Energy Exchange: California

This post is part 2 of EDF’s Tech for Change series, which aims to spotlight the way pollution-sensing technology can protect public health and the environment in California. Watch part 1 or 3.  Oil and gas operations have existed for decades in California’s Central Valley and the greater Los Angeles area, but many people may […]

Not often is running the electric grid as simple as applying lessons from childhood. Right now it is ─ California is learning to share with its neighbors. A bill currently in front of the Legislature from California Assemblymember Chris Holden, AB 813, aims to build a better trading platform to share California’s extra solar power […]

This post is the first of EDF’s Tech for Change series, which spotlights the way pollution-sensing technology can protect public health and the environment in California. Watch part 2 here. Imagine having an oilfield in your backyard. That’s a fact of life for many Los Angeles residents. Nearly 600,000 people in the city live within […]

A new report from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) provides yet more evidence that greater oversight is needed to address health and safety concerns with the region’s oil and gas facilities. Los Angeles sits directly on top of 68 active oil fields, meaning many of the city’s residents live in close […]

By Lauren Navarro, senior policy manager, and Jamie Fine, senior economist It’s no secret that California is a clean energy leader. The state is on track to meet its renewable energy goals, with many utilities hitting targets ahead of schedule. In order to transition to a system that can handle increased levels of clean energy […]

There are several reasons to be optimistic about environmental progress in Los Angeles. The city is making massive investments in electric vehicles, making clean energy more accessible to everyday people, and cutting pollution from the ports and freeways to name a few. But with over 60,000 Angelinos living less than 500 feet from an active […]

By Andy Bilich, clean energy analyst, and Jamie Fine, senior economist Last month, all three of California’s major investor-owned utilities submitted applications to the California Public Utilities Commission detailing their respective strategies for how to transition residential customers to time-of-use pricing. Time-of-use pricing, if done right, is a low-cost strategy to help meet California’s climate […]

Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a momentous final decision to close the state’s last nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon. This outcome represents the culmination of over a year of effort initiated by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) in 2016. When PG&E first brought this to the commission, they called for the […]

Lawmakers recently addressed many critical issues for California: the housing shortage, parks bond, and early on in this year’s legislative session, climate change. We urge Governor Brown to sign the important pieces of clean energy legislation that made it to his desk, including AB 1239 to support electric vehicle charging and AB 523 to protect […]

Last week the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and California Energy Commission (CEC) released interim results from a NASA study that offers the most clear-eyed assessment yet of California’s largest individual sources of methane pollution. Methane – a potent greenhouse gas responsible for about a quarter of global warming – is emitted from several different […]

Nicoyia Hurt, EDF Oil and Gas Health Policy Intern, contributed to this post This month marks the one year anniversary since the residents in Imperial County California did something pretty amazing. After experiencing some of the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the state, the community got together to launch the IVAN air monitoring project– a […]

California has made great progress rolling out programs intended to make clean energy technologies like solar power and electric vehicles more affordable for all Californians. However, if we are going to continue to lead the vision for what a clean energy future can look like, we still have a lot of work to do. These […]

EDF Schneider fellow Scott Roycroft co-authored this post California’s gas utilities have had their share of problems in recent years – so improvements in environmental impacts, operations, and safety are important to track. In 2014, the California legislature passed a law to require utility companies to publicly disclose data on gas leaks and emissions while […]

Sophia Brewer, Oil and Gas Intern, contributed to this article. Since the 1892 discovery of oil in California, the oil and gas industry has been a major economic engine and energy supplier for the state. Although this oil and gas production may be broken down into dollars and barrels, it doesn’t tell the story of […]

The California State Assembly faces an enormous opportunity when they come back from summer recess today: to drive the state towards 100 percent clean energy by 2045. It comes in the form of SB 100, a bill that would accelerate the state’s current Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirement from 50 percent to 60 percent by […]

More than a year and a half after the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility caused more than 100,000 tons of methane to leak into the atmosphere – amounting to be our nation’s largest-ever gas leak,  California regulators continue to labor away at improving the rules  that could prevent another gas storage disaster. That leak […]

