PG&E Blackout AAR. The PG&E blackout is now over and it’s time to review how it went. First reports show that a medically dependent resident lost his ventilator and passed away 12 minutes after losing power and the City of Moraga went through a scary 70 acre wildfire hours after losing their electricity. Because PG&E systems and emergency systems were not working as planned, emergency responders went door to door to wake homeowners up in the middle of the night, grab their things and flee. For many of you, this may trigger a recall to my climate story from Hurricane Irma two years ago when we packed up and fled the State of Florida. That same waterproof box still holds the important items, passports, birth certificates etc but Friday morning my wife asked me if the waterproof box was still functional for a fire event. Moraga is less than 10 miles from our house in Walnut Creek and here we are buying a fireproof box. There are going to be a lot of stories about how PG&E did (not well) and what the solution is (solar/storage/microgrids) but also some editorials that give the Governor some much needed political cover to act.

Change The System To Solve The Problem. When PG&E filed bankruptcy they knew that the newly inaugurated Governor would have a hard time pushing his power so early on. With hundreds of thousands of union jobs and pensions on the line, breaking up PG&E is easier said than done. The Governor said it right on saying, “This is not a climate change story as much as a story about greed and mismanagement over the course of decades,” he said. “Neglect, a desire to advance not public safety but profits.” PG&E is a poorly managed utility that does too much, covers too diverse a service area and got comfortable. The management has always focused on the quarter end results and not the impact to consumers 5 years down the road. Why should they? Imagine if their CEO had said 5 years ago that they need to focus on electrifying buildings away from gas (they own a gas utility) and help ratepayers go solar with storage. In fact PG&E would incentivize the creation of microgrids in load centers with solar everywhere. They would become change from a centralized power model to a grid that gave priority access to local, clean power. That CEO would have been fired on the spot and would probably have been considered unhireable by other power companies. But the CEO would have been right and nothing to show for it. That’s the CEO that Newsom should push on the PG&E shareholders, the CEO that predicted the obvious future and acted on it and put their own career on the line because he knew and did something about it. Yes, such a (former) CEO exists and he currently spends his time as a member of the Vote Solar board amongst other things, David Crane is the CEO that PG&E needs. Not all shareholders will love it but they should because Crane would give the company and the Governor the cover they need to think longer term. The interests are finally aligned, PG&E cannot keep the current form of management in place, they are only there to restructure the company from bankruptcy and not service the ratepayers for the long term. More editorials will give more political power to the Governor to call the handful of hedge funds and make his demands.

National Grid Under Review. We’ve talked about the delay and uncertainty for developers in MA and I’m glad to see the DPU acting to make sure the right things are happened under SMART. 

Bad Headline Example 2,478. Solar panels work great in a blackout, just put a voltage meter on them. Grid protections require the inverter to isolate when the grid is down and therefore you need the right electrical configuration to get access to the energy from the panels which leads us to batteries. You all know this and the Bloomberg reporter does.

• New York Times: ‘This Did Not Go Well’ – Inside PG&E’s Blackout Control Room
• WBUR: DPU Investigating National Grid’s Management
• Bloomberg: Fort McMurray, Once Booming Oil Town, Is Now the Insolvency Capital
• Axios: The IMF wants massive carbon taxes to fight climate change
• Utility Dive: Ex-generals aim to shift conservative resiliency dialogue away from coal, nuclear subsidies
• PV-Tech: Orlando Utility Commission approves plan to add 149MW of PV power to Florida
• Greentech Media: ‘Inevitable’ That GE Brings Offshore Wind Manufacturing to the US
• Forbes: Reforming The Carolinas’ Power Markets – Producing A Panacea Or A Pandora’s Box?

 Opinion

• Mercury News: Editorial – California needs a new model for how power is delivered

Best, Yann

Coal On Gas. Coal and natural gas are fighting to see who’s better on climate change, let’s give that some airtime.

ITC For All. The wind wants ITC for onshore projects, 30% upfront instead of a PTC. Great, let’s get the deal done, can you bring Senator Grassley along, please?

Read This Headline Again. I posted this story two weeks ago, it was silly then that we would be threatened with blackouts if gas plants closed. Today, we are living through a blackout BECAUSE we are too reliant on central power plants.

Lived Experience. How did you, friends or family members experience the blackout? Tell me your story.

The Muni Blowback. IOUs are making a media push to show the downside of municipalization of power companies. Several munis are looking to sell back to the monopoly. Watch this space.

Have a great weekend!

