SACRAMENTO, Calif. â Each time the power goes out, frustrated Californians look for someone to blame.
That could spell trouble for Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will appear on a recall ballot during another hot and dry season and as California voters brace for electricity outages around the state.
âIt could be a major issue,â said Dave Gilliard, one of the Republican strategists leading the effort to recall Newsom. âPeople will ultimately hold him responsible for the state of California, and if they canât turn their lights on right around the time theyâre voting, theyâre going to be thinking about that.â
Dive Brief:
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has prepared two proposals for regulators to choose from to address the state s challenge of maintaining a reliable power grid after the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant and a suite of natural gas facilities are retired in the coming years.
Both proposals would direct electricity providers, including utilities, to collectively procure 11,500 MW of resources that can come online between 2023 and 2026. But while one proposal allows utilities to include up to 1,500 MW of incremental capacity from fossil fuel resources in that package, the second would cap that at 500 MW.
The inclusion of fossil fuels in both proposed decisions is disappointing, but not unexpected, according to Michael Colvin, director of regulatory and legislative affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund. We are going to have to recognize that the longer we keep these legacy fossil units online, the harder it is going to be to fully decarbonize the Californ
By:
Andy Colthorpe
People that are sceptical of the ability to decarbonise the energy system are often simply not aware of the solutions that already exist. One major example of this is how the renewable energy and energy storage industries are rapidly adding digital capabilities to control how their resources interact with energy markets.
Smart software and artificial intelligence (AI) can forecast everything from how much electricity will be generated and when it will be generated, to the right strategies for putting that electricity into different market opportunities.
When Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS), one of the pioneers of adding digital capabilities to batteries, was acquired by energy storage technology provider and system integrator Fluence in October last year, it cemented a relationship between the two companies going back to 2019.
California’s next climate challenge: Replacing its last nuclear power plant By Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times
Published: May 24, 2021, 6:02am
Share: Steam is released from reactor No. 1 at Diablo Canyon Power Plant at Avila Beach, Calif., in a May 2000 file image. (Steve Osman/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
The twin reactors along California’s Central Coast were nearing completion, and tens of thousands of people had gathered to protest. It was 1979, just months after a partial nuclear meltdown at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island, and a young Jerry Brown serving his first stint as California governor earned a standing ovation when he declared, “No on Diablo Canyon.”