Except the data seems to show that California Independent System Operator (CISO) has not had a single hour where Gas hasn't produced at least 1GWh of electricity, even in the height of the day in the height of summer with the lowest demand, not even close
Maybe there are local bottlenecks inside the CISO network, but that's a very separate problem.
Interesting. That makes me wonder if the gas plants have to operate at some minimal output level because they can't go all the way into cold shutdown without risking grid integrity should something unexpected happen. Except that I was under the impression that gas-plants, in general, are bootstrappable plants and can kickstart themselves from a cold shutdown.
Not all are bootstrap-capable, and many do co-generation for district heating, which can power absorption heat pumps for cooling in the summer.
Also a gas turbine core that's spinning can modulate power in seconds, unlike one that has to first be brought up to speed with external power (even if that's from batteries, or an on-site diesel (like AFAIK in the case of the black start capability of the downtown power plant in Wuppertal Barmen)).
Maybe there are local bottlenecks inside the CISO network, but that's a very separate problem.