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California's clean-energy grid powers through climate-driven extreme heat, meeting highest demand since 2022

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Oct 13, 2026

California's clean-energy grid powers through climate-driven extreme heat, meeting highest demand since 2022

Rapid clean energy buildout and coordinated planning strengthen reliability as California chooses a cleaner energy future over Trump's costly coal bailouts

What you need to know: California's high-voltage power grid handled its highest electricity use in four years without emergency measures or a call for extra energy conservation, as Governor Gavin Newsom's sustained investments in clean energy keep the lights on while continuing to grow the Golden State's economy. Meanwhile, Donald Trump's energy policies are raising prices for Americans nationwide, leaving the nation vulnerable to volatile global oil markets.

SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today marked a major milestone in California's nation-leading clean energy buildout. The state's power grid got through its highest electricity use in four years without emergency measures, backed by more than 39,000 megawatts of new clean energy added since 2019, including more than 23,000 megawatts of battery storage.

The test came on September 9, 2026, when Californians used more electricity at once than on any day in the last four years. Climate-driven extreme heat again had air conditioners running across the state, and electricity use hit 50,335 megawatts, about 3% below the all-time record of 52,061 megawatts set during the September 2022 extreme heat event. California's grid held strong without any emergency measures.

Those results are no accident. They reflect years of sustained investment in clean energy, the same technologies now outcompeting fossil fuels for investment around the world.

We're building the clean energy grid of the future, and it's delivering reliable power through climate-driven extreme heat and weather. This is what real energy independence looks like: clean electricity powering our homes, businesses, and cars without leaving our future to the mercy of volatile global fossil fuel markets that are raising costs on Americans nationwide. While the Trump administration's energy agenda raises costs for Americans nationwide, California is showing that clean power keeps the lights on and grows the economy.

Governor Gavin Newsom

The climate crisis is making extreme heat events hotter and longer, and California has prepared its power grid to keep up when extreme heat drives up electricity use. These results show how Governor Newsom's investments in clean energy and reliability are helping the world's fourth-largest economy meet those challenges.

California is powering the economy of the future

Since Governor Newsom took office in 2019, California has added more than 39,000 megawatts of utility-scale clean energy to serve the California grid. That's helped make the grid more reliable and pushed the state further along its path in the clean energy transition.

The most recent numbers, from the end of 2024, show real progress: 67% of retail electricity sales in the state already come from clean energy. Last year, clean energy met 100% of the state's electricity needs for at least part of the day on 279 separate days.

Solar and battery storage have been a key part of that progress, and are changing how California keeps the lights on. Since 2019, battery resources serving California grew from fewer than 700 megawatts to more than 23,000 megawatts — an increase of more than 3,100%. Batteries store solar power when it is abundant and deliver it after sunset. That reduces how often the state needs to run natural gas plants, which cuts air pollution and supports a more cost-effective electricity system.

California's approach is also where the money is heading. Global investors are now putting roughly two dollars into clean-energy technology for every dollar that goes into fossil fuels. California is leading that shift while Donald Trump watches from the sidelines.

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For California, that means investing in the good-paying jobs of the future. The Golden State is the 4th-largest economy in the world and leads the nation in total clean energy jobs, with 552,300 workers employed across clean energy technologies, nearly twice as many as the second-ranked state, Texas, according to a 2025 report from E2. California's clean energy workforce grew by nearly 7,300 workers in 2024, outpacing job growth in the rest of the state's economy by more than three times.

California plans ahead so the grid keeps pace with growing demand

California's reliability gains reflect more than new construction. The state has strengthened coordination among the agencies that forecast electricity demand, plan transmission and oversee the purchase of new resources, helping ensure that available power can reach the communities that need it.

In December 2022, CAISO, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the California Energy Commission (CEC) signed a memorandum of understanding linking resource and transmission planning, grid interconnection and procurement. The Newsom administration identifies that agreement as a foundation for preparing California to meet growing electricity demand, including from data centers, while maintaining reliability and advancing clean-energy goals.

The strategy connects decisions about which resources electricity providers purchase with where transmission capacity exists or is planned. It helps guide investment toward projects that can connect to the grid and deliver electricity where customers need it, rather than treating generation, transmission, and procurement as separate challenges.

The Newsom administration also built a backstop to provide additional energy reserves during climate emergencies. When the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain challenges delayed the projects California needed to keep the grid reliable, Governor Newsom created the Strategic Reliability Reserve in 2022. The Reserve keeps backup resources ready for extreme heat and unusual conditions while new clean energy and storage resources continue to be deployed each year.

Keeping the grid reliable and bills fair as data centers drive new demand

This past summer, large loads, such as from data centers, added strain to power grids in parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, prompting emergency measures to prevent blackouts. California has not faced the same strain, thanks in part to safeguards Governor Newsom's administration put in place, including the coordinated planning agreement signed in 2022 by CAISO, CPUC, and the CEC.

To build on those safeguards, Governor Newsom signed a legislative package in September to strengthen oversight of data centers and protect Californians from bearing the costs of the industry's growing demands on electricity and water systems. The laws give communities more information about proposed projects while establishing safeguards for the grid, utility customers, and local water supplies.

With these new laws, California is helping to ensure that communities have the information they need to decide whether data centers are right for them, including:
  • ⚡ Electricity, by making data centers pay their fair share of grid update costs, while preventing cost shifts to low-income customers. The new laws will also ensure data centers comply with California energy procurement requirements, bring new clean energy supply onto the grid, and pay for any upgrade costs. This legislation will prevent data centers from shifting costs onto everyday ratepayers.
  • 🚰 Water, by requiring that proposed data centers provide information to local governments and water suppliers about water use, supply, efficiency, and drought planning. Any upgrades needed to supply water would be paid for by the data center.
  • 🏞️ Land use, by making data centers ineligible for blanket environmental exemptions and instead requiring data centers to demonstrate that the project will not shift costs to ratepayers, but will meet state standards on energy, water, and fuel consumption before any judicial streamlining could be approved.

These protections complement California's coordinated grid planning with a clear principle: innovation should move forward without leaving Californians to shoulder the infrastructure costs of data-center growth.

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California chooses more affordable energy future, not coal-industry bailouts

Nearly two decades ago, California began moving away from coal, choosing instead to invest in a cleaner energy future that delivers reliable, more affordable power. That transition finally culminated last year, when the last coal-fired power plant supplying Los Angeles retired, ending the city and the state's reliance on coal-fired electricity.

Meanwhile, Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright are handing the coal industry the bailout it asked for, forcing aging plants to stay open past retirement, sometimes over their owners' objections, with electricity customers facing hundreds of millions of dollars in costs.

In Michigan alone, Trump's forcing a coal plant to run past its retirement date had cost approximately $259 million before a federal appeals court struck down Trump's unlawful order.

California is choosing a different path: expanding clean electricity and storage while maintaining the resources necessary to protect reliability throughout the transition. That commitment is delivering results, with clean energy supplying a larger share of the grid every year.

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