{"id":339857,"date":"2024-08-17T16:21:26","date_gmt":"2024-08-17T14:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=339857"},"modified":"2024-08-17T16:21:28","modified_gmt":"2024-08-17T14:21:28","slug":"washington-state-increasingly-at-risk-for-rolling-blackouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=339857","title":{"rendered":"Washington State \u2018Increasingly at Risk\u2019 for Rolling Blackouts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guest Post by TJ Martinell<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Editors\u2019 note: This guest post from The Center Square discusses the problems contributing to the Pacific Northwest\u2019s power shortage issues, including increased electrification, aging infrastructure, and overreliance on renewables without suitable backup. <\/em>Climate Realism has<\/a> written<\/a> on this threat previously, as the entire American grid is similarly threatened. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(The Center Square) \u2013 A proposed battery energy storage system near Goldendale under consideration by the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council would, if ultimately approved by Gov. Jay Inslee, be able to provide 200,000 homes with electricity for up to four hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a facility that Washington residents might need if the state is unable to meet future energy demands, which the company behind the project warns is growing more likely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tenaska is an independent power company based out of the Midwest and behind the proposed $250 million BESS, which would store excess electricity generated by the grid for later use. In an Aug. 13 presentation<\/a> to EFSEC, company officials cautioned<\/a> that \u201cthe region is increasingly at risk for rolling blackouts and brownouts,\u201d which it blames in part to \u201caging transmission infrastructure that cannot meet current or projected demand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the presentation also noted that \u201cdata centers in the PNW, which are notorious for high energy use, are expected to more than double their electricity use in the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another contributor is the state\u2019s transportation electrification efforts, with a ban on new fossil fuel vehicles taking effect in 2030. Currently, there are roughly 90,200 battery electric vehicles registered in Washington. Last year, light-duty electric vehicles consumed<\/a> about 309,000 megawatt hours of electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dilemma facing Washington is twofold. The first is that its energy grid will require an additional 5,300-gigawatt hours by 2030 and 13,500 GWh by 2045 to meet demand, according to Tenaska\u2019s presentation; one gigawatt is enough electricity to power 750,000 homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2050, electrical load growth is anticipated to increase by 92% compared to 2020 demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second dilemma is that the new electricity must be from sources that conform to the state\u2019s Clean Energy Transformation Act, which stipulates that utilities cannot use coal-based electricity starting next year, and by 2030 they can only use carbon neutral sources. By 2045, the energy will need to be from 100% renewable or \u201cnon-emitting\u201d sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Tenaska aims to have the BESS built in one year and operational by 2026, EFSEC has struggled to get final approval<\/a> for a project that would generate clean energy needed to meet future demand. The Horse Heaven Energy Center was scheduled to begin construction in 2021 but has faced numerous delays, the latest of which came in May when Inslee sent the project back to EFSEC to increase its size and scope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Inslee\u2019s letter<\/a> to the council, the original project would have generated 1,150 megawatts of electricity, 5% of the total needed to meet 2035 demand. Inslee wrote that 20 projects of similar energy generation will need to be built by 2035 if the state is to meet demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An E3 study<\/a> released in 2019, the same year the law was enacted, warned that the Pacific Northwest region faced a near-term capacity shortage of up to 7,000 MW by 2025 and up to 10,000 MW by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlanned resource additions do not fill this gap,\u201d the study<\/a> noted, adding that one of the causes of the energy gap was \u201crenewable and storage additions with diminishing capacity benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Pacific Northwest resource adequacy study<\/a> released by E3 in March 2019 concluded that \u201cit is possible to maintain resource adequacy for a deeply decarbonized Northwest electricity grid, as long as sufficient firm capacity is available during periods of low wind, solar, and hydro production\u201d and that \u201cnatural gas generation is the most economic source of firm capacity today.\u201dOriginally published by <\/em>The Center Square<\/a>. Republished with permission<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a facility that Washington residents might need if the state is unable to meet future energy demands, which the company behind the project warns is growing more likely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":339858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691830200,691827435,691830201,691820781,691830199],"class_list":{"0":"post-339857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-american-grid","9":"tag-battery-electric-vehicles","10":"tag-clean-energy-transformation-act","11":"tag-electricity-grid","12":"tag-pacific-northwests-power-shortage","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0pylons-5711002_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C853&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1qpz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":414757,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=414757","url_meta":{"origin":339857,"position":0},"title":"The 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