{"id":11581,"date":"2015-11-11T12:11:43","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T18:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/?p=11581"},"modified":"2015-11-11T12:38:28","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T18:38:28","slug":"driving-the-last-spike-linking-californias-electric-grid-to-extend-clean-energys-reach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2015\/11\/11\/driving-the-last-spike-linking-californias-electric-grid-to-extend-clean-energys-reach\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving the Last Spike: Linking California\u2019s Electric Grid to Extend Clean Energy\u2019s Reach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"East_and_West_Shaking_hands_at_the_laying_of_last_rail_Union_Pacific_Railroad_-_Restoration\"<\/a>\u201cWhen the connection was finally made the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific engineers ran their engines up until their pilots touched. Then the engineers shook hands and had their pictures taken and each broke a bottle of champagne on the pilot of the other’s engine and had their picture taken again.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 – \u00a0Alexander Topence on the scene in Promontory, \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Utah in 1869 after Western governors drove the \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u201clast spike\u201d of the Transcontinental Railroad.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

These are good times for clean energy in California. A decade of visionary policymaking, a motivated private sector, and copious sunshine have joined together to reduce the cost of solar in the Golden State by 90 percent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We already produce more solar energy than any other state. And thanks to a new law Governor Jerry Brown signed last month<\/a>, SB 350 (De Le\u00f3n), California has committed itself to yet another ambitious clean energy goal: 50 percent of electricity in the nation\u2019s most populous state will come from renewables by 2030. Solar is a central part, among others, of California\u2019s strategy to meet this new target.<\/p>\n

Amid all this optimism, fast solar growth poses challenges as well. A lot of it has to do with timing.<\/p>\n

Timing is not always on solar\u2019s side<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"CAISO<\/a>
Source: California ISO Daily Renewables Watch for October 28, 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The California Independent System Operator (ISO), the agency in charge of operating the state\u2019s electric grid, keeps track of electricity production and demand.<\/p>\n

This is what the renewable energy supply picture looked like on a recent October day. The golden bell curve represents solar generation. On that day, solar energy production peaked at 12:46 PM.<\/p>\n

But energy demand didn\u2019t peak until four hours later, at 6:46 PM, when people started coming home from work and school, and turning on their devices as the sun was beginning to set. The solar supply curve is out of synch with the way Californians use energy.<\/p>\n

Increasingly, the ISO is finding that solar generation in California is so high during the daytime hours that we are unable to use all of it. The agency calls this excess, unused renewable energy supply \u201ccurtailment.\u201d Its analysis<\/a> suggests that if the state had adopted a target of 40 percent renewables by 2030 then some 15 percent of the incremental increased capacity would be curtailed, or essentially wasted.<\/p>\n

So, we\u2019re facing a situation of potentially losing a substantial amount of our clean energy. What\u2019s the solution?<\/p>\n

[Tweet “Driving the last spike: Linking California\u2019s electric grid to extend the reach of #cleanenergy”]<\/p>\n

How California can avoid wasting its clean energy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, Californians could change the way we consume energy. In fact, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) helped utilities and the California Public Utilities Commission develop time-of-use pricing<\/a>. This innovative pricing mechanism rewards people who shift some of their electricity use to times of day when clean resources are available and electricity is cheaper, bringing supply and demand into closer alignment. Better energy storage options coming to market soon will help too.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s another step we should take that will help on a massive scale and speed the transition to clean energy in other states. It\u2019s time to link the ISO with other grid systems in the West, like PacifiCorp, which delivers 70 million megawatt-hours of power per year to 1.8 million customers in six states (California, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming).<\/p>\n

Linking the ISO with PacifiCorp is a win-win for customers in both networks. For California, it provides a market for millions of megawatts of excess solar generation (in red), which would otherwise be wasted.<\/p>\n

\"ISO<\/a>
Source: Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For PacifiCorp, where states are grappling with how to reduce carbon emissions under the federal Clean Power Plan<\/a>, imports of low-cost, California solar could allow them to replace dirty energy supplies while still meeting customer demand.<\/p>\n

\"ISO<\/a>
Source: Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What\u2019s more, there are financial benefits for customers in both networks. Over 20 years, Energy and Environmental Economics estimated that ISO and PacifiCorp customers would see savings of $3.4 to $9.1 billion. Meanwhile, workers will benefit from new jobs and opportunity in a solar industry that can continue to grow.<\/p>\n

Avoiding concerns<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what are the concerns? There are a few, but we can take reasonable steps to avoid them. Let\u2019s look at some of the biggest ones:<\/p>\n