The POWER Podcast

If you’ve been in the power industry workforce for any significant length of time, you may have asked your supervisor at some point “Why am I doing this?” regarding a task that you were assigned, only to have them respond, “We’ve always done it this way.” That’s because the power industry has a reputation for being stuck in its ways of doing things. As long as a process is safe, reliable, and reasonably cost-effective, the feeling is often, “Why change?” But just because something works, doesn’t mean its efficient or the best practice. Sometimes you have to step back and consider, “Is there a better way?” And sometimes you have to spend money to make money. The old English saying goes, “Penny-wise and pound-foolish,” which is intended to keep people from being too careful with small amounts of money, while missing out on large windfalls. Implementing new technology typically requires an initial investment, which in many cases can seem substantial. For power companies, that often means justifying the expense to the purse-string holders. “If we think about the focus on operating expense [OpEx] versus capital, within the U.S. sector at least, looking at leveraging cloud or other SaaS [Software-as-a-Service] solutions that may come across as an unwelcome operating expense can definitely hinder the speed of adoption of some of these newer technologies,” Casey Werth, general manager for the Energy industry with IBM Technology, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “We work closely with a lot of our clients on how to address these and build out business cases that can show that even if you have an increase in OpEx, for instance, the downstream reduction of OpEx cost far outweighs the OpEx increase of the solution.” Werth offered an example based on IBM’s Vegetation Management solution, which he helped a transmission and distribution (T&D) customer implement. “Veg management is a massive operating expense on any T&D operator’s budget that can be optimized or improved upon to have a better outcome,” Werth said. IBM’s website touts Vegetation Management as an end-to-end solution that leverages artificial intelligence (AI), satellite images, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), and more to regularly assess and monitor vegetation. It says the solution helps improve work prioritization and decision-making from planning all the way through work inspection and auditing. Werth said IBM has leveraged “advanced technology to better automate the identification of potential areas of risk due to foliage, and then helping better plan and then audit those veg processes to ensure the best outcome for our clients.” Texas-based Pedernales Electric Cooperative is reportedly a satisfied customer. It expects to reduce the number and severity of vegetation-related outages, improve safety and reliability, and cut overall vegetation management costs by having implemented the solution. Among other ways Werth said technology can improve operations is through “process mining.” The goal of process mining is to gain complete process transparency using data from a business’s own software systems, such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software. Process mining also aims to pinpoint inefficiencies and prioritize automation by impact and expected return on investment to drive continuous process improvements. It does that by triggering corrective actions or generating Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bots. “If we could identify four or five steps of a discrete process that could be either automated or removed, the potential OpEx savings, or just operational efficiency from that process on the other side, has really powerful impacts,” said Werth. “But, if you can’t run the tools to find those wins, then that win sort of stays hidden.”

