By Sandy Wells
KABC News
Long gone are the days of brownouts and even blackouts in Southern California. The reason? Well you can thank former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2006, he signed AB 32 into law, requiring California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a reduction of approximately 15 percent. David Danelski, the Environmental and Investigative reporter for the Riverside Press-Enterprise, says that with solar power taking off, the utilities don’t know what to do with the extra electricity.
“Solar produces a lot of electricity in the middle of the day and then it goes down as the sun goes down. Our peak use is actually a little bit after that. That’s when the traditional natural gas power plants kind of take over. So we have this abundance of electricity in the middle of the day and electricity has to be used as it’s being made.”
Danielski says the biggest glut happens in the late spring when the days are long but temperatures are not yet high enough to boost air conditioner usage.
“The utilities have these power purchase contracts that cover most of the electricity needs but then there’s kind of this open market where the price of electricity is based on supply and demand and these utilities bid for them and then the price really goes way down when there’s too much electricity. There’s even negative pricing at certain times.”
This has led some power plants to “curtail” or shut down temporarily until demand catches up with supply later in the day.
Utilities are now moving toward time-of-use pricing for home electricity costumers to encourage people to set timers on pool pumps, washing machines, dishwashers and other appliances to take advantage of cheaper electricity in the middle of the day while discouraging power consumption in the evening when electricity is more expensive and in greatest demand.
Danelski was a guest on 790 KABC’s McIntyre in the Morning Show with Doug McIntyre and Leeann Tweeden.
