written 15 September, 2024
published 22 September, 2024
The growing climate crisis threatens our planet's habitability. For those not in denial, or too addicted to fossil fuel money, the solution is clear: stop adding to the problem as soon as possible (decarbonization) and rapidly begin removing what has already been added (sequestration).
California has accepted the decarbonization goal, which requires producing more non-carbon electricity, and instructed all electrical power agencies to move in that direction. The limited capacity of the existing transmission grid means any timely solution will involve widely distributed power production and storage, and new power management tools to manage these more complex systems.
A year ago, NCPA, Ukiah's power provider, told our utility to produce 15 percent more of our power locally, amounting to 45 megawatt hours/day (MWh/d). Averaged over the year, 11 megawatts (MW) of solar array would collect that much power.
As the climate crisis grows, so do lethal heat events. City emergency response provides cooling centers for people who can't afford air conditioning in their homes. Increased air conditioning loads stress the grid during episodes of high heat, and can cause the grid to fail, as was barely avoided last summer. A grid failure during a heat wave could be fatal, so every cooling center has to have some form of reliable backup power.
According to the City Manager's office, Ukiah has two designated cooling centers: the Civic Center, and the Conference Center. However, the Conference Center Manager says it is no longer a designated cooling center. Both have fossil fueled backup power, which can operate for more than a day, but then needs refueling. The Ukiah Senior Center is also listed as a cooling center, and also has a fossil fueled backup power system.
These backup systems, which are never operated unless needed, are effectively "sunk costs", assets that hardly produce any return on the investment. Although they are tested regularly, during the 2019, four day PSPS grid blackout, two grocery stores (Lucky's and the Co-Op) had their fossil fueled backup power systems fail, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost food. Even when these systems operate, they contribute to the problem that is destroying our civilization.
A more creative, cost effective energy solution would operate all the time, covering its cost by contributing to the normal production of electrical power, without producing the carbon pollution that threatens our society, yet be able to operate independent from the grid when needed. In our valley, this would be a solar array with adequate battery storage, and the associated power management hardware. Storage allows cheap mid-day power to replace off-peak power, which can be 5-10 times more expensive.
In 2020, the Ukiah Unified School system added 750 kilowatts (KW) of canopy solar arrays over parts of their parking lots, installed at three sites outside the City limits. This work was grant funded. Averaged over 25 years, this produces fixed cost power of about $0.10/KWhr, less than 1/3 their previous power costs, which were going up every year. In addition to saving on electricity costs, the parking lots are now shaded in the summer and protected from rain in the winter.
The Senior Center building and parking lot could support about 500KW of array (assuming 50 percent of the area is covered). The Civic Center building and the parking lots could support about 700KW. The Conference Center building and parking lot could support about 400KW. If all three cooling centers were shifted to renewable, full time power, with emergency backup capacity, they would account for 1/7 of the total new power NCPA is asking the City to install.
Once this kind of project is accomplished, the City would know how to handle the grant writing, project construction, and most importantly, distributed power management techniques required to handle such versatile power systems. This is the wave of the future, and the City needs to start learning these skills now.
As the City expands its local power generating capacity, other possible cooling centers could be created, such as churches, mobile home parks, and retirement centers. Essential aspects of the community could made power resilient, like the hospital and power hungry grocery stores, all beneficial for long term disaster survival.
While making the entire City power resilient is a worthy goal, it has yet to happen. A first step is essential. Let's start with a focus on keeping everyone alive during a blackout caused by a lethal heat wave.
