The governor's office said California's high-voltage grid handled its highest electricity use in four years on Sept. 9, 2026, without emergency measures.

The office reported demand reached 50,335 megawatts that day, about 3% below the all-time record of 52,061 megawatts set in September 2022.

The release attributes the outcome to a rapid buildout of clean energy and coordinated planning; since 2019 the state has added more than 39,000 megawatts of utility-scale clean energy, including more than 23,000 megawatts of battery storage.

By the end of 2024, the state said 67% of retail electricity sales came from clean energy, and clean power met 100% of the state's electricity needs for part of the day on 279 separate days in 2024.

The administration described planning and reserve measures that supported reliability; in December 2022 CAISO, the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission signed a memorandum of understanding linking resource and transmission planning, and Governor created the Strategic Reliability Reserve in 2022 to hold backup resources ready for extreme conditions.

The governor's office said batteries have been central to the shift, growing from fewer than 700 megawatts in 2019 to more than 23,000 megawatts today; batteries store solar power when it is abundant and deliver it after sunset, reducing how often natural-gas plants are needed.

The release also highlighted legislation Governor Newsom signed in September to strengthen oversight of data centers and protect ratepayers; the laws require data centers to pay their share of grid upgrade costs and comply with California energy procurement rules, provide local governments and water suppliers with information on water use and supply, and make certain data centers ineligible for blanket environmental exemptions unless they show projects will not shift costs to ratepayers.

The administration contrasted California's approach with recent federal actions to keep aging coal plants running; the release said those orders have raised costs for electricity customers and cited a Michigan example it said cost approximately $259 million before a federal appeals court struck down the order.

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Gavin Newsom

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