Gridworks

This week, GridLab and Gridworks released Connected West, a detailed, long-range transmission plan to address the growing energy needs of the West over the next 20 years. Bottom line: The West can achieve its goal of a reliable grid to support a strong economy at a manageable cost if we work together to plan and build the transmission we need. If we do not, we will have a more expensive grid. Connected West website: https://connectedwest.org/ Full report: https://lnkd.in/dM5Cdcke Gridworks will also be hosting a webinar on Oct. 8, 9-10:30am PT to discuss the study purpose, key findings, methodology and assumptions. Panelists include: Sen. Greg Brophy (The Western Way), Chair Megan Decker (Oregon Public Utilities Commission), Sarah Edmonds (Executive Director, Western Power Pool), and Rich Glick (Senior Fellow, Gridworks). Register for the webinar here: https://lnkd.in/gHuaw7q9

In 2020 the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission established a Performance-Based Regulation (PBR) Framework to govern the Hawaiian Electric Companies (HECO Companies), which serve about 95% of the State’s population. Gridworks is facilitating a working group process to assess how well the PBR Framework has accomplished its objectives, and if any modifications are needed moving forward. Learn more about PBR and what the working group will be addressing in our latest newsletter: https://lnkd.in/g-Ngx_ZV

Connected West is a study of the transmission needed in the West to cost-effectively ensure reliability while meeting a high energy demand future over the next twenty years. Commissioned by GridLab and Gridworks, Connected West is the first-of-its-kind, West-wide transmission plan to assess regional needs assuming a forward-looking, portfolio-based, high electric demand future. Join the Connected West webinar on Oct. 8 (9-10:30 am PT / 10-11:30 am MT) to learn the results of this comprehensive study. Industry experts will also react to Connected West’s findings and compare them to other regional transmission planning initiatives. REGISTER HERE: https://lnkd.in/gHuaw7q9

A new proposal from the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative (Pathways Initiative) would shape how we engage with the largest energy markets in the West. The Launch Committee engaged Gridworks to help gather stakeholder input on a Regional Organization-specific stakeholder engagement process. This effort has three distinct steps: 1. Gridworks developed a research brief on stakeholder processes used by comparable organizations across the country. Read the Research Brief: https://lnkd.in/gQFuhddz 2. Gridworks facilitated three workshops to elicit stakeholder input on the goals, objectives and design of the Regional Organization stakeholder process. The results of the first three workshops were published by Gridworks in an Interim Report. Read the Interim Report: https://lnkd.in/gjuaW2nx 3. Gridworks will facilitate a fourth workshop tomorrow (August 28, 2024) to solicit stakeholder feedback on a draft stakeholder engagement straw proposal. Join the Workshop here: https://lnkd.in/gpwvuwUt The Launch Committee's Straw Proposal is available for review and stakeholders are encouraged to provide written feedback by September 11. Read the Straw Proposal: https://lnkd.in/gC2WtHzY Learn how to submit comments: https://lnkd.in/ecenbNYE

This summer, Gridworks supported the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Association of State Energy Officials in convening a broad swath of state and federal agencies to discuss transmission planning for offshore wind on the West Coast. These three workshops have gathered participants representing California, Oregon, and Washington energy agencies as well as state and federal land, natural resource, and wildlife agencies for three workshops diving into coordination opportunities to support development of offshore wind transmission infrastructure.   DOE’s efforts to explore offshore wind transmission implementation will provide a useful case study demonstrating the challenges of implementing high-potential emerging technologies and associated transmission efforts responding to national and state energy goals. Keep an eye out for more news here.

Gridworks is excited to share the final report for the CEC-funded Northern California gas decommissioning pilot project in partnership with Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc. and Ava Community Energy. The report shares key findings and recommendations that will be useful for policymakers, regulators, utilities, local governments and community members. Read the final report here: https://lnkd.in/g8RsGtYq

This spring, Gridworks met with Washington Tribes, interested parties, and communities who would be most impacted by the development of offshore wind off the Washington Coast to discuss offshore wind planning and engagement processes. We are pleased to share our final report that details these conversations, our process, and the recommendations to Washington State. Through the course of more than 40 hours of meetings and interviews, participants shared with us their definitions of transparent decision-making and meaningful engagement in offshore wind planning and evaluation, including ways both state and federal processes could be improved for the Washington context. We then provided Washington state recommendations to build a transparent, engaging, science-driven, and meaningful process for exploring the opportunities and impacts of offshore wind development. Read more about the process and the recommendations in the final report: https://lnkd.in/gwamNzs3

It’s been a busy quarter at FERC. To get a quick download, check out our Summer 2024 edition of The Wire, our quarterly newsletter of all things transmission in the West: https://lnkd.in/gZEmD2NZ New to The Wire? Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/gswQdaWi Our Fall 2024 edition will be published in early October.

We are delighted to share the culmination of a 2.5-year research project on targeted electrification and strategic gas decommissioning, an approach that can help to manage gas system costs in California as the state pursues its building electrification goals. This project was funded by the California Energy Commission and done in collaboration with Gridworks and Ava Community Energy, with support from Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The final report is available in full here: https://lnkd.in/g8RsGtYq. This report builds on prior work, covers new findings from our community engagement process and our development of a deployment plan for project implementation, and summarizes our findings and recommendations across the project. Previously, we had published an interim report (https://lnkd.in/g__mYfRJ) focused on site selection and recommendations for policymakers, and a benefit-cost analysis report (https://lnkd.in/gGs9mbM2) that performed a detailed cost-effectiveness assessment for eleven candidate projects. Congratulations to the E3 team, which includes Ari Gold-Parker, Jared Landsman, Fangxing Liu, Dan Aas, and Amber Mahone!

[Part 2/4] This week I, and the rest of the County of Ventura Sustainability Division, attended the California Climate & Energy Collaborative forum in Palms Springs. 🌴 The forum offers energy champions so many sessions and topics to learn from. I went to one titled “Equity and Community Engagement Considerations for Gas Decommissioning” led by Allison Lopez from Ava Community Energy, Michelle Plouse from the City of Albany, and Neha Bazaj from Gridworks. The session brought up a lot of interesting questions. 1️⃣ What is gas decommissioning? Gas decommissioning is safely and permanently removing a gas pipeline out of service. The removed pipe would impact a few homes and not the neighboring blocks. 2️⃣ Why should equity be centered in the topic of gas decommissioning? With more and more homes electrifying and no longer using gas the fixed cost of maintaining the gas system (ie gas lines) will be spread across fewer customers. Consequently, those customers will be faced with higher gas bills. And those customers most vulnerable to these rising costs are low-income homeowners and renters who can’t afford to go all electric. 3️⃣What are some of the regulations faced in this project? One topic discussed was the difficulty of navigating the policy regulation “obligation to serve.” California requires that its public utilities provide its serves to every customer who wants it at rates regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission. With a neighborhood decarbonization project like this one, that means getting 100% buy-in from the neighborhood and for future homeowners in that area to come. There’s a lot to learn from pilot projects like this one. Even after the session, there was a lot of research and questions I had to explore on my own time. I provided some links to articles I’m reading to educate myself more on this topic, including a report on this pilot study. https://lnkd.in/gZFBNdu6 https://lnkd.in/gSXB7q9k https://lnkd.in/gF4jeHk6 https://lnkd.in/gqthhCyD #CCEC2024 #CountyofVentura #energy #decarb #sustainability