A rush to renewable energy could make it harder to keep the lights on in the U.S., according to a Los Angeles Times article.
Alternative energy is a new source of anxiety for energy officials, who worry about the effects of bringing more wind, solar and geothermal power to a grid designed for the previous century, the newspaper said.
Grid limitations will also undermine efforts by activists to move more quickly away from greenhouse-gas emitting power plants, it said.
The grid mainly exists to keep power supplies steady and predictable — and green energy is the least predictable kind. Whether or not technologies that can store renewable energy will become economically viable on a large scale is “hotly debated,” the newspaper said.
California’s public utilities commission last month ordered large power companies to invest heavily in storage technologies. Utilities have said the only guarantee is that billions will be spent. Net benefits are uncertain.
Power grid operators in some states have had to dump wind power produced on blustery days because the grid had no room for it, the newspaper said.
Officials working on system-redesign ideas say the work involves mapping and building electrical
networks, large-scale solar- and wind-power plants, and backup natural-gas plants to keep power going when weather causes renewable sources to falter.
But that’s the relatively easy part. The grid is built on a patchwork of market rules, operational formulas, and business models that make determining where and how to deploy green energy a “formidable riddle,” the article said.
A related controversy arose last month when Arizona’s utility regulators voted to tack on a small monthly fee to customers of the state’s largest utility who are using rooftop solar panels, agreeing with the company that rooftop solar panels place an unfair burden on companies and non-solar customers when it comes to maintaining the power grid.
–Follow Claudia Assis on Twitter @ClaudiaAssisMW
–Follow Energy Ticker on Twitter @EnergyTicker
More from Energy Ticker: