California energy consumers, get used to seeing more Flex Alerts — requests from the state’s grid operator to have consumers voluntarily cut back on energy use during certain hours to help relieve stress on the power system.
The CEO of the nonprofit that manages about 80 percent of California’s grid said Wednesday that hot weather and drought conditions are putting added stress on the state’s electrical system as the calendar moves deeper into summer. That means that in addition to looking for more energy supplies, grid operators will ask for utility customers’ help, too.
“Every time it gets really, really hot across the western United States, or in at least three of the big (energy) supply regions — the Pacific Northwest, the desert Southwest and Intermountain West, and the big areas of California — then we should be prepared to go to a Flex Alert, unequivocally,” said Elliot Mainzer, the president and CEO of the California Independent System Operator, known as the CAISO for short.
The CAISO issued five Flex Alerts last summer, highlighted by a stubborn “heat dome” in August that covered California for days and extended into neighboring states, leading to the first rolling blackouts in the Golden State in nearly 20 years.
And this year is off to a broiling start.
Four days before the official start of summer, a heat wave descended on large sections of California, prompting the CAISO to issue Flex Alerts on June 17 and 18.
In addition, drought conditions have depleted generation from the state’s hydroelectric dams this year. The state’s grid operator normally imports about one-quarter of its power needs from neighboring states, with the Pacific Northwest being a generous provider of hydro power. But those states recently experienced record-breaking heat.
In late June, Portland, Ore., topped out at 116 degrees — significantly hotter than the average seasonal high in the 80s, according to the National Weather Service.
Two months ago, Mainzer and officials at the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission said they were guardedly optimistic that Californians would not see a summer rerun of rotating outages.
“The last several weeks, however, as we’ve seen significant heating events across the West and changes in hydro conditions, I think we’re adding just a little bit more ‘guarded’ to that guarded optimism,” Mainzer said.
The CAISO boss made his remarks while touring a new San Diego Gas & Electric lithium-ion battery storage project in Miramar. The Top Gun Energy Storage Facility will provide 30 megawatts and 120 megawatt-hours of energy that can serve the equivalent of 20,000 residential customers for four hours.
The Top Gun Energy Storage facility, recently unveiled by San Diego Gas & Electric, at its Miramar Operations Center. It will provide 30 megawatts and 120 megawatt-hours of clean energy, using lithium-ion batteries.
(Eduardo Contreras/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
In addition to the facility’s 30 megawatts, SDG&E has procured 132 megawatts of extra capacity this summer.
“Locally, we feel like we’re fully resourced,” SDG&E Chief Executive Officer Caroline Winn said. But Winn was quick to say the electric transmission system and high-voltage grid are all interconnected.
“So if something happens in Northern California, it could impact the electric supply to Southern California and we might have a grid emergency. We might ask customers to conserve. Or if something happens here, if there is a major fire, if there is a condition where a major transmission line or generator resources go out, we (could) have a local emergency. So I will just tell you that we have done everything in our power to add enough capacity to our system to ensure the lights stay on.”
California has set a goal to derive 100 percent of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045. To get there, energy storage figures to be critical.
That’s because renewable sources such as solar and wind are intermittent. That is, while solar may generate plenty of energy in California when the sun shines, production disappears after the sun sets. Similarly, generation from wind turbines ebbs when the wind doesn’t blow.
Natural gas and nuclear energy can fill in the gaps but natural gas is a fossil fuel and California is scheduled to take its lone remaining nuclear facility — Diablo Canyon and its 2,240 megawatts of power — offline in 2024 and 2025.
Developing energy storage, which includes batteries and pumped hydro projects, looks to fill the bill.
California Independent System Operator president and CEO Elliot Mainzer speaks to reporters about the Top Gun Energy Storage facility at San Diego Gas & Electric’s Miramar Operations Center.
(Eduardo Contreras/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“I think it’s important to recognize the big picture,” Mainzer said. “California has taken on a very ambitious goal of decarbonizing its power system ... And as we’ve learned more about how our renewable energy resources are performing, we recognize that we need to pair them with other forms of capacity and reliability that can keep the lights on when renewable resources aren’t generating.
“That’s why this battery resource here (Top Gun) is a perfect example of the kind of clean capacity that California is going to be putting on its system increasingly in years to come.”
SDG&E has five energy storage projects online and four more either in development or under construction. Battery storage projects, though declining in costs, are more expensive than conventional energy sources and those costs are passed onto ratepayers.
The financial details of the Top Gun Energy Storage Facility are confidential, as per California Public Utilities Commission rules that forbid disclosure of details of contracts for three years once they have been awarded.
“I don’t have the exact impact on rates,” Winn said, “but we are working to make sure it’s the most cost-effective technology that you can build.”
The CAISO last week announced it is seeking additional capacity to help ensure the state’s grid remains reliable throughout the summer.
But Mainzer said this summer’s “single biggest variable” will be energy conservation by consumers — doing things such as setting the thermostat at 78 degrees, closing drapes to keep rooms from getting hot, avoiding the use of appliances during the 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. hours when stress on the grid is at its peak.
Reductions in energy demand kept the outages in August from lasting for more than two consecutive days and helped prevent rolling blackouts when another heat wave hit over the 2020 Labor Day weekend. Consumer response to last month’s Flex Alerts, Mainzer said, made a significant contribution.
“If consumers lean in the way they did on June 17th and 18th, and as they showed us last year, that could be the big variable in helping us avoid those rotating outages this summer. If we don’t get that kind of response, it could be a different story.”
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Every time it gets really hot in the West this summer — expect a Flex Alert - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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