Time (DST) carries the motto of ‘spring forward and fall back’ given the hour time change that comes with each season mentioned.  California’s renewable energy has its own ‘DST’ acronym., which stands for Daylight Sunny Times and its motto is ‘spring curtailments and fall back to more of the same’.

Figure 1 | CAISO Curtailment Daily Summary

The heat wave that moved through California just after Labor Day has given way to moderate temperatures across the state, while keeping the sunny skies across the desert landscape where the solar farms sit.  This has led to lower net demand, especially during the midday block of hours within Southern California.  As seen in the spring, the market fundamentals described lead to the grid operators balancing the grid via congestion signals in both the day-ahead and real-time markets......