Grid Lock?

As California attempts to meet its renewable energy targets, transmission infrastructure remains the greatest obstacle. We ask what the Golden State is doing to overcome this challenge.

“In California alone, more than 13,000 MW of large solar power plants are waiting to connect to the grid”

California is the most populous State in the US and its total energy demand is second only to Texas. Therefore California imports more electricity than any other State. However the Golden State is rich in conventional energy resources and leads the nation in electricity generation from non-hydroelectric renewable energy sources, including geothermal power, wind power, fuel wood, landfill gas and solar power. Meanwhile, the State's hydroelectric power potential ranks second in the nation behind Washington State.

The generation of clean energy may well be getting easier, but moving it to market is not and renewable energy projects are suffering due to the grid's limitations. Dreams of replacing all fossil fuels in the near future are coming up against the reality of a power grid that cannot handle the new demands.

If President Obama's vision of renewable generation is to be a success greater investment in transmission infrastructure will be required. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has identified transmission limitations as the greatest obstacle to realizing the enormous economic, environmental and energy security benefits of obtaining at least 20 percent of electricity from wind power.

According to a joint publication by the American Wind Energy Association and the Solar Energy Industries Association there are currently almost 300,000 MW of wind projects, more than enough to meet 20 percent of the nation's electricity needs, that are waiting in line to connect to the grid because there is inadequate transmission capacity. In California alone, more than 13,000 MW of large solar power plants are waiting to connect to the grid. US Infrastructure spoke to Susanne Garfield-Jones of the California Energy Commission to find out how California intends to overcome the challenge of inadequate transmission infrastructure in order to meet its renewable energy targets.

The lack of transmission infrastructure to access remote renewable energy resources is the most critical barrier to California meetings its renewable energy targets of 33% by 2020. What is the state of California doing to improve its transmission infrastructure?
Executive Order S-14-08, signed by California Governor Schwarzenegger on November 17, 2008, establishes a Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) target for California that directs all retail sellers of electricity to serve 33 percent of their load with renewable energy by 2020. The order directs state government agencies "to take all appropriate actions to implement this target in all regulatory proceedings, including siting, permitting, and procurement for renewable energy power plants and transmission lines." The Executive Order and associated memoranda of understanding by and among several state and federal agencies established a joint state-federal Renewable Energy Action Team (REAT).

The REAT's primary mission is to streamline and expedite the permitting processes for renewable energy projects, while conserving endangered species and natural communities at the ecosystem scale. The Executive Order recognizes the major role of the California Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI) in achieving the RPS target. The Executive Order directs the California Energy Commission (Energy Commission) and requests the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the California Independent System Operator (California ISO), to work with RETI stakeholders to develop a product that identifies top priority renewable energy zones that can be developed reliably, cost-effectively and with least environmental impact.

RETI is a statewide initiative formed in September 2007 to help identify the transmission projects needed to accommodate California's renewable energy goals, support future energy policy and facilitate transmission corridor designation and transmission and generation siting and permitting. RETI is an open and transparent collaborative process in which all interested parties are encouraged to participate. It is assessing all of the competitive renewable energy zones in California that can provide significant electricity to California's consumers by the year 2020. It is also identifying those zones that can be developed in the most cost effective and environmentally benign manner and will prepare detailed transmission plans for those zones.

The lack of timely permitting for transmission in California has long been a concern. What advances have been made to tackle this problem?
To allow the timely permitting of transmission for renewables, the state must ensure the establishment of the critical link between transmission planning and transmission permitting decisions. Making this link will ensure that needed projects are planned for, have corridors set aside as necessary and are permitted in a timely and effective manner that maximizes existing infrastructure and rights-of-way, minimizes land use and environmental impacts and considers technological advances.

This issue is being addressed in two forums. As part of its biennial Integrated Energy Policy Report proceeding, the Energy Commission develops a Strategic Transmission Investment Plan. In recognition of the importance of coordinated statewide planning as a pre-requisite for timely, effective permitting, the Energy Commission held two workshops on this topic as part of its 2009 Strategic Transmission Investment Plan proceeding. The Energy Commission will formulate recommendations based on the workshop record in its 2009 Strategic Transmission Investment Plan, to be released in draft form by October 1, 2009.

