You can install our site as a web app on your iOS device by utilizing the Add to Home Screen feature in Safari. Please see this thread for more details on this.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Batteries, PV, wind, microgrids. Doing all of that now. Blackouts were caused by NG plants failing so that's not a solution.So what's the plan to keep the lights on in California during the late summer? Worst case scenario is that these rolling blackouts become more and more common and rates slowly creep up, to the ire of ratepayers who will definitely be taking their frustration out on the utilities and politicians.
Press pause on decommissioning nuclear and NG power plants?
Be more aggressive with pushing homeowners into installing rooftop PV and batteries to become 100% self sufficient through property tax breaks?
Decentralized microgrids?
Super aggressive targets to build out utility scale solar and batteries?
No forecast for late summer power outages.So what's the plan to keep the lights on in California during the late summer?
Overall, industrial, commercial and residential each pull about 1/3 of the total US electric power. Any one locale may of course be different or an outlier. Industry is the group most often subject to demand charges and it is thought that they will be the first major private consumers of storage to mitigate those charges.The other thing this has taught me is that the commercial demand for electricity during the day eclipses what my residential use is so the utility doesn't provide me any option to change patterns.
Overall, industrial, commercial and residential each pull about 1/3 of the total US electric power. Any one locale may of course be different or an outlier. Industry is the group most often subject to demand charges and it is thought that they will be the first major private consumers of storage to mitigate those charges.
Yup, for the most part.And if they're going to get storage, they're more likely to get local solar generation (or vice versa), which is a double gut punch to utilities under the current pricing model.
So...do you think Duke Energy is missing an opportunity by incentivizing solar but not batteries for nighttime supplement? After all, even their own solar farms are useless at night.You can deal with these demand swings fairly easily and significantly cheaper than batteries. But there is a point where you cannot. But we are far from that point. California is reasonably ahead of other places but still not as far along as they could be.
I find it really helped to have a solar setup and monitor your usage patterns - at least in my area, monitoring is generally included with solar installs. You see how much the evening is an issue, particularly in later summer. You can then easily change that by adjusting a/c timing.
And people - including myself - respond to incentives.
In my last house, I got a large rebate to agree to go to a demand based rate for 5 years. So I cooled the house in the middle of the day and coasted in the evening. We also were off peak from 1-4 pm in the winter so I ran the heat pumps hard then.
New house, no more demand based rate - in fact no TOU option. So I come home and plug the car in. The a/c coasts all day and fires up at 6 pm to cool the bedrooms for sleep. I use very little electricity when the sun shines.
The other thing this has taught me is that the commercial demand for electricity during the day eclipses what my residential use is so the utility doesn't provide me any option to change patterns. The demand rate I had was likely an experiment with residential incentives. And they decided that it wasn't helpful - today - in my area.
But CA - different story. They have gone a long time without rolling blackouts so they obviously have been doing something. And they can do a lot more - even before batteries.
The rate boogeyman may come to some extent but around here, our rates are going up to pay for cleaning up coal....
]So what's the plan to keep the lights on in California during the late summer? Worst case scenario is that these rolling blackouts become more and more common and rates slowly creep up, to the ire of ratepayers who will definitely be taking their frustration out on the utilities and politicians.
Press pause on decommissioning nuclear and NG power plants?
Be more aggressive with pushing homeowners into installing rooftop PV and batteries to become 100% self sufficient through property tax breaks?
Decentralized microgrids?
Super aggressive targets to build out utility scale solar and batteries?
Nuclear Plant(S)? They've only got one left.... Of course when everyone complained about buying Nuclear Power from Arizona - everyone who was complaining about it instantly clammed up, when Arizona suggested disconnection, hehe...
So...do you think Duke Energy is missing an opportunity by incentivizing solar but not batteries for nighttime supplement? After all, even their own solar farms are useless at night.
You can deal with these demand swings fairly easily and significantly cheaper than batteries. But there is a point where you cannot. But we are far from that point. California is reasonably ahead of other places but still not as far along as they could be.
I find it really helped to have a solar setup and monitor your usage patterns - at least in my area, monitoring is generally included with solar installs. You see how much the evening is an issue, particularly in later summer. You can then easily change that by adjusting a/c timing.
And people - including myself - respond to incentives.
In my last house, I got a large rebate to agree to go to a demand based rate for 5 years. So I cooled the house in the middle of the day and coasted in the evening. We also were off peak from 1-4 pm in the winter so I ran the heat pumps hard then.
New house, no more demand based rate - in fact no TOU option. So I come home and plug the car in. The a/c coasts all day and fires up at 6 pm to cool the bedrooms for sleep. I use very little electricity when the sun shines.
The other thing this has taught me is that the commercial demand for electricity during the day eclipses what my residential use is so the utility doesn't provide me any option to change patterns. The demand rate I had was likely an experiment with residential incentives. And they decided that it wasn't helpful - today - in my area.
But CA - different story. They have gone a long time without rolling blackouts so they obviously have been doing something. And they can do a lot more - even before batteries.
The rate boogeyman may come to some extent but around here, our rates are going up to pay for cleaning up coal....
The current Tesla OBC is one wayThis could be fixed with some well crafted legislation, IMHO.