As the extreme heat continues across California, the amount of energy being used also increases. For San Diego, the region is familiar with Flex Alerts, rolling blackouts and other related issues with the power grid.
The California Independent System Operator Corporation manages electricity flow across a majority of the state. On Thursday, the grid status was listed as normal on CAISO’s website.
In an email to NBC7, a media representative with the agency said no Flex Alerts or emergency declarations are planned at this time, despite the hot weather that will continue through the extended period.
Just as the heat wave blankets the state, the agency recently announced a new milestone with the grid: more than 5,000 megawatts are available to be dispatched. Just three years ago, that number was at 500, the agency reported.
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Gabe Murtaugh, a storage sector manager with CAISO, says that increase could lead to fewer Flex Alerts.
”Five thousand megawatts is about enough to provide power to roughly 10% of the load during our absolute most critical hours,” Murtaugh said.
He added that the amount could produce even more than 10% of capacity during a normal day.
“So if you think about having an additional 10% of capacity, basically that you can use during those Flex Alert times it allows you to better serve your load and hopefully call Flex Alerts less often," he said.
San Diego Gas and Electric’s recent storage facilities are contributing to the 5,000 MW. The agency recently brought two new facilities online, one in Fallbrook— the smaller of the two — and the other in Imperial County. Collectively, the two generate 171 MW. According to SDG&E, that’s enough to power almost 130,000 homes for four hours. Plus, just one MW can power around 750 homes.
Miguel Romero, vice president of energy and innovation at SDG&E, says adding these facilities is also supporting the ongoing electrification of the state.
“With these types of investments to enhance the reliability and the resiliency of our region, and for us, specifically in San Diego, those assets are directly connected to ourselves, so it directly improves the grid reliability of San Diego,” Romero said.
According to CAISO, a series of storage procurement orders from the California Public Utilities Commission is driving these implementations and requiring regulated utilities to add storage to their portfolios.
“We also have very robust goals in the state of California to turn our buildings electric, to turn our vehicles into electric vehicles,” Romero said.
Murtaugh says reaching milestones on the grid is part of keeping up with changes in the climate too.
“We do know that the climate is changing. We know that severe weather in the state of California is becoming a more common occurrence, and part of what we’re going to have to do as a state is to continue to think about what those extreme cases are for operating our grid and making sure we have sufficient resources to be able to meet those conditions," he said.
