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The California Public Utilities Commission March 25 unanimously approved a revised emergency resource plan for the private utilities for the next two summers. Unlike the initial proposal, this new decision prohibits using increased gas generation from plants with existing contracts and from revived plants to meet high demand.

Many clean air advocates were pleased by this prohibition in the CPUC’s second emergency plan, which focuses more on load reductions to ease grid emergencies during really hot days. But they objected to allowing and compensating diesel-fired backup generation because of the serious air quality impacts it causes, particularly in disadvantaged communities.

Commission President Marybel Batjer said she shared that concern. The commission, she noted, grappled with what resources to allow in the event of a worst-case scenario to avoid a repeat of last August’s rolling blackouts.

Diesel backup is “a last resort,” and should only be used for minutes or hours, not multiple days as occurred during last year’s public safety shutoffs, Batjer said.

A Bay Area Air Quality Management District staff member warned that backup diesel generation in the Bay Area alone was increasing from 1.2 GW to 2.7 GW, much of which is in polluted disadvantaged neighborhoods. He noted that last summer, diesel backup ran many hours. In one case a data center ran its system 400 hours last year.

“We hope we never have to use the backup because of efficiencies in other programs,” Batjer said.

Her decision directs the Energy Division to work with the California Air Resources Board and air districts to reduce the likelihood of diesel units being fired up in poor, polluted communities.

Commission wants utility data on diesel backup

As part of this emergency resource decision, the CPUC is requiring the three investor-owned utilities to report on the use, location and type of fuel that is used this summer by backup systems during power alerts. In addition, the proceeding is being kept open to allow for program changes, based on what that data reveals.

Diesel backup is one of the resources included in the new five-year Emergency Load Reduction Program. This program governs which resources are to be paid for reducing load on the grid to avert outages in response to day-ahead alerts from the California Independent System Operator.

The new ruling requires Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric to buy at least an additional 1,000 MW, with priority given to energy storage. This is to meet the higher planning reserve margin of 17.5%, raised from 15%. PG&E and SCE must line up an additional 450 MW each, and SDG&E 100 MW to meet peak and net peak load this year. These can include megawatts from increased power plant efficiencies.

The CPUC’s first summer emergency program focuses on increased supply . It directed the utilities to buy an additional 565 MW to meet peak demand and high loads as the sun sets. It was approved last month.

This new decision on emergency resources also increases payments to attract new demand response customers—large and small. California has been criticized for its poor payments to companies and aggregators that are able to reduce load. Under the program, participants in the Base Interruptible Customer, in which participating large businesses are paid to curtail load during emergencies, need only commit to six months.

The load reduction program also approves SCE’s purchase of 60,000 new load control devices for its summer discount air condition cycling program. It was credited with producing impressive levels of negawatts when demand surged during last year’s extreme weather events.

Call to compensate vehicle-to-grid projects in 2022

Commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen said he hoped the program compensation would be extended to vehicle-to-grid projects by next year. He also called for a temporary waiver of utility interconnection fees for EVs that can feed power into the distribution system as needed. “This is an important potential opportunity we should take advantage of,” he said.

Thursday’s decision also expands the utilities ’ critical peak pricing programs. These charge high prices at times of surging load on a fixed number of days to curb consumption. All three IOU programs are to kick in from 4PM to 9PM next summer. In addition to expanded hours, SCE also is required to increase the number of critical peak days in its program from 12 to 15, and add in weekends and holidays.

The utilities are given budgets to increase their outreach to customers to expand participation in the critical peak pricing programs.

The commission also approved a two-year $12 million budget funded by utility customers for the statewide Flex Alert program that is to use social and other digital media to encourage people to conserve during times of tight supplies. The program is to be managed by SCE.