• Axios: The coal industry hits natural gas on climate change concerns
• Greentech Media: US Wind Industry Seeks Same Tax Incentives as Solar
• Los Angeles Times: California could face power shortages if these gas plants shut down, officials say
• New York Times: How Long the PG&E Outage Will Last and Other Questions Answered
• Orlando Sentinel: Winter Park’s electricity price hikes show the city hasn’t planned for a more energy-efficient city | Editorial
• PV-Tech: German government gets behind solar with a new 98GW-by-2030 goal
• Utility Dive: Wichita, KS mayor talks Paris agreement concerns, support for solar
• PV-Magazine: Decentralization is more than a dream

 Opinion

• EDF: To ensure North Carolina’s Clean Energy Plan succeeds, we must act now

Best, Yann

Commence NorCal Blackout. It felt like the day after a hurricane in the Bay Area yesterday, Muir Woods and Oakland Zoo were closed as some 500,000 accounts were shut off in preparation for wildfire type conditions. As this newsletter hits inboxes, there is an expectation that another 300,000 accounts are impacted causing some 2.5million people to lose electricity. PG& E was woefully unprepared for the event, largely relying on Twitter to spread their message as their website and phone systems were mostly shut down. For a power company that is looking for safe, reliable and clean services to consumers (in return for a monopoly with a guaranteed return) PG&E has opened itself up for major critique. State legislators and the Governor have been quiet on this thus far except to say that it’s insane to think this is a new normal.

The Call For Solar (plus storage).  In a well-timed op-ed in the local San Francisco paper, the CA lead for Vote Solar writes what we all know to be true, solar with storage is the natural hedge against this policy of shutdowns. Some corporate development folks at Generac are cheering their vision of why a generator company should get into batteries. There is a worry from my end that storage is a bit unprepared for this, costs are still high (but dropping) and inventory levels are not ready for this type of demand. This week should drive the demand and solution in a way where legislators ask themselves why solar can’t be put on every home?

A Judge Chimes In. As PG&E didn’t have enough to think about this week, they were also in bankruptcy court. The judge was not content with the company’s restructuring plan and opened it up for other parties to also get involved in proposing a plan. I hope that the Governor also chimes in on this as well as the parties that proposed a clean energy management team that would align itself with a vision for PG&E that is centred around being a company that makes decentralized, clean energy the mission of the company. If you think this entire newsletter is too focused on PG&E, look at the chain of events and realize that you can plug in any US utility with monopoly status into the storyline and visualize the same situation over the next 30 years.

Or Else Plan B. Just in case the monopoly thing was untouchable, the CCAs are right behind causing big changes to the demand profile. CCAs have their timing down, with super low solar plus storage available to meet consumer demand as well as CAISO requirements. CCAs are also serving their areas with financial products that make C&I solar much more profitable for the investors, through feed-in tariff type arrangements.

A Sunshine State Deal. Keep watching the Florida market. The Jacksonville utility is up for sale and NextEra is in the running (i.e. they are going to win) which should open up a major solar market inside the fast-growing Florida market. Vote Solar also led a major settlement for community solar for low-income consumers in Florida. 

• San Francisco Chronicle: How to keep the lights on in wildfire season — go solar
• New York Times: PG&E Outage Darkens Northern California Amid Wildfire Threat
• Bloomberg: California’s Blackout Becomes a Selling Point for Back-Up Power
• Utility Dive: As CCAs take over utility customers, local generation emerges as the next big growth driver
• Vote Solar: Vote Solar and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy join a diverse array of organizations in endorsing FPL SolarTogether plan to create nation’s largest community solar program
• PV-Tech: Prices drop in the eighth round of France’s rooftop PV auction
• Axios: Mayors announce Global New Green Deal in Copenhagen

 Opinion

• Fast Company: To keep the lights on during California’s blackouts, people are using solar power

Best, Yann

Good Vibes. Read the good vibes and realize the work continues. Reach out to your rep and put in the work to extend the ITC. If your company joins the ITC Council, contact me and I’ll add your logo to the newsletter for a month.

Solar Sales This Week. This week and next will be the largest solar sales week in the history of the US market. I remain surprised that the politicians haven’t stepped in to stop the PG&E blackouts but I guess if they step in and a fire happens, then they’re done as well. In the meantime, some 800k customers which mean 2.5million people will likely lose power for a few days at least. The week following will have every homeowner in Northern California looking for a quote for solar plus storage. Tell me again how we don’t need the ITC and long term net metering/rate schedule certainty?

• Greentech Media: Rep. Tonko on Extending Wind and Solar Tax Credits – ‘Odds Are Good’
• CNN: PG&E will begin cutting power at midnight Wednesday. Nearly 800,000 California customers will be affected
• Axios: The U.S. is starting to adopt electric buses
• GreenBiz: Vehicle-grid integration is a starting point, not an afterthought on the road to electrification
• Renew Economy: AEMO’s Zibelman calls for system plan says ‘just in time’ investment won’t work
• Utility Dive: NextEra enters the picture as Jacksonville utility targets at least $6.8B in sale
• Bloomberg: Merkel Flip-Flops on Solar, Wind Targets in Climate-Action Plan

 Opinion

• PV-Tech: Embrace clean energy or risk US$71bn in stranded coal assets, Japan told

Best, Yann