In the US, the "the gaps in power" have very little to do with renewables. They have to do with deferred maintenance and an unwillingness to maintain existing infrastructure.

Remember, the massive blackout in Texas in 2021 happened because most Texan powerplants weren't winterized. (Natural gas couldn't get to the power plants because it contains moisture that condensed and froze.)

And then there was Enron that was causing the rolling blackouts in California on purpose. Some of those people went to jail for other reasons.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/enron-caused-california-bl...

Just a minor correction, the massive black out was in 2021, not in 2023.

https://www.ferc.gov/media/february-2021-cold-weather-outage...

Updated

Perhaps we could mitigate such risk with batteries? AFAIK they have decreased a lot in price.

This created a mental image of 'Hey, Frank, pop down t' tesco and get us some AAs, here's a tenner' from someone at the national grid :D