LA’s Bold, Equitable Energy Vision

05/18/22 • 24 min

The nation’s largest municipal utility, serving Los Angeles, wants to move to 100% clean energy by 2035. To do that, the utility needs to significantly boost renewable energy generation and it’s banking on the rapid development of energy storage technology. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Simon Zewdu who is the Director of Transmission Planning, Regulatory Processes and Innovation at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).

The price tag to reach 100% clean energy is estimated as high as $86 billion for increased generation, transmission, and distribution.

“We need to significantly increase the capacity of existing transmission lines that we have. The Department owns and operates about 3,600 miles of transmission lines that traverse in five western states. We need to operate those. Not only that, we need to look into how we can come up with some new corridors, collaborate with other agencies to build new transmission lines to be able to support the load within the City of Los Angeles.”

Equity will be center stage, as the utility works to bring affordable energy transformation to all customers.

“Everything will be looked at from a prism of equity so that we monitor it on a regular basis and report to our communities whether we have met our equity targets,” said Zewdu.

Mr. Zewdu has been with LADWP for 20 years with duties spanning from substation design to project management, strategic planning, and special projects. He holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and an MBA in finance. He is a registered Electrical Engineer in the State of California.

The price tag to reach 100% clean energy is estimated as high as $86 billion for increased generation, transmission, and distribution.

Equity will be center stage, as the utility works to bring affordable energy transformation to all customers.

“Everything will be looked at from a prism of equity so that we monitor it on a regular basis and report to our communities whether we have met our equity targets,” said Zewdu.

Previous Episode

Feds Aim to Speed Approval of Infrastructure

The federal government is on track to invest $1.2 trillion to overhaul American infrastructure, with $80 billion headed to the electric grid. In this episode of Grid Talk, we talk with Christine Harada who is the Executive Director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council. It was created in 2015 to help facilitate government approvals of major projects.

“I want to make sure that we’re putting boots on the ground—that we have the construction workers who are there and actually making the infrastructure happen,” Harada said.

The impact of the council’s work is significant and measurable.

“We have found that we were able to decrease the overall timeframe by upwards of 2-21⁄2 years just simply because of the transparency provided by the dashboard and by the activities that this Council takes on to be able to help negotiate and review and resolve challenges.”

As for transmission projects, Harada hopes to trim approval times by at least 10 percent.

“I am an overachiever so I would love to achieve something like 25%. I think that’s certainly just within the federal agencies’ realm of control, 10% is a great target. Working with state and local entities, I think that something like a 25% reduction would be a great stretch target.”

Harada was named Executive Director in July of 2021. She will manage a portfolio of nearly $60 billion in large-scale infrastructure projects—most of which are renewable energy, coastal restoration, and electricity transmission. Harada will lead 13 federal agencies, state agencies, and project sponsors to develop and implement project-specific timetables for all required reviews and authorizations.

Harada holds a master's degree in international studies from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA in finance from the Wharton School at Penn. Additionally, she has a master's degree from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in aeronautics and astronautics.

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Nuclear Renaissance Ahead

America’s reliance on nuclear power is poised to rapidly expand given a new generation of more affordable small modular reactors (SMR). In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Maria Korsnick who is the President and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute. The conversation focuses on how SMRs can deliver carbon-free energy.

“We are about 90 gigawatts of generation today so it will be an additional 90 gigawatts of generation and because we’re talking more small modular reactors, that 90 gigawatts could turn into about 300 SMRs that would be added to the grid,” said Korsnick.

According to Korsnick, nuclear power will increasingly replace fossil fuel generation plants that contribute to climate change and nuclear power is needed to supplement solar and wind power.

“Imagine nuclear really forming the backbone of that clean-energy, highly-reliable grid upon which the intermittent resources can also be added.”

The 300 small reactors built out in the next two decades would triple the number of nuclear power plants in the nation and help lower the cost of transitioning away from carbon.

“It’s very, very clear when you add nuclear to the mix, the overall system cost is reduced.”

Maria Korsnick has been NEI’s President and CEO since 2017 where she draws on her engineering background, hands-on experience in reactor operations, and a deep knowledge of energy policy and regulatory issues to increase understanding of nuclear energy’s economic and environmental benefits among policymakers and the public.

Korsnick previously served as the NEI’s COO. She has been in the energy industry since 1986 working in various roles for Constellation Energy and then Exelon Nuclear.
Korsnick holds a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Maryland and has held a senior reactor operator license.