June 27
Researchers at Berkeley Lab Help Utilities Understand Power Outage Costs
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
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Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are partnering with electric utilities across the country to create more accurate cost estimates for both short- and long-term power outages, building tools to guide investments in grid reliability. The highlights of the work include an update to Berkeley Lab’s Interruption Cost Estimate (ICE) Calculator, a public website allowing stakeholders to estimate the costs of power interruptions and more.
ABB recently announced the launch of its new Battery Energy Storage Systems-as-a-Service. BESS-as-a-Service "is the first in a range of next generation service models being developed to remove the barriers to clean technology adoption and accelerate industries’ transition to net zero," it said. ABB said its BESS-as-a-Service offers companies a turnkey path to energy independence and sustainability.
There are approximately 3.32 billion active video game players worldwide, which amounts to around $5 billion per year in energy spending or around 34 TWh every year (2.4 percent of residential electricity consumed nationally). The amount of energy required varies from system to system, depending on the type of gaming system, the engine that the game runs on and the average amount of time users spend playing per day, all of which use more energy than some small countries.
DESRI and California public power utility Sacramento Municipal Utility District announced that they have executed a long-term power purchase agreement for the Dry Creek Energy Storage project. Dry Creek is a 160 MW/640 MWh battery energy storage system located in Sacramento County. SMUD and DESRI have worked on the project jointly over several years.
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Industry News
At a grassy city park this spring, professional landscapers sauntered between vendor booths, asking questions about the shiny new wares laid out before them: battery-powered push mowers, leaf blowers, string trimmers, chainsaws and more. Some hopped on new standing and riding mowers to give them a spin. Noticeably absent throughout it all was the scent and the roar of gas-guzzling equipment; the tools were all electric.
The United States is facing an unprecedented surge in electricity demand, projected to grow by more than 150 GW by 2030, rivaling energy expansions seen only during World War II. Our power grid must evolve faster than ever. The recent FERC ruling and the submission of a revised fast-track interconnection process by MISO underscore the critical need for innovative, scalable solutions that enhance resource adequacy.
After a variety of “technical gremlins” prevented its 2023 virtual power plant pilot from meeting capacity targets, Pacific Gas & Electric is testing a fundamentally different approach this summer. For its latest VPP, the Northern California utility is adding in smart electrical panels and “never used before software” from Tesla. PG&E’s first VPP pilot with Sunrun involved more than 8,000 residential batteries.
As parts of the United States bake under the first heat wave of summer, the federal government has warned consumers in many regions to brace for higher power bills over the next few months. “From June through September, residential customers in the United States can expect average monthly electricity bills of $178, a slight increase from last summer’s average of $173,” the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Monday.
