Focus
Real-time pricing, new rates, and enabling technologies target demand flexibility to ease California outages
Utility Dive – September 13
Growing California power system reliability threats made vivid by early September Flex Alerts called by the state’s system operator could be relieved by a price signal based on real-time pricing linked to smart customer-owned resources through new enabling technologies, according to the California Public Utilities Commission Energy Division’s June 22 ”CalFUSE” proposal. The new approach could transform California’s high penetrations of customer-owned distributed energy resources into a response to electricity market supply and load fluctuations, commissioners agreed in a July 14 order opening a proceeding to investigate the proposal’s potential.
|
News
California’s fleet of battery storage worked to avert energy crisis
Energy Storage News – September 8
Energy stored in batteries was dispatched in large volumes in California as record-breaking hot weather in the Western U.S. brought the state’s electricity sector into crisis. The California Independent System Operator said prior to the summer that it expected to have 4 GW of battery storage capacity available, mostly from grid-scale, four-hour duration battery energy storage systems; it hasn’t quite made it that far. However, it is thought to be close to that mark, especially with a few big systems coming online in the past few weeks, like a pair of projects from AES Corporation totaling 227 MW/908 MWh.
DOE wants more geothermal energy technology development
Engineering News-Record – September 8
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is pushing an effort to expand use of geothermal energy in regions where it is not currently feasible. DOE’s “Enhanced Geothermal Shot” program aims to reduce the cost of enhanced geothermal systems for generating power by 90% by 2035, as part of broader Biden administration efforts to achieve a net-zero carbon emissions economy by 2050. The U.S. has more than 5 TW of heat resources, enough to meet global power needs, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said. Currently, geothermal energy is used to generate just 3.7 GW of electricity in the U.S.
Renewable energy contributed 24% of generation in H1 2022: EIA
North American Windpower – September 9
In the first six months of 2022, 24% of U.S. utility-scale electricity generation came from renewable sources, based on U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. From June 2021 to June 2022, 17.6 GW of new utility-scale solar capacity came online, bringing U.S. utility-scale solar capacity to 65.8 GW, according to EIA data. In June 2022, the United States had 137.6 GW of wind capacity, and 10% (14.3 GW) of that capacity was installed between June 2021 and June 2022.
What the Western drought reveals about hydropower
E&E News – September 13
The relentless Western drought that is threatening water supplies in the country’s largest reservoirs is exposing a reality that could portend a significant shift in electricity: Hydropower is not the reliable backbone it once was. Utilities and states are preparing for a world with less available water and turning more to wind and solar, demand response, energy storage, and improved grid connections. Take California, which experienced record demand during a heat wave last week but did not have to impose any rolling blackouts. That’s despite the fact that hydropower — which on average makes up about 15% of the state’s power generation mix under normal conditions — has dipped by as much as half this summer.
|
Projects
W Power, Energy Vault partnering on Southern California storage project
T&D World – September 8
A consortium of companies has signed engineering, procurement, and construction paperwork for a 275 MWh battery storage project in Orange County, slated for completion mid-2023. The storage project is being added to W Power LLC’s Energy Reliability Center in Stanton. That natural gas-powered facility, which began operating in late 2020, has a nominal 98 MW hybrid energy storage capacity and is connected to Southern California Edison’s operations.
Coal plant operator to buy out co-owner, install some wind
Associated Press – September 12
The operator of Montana’s Colstrip coal-fired power plant will buy out one of the site’s co-owners with plans to construct a wind farm nearby that would generate 600 MW of electricity. Colstrip owners have faced intense pressure from environmentalists and changing energy markets to shut down the heavily-polluting plant, one of the largest coal-fired power producers in the U.S. West. Talen said the new wind turbines would complement — not replace — coal-fired electricity from Colstrip.
|