The Southern California Edison’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station has been completely down for months and electricity prices are rising in the area because of this. While the problem here is a temporarily closed site, it highlights the problems of going from petroleum-based and nuclear power to renewables. How do you keep the lights on and prices low while transitioning?
Thus, higher wholesale power prices in Southern California more likely are attributable to the need for more-expensive generation in that region to fill the shortage. To ensure electric reliability in the densely populated Los Angeles and San Diego regions, Southern California needs to use local generation sources and cannot solely rely on imported electricity to replace generation from SONGS. The major nearby alternative sources, however, are more expensive, and seem to be contributing to higher wholesale power prices.