It is not rocket science to figure out that no business can buy high and sell low for long. But it is politically expedient to impose price controls on business under the guise of consumer protection. If you don't understand the economics of price controls, just look at the history of it. Price controls created a gasoline shortage in the United States in the 1970s, food shortages in France in the 1790s, and housing shortages under rent control in cities around the world. In other words, the same short-sighted politics that created the crisis here can be used to create a widespread shortage of electricity around the country.
Politicians know better.
They just are not likely to do better. In other words, the economic problem is simple. It is the political problem that is tough. The economic problem is how to keep electricity flowing to California consumers and the California economy. But it is not that easy for politicians to admit to the voting public that this whole disastrous farce was brought on by them, when they tried to look like knights in shining armor, rescuing the distressed consumers from the greedy electric companies.