L R AS Published on Sunday 1 December 2019 - n° 300 - Categories:California-Americas States

To cope with the PG & E power cuts, a pooling of local resources

California power company PG & E was declared bankrupt in 2018 after a huge fire was blamed on it. In 2019, it decided to cut off the electricity supply when there was a danger of another fire. Millions of users were dissatisfied with these cuts.

Legislators have forced counties and cities to pay the bills for emergency measures taken to cope with the cuts. Energy aggregators and a municipal power company mobilized to build up reserves by pooling distributed energy resources that could compensate for the failure of PG & E. The aim is to gather 30 megawatts, and to set up a system for the next dry season.

This initiative is innovative because it is the most important action to bring together local resources to meet California's needs. The initiative is launched by the supply units of the city or county that group together a growing share of the customers of an investor-owned power company (PG & E).

GreenTech Media of November 28

Editor's note An intermediate level is established between the local producer and the regional or state producer! Under the constraint of necessity, this level of electricity supply, even temporary because it is initially limited to ensuring the supply of electricity in the event of a power failure, could become increasingly important by pooling resources and needs. It would be a kind of collective self-consumption that would hardly be broader than the one that is being established in France.

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