The Mysteries of California’s Electric Grid

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last week, California struggled under one of the worst heat waves in written history. Several cities across the state, including San Jose and Redwood City, shot through record-breaking temperatures. With the heat and demand for air conditioning, the state's energy grid almost couldn’t hold. But thanks to a text telling us: “Power interruptions may occur unless you take action,” residents and businesses turned off lights, unplugged devices and kept the power humming. But as heat waves are projected to become more frequent, more intense, and longer-lasting under climate change, can California’s power grid handle it? We’ll be talking about how California’s power grid works, how it's adapting and how it performed during the heat wave. Guests: Alexandra (Sascha) von Meier, independent consultant, she was Director of Electric Grid Research at the California Institute for Energy and Environment for a decade retired professor UC Berkeley electrical engineering. Duncan Callaway, associate professor of Energy and Resources, UC Berkeley; faculty scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Ivan Penn, energy correspondent, New York Times Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for Kikiweedy Podcasts comes from Rancho La Puerta, a resort with 85 years of wellness experience.
0:07.4	Three and four-night August vacations include sunrise hikes, water classes, yoga, and spa therapies.
0:14.2	Rancho LePuerta.com
0:15.7	Support for Forum comes from Broadway S.F. presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.
0:23.5	From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank,
0:29.8	a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is accused of an
0:35.5	unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and devotion.
0:43.6	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orpheum Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.
0:51.9	Tickets on sale now at Broadway, sf.com. From KQED.
0:58.2	From KQD in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:13.6	Last week, many of us received a text telling us power interruptions may occur unless you take action.
1:20.6	If you're like me, you ran around the house, turn out lights, unplugging stuff.
1:23.6	The text worked.
1:25.6	Governor Newsom congratulated us for all our energy preservation, but the
1:30.3	episode highlighted a major problem. How much trouble is the grid really in as our climate
1:35.9	continues to change? And as we add more solar and wind supply while also adding more electric
1:41.8	vehicle demand. We'll be talking about how California's power grid works and what it means for our everyday lives.
1:48.0	That's coming up next.
1:49.0	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. When you think about the electrical grid, well, assuming you do every few years, you probably don't see an accomplishment for the ages. But it is a marvel of engineering, the backbone of modern American life, and a great example of what the historian David and I called the technological sublime. Operating the grid requires precisely balancing the supply
2:24.1	of electricity from all kinds of sources, natural gas plant, solar installations, hydropower,
2:29.1	with all of the users of electricity. And almost all the time, somehow, by the unceasing work of the grid operators here and across the country, the lights stay on.
2:40.0	But most of the grid was built decades ago, when most electricity was produced by burning the rocks we call coal.
	...

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