Cynics might argue that it’s impossible to operate the power grid economically with 100% renewable energy on an hourly basis, but a model developed by Peninsula Clean Energy, a community choice aggregation agency that serves San Mateo County and the City of Los Banos, California, suggests it’s possible. To prove it, Peninsula Clean Energy intends to do it by 2025. “Our default product, which all of our customers receive at this time, is 50% renewable, 100% clean,” Jan Pepper, CEO of Peninsula Clean Energy, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “Our goal is to have the power that we deliver by 2025 be 100% renewable, and matched on a time-coincident, hour-by-hour basis.” Under current California regulations, renewable energy percentages are matched on an annual basis. “For example, if we have a 3,700 gigawatt-hour load, for us to be 50% renewable, which we are right now, we procure 1,850 gigawatt-hours per year of renewables and 1,850 gigawatt-hours of additional clean resources, which for us is large hydro, and that meets our needs on an annual basis,” Pepper explained. That basically means there are times when Peninsula Clean Energy is supplying more than 50% renewable power to its customers and times when it’s supplying less, but over the course of the year, everything averages out so the agency hits its 50% renewable energy target. However, by 2025, the agency expects to match its supply with its load every hour of every day. “In order to do that, we’ll be adding a lot of storage,” said Pepper. Peninsula Clean Energy’s modeling tool, which it calls MATCH (which stands for Matching Around-The-Clock Hourly energy), was built, tested, and used over the past two years. The goal was for the agency to determine the optimal 24/7 renewable energy portfolio. Leaders wanted to know how much it would cost, the level of emission reduction benefits that could be achieved, and the impacts it might have on the broader energy system. A team of workers, which included Planning and Analytics Manager Mehdi Shahriari, Power Resources and Compliance Manager Sara Maatta, and Greg Miller from the University of California, Davis, started with an open-source model called the “Switch Power System Planning Model” and modified it significantly to create MATCH. Using the model, the team outlined in a 44-page white paper how matching customer electricity demand with renewable energy supply 99% of the time achieves the ideal balance of being cost-competitive, reducing portfolio risk, and reducing emissions. “We find that a ‘sweet spot’ goal of providing 100% renewable energy on a 99% time-coincident basis results in only a 2% cost increase relative to our baseline, while achieving critical emission reductions and providing other benefits to the grid,” the team wrote in the report’s executive summary. “We were pleasantly surprised,” said Pepper. However, while achieving the last 1% is doable, it’s not quite as practical. “Our model also found there are diminishing returns in trying to match the last 1% of customer demand, with a 10% increase in portfolio cost needed to go from 99% time-coincident to 100% time-coincident,” the report says. “We’re excited about what the future holds and being able to show that we can do this in a cost-effective way, so that we can all have a much more sustainable and clean energy future,” Pepper concluded.

Hydropower projects frequently face resistance from environmental groups for a variety of reasons. One of the more common objections to hydro is the high turbine-induced mortality of fish. However, Natel Energy, an Alameda, California–based hydro turbine developer and independent power producer, has shown that improving hydro turbine designs could be the ultimate answer to the problem. It has developed the Restoration Hydro Turbine (RHT), a compact hydroelectric turbine that couples high performance with safe through-turbine fish passage. “Our thesis was that if we can make it safe for fish to move through hydropower facilities in a straightforward and easy way, then we can support reimagining hydropower overall, in a bit more of a distributed approach, but one where these projects actually also help to maintain passage and river connectivity,” Gia Schneider, co-founder and CEO of Natel Energy, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “Core to making that vision possible is a fish-safe turbine.” The RHT is optimized for low head (from 2 meters to 20 meters) and doesn’t require fine fish screens. The design’s thick, slanted blades transport fish away from the leading edge into wide inter-blade regions and downstream to the outlet. The progressive slant of the blades from hub to tip also minimizes the likelihood of severe strike and eliminates the risk of entrapment between moving and stationary parts. Schneider understands the challenges presented by multiple projects in a watershed or river. “If you’re in a watershed where you, say, have 10 projects down a river, then that means you need to be greater than 99% safe through each individual passage—each individual turbine—in order to achieve [an acceptable] population survival dynamic,” Schneider said. “And so, core for us is we want to achieve greater than 99% safe passage. We’ve kind of set that as an overall target. [It] doesn’t need to be quite that strict if you have fewer projects on a river, but it’s a good rule-of-thumb metric to aim for. And, then, we also want to be highly efficient, so up to 94% efficient from a power generation perspective.” The results achieved during intense testing have been phenomenal. In a recently released, peer-reviewed paper, the findings from an eel passage study were documented. “We’ve been able to actually show 100% passage of eel through our turbines, and with some pretty extreme conditions,” Schneider said. “We’re talking eel that are basically as long as the diameter of the turbine that they are going through—so fairly large eel relative to the size of the turbine—and where that turbine is spinning at 600, 700 rpm.” Schneider said it’s really important to get that kind of data, because it helps substantiate the design with real results, showing it’s truly possible to design for high fish passage and high energy production at the same time. Natel has conducted several other studies, some with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), with similarly impressive results. Earlier this year, a Natel/PNNL test of 186 large rainbow trout—measuring up to 500 millimeters (19.7 inches) in length—found no meaningful difference between the fish passed through Natel’s 1.9-meter-diameter (roughly 6 feet) turbine and a control group, indicating that the RHT allows safe passage of some of the largest fish ever successfully passed through a compact hydro turbine. Earlier tests of smaller rainbow trout passed through Natel’s turbine demonstrated 100% survival.

