Again, this is for the hours of peak consumption. People can charge their cars anytime they want, but they are asking people not to use things that take a lot of power, car chargers included, from 4-9 PM. The leaves 19 hours of the day where you can suck up as much current from the grid that you want.
Do you know who "they" are? They are private companies that haven't invested in upgrading the electrical system in California because it costs money do to so. They haven't even bothered to replace the hardware on 100 year old transmission towers.
"PG&E failed to inspect the tower and the C-hook thoroughly to identify the deterioration," the report from CPUC's safety division said.
www.abc10.com
They are PG&E, Edison International, Sempra Electric, and other utility companies that are owned by Wall Street financial investment firms that are only interested in making money. They don't care if lack of maintenance or upgrades results in a city with several million people burning down as long as they make money on it. And if a city that size were to burn down due to their negligence they would sell off their stock so they don't take the loss or financial responsibility for the damage.
PG&E is mired in debt. Rates are skyrocketing. Tens of thousands of survivors of fires sparked by the utility's equipment are waiting for promised compensation. Amid all this, there's one group that's simply walking away: Wall Street hedge funds.
www.capradio.org
This problem isn't limited to California either. It's nationwide to varying degrees and it is the result of years of lobbying and pushing propaganda that regulations are always bad private interests will always result in a better outcome than the public sector. This is the result of the deregulation that Enron pushed for a little over 20 years ago strictly in the interest of manipulating energy availability so they can manipulate energy prices for their profit at the expense of everyone else. We have transitioned from a nation that had the ambition to build railroads across a continent and send a man to the mood to a nation where everything is done just well enough to get and patch holes in crappy workmanship so the investment firms and hedge funds on Wall Street can make more.
As far as the grid goes, it's a problem during peak hours for a few days. Numerous places around the country had the same problem earlier this summer during their heatwaves. Also, it's limited to certain geographic areas. I've never experienced a rolling blackout here.