CAISO
California Independent System Operator · California
Demand, generation by fuel, real-time prices and Flex Alerts for the California grid, summarised from the public files CAISO publishes.
StaleAs of ·source: www.caiso.com/outlook/current/demand.csv, www.caiso.com/outlook/current/stats.txt, www.caiso.com/outlook/current/fuelsource.csv, wwwmobile.caiso.com/Web.Service.Chart/api/v3/ChartService/PriceContourMap1, wwwmobile.caiso.com/TodaysOutlookApi/api/EmergencyNotices/v2/ActiveEvents, www.caiso.com/emergency-notifications
This reading is stale: the newest figure is more than 2 hours old. Figures below are shown only where the export holds them; for CAISO’s current state use caiso.com Today's Outlook.
Raw status JSON · figures are copied from CAISO’s public files; nothing on this page is exclusive.
Live conditions — California grid
Today's Outlook gridstatus: Normal; in-effect notices: 0, current: 0, upcoming: 0
as of · source: www.caiso.com
The condition is CAISO’s own operating state for the California grid — normal, a watch when reserves run thin, or an emergency. It is copied from the operator’s notices, not inferred here; where the operator publishes no feed this page can read, it says so rather than guessing.
Load — CAISO demand
Load is total demand served on the CAISO system in megawatts. Figures are the values in the export; a dash means the feed did not carry the number, not that it was zero.
as of · source: www.caiso.com
Fuel mix — CAISO renewables and imports
- Solar21,748 MW · 62.0%
- Natural Gas5,855 MW · 16.7%
- Wind3,799 MW · 10.8%
- Nuclear1,563 MW · 4.5%
- Geothermal810 MW · 2.3%
- Large Hydro725 MW · 2.1%
- Biomass215 MW · 0.6%
- Small hydro191 MW · 0.5%
- Biogas162 MW · 0.5%
- Coal0 MW · 0.0%
- Other0 MW · 0.0%
- Imports-507 MW · -1.4%
- Batteries-2,539 MW · -7.2%
as of · 5-minute · source: www.caiso.com
Generation by fuel is a single snapshot at its own as-of time, using CAISO’s own fuel categories. It moves through the day — solar at midday, gas and storage into the evening.
Prices (LMP) — CAISO real-time prices
as of · source: wwwmobile.caiso.com
A locational marginal price (LMP) is the cost of serving one more megawatt-hour at a given node: energy, plus congestion, plus losses. The spread between the lowest and highest node is congestion on the CAISO transmission system. Negative prices mean surplus supply, usually wind or solar, at that location.
Map — California ISO price map
CAISO price map
RTD 5-minute LMP for CAISO and WEIM pricing nodes (area = balancing authority) across 14,795 pricing nodes: low -141.92 $/MWh, average 43.94 $/MWh, high 386.61 $/MWh.
Every market on one page: nodal LMP map.
The map colours every CAISO pricing node by its latest real-time LMP. The power plant and balancing authority maps linked below show what generates inside the CAISO footprint and where its boundary runs.
Alerts & news — Flex Alerts and notices
CAISO notices have not been captured recently, so an empty list here means nothing.
as of · source: wwwmobile.caiso.com
FAQ — CAISO
What is CAISO?
CAISO, the California Independent System Operator, runs the grid for about 80% of California’s electricity demand and a small part of Nevada. It also operates the Western Energy Imbalance Market used by utilities across the West.
Is it CAISO or Caliso?
Searches for “caliso” almost always mean CAISO, the California ISO. There is no separate grid operator called Caliso.
What does a Flex Alert mean?
A Flex Alert is CAISO’s call for voluntary conservation, usually on hot evenings when solar output falls while demand stays high. Any active alert appears in the Alerts & news section with a link to CAISO’s notice.
Why does the CAISO fuel mix swing so much in a day?
Solar dominates at midday and falls to zero at sunset, so batteries, gas and imports cover the evening ramp. The Fuel mix section shows the split at the as-of time only.