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November 3, 2019 03:34 am

Does California Need A More Decentralized Energy System?

"California's electricity system is failing," argues Vox, in an article shared by Slashdot reader nickwinlund77.But they're proposing a way "to make California's electricity system cleaner, more reliable, and more resilient."In a nutshell, it is accelerating the evolution from a centralized, top-down, long-distance, one-way energy system to a more decentralized, bottom-up, local, networked system. In the energy world, this is summed up as a more distributed energy system. It puts more power, both electrical and political, in local hands. Though it is still in early days, and only hints of what's to come are yet visible, the evolution to a more distributed system is inevitable... Solar+storage+smart inverter systems work better and more seamlessly [than diesel generators] during a blackout. What's more, when they are connected together into a microgrid, their collective generation and consumption can be balanced out, maximizing backup power... The knock on microgrids has traditionally been that they're expensive, but they are already reaching cost parity with California grid power in some places. And while it is true that, on an upfront-capital basis, they are more expensive than diesel generators, they are not more expensive on a lifetime basis because clean distributed-energy resources, unlike diesel generators, can provide useful services even when there's no blackout... As Public Safety Power Shutoff events continue, emergency-backup benefits will be enough to kick-start a decent microgrid market. It's already happening, especially around Tier 1 loads. And customers are herding to solar+storage systems, as Tesla and other companies eye big growth... The core problem with California's electricity system is that its millions of customers are overwhelmingly dependent on power generated by large, remote power plants and carried over long distances on overhead power lines, often through hilly, mountainous, and/or forested territory becoming dryer and more fire-prone by the year... [U]tilities are still operating with a 20th-century hangover, a model that forces them to prefer big investments in big grid infrastructure. The article also notes "vehicle-to-grid" technology which will offer electric cars bidirectional energy-storage and demand-shifting capabilities, and argues that a network of distributed-energy resources can ultimately be installed quickly and will lower the need for long-distance power transmission lines. But it argues the transition won't happen until the state's government makes a more ambitious push.

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