- #WITH POWER GRID UNDER PRESSURE CALIFORNIA HOW TO#
- #WITH POWER GRID UNDER PRESSURE CALIFORNIA UPGRADE#
California is fortunate in the diversity of its energy choices: hydroelectric dams in the north, large-scale solar operations in the Mojave Desert to the east, sprawling windmill farms in mountain passes and heat bubbling in the Geysers, the world’s largest geothermal field north of San Francisco. The major utilities are ahead of schedule in meeting their obligation to obtain power from renewable sources.Ĭalifornia’s universities are teaming with national research labs to develop cutting-edge solutions for storing energy produced by clean sources. (Edison’s plant burned to the ground a decade later.) Bright future?Ĭalifornia’s energy-efficiency regulations have helped reduce statewide energy use, which peaked a decade ago and is on the decline, somewhat easing pressure on the grid. After all, the first electricity grid was built in San Francisco in 1879, three years before Thomas Edison’s power station in New York City. However, if you’ve got what seems like an insoluble problem requiring a to-the-studs teardown and innovative rebuild, California is a good place to start. Picker estimates that utility operations are related to one in 10 wildland fires in California, which can be sparked by aging equipment and winds that send tree branches crashing into power lines, showering flammable landscapes with sparks. Electricity infrastructure is both threatened by and implicated in wildfires. Rising seas imperil coastal power plants.
#WITH POWER GRID UNDER PRESSURE CALIFORNIA UPGRADE#
The airport plans to spend $120 million to upgrade its power plant.īut the harsh effects of climate change expose new vulnerabilities. A gnawing squirrel squeezed into a transformer on Thanksgiving Day three years ago, shutting off power to parts of Los Angeles International Airport. Some weaknesses are well known - rodents and tree limbs, for example, are common culprits in power outages. And utility companies will undoubtedly pass on to their customers the costs of grid upgrades to defend against natural and man-made threats. California still bears the scars of having dropped its regulatory reins some 20 years ago, leaving power companies to bilk the state of billions of dollars it has yet to completely recover. Such transformation is exceedingly risky and potentially costly. “We are in the depths of the conversation,” said Michael Picker, president of the state Public Utilities Commission, who cautions that even as the system is being rebooted, there’s no real plan for making it all work.
#WITH POWER GRID UNDER PRESSURE CALIFORNIA HOW TO#
They’re debating how to manage grid defectors, weighing the feasibility of an energy network that would expand to connect and serve much of the West and pondering how to appropriately regulate small power producers. With California at the forefront of a new energy landscape, officials are racing to design a future that will not just reshape power production and delivery but also dictate how we get around and how our goods are made. Whole cities and counties are abandoning big utilities and buying power from wholesalers and others of their choosing. Major utilities - and the grid itself - are being disrupted by rooftops paved with solar panels and the rise of self-sufficient neighborhood mini-grids. The 19th-century model of one-way power delivery from utility companies to customers is being reimagined.
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