Southern California Edison (SCE) has filed an application with the California Public Utilities Commission to enhance renewable energy operations.
If approved, the renewable integration and advancement (RIA) program would fund and develop innovative systems and technologies to enhance safe and reliable energy deliveries as more intermittent renewable resources come online to meet the state's renewable energy goals. The program would focus on better integrating existing renewable resource technologies, such as wind and solar, with a view toward optimizing the operations of existing transmission and distribution capacity. SCE is seeking authorization of funding over two years for this program.
Although no specific projects yet have been identified, examples of the type of projects the RIA program may consider and enable include:
– testing and installing energy storage devices to capture surplus energy at night and release it to the grid during the peak-demand hours of the day, when the value of the energy is greater;
– studying the joint production of solar and wind resources to make the most of renewable energy transmission lines, such as those in the Tehachapi region of Kern County; and
– testing hardware (such as capacitors, batteries, forecasting and monitoring devices) to improve system communications as new renewables are connected to the system.
