From SFGate, December 1:
With the upcoming launch of a new energy-trading market for Western states, California is hoping to save ratepayers money and put more solar to use
For years, California lawmakers were stymied. But now, at a crucial juncture for electricity in America, the state is embracing an ambitious and long-awaited plan: to buy and sell far, far more power across Western state lines.
This coming year, a new energy trading market with its first participants is set to go online — a rollout that experts promise will lower monthly home electric bills and supercharge states’ green-energy production. California is set up to lead this push, thanks to its high-tech grid operator, its glut of renewable energy and a fresh bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that paves the way for the regional market.
The West currently trades its energy in what’s known as a “spot market,” where states and municipalities have only 15 minutes to offload their excess solar and wind power to other regions. The new market will widen that timeframe to a full day, giving western states more time to decide where unused energy should go and better prepare for sunny and windy days. As things stand, California often has to curtail its solar and wind production — or turn off the generators, wasting chances to produce energy from sunlight and wind.
“Curtailment is, by definition, a market failure,” Michael Colvin, who leads California energy policy for the Environmental Defense Fund, told SFGATE. “It is a moment of last resort, of saying, ‘We’ve got to keep the system in balance. We have charged all the batteries we can charge. We have sold all the power that we can sell.’”
This “market failure” is a regular occurrence of California energy waste. The state curtailed 3.4 million megawatt-hours of solar and wind output in 2024, up 29% from the year prior. That’s an amount equivalent to burning nearly 3.9 billion pounds of coal, or enough to power the entire state for almost four and a half days. This waste means that California isn’t making the most of its huge solar buildup — ratepayers helped fund solar farms, but don’t reap the full rewards....
....MUCH MORE
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