Cities have long been testing grounds for policy innovation. That identity is critical as we barrel headfirst into an urbanized world. As of 2014, 54 percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas, and the United Nations estimates that by 2050, over 6 billion people will live in cities. So, it only makes practical […]

Over 70 cities across the globe have set targets to achieve 100 percent clean energy and made commitments to cut a billion tons of greenhouse gases by 2030. These trend-setting jurisdictions are found across the U.S. – underscoring that local leaders recognize the resiliency, cost-savings, job-creation, and pollution-reduction benefits clean energy investment provides. That said, […]

By EDF Blogs

By Larissa Koehler and Jamie Fine

California has worked hard to build up a nation-leading clean energy portfolio. And the state has been hugely successful in adding renewable energy, especially solar, to the electric grid. However, having too much solar energy on the grid relative to energy demand can lead to grid operators turning off that clean power. This is costly for customers and makes it harder to meet our clean energy goals. One solution?  By putting price signals in place, such as time-of-use (or TOU) rates, we can encourage customers to use energy at times when solar or wind power is abundant.

TOU pricing does this by making electricity cheaper when the supply of electricity exceeds demand. Times of day when solar panels across the state are generating power will align with predictable low prices. If done right, TOU pricing can give Californians control over their energy bills, avoid pollution from fossil-fuel power plants, and maximize the production of renewable energy without additional cost.

The California Public Utilities Commission – the body that regulates utilities in the state – supports this strategy. In 2015 it decided to transition residential customers to a default TOU rate, with the explicit goal of integrating more renewable energy. Unfortunately, Southern California Edison (SCE) – a utility that serves electricity to over 3 million Californians – is proposing to delay putting some or all of their customers on these rates. This setback could have negative economic and environmental impacts.

Southern California Edison dragging its feet

SCE claims they need more time to update their billing system to handle the switch to TOU rates. For this reason, they propose to transition approximately half of their customers in 2018, with the rest to follow in 2020. Alternatively, they propose transitioning all of their customers in 2020.

Southern California Edison attempts to delay renewable-friendly electricity rates
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Environmental Defense Fund recently protested this delay for four reasons:

• The delays will result in undesirable economic and environmental impacts – namely a mismatch between low energy prices and times when renewable energy is abundant. Without TOU rates, most Californians will continue to use energy at times when it is provided by fossil fuels or when the grid is stressed, instead of using the opportunity to maximize the use of the renewables we already have. This can lead to curtailment – switching-off our clean resources – which puts unnecessary costs on customers.
• Waiting until 2020 to transition some or all of SCE’s customers is against the spirit of the commission’s 2015 decision, which we interpret to establish a transition of all customers in 2019.
• The commission should not excuse SCE’s poor planning. When California started deploying advanced metering, or smart meters, over a decade ago, regulators and utilities explicitly contemplated an eventual transition to TOU rates. What’s more, it’s been over two years since the clear direction to transition to TOU rates came from the commission.
• SCE’s proposal sets a bad precedent. If the commission permits SCE to go down this path, it would empower the other investor-owned utilities – Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric – to seek the same sort of delay. This would throw a critical piece of meeting California’s clean energy targets into disarray.

Meaningful price signals

Additionally, the structure of SCE’s TOU rate itself does not present a strong enough price signal for customers to adapt the way they use energy. It may even prompt people to avoid using power at night, when wind is available. That’s why we’ve been advocating that the commission and the utilities test a wider variety of rates and more meaningful price differences, in order to provide greater incentives for customers who are able to shift some of their energy use.

If done right, TOU pricing can give Californians control over their energy bills.

SCE gets bill protections right

There is one aspect of SCE’s plan EDF supports: bill protections for customers. We are aware – and concerned – that certain customers, including low-income customers and customers in disadvantaged communities, may find it harder to adapt their energy usage to this new pricing.  As such, we fully support bill protections for vulnerable customers.

However, SCE also needs to actively think of ways to help those customers once it removes bill protections. For example, SCE should pursue the following:

• Allow customers to select their own best rate from a suite of options. This is something we’re calling, “personalized default” and it can help people start out with a rate that aligns with their preferences.
• Present personalized solutions. Utilities are equipped to do this using data they already have.
• Allow third party solutions providers access to anonymized data. Armed with this information, energy innovators – like demand response companies – can offer appropriate customer solutions.

