Thanking your lucky stars is to be very grateful for what you have as one’s situation could be a lot worse. In the California market (CAISO), the lucky stars pertain to the cost of a renewable energy credit (REC) as last April (2024) saw the value of such skyrocket to levels that pushed the real-time midday hourly market into the -$75-$90 range for several hours throughout Q2. 

Figure 1 | CAISO Real-Time Curtailment and SP15 Hourly Price Settles – April 2024

The figure above depicts a couple of days in April 2024 when the SP15 real-time price (bottom pane) shifted down to such levels and displays how the grid’s supply stack handled the curtailments with the majority of volume ridding itself on the grid was associated to the solar fleet as the major component tied to their offer curve was replacing the REC that would be lost if the panels did not generate the megawatt of electricity.