Editorial: Planning for Wildfire-Related Outages: Register Guard

By Lisa Cohn

This summer, tens of thousands of Oregon residents had their power shut off when high winds and hot temperatures threatened to ignite fires from electrical equipment such as utility poles. This was by far the largest series of  “public safety power shutoffs” implemented by Oregon utilities.

During such events, homeowners and businesses tend to fire up gas or diesel-fired generators, which spew pollution and ultimately worsen climate change.

There’s a better answer, which I described in this Opinion piece for the Eugene Register Guard (Oregon). My other opinion pieces about energy issues in Oregon have run in the Oregonian, the Bend Bulletin and Portland Tribune.

Here’s the text of the Opinion Piece:

 

Here’s How to Prepare for Wildfire-Related Power Outages

By Lisa Cohn

During Oregon’s recent public safety power shutoffs (PSPS)–electric system outages designed to protect against utility equipment igniting fires–200 Oregon homeowners in fire-prone regions were prepared.

With the help of incentives from the Energy Trust of Oregon, these homeowners had installed solar and energy storage systems capable of operating when utility power is shut off. That means the clean energy systems kept the lights on and refrigerators humming while most of their neighbors lost power during the week of September 9.

Tens of thousands of Oregon residents were shut off when high winds and hot temperatures threatened to ignite fires from electrical equipment such as utility poles. In Eugene, thousands were left in the dark.

Oregon residents, businesses and communities need more of these clean energy systems, which are called distributed energy because they consist of local–as opposed to centralized– energy systems. They generally include solar, wind, fuel cells and energy storage and don’t require poles and wires, which means they’re unlikely to spark fires.

The distributed energy systems protect residents and businesses from power outages that can spoil food and medicine and endanger vulnerable community members who need heat, air conditioning and access to electricity for operating medical devices. And they’re generally made up of technologies that are cleaner than the diesel generators that homeowners, businesses and utilities fire up during outages.

To get a feel for the increase in the number of fossil-fired generators often operated during PSPS events, we can look to fire- and PSPS- prone California for hints of what may be ahead for Oregon as the number of wildfires increase due to climate change.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the use of backup generators increased by 34% over the last three years in response to PSPS and outages, according to research from the consulting group M. Cubed. The backup generators equate to 15% of the state’s total electric capacity and 90% of them use carbon-intensive diesel fuel.

Distributed energy not only powers the 200 homes that were protected by solar and storage systems during the recent heatwave and PSPS; it also fuels a handful of other microgrids located in Oregon, including some that serve as community resource centers during emergencies.

For example, the Neasmith Readiness Center operated by the Oregon Military Department in Dallas has a microgrid that includes 225 kW of solar, a 128-kWh  battery, an energy controller and–as backup for long duration outages–an existing 150-kW diesel generator. While the readiness center wasn’t affected by the most recent PSPS, it’s designed to serve as a community resource during disasters such as earthquakes, fires and storms that spark outages. Community members will be able to rely on the center for resources such as air conditioning, heat, outage information and phone charging.

Not only can distributed energy help during power emergencies. So can electric vehicles capable of bidirectional charging. Right now, they include the Ford F-150 Lightning, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, and the Nissan Leaf. . These electric vehicles can send  energy to the grid, help power their owners’ homes or absorb into their batteries excess solar energy.

In California, Pacific Gas & Electric recently launched a number of bidirectional pilot programs under which it will test how electric cars and trucks can provide power to homes and the grid.

To ensure that electric vehicles, microgrids and other distributed energy resources can help out during outages, we need additional incentives for utility customers, along with regulatory changes. The climate provisions of the new Inflation Reduction Act are expected to help by boosting incentives for clean energy. In addition, we need measures that require utilities to interconnect clean energy projects more quickly. And it’s important to update or eliminate outdated rules that make it difficult for distributed energy resources to provide benefits to the grid.

The recent fires and power shut offs are an important reminder of the need to hasten the transition away from centralized grid power to clean, distributed energy. Let’s get more solar, storage and electric cars into homes and businesses and allow them to reduce harmful power plant emissions, keep power flowing, protect vulnerable residents and reduce costs during fire season and all year.