How solar and batteries can and do help avoid energy shortages and keep the lights on in California

Solar is part of the solution to avoiding future blackouts, not the problem 

The fossil fuel industry and its supporters jumped at the opportunity to blame clean, renewable energy sources, like solar power, in the aftermath of California’s mid-August blackouts. The attack on solar did not pass the smell test. Fossil fuel power plants under contract with utility companies were the resource that failed to deliver the much-needed electricity which resulted in the blackouts. 

According to analysis by the non-profit organization Vote Solar, California's fleet of fossil fuel power plants underperformed by 17%, leading to major shortfalls in resources during the heatwave. In contrast, solar out-performed expectations by 176%, helping make the weekend’s shortfalls smaller and less extensive.  In fact, solar energy played an especially critical role covering California’s highest energy needs during the hottest part of the day, mid-afternoon, which is when the solar power really shines. Behind-the-meter rooftop solar energy systems contribute to the reliability of the electric grid by reducing energy demand from over a million different customer-sites statewide and exporting surplus power to neighboring houses and businesses. These resources are “invisible” to grid managers like CAISO because they appear more as energy efficiency or conservation, or in the case of surplus electrons sent back to the grid via the important Net Energy Metering (NEM) program, are literally not counted by grid operators as a resource, even though they help play a role in meeting local demand.  

Looking ahead, to prevent more blackouts like this last one, California needs more solar energy, not less, with more batteries to cover evening load as discussed below.  

Distributed batteries can do even more to help keep the lights on, if utilities would embrace it 

The mid-August blackouts provide a unique view into how distributed behind-the-meter solar and energy storage can and did significantly help overall grid reliability. 

During the August heatwave, California’s energy regulators called upon the solar and storage industry to work with customers to voluntarily modify charging and discharging of their batteries in line with the grid’s greatest needs. Many customers complied, without compensation, to help save the day as highlighted in the joint letter to the governor. 

We can do more. During the blackouts, energy was sitting in batteries throughout the state while grid operators were desperately trying to pipe in electrons from Wyoming, Utah and Arizona. When they failed to do so, they turned off the lights for hundreds of thousands of people. While energy regulators did turn to distributed energy storage customers to prevent more blackouts on August 16, 2020 and in the following days, it was haphazard and left a lot of value on the table. 

Nearly every battery energy storage device in California has the ability to communicate offsite at near instant speed. But the California utilities do not have the software to communicate with the distributed systems and energy regulators have not set up a market mechanism for compensating storage customers.  

People all over California took collective action to turn down their thermostats and turn off their lights in the days following August 14 and 15, 2020. This Flex Alert helped but imagine how much more energy could be mined from homes and businesses if charged-up batteries could be deployed for the benefit of the entire grid. Aggregating all of these small batteries together would form a virtual power plant large enough to keep the lights on. California’s energy complex needs to embrace smart, responsive, and advanced clean technologies. 

California has 30,000 batteries located at customer sites throughout the state totaling 530 megawatts (MW) with over 1,000 MWh of energy capacity. In contrast to the 130 MW of energy storage CAISO reported to the media during the blackouts. This amount of energy equals the shortfall for the one hour that CAISO reported on August 14, 2020 led to the utilities order for rolling blackouts. Although rules today prohibit these distributed storage systems to export all of that power to the grid and help meet emergency energy needs upon demand, the potential is there if policy makers align.

This fact illustrates the potential of behind-the-meter energy storage to play a meaningful role in not only reducing load on the electric grid during peak times but to also help meet shortfalls in generation and enable the shutdown of fossil fuel power plants should policy makers allow.  

Beyond blackouts, to a resilient clean energy future. 

Instead of always patching up a broken system of the past, let's build something better for the future. 

While today’s distributed fleet of 30,000 behind-the-meter solar-charged batteries represent a meaningful amount of storage, compared to both the one million solar systems California built since 2006 and the state’s needs for energy storage, the state’s energy storage market remains woefully small. The number of homes, schools and businesses with battery energy storage is growing every day and we can accelerate that growth just like we did when California committed to building one million solar roofs by embracing a One Million Solar Batteries Initiative to achieve market transformation by 2030. 

If the August blackouts taught us one thing, it is that it’s time we unleash the power of solar and storage in California.  

California lacks a comprehensive plan or policy to achieve the goals it needs to truly integrate renewable energy and build a reliable energy grid. Significantly increasing the amount of distributed solar and energy storage over the next few years through a One Million Solar Batteries Initiative would help forestall future blackouts. 

Specific policy goals to achieve this vision include:

• Establish a 10-year incentive program dedicated to market transformation of energy storage

• Reduce friction in the system by cutting red tape around local permitting through the SolarApp, an NREL developed software that provides one-stop-permitting of solar and storage systems. 

• Cut delays and cost increases from utility interconnection delays. 

• Create opportunities for behind-the-meter batteries to participate in California’s electricity grid in meaningful and effective ways. So called “virtual power plant” programs have been proven to work. We need California regulators to unleash the power of energy storage. 

• The federal investment tax credit should be extended and inclusive of energy storage.