This Is What It’s Like to Run a Power Grid

So far on Shift Key Summer School we’ve covered how electricity gets made and how it gets sold. But none of that matters without the grid, which is how that electricity gets to you, the consumer. Who actually keeps the grid running? And what decisions did they make an hour ago, a day ago, a week ago, five years ago to make sure that it would still be running right this second?

This week on Shift Key, Rob and Jesse chat with Mark Rothleder, senior vice president and chief operating officer of the California Independent System Operator, which manages about 80% of the state’s electricity flow. As the longest-serving employee at CAISO, he’s full of institutional knowledge. How does he manage the resource mix throughout the day? What happens in a blackout? And how do you pronounce CAISO in the first place?

Shift Key is hosted by Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University, and Robinson Meyer, Heatmap’s executive editor.

Mentioned:

Jesse’s slides on long-run equilibrium and electricity markets

The CAISO app

Shift Key Summer School episodes 1, 2, 3, and 4

Also on Shift Key: Spain’s Blackout and the Miracle of the Modern Power Grid

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This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by …

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Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.

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