The month of July started out with a bang as warmer temperatures moved across California and extended into the Pacific Northwest while the Desert Southwest was moving along with 110-degree highs in both Las Vegas and Phoenix. We saw power demand rise within the Golden State around the 4^th of July period while the Pacific Northwest tackled the following week, which allowed for the coincidence peak load numbers to be modest in comparison to other heat events that have ravaged the West over the years.

Figure 1 CAISO Peak Power Demand

From a price perspective, the initial heat wave to the 2024 Summer was quite calm as the grid operations were leaning on a healthy natural gas fleet, plenty of flexible hydro generation showing up in the Pacific Northwest/California and a battery fleet that is hitting its max capacity level and when compared to a couple of years ago has more than doubled.  CAISO system operators are quite happy with the initial results from Mother Nature’s initial test tied to the power demand on the grid and it makes for a blissful start to the summer.