Author: Ashya Kaderabek-Vela, AEG Fellow, New York City, Chicago
As climate change continues to ravage the globe, areas like the District of Columbia are committed to a shift from traditional power generation (such as coal, natural gas and nuclear) to renewable generation sources. In fact, the District’s Clean Energy DC Plan has set some of the most aggressive goals nationwide, with a plan to halve carbon emissions and transition to 100% renewable energy by 2032. This comes with a host of obstacles to overcome, namely, data access and transmission interconnection barriers.
AEG has worked tirelessly to convene leaders to address these challenges. Last week, Stakeholders convened for the AEG Washington 21Q3 Stakeholder Challenge on Grid Modernization to do just that.
Transmission
It’s no secret that electricity generation from natural gas and coal contribute massively to U.S. carbon emissions. While the public pushes for decarbonization through renewable power sources, the current power grid is not equipped to handle the influx of renewable energy from DERs reliably and equitably. As one of our speakers, Asim Haque of PJM, explained, “consumers change the transmission paradigm that exists today, and they are very likely going to be asked to pay more for [that] transmission build out.”
Because PJM is the entity charged with reliably distributing power to some 65 million customers throughout thirteen states, D.C. can only do so much to modernize its grid to accommodate a shifting regulatory paradigm. However, as renewable projects keep piling up in the pipeline without any real mobilization of action, the consequence of non-action is clear--transmission costs will continue to squash renewable projects.
Data
While D.C. is starting to see more DER adoption, these new distributed resources now exist within the original regulatory paradigm and centralized platform. To get to a high DER future, there is a lot of work that needs to be done: we must electrify everything; we have to modernize and strengthen the grid so it can provide that large increase in electricity; we must come up with enough renewables to make that electricity and enough battery storage to meet the need when the sun isn’t shining, or the wind isn’t blowing.
A large chunk of need is building electrification and the largest need for energy in any building is for heating and cooling. Right now, almost half of the heat pipes underneath DC are prone to leaks and will need replacing within the next 20 years. The cost of work to repair these over the decades will be much greater than the cost of the gas that is in the ground is worth.
Audrey Schulman, Co-Executive Director of HEET, proposed that utilities convert these natural gas heat pipes into a street segment system of networked ground source heat pumps to make building electrification even more efficient. With a data-based transition plan to take advantage of these leak-prone pipes, we can radically cut the cost of electric grid modernization - transforming gas utilities into renewable thermal utilities, delivering safer and cleaner renewable energy to everyone.
“We have to ensure that everyone benefits from the transition and that we do not reproduce some of the errors of the past in leaving certain vulnerable populations behind” – Alex Fisher, Policy Analyst at DOEE
Ultimately, our group of Stakeholders prioritized the lack of a databased transition plan to electrify and decarbonize based on safely accessible gas and electric distribution level data as the most critical obstacle to overcome for Washington D.C. to achieve its carbon and equity goals.
We are thrilled to have formed a Task Force composed of Stakeholders who have created an actionable 12-month plan to create a Stakeholder letter for DC Leadership, requesting utility data disclosure in a public manner to develop an equitable energy transition plan.
Thank you to all our sponsors and participants for such a critical yet engaging forum.