Economic development can be a challenge for leaders in rural communities. Often, it’s hard to attract businesses to rural areas because the local workforce may not have the skills or numbers to meet companies’ needs. But opportunities that haven’t been widely available in the past exist today for rural communities due to the energy transition that is sweeping the nation. “The potential for rural communities is really enormous,” L. Michelle Moore, CEO of Groundswell (a nonprofit that builds community power by connecting solar and energy efficiency with economic development, affordability, and quality of life) and author of the book Rural Renaissance: Revitalizing America’s Hometowns through Clean Power, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. For example, Moore explained that nearly $10 billion is available to rural electric cooperative utilities through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to build clean energy projects. She also noted how rural communities can benefit from electric vehicle (EV) tax credits, and from credits designed to encourage installation of EV chargers in rural areas. There are also great incentives for energy efficiency improvements, such as for adding insulation to homes or installing more efficient heating and cooling systems. “The opportunities for rural America are really, really myriad,” Moore said. “And, you know what, you can’t offshore construction jobs. So, implementing both energy efficiency [improvements]—whether it’s insulation in the attic or the air conditioning system—those are all activities that are going to keep local people at work.” Moore is a strong supporter of rural electric cooperatives and believes they have a large role to play in economic development in rural communities. “So many people don’t know or have never experienced the tremendous power and potential of rural electric cooperatives,” she said. “The people who buy their electricity from rural electric cooperative utilities actually own the utility, and they also participate directly in its governance. The boards of rural electric cooperative utilities are meant to be democratically elected by co-op members. So, it’s really energy democracy in practice when co-ops are working at their best,” explained Moore. “There are more than 900 of them around the country, and they serve more than half of America’s landmass. And they serve tens of millions of customers as well. So, they really could be the heroes of local clean energy futures.” When asked where rural communities can get the biggest bang for their buck, Moore responded, “As unsexy as it can sound, energy efficiency is a really important place to start, and that is because rural energy burdens are so high. You know, a lot of rural housing just needs repairs, maintenance, and upgrades, much of which can be paid for with energy efficiency over time.” But Moore said there are other ways rural communities can benefit from the energy transition. “The second thing that I would really encourage rural communities to look at is solar and energy storage, which is going to help to increase the resilience of your community,” she said. “Today, those technologies are much more available, and the Inflation Reduction Act has all kinds of grant funding and tax credits and rebates that help to pay for them and help to get them out into communities, including rural towns that may not have the dollars in their pocket today to be able to invest in the technology that they need without some additional support coming in from other places.”

