California to focus on improving its infrastructure for renewable energy

August 19, 2014 0 By Stephen Vagus

State has a need to improve its energy grid

California is beginning to take steps to create an intelligent energy grid. The state is home to one of the most active renewable energy markets in the world, but its energy grid is not capable of handling the electricity produced by clean energy systems. An ineffective infrastructure leads to a loss of electrical power, making renewable energy systems seem less efficient than they actually are. The California Public Utilities Commission has plans to stop this problem.

State agency seeks to solve the infrastructure problem

The California Public Utilities Commission has announced plans to open new proceedings in order to determine how the state should tackle its energy infrastructure issue. The agency intends to create a process through which the growth and maintenance of the energy grid can be sustainable and accommodate renewable energy. The intelligent grid of the future is meant to put the state’s distributed energy resources to use in an efficient manner, rather than allow some of these resources to disappear due to faults in the infrastructure itself.

Improving the infrastructure will not be easy

Renewable Energy InfrastructureImproving the state’s energy grid is a massive effort. The most significant challenge will be cost, as the grid itself is in dire need of modernization. The energy grid has seen many updates over the years, but is largely designed for conventional forms of power only. This is a problem when it comes to a shift in the state’s energy mix. With renewable energy playing a larger role, the faults of the state’s energy grid are becoming more apparent. Though clean energy has received significant attention and support, its overall success is largely based on the capabilities of an existing infrastructure.

Finding an efficient solution may be hard to do

Tackling the problem is expected to be an expensive and time consuming process. The problem itself has many facets, including energy storage and distribution, and how electricity is fed into the infrastructure. The California Public Utilities Commission intends to find ways to solve the infrastructure puzzle, but only time will tell if the agency will find a way to do so effectively.

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