WSJ goes astray on California’s integration of wind energy

The Wall Street Journal carried an article yesterday by Rebecca Smith on the growth of renewable energy in California and the effect on its electric utility system. The article makes several incorrect and unsupported assertions, addressed below:

Fact #1: It is unlikely that the state will experience a shortage of flexible power by 2017.

Last year, the California Public Utilities Commission required the grid operator to examine the need for flexible capacity in four scenarios in which renewable energy provides 33% of California