The Duquesne Light Co. (DLC) may not be among the best-known electric power companies in the U.S., but for its customers in Allegheny and Beaver counties in southwestern Pennsylvania, the company has been a steady presence in the community for more than a century. “We are a Pittsburgh-based utility company. We’ve been in operation for over 140 years, serving the Pittsburgh area,” Kevin Walker, CEO of DLC, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “We are very entwined with our community, doing a lot of community service and corporate giving. And since we’re a small but mighty utility, we know, live, and work with all of our customers. I see many customers in the supermarket and in the barber shop and those kinds of places. And so, I love to feel that we are really making an impact for the people we know and serve.” Pittsburgh was the site of the Global Clean Energy Action Forum (GCEAF) in late September. Delegates from around the world gathered at the event hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy and Carnegie Mellon University. It was the first time the GCEAF was held in the U.S. The three-day event featured high-level plenary sessions and topical roundtables with energy and science ministers, CEOs, and other experts and leaders (Figure 1). There were also various side events, technology demonstrations, and other activities throughout the week. Walker was a member of the host committee. “We’re still riding the high off of that event. It was so exciting to have people from across the globe, here in Pittsburgh, really, to showcase the evolution and continuing evolution of Pittsburgh,” Walker said. “It was a great knowledge share both ways. We learned things from around the globe, as well as sharing our wisdom with folks around the globe.” Walker said innovation and creativity are in Pittsburgh’s DNA, as is a willingness to collaborate. “I think that’s our secret sauce here as a region—we really collaborate well and there’s a low-to-no barrier to the folks helping each other,” he said. Walker felt the collaborative spirit extended to attendees from across the globe during the event and has continued even after the conference ended. DLC has collaborated with other power companies, too. In late July, for example, the company announced that Commonwealth Edison (ComEd), an Exelon Corporation unit, and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) had joined the first phase of DLC’s public crowdsourcing innovation challenge, called “Monitoring Electrical Cable Challenge: The Future of Underground Inspection.” The challenge was devoted to creating a more reliable and safer underground electric network in the Pittsburgh region. With a total prize of $750,000, the challenge was shared with entrepreneurs, researchers, scientists, students, and more, and it drew submissions from around the world. ComEd and PG&E are collaborating with DLC in two areas: guiding the challenge finalists on solution testing and evaluating the phase-one results. The winning solution is expected to strengthen the underground electrical grid and improve worker and public safety in DLC’s service territory, with the potential for further implementation in ComEd’s and PG&E’s networks. Yet, if you look at DLC’s website, the first thing listed under its “About Us” heading is “Community,” and Walker seems well-focused on that aspect. “We just really have this giving spirit and we want to be an important partner for our community,” he said. Part of that includes charitable giving, while addressing social and economic inequities, workforce development, and sustainable communities also play a role. DLC has also made efforts to improve supplier diversity and work with more local suppliers. “Oftentimes, we have national and even international diverse suppliers. That is good, but it doesn’t put money back into our community. So, we’re happy and proud with the advancements we’ve made there,” Walker said.

Bitcoin mining is the process used to generate new coins and verify new transactions. The process involves vast, decentralized networks of computers around the world that verify and secure blockchains, the virtual ledgers that document cryptocurrency transactions. In return for contributing their computing power, miners are rewarded with new coins. The process ultimately requires a lot of energy to perform, which is where power companies come in. “Bitcoin mining can help the energy sector,” Andrew Webber, founder and CEO of Digital Power Optimization (DPO), said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “Instead of just selling power to third-party Bitcoin miners, we suggest, that, in many circumstances, energy companies themselves are actually far better positioned to build their own Bitcoin mines and undertake this strategy and this activity for their own purposes in a vertically integrated way, where again, the energy company owns the Bitcoin mine. And by operating a Bitcoin mine, in conjunction with an energy asset, in an intelligent and thoughtful way, you can really optimize your generation assets in a way that you couldn’t really have done without a tool like Bitcoin mining to help you.” Webber said the idea came to him while reading a story in the newspaper. “I was reading [a Los Angeles Times] article about the state of California paying the state of Arizona $20 per megawatt-hour to get rid of all of its power. And I said, ‘What is going on? That seems absolutely crazy to me. I'll take all of it. You know? I'll set up a Bitcoin mine there, and just, any power you don’t want, just send it to me, I’ll take it for free,’ ” he said. Webber explained how Bitcoin mining can help power companies alleviate issues. “This is a mechanism that can go almost anywhere and soak up this excess available power where it’s produced, and then apply that value elsewhere across the globe in a way that actually solves these problems,” said Webber. “So, it’s quite an interesting tool for the energy sector once they get their heads around how this will help.” Bitcoin mining provides flexibility, too. If power is needed suddenly for customers, the power company can respond by simply shutting down the mining operation. “You can just turn it off, and so, it makes a really good tool to respond to sharp jumps in demand or transmission difficulties,” Webber said. “It’s sort of energy management infrastructure. And when you start thinking about an energy company building these things, it’s not really Bitcoin mining, you’re managing your energy assets in a different way, using a different system.” Setting up a Bitcoin mining operation is fairly simple. Webber said a 1-MW system fits in what looks like a standard shipping container—essentially, a 40-foot by 8-1/2-foot big metal box. Inside are racks, wiring, all the networking equipment, a filtration system, cooling fans, and 300 to 325 very specialized computers. The container is connected to a transformer supplied by 240-V or 277-V power, and mining can begin on whatever schedule works best for the power company including 24/7/365. In the end, however, Bitcoin mining is just one tool in a power management toolbox. It can be used in combination with other solutions, including battery storage and green hydrogen production. “All of these are things that need to be incorporated and thought about, not individually, but frankly, in concert with one another,” said Webber. “Right now, I think the energy sector has close to zero understanding that this is available to them, and that’s what we’re hoping to change. And I think it’ll be probably commonplace over the next decade or two.”

