World-Gen May/June 2016 - page 8

WORLD-GENERATION MAY/JUNE 2016
8
Renewable resources have laid golden
eggs and now California is facing an embar-
rassment of riches – and challenges.
Furthermore, pressure to reduce global
greenhouse gases has emerged as a major
topic in regulatory energy planning shaping
the future energy scene.
Infocast’s California Energy Summit,
held on May 11 and 12 in Santa Monica,
revealed a multitude of issues created by
those events that are facing the state’s ener-
gy agencies.
California is already producing an over-
abundance of power on weekday afternoons
and that is causing alarms. Jan Smutny-
Jones, executive director Independent
Energy Producers Assn., said at the sum-
mit, “Everybody has eyes on this and is
thinking what to do.” Why the alarm?
Because renewable power, in particular
solar power, is already filling the belly of
“The Duck Curve,” an illustration of a cal-
culation the California Independent System
Operator created several years ago that has
become quite famous among energy
wonks. It projects the date when renewable
power resources would knock out the need
for our gas generation to kick in and meet
peak demand in the middle of the work day,
posing a risk of over-generation.
That date arrived four years ahead of
schedule – we’re seeing it this year.
Furthermore, by 6:00 p.m. on that work
day power demand starts ramping up at the
rate of about 13,000 MW in three hours,
requiring fast-start generation to kick in
making the work at Cal ISO managing the
grid all that harder.
Why did the belly of the duck fill up so
fast? The utilities and homeowners up and
down the state have been so eager to pro-
cure and install solar and wind systems we
will be meeting the date earlier than the
legislatively mandated date – 33% by 2021.
Now SB 350, which became law in
2015, dictates that by 2031 50% of our elec-
tricity is to be produced by renewable
resources. That implies that new regimes
must be designed for scheduling power on
the grid and refocusing the utilities’ rate
structures.
Neil Millar, executive director of infra-
structure development at Cal ISO, said
there are many resouces moving into the
transmission system controlled by his agen-
cy due to the new regulation. The impacts
of the RPS increasing to 50% and increased
energy efficiency reducing loads means the
deliverability of generation becomes the
major issue.
Jan Smutny-Jones said we have the
opportunity to move the rate structure to
use solar in the middle of the day and not
move it to 3:00 a.m. Another suggestion
was to sell the surplus solar power to hydro
companies, which act as huge storage bat-
teries, in the Northwest. The message was
clear – existing time-of-use rates may not
coincide with the overabundance of electric-
ity.
The Independent Energy Producers
Association is sponsoring a bill in the
California State Legislature (SB 919) which
will, if it becomes law, create tariffs or eco-
nomic incentives for water agencies to aug-
ment water supplies by developing desalina-
tion plants, and facilities for water recy-
cling, water reuse, stormwater and dry
weather runoff capture and groundwater
recharge. These facilities are energy inten-
sive and expensive because of current elec-
tricity tariffs.
The bill seeks to balance the oversup-
ply of electricity produced by renewables
with the water agencies’ increased develop-
ment and use of energy-intensive new local
water supplies. It would require the tariffs
or economic incentives to be developed by
the California Public Utilities Commission
and the California Independent System
Operator by 2018.
CPUC HAS NEW JOB
The CPUC is already considering
adjusting TOU rates to capture shifts in
demand and encourage a shift in energy
use by commercial, industrial and agricul-
tural users to alternate times of the day
when abundant renewable energy and low-
water-using energy are produced at high
quantities. It expects to complete this work
by July 2017.
Edward Randolph, executive director of
the energy division at the CPUC discussed
the impacts of SB 350 on his agency. He
started by saying he doesn’t care about get-
ting to the 50% renewables target, “but we
have to meet the GHG goals.” The long
term goal is to reduce GHG emissions
below 1990 levels by 2050. That trajectory
means reducing 2010 emissions from 13.3
emissions/capita to 1.4 emissions/capita by
2050. Randolph’s response: “By that date
we have to move the entire transportation
system to electricity and produce no car-
bon.” Getting there must be done through
the long-term planning process, he said.
SB 350 requires the commission to file
an Integrated Resource Plan for each utility
under its jurisdiction. Each IRP will look at
both supply side and demand-side resourc-
es “as a means of focusing on global green-
house gas emissions and reliability of each
utility’s portfolio,” Randolph said.
GHG reduction targets will be integrat-
ed into the IRP – this adds a binding con-
straint which the current Long-term
(continued page 22)
CALIFORNIA NEWS
CALIFORNIA ENERGY DELIVERY SYSTEM INTRANSITION
BY LYN CORUM,CLASS OF 2003
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