1.School of Electrical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China;2.Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Smart Grid Technology & Equipment, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China;3.Tampere Electrical Research Center, Tampere 33100, Finland;4.State Grid International Development Co., Ltd., Beijing 100031, China

From August 14 to August 15, 2020, a rotating power outage occurred in California, USA. From August 17 to August 18 and from September 5 to September 6 of the same year, the California power grid entered a state of emergency, affecting the normal electricity usage of at least 810 000 residents. Accident analysis report of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO)pointed out that the accident was caused by a series of factors. Based on the public reports of the CAISO, this paper sorts out and summarizes the development process of the accident, and analyzes the causes. Finally, combined with the actual situation of the power grid in China, suggestions on prevention of extreme weather, focusing on normalizing demand response, making steady progress toward the carbon neutral goal in 2060, and improving cross-regional power dispatching capability are put forward.