SCE has a golden opportunity to show how a sunny California can translate to better economics, a more reliable grid, and a cleaner environment.  EDF will be one persistent voice ensuring SCE takes full advantage of this opportunity.

By Amanda Johnson

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently approved a settlement requiring Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to address environmental, as well as safety, factors when fixing natural gas leaks.

This comes on the heels of a similar settlement issued by the New York Public Service Commission in December. Together these decisions are ringing in a trend in which the environmental impacts of methane leaking from pipelines are being recognized.

Methane – the main component of natural gas — is responsible for about a quarter of current global warming, and awareness about the magnitude of methane that leaks from local pipelines has been mounting.

Earlier this year CPUC reported that in 2015, California pipelines leaked away 6.6 billion cubic feet of methane. Based on an average wholesale market price of gas, these losses mean ratepayers are paying approximately $18 million every year for gas that is never delivered. That’s more than the amount of gas released by the Aliso Canyon storage facility leak and over twice the amount emitted by all of the state’s oil and gas wells.

Fortunately, advancements in methane detection technology have made finding and fixing gas leaks more affordable than ever. This makes implementation a win-win for safety and integrity, and helps California meet its climate goals.

A mandate for modern tech, more inspections, and increased transparency

The settlement calls for PG&E is to continue to modernize its leak detection capabilities with affordable technologies that can find 80% more leaks in 40% of the time than with previous methods.

These technologies enable companies not only to find leaks, but recent literature suggests they can also estimate leak size. And that makes a big difference when it comes to prioritizing pipeline repair and replacement projects.

Utilities are required by law to fix leaks that pose a safety risk, but non-hazardous leaks – known as grade three leaks — may be allowed to persist often for months of years. In California, utilities including PG&E and Southern California Gas Company have racked up tens of thousands of grade three leaks on the books that they have in recent years begun to repair. These leaks may not pose an immediate safety risk, but they are detrimental to the climate.

That’s why the decision is so important. As part of the settlement, PG&E proposed to expand its use of these technologies across its entire distribution system, and agreed to repair grade three leaks and reduce the backlog of leaks they have already found. PG&E will also increase its leak survey frequency by 20% — from every five years to every four. More frequent surveys of pipeline systems will allow PG&E to find and fix leaks faster. This is particularly impactful when it comes to finding “super emitters” – the random, unpredictable leaks that are responsible for a significant portion of lost gas. Frequent detection is paramount to reducing emissions from these sources since utilities cannot predict where large leaks will occur.

Setting a New Standard

The CPUC decision will increase transparency and take leak data that was once held secret – and give it directly to the public in an easy, accessible way.

Under this new scenario, PG&E agreed to publicly display known leaks in a map form that is accessible through its website – not unlike the maps of gas leaks that EDF and Google pioneered in 2014.

This sets a new standard for transparency with utility companies, showing that it’s possible to provide leak information in a digestible format to the public, without compromising security. The utility is among the leading local distribution companies working to ensure the responsible delivery of natural gas.

Unfortunately, forward-thinking leak detection programs that increase transparency and prioritize the environment aren’t yet the standard across the board.

The CPUC’s decision is part of a general rate case between the Commission and utility. The Commission reviews rate cases every three years to determine if proposed increases are just and reasonable. In this case, the Commission determined that the environmental requirements are reasonable since they are affordable, they improve system integrity, and align with the state’s environmental policies like SB 1383 and SB 1371, which require a reduction of methane emissions and gas leaks.

PG&E is clearly ahead of the pack when it comes to reducing gas leaks, but there’s no reason other utilities shouldn’t be required to modernize their systems in order to protect public health and the environment.

Gas leaks aren’t unique to California. Our mapping data reveal leaks are a persistent problem across the country. Fortunately leak detection technologies are rapidly improving, and if utilities across the country are required to adopt them we could see improved system integrity, increased transparency and more climate protections a lot faster.