Real-time pricing of electricity can help integrate renewables, reduce costly and polluting peak-period generation, and save customers money, the trade groups say. They call for California to make real-time pricing an option in the San Diego area.
With California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order calling for all individuals living in California to stay at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, San Diego Gas and Electric announced Friday, March 20, several steps the company has taken to protect the health and well-being of its employees, customers and communities and to maintain service reliability.
“We have a special responsibility to continue our operations in challenging times like these and the last thing we want our customers to worry about is having essential services like electricity and natural gas,” Caroline Winn, chief operating officer of SDG&E, said. “SDG&E has robust contingency plans in place to maintain reliable service and our highly skilled and dedicated employees will see our community through this crisis. The energy industry has a lot of real-world experience managing crises, and while COVID-19 is different, we are well prepared and here for you.”
The California Independent System Operator, which oversees about 80 percent of the state’s electricity consumers and 26,000 miles of transmission infrastructure, is a busy place. It’s also a target. “We are looking at several millions of undesired communications trying to connect with us per month,” said Hubert Hafner, who as manager of Information Security Technology makes it his job to ensure California’s grid remains secure from cyberattacks. “That’s our No. 1 risk,” Hafner said recently while attending an energy conference hosted by the Institute of the Americas at UC San Diego. “That’s why it’s getting a lot of priority and, accordingly, a lot of resources.”
With California’s grid going through dramatic changes, San Diego Gas & Electric has approached the Legislature in Sacramento with a proposal that, at least at first blush, sounds pretty radical — it wants to get out of the business of buying and selling electricity. Instead, the company is calling on the state to create a separate entity that would handle all those transactions.
In a dramatic sign of California’s changing energy market, San Diego Gas & Electric wants to stop buying and selling electricity. In recent days, the company has asked lawmakers to introduce legislation that would let SDG&E reduce its role – while also pushing the state to enter the energy market in a big way. The company’s vision could eventually require the state to buy out its long-term power contracts and possibly pay the company for several natural gas-fired power plants it owns. SDG&E is pitching this idea as the company prepares to lose about half of its power customers within the next few years.
Two decades ago, when California deregulated the delivery of electric power, lawmakers, regulators and even some environmentalists hailed the decision as a way to lower consumers’ bills. The strategy proved disastrous. The plan resulted in an energy crisis that sent power bills soaring, prompted billions in penalties against utilities and banks for manipulating the new electricity market, and led Congress to enact laws to help prevent it all from happening again. Now the state’s leaders have a new proposal for an energy makeover, this time to create a single authority to manage the electric grid for most or all of the West.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