The CPUC, which has jurisdiction over transmission permitting for investor-owned utility projects, has opened an investigation into the barriers to transmission for renewables.

Cost allocation issues also pose a significant barrier to developing transmission infrastructure. How is this issue being addressed in California?
Cost allocation for in-state projects within the California ISO territory is not a barrier, as transmission costs are spread among all users of the California ISO-controlled grid through a transmission access charge. Publicly owned utilities (POUs) in California allocate costs among their own customers.

Cost allocation may be a barrier for interstate transmission projects for accessing renewable generation. There is potential federal legislation that would establish new Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority for siting and cost allocation that would address this issue.

What are the main regulatory barriers to new transmission and how can they be overcome?
Major regulatory barriers include the lack of coordinated statewide transmission planning and fragmented transmission permitting jurisdiction. This has made it difficult to site and permit transmission to interconnect remote renewable resources in a timely fashion.

The state should ensure the development of a coordinated statewide planning process that is open to all stakeholders and will lead to the development of needed facilities, including joint investor-owned utility (IOU)/POU projects. Such a planning process needs to build on the RETI stakeholder-driven process to ensure environmentally acceptable projects are identified that help the state achieve its RPS goals.

In California, projects proposed individually by investor-owned utilities, publicly owned utilities or third parties are within the jurisdiction of different permitting agencies. This is seen as a barrier to the development of joint transmission projects that may be in the best interest of the state of California in the furtherance of its policy objectives.

A solution could be the consolidation of transmission permitting authority within one agency, regardless of project proponent. Furthermore, linking coordinated transmission planning with consolidated permitting authority would result in the timely permitting of appropriate transmission projects that are both environmentally acceptable and economically efficient.

Construction of renewable energy facilities and transmission lines may offer significant environmental benefits, but any new construction risks facing public opposition for aesthetic, economic, or environmental reasons. What have been the main challenges that California has faced in its mission to achieve its renewable portfolio standard?
With regard to the development of transmission to access renewable energy, the main challenge continues to be the public opposition due to land use concerns. This challenge is being addressed by RETI using a collaborative stakeholder-driven planning model whose goal is to balance land use and environmental concerns with electric transmission needs.

The planning results from the RETI process should facilitate the permitting of appropriate transmission facilities to meet the RPS goals by resolving contentious environmental issues early in the process.

If California were to benefit from upgraded and modernised transmission infrastructure what could it potentially achieve in terms of energy generation from renewables?
The recent RETI Phase 2A report identified 102 transmission line segments that can deliver 160 percent of the estimated renewable "net short" for a 33 percent RPS by 2020 target. The net short calculation takes into consideration 33 percent of load-serving entity sales minus the contribution from existing renewables. This 160 percent of net short equates to 95, 536 gigawatt-hours of renewable generation. A total of 36 CREZs were identified by RETI with at least one transmission line segment accessing renewable generation from each CREZ. It should be noted that there is considerably more renewable generation that can be developed in the CREZs than the 160 percent of the estimated renewable net short identified by RETI.

RETI work is organized into three phases:

Phase 1: Identification, characterization and ranking of Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) specified for solar, wind, geothermal, or biomass energy facilities in California and neighboring regions.

Phase 2: Development of a statewide conceptual transmission plan to access priority CREZ, based on more detailed analysis of CREZ.

Phase 3: Development of detailed plans of service for priority components of the statewide transmission plan.

The final Phase 1B report with the CREZ rankings was completed in January 2009. The initial Phase 2 report was completed in August 2009. Particulars about RETI Phase 3 have not been determined and will ultimately be influenced by how the California ISO and electric utilities respond to RETI stakeholder efforts to this point.

For more information on RETI, please see the following website: www.energy.ca.gov/reti/index.html