Aero-derivative gas turbines are widely used in the power industry. As the name implies, aero-derivative gas turbines evolved from innovations to proven technologies used in airplane jet engines. These gas turbines provide anywhere from 30 MW to 140 MW of efficient, reliable power, and deliver operational savings to energy providers worldwide. According to Harsh Shah, vice president of sales and business development with Mitsubishi Power Aero, there are four key areas where aero-derivative gas turbines are used. “The first is what we would call a traditional peaking application,” he said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. This is important when demand exceeds supply during certain periods of the day. “You basically want an asset that can cover the extra demand,” he said. Another application is what Shah called “reverse peaking.” This is when supply decreases quickly for some reason, such as cloud cover affecting solar output, a rapid decrease in wind generation, or some other supply disruption. “If supply drops below the demand, you can have solution like aero-derivatives to cover that in very, very, very short time,” said Shah. Shah said emergency and fast-track applications also provide regular opportunities for aero-derivatives. These can arise from weather-related events or other unforeseen activities. Sometimes, problems result from inadequate planning, or other political and social motivations that require quick deployment of power systems, which aero-derivatives are ideally suited to accommodate. “Last, but certainly not least, is distributed power and grid independent operations,” Shah said. Things like crypto-mining operations or hydraulic fracturing require significant power, and aero-derivative units can quickly fill the role and offer the mobility to change locations, if situations change. As mentioned, aero-derivatives fill an important role in support of renewables, and that is likely to increase as more renewable energy resources are added to the grid. “Renewables growth and its impact on grid dynamics is, I believe, one of the key challenges that the power sector faces as it aims to decarbonize over the next 20 or 30 years,” Shah said. Power producers worldwide strive to supply reliable power to all customers 100% of the time. That requires dispatchable assets that can provide power as needed, which intermittent renewable resources are not capable of without energy storage or immense overbuild. “On-demand, aero-derivative power, we believe, is an ideal way to bridge this capacity and reliability gap effectively, and more importantly, very affordably,” said Shah. “Such peaker plants would offer, in our view, a clearest path to complementing the rise in renewables while still maintaining grid stability and reliability.” Aero-derivative gas turbines are very effective because of their inherent fast-start and flexible design. “The units are designed for five-minute starts from a complete cold condition,” Shah explained. Mobile units are highway compatible and can provide emergency power in nine days or less upon arrival. With modular designs, quick-disconnect cables, factory assembled modules, and pre-fabricated field piping, aero-derivative gas turbines are designed to minimize setup time and promptly begin generating the precise power needed for almost any situation.

