How LA is putting the public first in its energy transition

08/08/23 • 30 min

After the city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power asked NREL to help them figure out what would it take to get LA's entire grid running on 100% renewable energy by 2045, their study called the LA100 said it wasn't just possible to make the switch; it was possible to do it a decade sooner.

So LADWP changed their goal. Instead of converting the grid by 2045, they'd do it by 2035. The scale of that transition is immense. Almost 4 million residents live within the city limits. Pulling it off would make LADWP the largest municipal utility in the country to run on 100% renewable energy.

As director of power system planning at the utility, Jason Rondou and his team are tasked with figuring out how to deploy hundreds of gigawatts worth of wind, solar, and long term storage to meet the city's growing energy demands.

And if done right, the city's transition could create nearly 10,000 new jobs and bring in $60 to $90 billion of new investment for the city.

This week, Brad talked with Jason about the policies and programs LADWP is using to clean up the city's grid, and the ways that a public utility like theirs is uniquely suited to the challenge.

This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

And if done right, the city's transition could create nearly 10,000 new jobs and bring in $60 to $90 billion of new investment for the city.

This week, Brad talked with Jason about the policies and programs LADWP is using to clean up the city's grid, and the ways that a public utility like theirs is uniquely suited to the challenge.

This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

Previous Episode

How California’s worst wildfire rocked the power industry

The 2018 Camp fire was the most destructive wildfire in California's history. By the time the smoke cleared, more than 150,000 acres had burned. Damages surpassed $16 billion. Dozens had died. Thousands more were displaced. So how did it all happen?

The increasingly hot and dry conditions in the region coupled with the high Diablo winds turned the forest floor into a powder keg. Within hours, thousands of homes were destroyed in Butte County and the surrounding areas.

Katherine Blunt was just a few days into her new role as a reporter covering renewable energy and utilities for the Wall Street Journal when the fire blew up.

She chronicled how the blazed occurred and the aftermath for Pacific Gas & Electric — the utility whose equipment caused the fire — in her 2022 book “California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric and What it Means for America’s Power Grid.”

This week, Brad talks with Katherine about reporting on the Camp fire and its ramifications for the local community and PG&E, and what it all means for the utility industry.

This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.

Next Episode

Preparing the grid for millions more electric cars

EVs are a huge piece of the decarbonization puzzle. But as Apoorv Bhargava realized over his career working in the power business, utilities across the country aren’t prepared for the cost of onboarding the millions of EVs needed on the road.

A 2019 report from Boston Consulting Group found that it could cost a utility that serves two to three million customers, anywhere between $1,700 to $5,800 in grid upgrades per EV.

Apoorv wants to avoid that. As CEO and co-founder of WeaveGrid, his team provides utilities with the software to connect and manage EVs, while getting more EVs on the grid by using data to anticipate demand in different areas.

After more than a decade working on the energy transition in different capacities, Apoorv combined his experience in tech, consulting, and business by launching WeaveGrid with co-founder John Taggart in 2018.

This week, Brad talked with Apoorv about how WeaveGrid's technology is built to serve the interest of customers and utilities alike, and the levers needed to spur change in the private sector.

This podcast is produced by GridX. GridX is the Enterprise Rate Platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future.