Delaney Hall

It's full of organizations and agreements that go by acronyms like FERC and NERC.

and ISOs and RTOs and IRPs and PPAs.

It's kind of a nightmare to describe.

But I've also come to feel that the sheer density of acronyms involved is weirdly comforting because each one represents a layer of oversight, a whole team of people who are there to keep the lights on and the AC running.

Now, in Phoenix, all of this planning, the long-term forecasting, the day-ahead stacking, the real-time operators, it all gets put to the test during one season in particular, summer.

And specifically, the hottest day of the hottest week at the hottest hour.

That's when we come back.

So to move to reliability, grid reliability, it's obviously a huge issue.

And I guess how do you prepare for the energy needs of Phoenix on what you know is going to be a really, really hot day?

So it sounds like planning for summer is sort of a year-round project.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

What happens when something goes wrong?

And I'm curious if there are any nightmare scenarios that keep you up at night when it comes to grid reliability.

Angie mentioned the recent blackout in Spain and Portugal, when the entire Iberian Peninsula went dark after a small electrical disturbance turned into a massive cascading failure.

That's the kind of nightmare scenario they are always trying to prevent.

But she said the more likely risks are smaller and less dramatic and happen on a much more local scale.

Those unpredictable gender reveal parties, you can't always know when someone's going to shoot confetti into a transformer or something like that.

So why might the power go out when there's a heat wave?