Countries throughout the world have set carbon emission reduction targets in an effort to limit the effects of climate change. Many are striving to achieve net zero in coming decades. Yet, governments also want to maintain, or even improve, living standards for their citizens, which means keeping power affordable and reliable. This poses some potentially conflicting priorities. “I think one of the most important topics we’re dealing with right now is how fast can we decarbonize the power generation and the electricity generation in the societies around us,” Karim Amin, executive board member with Siemens Energy, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “But on the other hand side, we also see the importance of security of supply. I mean, the world needs reliable electricity. It’s very important not only for the economic development, but for the very same life that we have.” Amin acknowledged that adding more renewable energy is important. “There is no doubt that we need more and more and faster deployment of renewables,” he said. “Important, of course, is to realize and understand that renewables also have challenges.” Amin suggested energy storage will play a big role in future power systems, as will gas turbines. “We are transiting from, as I said, fossil-based into renewable, but we need to resolve the issue of intermittence and storage,” he said. “There are a few technological solutions that could also help to bring the CO2 footprint of the gas turbines down by almost two-thirds through hydrogen co-firing or through carbon capture technologies. So, there are ways that the world is looking at right now and really implementing to use the gas turbines in the time where the storage capacity in terms of maturity of technology is not yet there.” Coal-fired power plants are a significant source of CO2 emissions worldwide. A couple of years ago, Siemens Energy chose to stop participating in new coal power projects. However, the company still provides service to the existing coal fleet. “Actually, the service helps existing units that are running in any case to be upgraded, and to bring their CO2 level down. So, we actually contribute in this regard,” said Amin. Siemens Energy invests a lot, about €1 billion every year, in research and development (R&D). “A big part of that—more than 20% of that, and it’s increasing year on year—is really going into new technologies that would help accelerate the energy transition,” Amin said. Still, there is a delicate balance that must be maintained, which is to put as much effort as possible into renewables while still finding a way to keep the system “reliable, stable, and affordable.” At the same time, Siemens Energy is putting its money where its mouth is, so to speak. The company has committed to using only electricity supplied by renewable energy resources by 2023. It has also committed to becoming climate neutral in its own operations by 2030, which includes reducing absolute scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 46% by 2030, compared to 2019. Amin said that climate change is “the biggest challenge” that we have right now, and one that must be dealt with. “The problem is sophisticated. It’s not as simple as putting renewables and pulling the plug on gas, for example, because in the end of the day, you need to keep the day to day life running—critical infrastructure running—and renewable does not solve this issue on its own. It’s a solution that needs to happen, taking a number of elements into consideration and working as fast as possible through this transition process,” he said.

Lofty goals have been established in the U.S. for the offshore wind industry. The U.S. Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, and Department of Commerce announced a national goal in March 2021 to deploy 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030. That would mark a significant increase from the 42 MW of offshore wind energy currently operating in the states. Meanwhile, the California Energy Commission (CEC) adopted a report yesterday establishing offshore wind goals. It seeks to develop 2 GW to 5 GW of offshore wind by 2030, and 25 GW by 2045. California has no offshore wind installed today. Other states also have individual goals. The challenges to reaching these goals are many. “From my perspective, looking at where we are now, there are some significant challenges that the U.S. has to face,” Chris Cowland, vice president of Global Offshore Wind with Worley, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. Cowland, who is based in the UK and has spent the last 22 years working in the offshore sector, said the timeline is a “huge challenge,” noting that adding 30 GW of capacity by 2030 will not be easy. “There’s going to be a lot of pressure on governments to look at different policies—how they can accelerate. There’s going to be pressure on fabrication yards and supply chains, the whole remit of how are we actually going to get things to market much, much quicker,” he said. “So, that’s going to be a significant challenge, particularly just taking, as it stands at the moment, about eight years to get from auction to first power.” The lack of local content poses an obstacle too. Cowland said local content is “absolutely fundamental.” Yet, even as he touted his support for developing local resource markets, Cowland said that local content could adversely affect costs, because developed regions such as the U.S. have difficulty competing against suppliers in Asia and other low-wage areas of the world. While shipping costs are lower for local suppliers, other costs can outweigh the benefits, resulting in competitive advantages for foreign suppliers. “The U.S. needs to think slightly differently on that, in terms of: How are we going to drive local content? How are we going to drive lowest possible cost? And I think the answer there is looking at innovation, digitally enabled platforms, and things like that,” said Cowland. The area that Cowland believes the U.S. has perhaps the greatest potential to exploit revolves around standardization. “If we want to hit the ambitions of our governments, you need to stop reengineering and actually start driving standardization into the sector,” Cowland said. “Once you’ve got that standardization, that really then allows us to start to think about how do you scale-up the infrastructure to really support the development of these wind farms, whether it’s new port facilities—What sort of deep-water access do we need? What are the laydown areas that we need? What sort of O&M [operations and maintenance] hubs do we need? And there’s going to be a lot of supply bases that we’re going to need around us to support these facilities,” said Cowland. “Investment isn’t the obstacle here. It’s actually how do you get the investment into the supply chain as quickly as we need it,” he said.

Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) programs have become quite prominent in communities across California, and have begun to spring up in other states including Illinois, Massachusetts, and Ohio. Through CCA, communities can purchase electricity on behalf of residents and businesses, in place of investor-owned utilities such as Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), San Diego Gas & Electric, and Southern California Edison. The California Community Choice Association claims local governments in more than 200 towns, cities, and counties across California have chosen to participate in CCA to “meet climate action goals, provide residents and businesses with more energy options, ensure local transparency and accountability, and drive economic development.” The association says there are currently 24 operational CCA programs in California serving more than 11 million customers, and it expects those numbers to continue growing. One of the places where CCA is providing benefits is in the San Francisco Bay area. East Bay Community Energy (EBCE), a not-for-profit public agency, operates a CCA program for Alameda County and 14 incorporated cities, serving more than 1.7 million residential and commercial customers in the area. EBCE initiated service in June 2018 and expanded to the cities of Pleasanton, Newark, and Tracy in April 2021. As a guest on The POWER Podcast, Nick Chaset, CEO of EBCE, explained some of the benefits his agency provides to customers. “There are three categories of benefits that we really focus on. One is cost savings. So, since we started operations in 2018, we have delivered upwards of $30 million in bill savings to our customers, relative to what the cost of electricity from PG&E would have been, if they had stayed on that service,” he said. “The second is clean energy. So, we have delivered higher levels of renewables over the course of our operations, on average. Since we started operating in 2018, I believe we’re somewhere in that 5–7% more renewable range—and that can be more or less than that average depending on how much renewable energy PG&E ends up actually buying—but on average, it’s been in that 5–7% more renewable.” The third thing Chaset said really differentiates EBCE from not only incumbent utilities, but also from some other community energy agencies is its emphasis and focus on investing in clean energy locally. In September 2021, EBCE commenced commercial operation of the Scott Haggerty Wind Energy Center, a 57-MW facility with 23 wind turbines located in Livermore, California, a community EBCE serves. It expects the wind farm to power more than 47,000 homes in its district. Beyond that, EBCE is doing several other projects to enhance local energy systems. “We are also building virtual power plant projects that integrate just over 1,000 residential solar and storage systems to provide consumers both clean energy and resiliency, and provide us with batteries that we can use to meet our broader customer base’s electricity demand,” Chaset said. “And we’re also investing in programs like electric vehicle charging stations. So, we have two large, fast-charging stations that we’re currently working to build and have plans to build a broader network of fast-charging stations across the 15 communities that we operate in.” Chaset suggested the nation could learn from California’s experience. Specifically, he said policies created in California could be applied at a federal level. “Policy is a critical lever to supporting the clean energy transition,” he said. “I would focus today on federal actions that can have really significant impacts in accelerating not just renewable energy, but really accelerating cost-effective energy. And I say that because today solar power and wind power are the cheapest sources of electricity generation out there. And so, we want more clean and cheap electricity, and we have the opportunity to accelerate that through a handful of actions.”