Power to The People

Many homeowners in the San Ramon Valley are looking for ways to gain more control over our environment (knowing full well one big earthquake proves the word “control” to be relative).

Our monthly utility bills are all increasing in mysterious ways, and there is no end in sight. Use too much water, and our bill goes up! Use too little water, and our bill goes up!

We also worry about the ongoing availability of other critical resources such as electricity, upon which we are dependent for lighting, heating, and cooling the home, as well as for operating appliances, computers, electronics, machinery, and our EV cars. When there is no electricity – home life grinds to a halt.

In the past, we experienced a few brownouts on summer afternoons when the consumer peak demand on PG&E was greater than their supply of electricity. These rolling brownouts were certainly inconvenient, but they usually didn’t last more than an hour or two. But a completely new issue has now altered that equation.

Many of the recent devastating wildfires in northern California were caused by failures of electric grid equipment, especially on hot, windy days in the fall when hillside vegetation is dried-out from lack of water (and is referred to ominously as “fuel load” by firefighters).

One of the tools PG&E has now implemented for preventing these destructive wildfires is to pre-emptively de-energize certain power lines when weather conditions create an elevated risk of fire. This program is called Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) and is intended to prevent failures of their equipment from sparking a fire. Much more information can be found at the PG&E PSPS website.

Homeowners (and renters) will be dealing with these pre-emptive power outages for many years. The residents of Lafayette experienced a multi-day outage in June and it was not a joyful three-day experience. Professionals in many industries work from home, so this power outage affected not only the contents of their refrigerator and wine chiller but their financial livelihood as well. There will be more as the autumn weather brings the dry Santa Ana winds to the Bay Area and they can be lengthy.

This new multi-day loss of power is just not something homeowners can put up with!

So, you might say, why should we in San Ramon Valley care about this? In 2012, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) developed a statewide map designed to identify areas where there is an increased risk for utility-associated wildfires. Two-thirds of our Contra Costa County communities fall within the “high fire danger” areas – Alamo, Danville, Lafayette, Orinda, Rossmoor, and Moraga among them.

As an interesting side note, the high wind conditions may be 20 miles away from our community, but if the transmission lines run through that area, local homes may lose their power. For instance, the primary power feed line for Rossmoor and Moraga originates near Antioch and runs across the northern slopes of Mt. Diablo. When the winds get too high on the mountain, those communities could be left in the dark.

The good news is, we actually can gain a measure of control over our destiny. The technology exists to mitigate these power outages and other natural disasters that might knock out power to the home.  And, given the value of our homes, family livelihoods, and work income, it’s relatively inexpensive.

All of us understand the general value proposition of a battery. We use them every day to start cars, run our laptop computers, cell phones, smart watches, and keep various home appliances working when there is a power failure. For many years, Lithium-Ion batteries have been the key power source for consumer portable electronics and electric vehicles and they are growing in popularity for military and aerospace applications

Modern “home battery backup” systems apply this power-on-demand capability and employ software intelligence for monitoring and customization. When used in conjunction with solar panels on the home, they are often referred to as “solar battery storage.” These current state-of-the-art systems use the highly efficient and rechargeable Li-Ion technology, which has a useful life of approximately 10 years. Right now, the cost of an entry-level “home battery backup” system is about $8,000 per installation, which is on par with the cost of replacing just the wines in many home cellars after a single lengthy power outage. As more systems are sold, the price will drop.

These batteries can be installed stand-alone (i.e., without solar panels on the roof). In this case, they are charged from the PG&E grid during off-peak rate hours and then used to handle on-peak demand or as backup systems when there is a grid outage. A basic “home battery backup” system provides roughly eight hours of power, enough to bridge a typical single-family home across most power outages (if one doesn’t run the clothes dryer). More batteries can be added to provide additional storage. Charging the battery only during off-peak hours will modestly reduce the monthly electric bill.

A more robust solution is using battery packs in conjunction with home solar energy panels, in which case the batteries are charged by the solar panels during the day. The entire “solar + storage” system can be customized to meet each homeowner’s energy footprint, and easily modified when the family goes on vacation. The result is a spectacular improvement in the home’s energy resilience to outages.

Other benefits of installing one of these intelligent systems extend far beyond just mitigating the effects of PG&E pre-emptive power outages and other power disruptions caused by natural disasters.

The home is now using stored solar power at night when the sun is down, virtually doubling the value of the rooftop solar panels. If a wildfire does break out, family safety will dramatically improve. The home wifi will continue running and able to receive those critical emergency response updates or evacuation orders. At night, the lights will be on and the garage door will still work, allowing the family to escape in an orderly manner. The batteries will continue to recharge from the solar panels throughout the entire outage period keeping basic home appliances in operation.

Those who use the solar battery storage option in conjunction with solar panels will see a significant drop in their monthly bills, often enough to recoup the cost of the battery system in seven years. With enough solar panels on the roof, homeowners can virtually eliminate their reliance on PG&E, a regulated monopoly with an antiquated and non-resilient energy transmission infrastructure. As they modernize their grid in the decade ahead, rates and outages will only be going one way—up!

And better, for those who want to do their part in reducing carbon emissions and reversing global warming, the widespread adoption of home solar + storage systems will dramatically advance California’s world leadership agenda of becoming a carbon-neutral environment by 2045.

In the near future, when the CPUC and California legislature become aware of this significant and cost-effective technology, all new California homes will be built with an integrated “solar + storage” system, adding great resilience to the entire statewide power grid.

But for right now, this is a perfect solution to the PSPS wildfire prevention issue.

Power to the people!