California to green its grid with energy storageby Todd Woody
15 Feb 2011 2:32 PM
In just about every story on renewable energy, there's a familiar cast of characters: green power developers, utilities, and sundry state and federal regulators. But there's one key player that often lurks in the background -- the grid operator.
In the Golden State, most of the power grid is controlled by the California Independent System Operator. Based in a suburb of Sacramento, Cal ISO, as it's known, essentially ensures that electricity supply and demand stay in balance to prevent brownouts, blackouts, and other catastrophic failures.
The agency also approves requests for big solar power plants, wind farms, and other renewable energy sources to connect to the grid. You may win approval for your project from the California Energy Commission and the United States Interior Department, but unless Cal ISO gives you the green light to plug into the grid, that big solar farm is nothing but a big white elephant.
The prospect of thousands of megawatts of intermittent sources of electricity like solar and wind jolting the grid -- and then blinking off when a cloud passes overhead or the wind dies -- poses a huge balancing act for grid operators. That's especially true in place like California, which has mandated that a third of its electricity be generated from renewable sources by 2020. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.grist.org/article/2011-02-15-california-to-green-its-grid-with-energy-storage
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