Energy Exchange

To Keep Lights on in LA, State’s Aliso Canyon Action Plan Must Fix Energy Markets, Maximize Smart Energy Solutions

By Tim O’Connor and Lauren Navarro

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Ongoing fallout from the catastrophic failure at the Southern California Gas Company’s Aliso Canyon storage facility is exposing a critical weakness in the state’s energy system. Overdependence on natural gas – and on one provider of that gas – means we don’t have the flexibility we need to cope if things go wrong. And now that they have gone wrong, because of SoCalGas’ mismanagement of the Aliso Canyon storage facility, a group of state agencies says the region could be facing power shortages this summer as a result.

A new report released today by the California Energy Commission (CEC), California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), California Independent System Operator (CAISO,) the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) describes the problem. While a separate report released by CEC, CPUC, CAISO and LADWP, begins to lay out the short-term response plan. (Some of the efforts already under way are documented here, here, and here). Read More »

Posted in Air Quality, Aliso Canyon, California, Clean Energy, Demand Response, General, Methane, Natural Gas / Read 4 Responses

Clean Energy Conference Roundup: April 2016

rp_conference-300x2001-300x200.jpgEach month, the Energy Exchange rounds up a list of top clean energy conferences around the country. Our list includes conferences at which experts from the EDF Clean Energy Program will be speaking, plus additional events that we think our readers may benefit from marking on their calendars.

Top clean energy conferences featuring EDF experts in April:

April 4:  Energy Power Dialog (Austin, TX)
Speaker: John Hall, Texas State Director, Clean Energy

  • Participate in a national dialog on energy being hosted at universities across the United States. The Power Dialog will engage approximately 10,000 students in face-to-face conversation with state-level regulators and policy experts in all 50 states about the federal Clean Power Plan (CPP), which requires 32 percent cuts in global warming pollution by 2030. At the University of Texas at Austin, EDF’s John Hall will co-lead the dialog that helps students understand the positions for and against the Clean Power Plan: Why does Texas oppose the CPP? Why should Texas support it? This is not a lobbying or advocacy event, but rather a way to engage students in an important learning opportunity.

Read More »

Posted in Colorado, Conference Roundup, New York, North Carolina, Texas / Comments are closed

Live in Illinois? Your Energy Data May be Easier for You to Access than Ever Before

ashwin-shankar-pecan-street-2015-35 (2)By: David Kolata, Executive Director of Citizens Utility Board, and Andrew Barbeau, President of The Accelerate Group, LLC, and senior clean energy consultant to EDF

Knowledge is power – especially when it comes to electricity. And as Illinois’ biggest electric utility installs four million new digital, advanced meters across the state, people are on the brink of obtaining the intelligence they need to maximize the benefits of this smart grid technology.

The Citizens Utility Board (CUB) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) have brokered an agreement with Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) that could catapult Illinois to the national forefront in providing households with real-time data on their electricity use. The deal is part of the “Open Data Access Framework” for protecting, collecting, and sharing energy-use data, which has recently gained ground but is still awaiting final approval from the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC).

About two years after CUB and EDF asked the ICC to institute the framework, we’re pleased ComEd has embraced using the national “Green Button Connect” standard for third-party data access. We hope this watershed agreement leads to a surge in innovations that help people reap the full savings potential of the smart grid. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Data Access, Illinois / Tagged | Comments are closed

Clean Energy Conference Roundup: March 2016

rp_conference-300x200.jpgEach month, the Energy Exchange rounds up a list of top clean energy conferences around the country. Our list includes conferences at which experts from the EDF Clean Energy Program will be speaking, plus additional events that we think our readers may benefit from marking on their calendars.

Top clean energy conferences featuring EDF experts in March:

March 9: Clean Power Plan or What Next? Symposium & Workshop (Houston, TX)

Speaker: John Hall, Texas State Director, Clean Energy

  • Join a group of high level executives for a discussion on the issues arising from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan and its regional impact.

March 16-17: California’s Distributed Energy Future 2016  (San Francisco, CA)

Speaker: Jamie Fine, Senior Economist, U.S. Climate and Energy

  • As distributed energy gains steam in California, state regulators, policymakers, utilities, and distributed energy resource providers are shaping the rules, regulations, and markets that will ensure the transition is speedy and smooth. Greentech Media is partnering with More Than Smart to host actionable conversations on the future of electricity in an innovative state.

March 16: 2016 Building Energy Summit® (Washington, DC)

Speaker: Ellen Bell, Manager, Midwest Clean Energy

  • Building owners, energy experts, and technology pioneers will come together at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC to address the business and social drivers for more energy efficient buildings. Ellen will participate in a discussion on how to analyze portfolio data for energy saving opportunities, how to prioritize initiatives based on payback, and how to align your efforts with a corporate environmental policy. Read More »
Posted in California, Conference Roundup, New York, Texas, Washington, DC / Tagged | Read 2 Responses

Paying Attention to “Orphan” Wells Pays Off

By David Lyon and Adam Peltzabandoned well

There are at more than 1.5 million inactive oil and gas wells in the U.S. that remain uncapped and, in some cases, unsafe. Some are temporarily dormant, while others are fully depleted but not yet properly sealed, continuing to emit residual pollution from the days when they were active. Many are what the industry calls “orphans,” with no financially solvent owner in sight to take the responsibility for them. Long seen as a water protection issue, a new study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters now shows that properly plugging unused wells can also reduce emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane.

The study looks at orphaned and plugged wells in four oil and gas producing regions of the country – Colorado’s Denver-Julesburg Basin; Ohio’s Appalachian Basin; Wyoming’s Powder River Basin; and Utah’s Uinta Basin. It is part of a series of 16 major studies organized by Environmental Defense Fund to better understand the scale and scope of oil and gas methane emissions. Read More »

Posted in General, Methane, Natural Gas / Comments are closed

After the Aliso Disaster: Less Gas Storage, More Clean Energy Through Increased Market Efficiency

By: Mark Brownstein & Tim O’Connor4157619250_29ac89191b_o

The nearly four-month disaster at the Aliso Canyon storage facility owned by Southern California Gas Company has spurred widespread calls to close the sprawling underground reservoir, and cast intense scrutiny on the 13 other similar facilities around California. But others, including Governor Jerry Brown and key state agencies, say the facilities may be needed to keep the electric grid running reliably.

Ironically, one reason for dependence on this fossil fuel is California’s renewable energy boom.

As things currently stand, there aren’t enough responsive resources on the grid to simultaneously manage the large daily swings in consumer electricity demand typical in California and swings in renewable energy output due to variations in time of day and weather.

A more robust grid in combination with innovative energy storage and energy management technology will eventually reduce these swings, but may take decades to fully deploy.  Until then, fast-acting gas-fired generation is necessary for balancing system operations. This has become a rallying cry for SoCalGas and the rest of California’s oil and gas industry in the wake of Aliso Canyon. Read More »

Posted in Aliso Canyon, California, General, Methane, Natural Gas / Read 2 Responses