California is doing everything they can to provide increased resilience to wildfire impact communities.
In an effort to prepare for this coming wildfire season California along with a series of sustainability activists and solar/ESS organizations have agreed to allow PG&E to utilize diesel generators temporarily while they work out how they can use solar + storage to combat the wildfires caused by their equipment.
In fact it was found that between 2014 and 2017 – 2,000+ wildfires were caused due to utility owned equipment.
The commission is pushing hard on ensuring that grid modernization and micro-grids are in the forefront of their resilience plans and so far here are the key takeaways on how they are achieving this push.
- Accelerating interconnection process for projects that can increase resilience in wildfire susceptible zones
- Remove energy storage limits and rework Net Metering rules – ie. increase incentive for resilience
- Add dedicated staff to help walk all stakeholders through the interconnection process
California isn’t the only one, but definitely utilizing all in their power to provide resilience to the state while maintaining their aggressive renewable energy goals.