The researchers are also curious how different economic incentives might benefit customers, utilities and the grid as a whole. So far, no one has analyzed current incentives to see if they’re sufficient to reach California’s electrification goals, or whether the benefits are equally distributed over different socio-economic groups.
New federal and state rules are considering innovative ways to integrate community-level power generation into the wholesale electricity market. “Households, community centers and other small electricity consumers could have a new revenue source from their batteries or solar arrays,” Ludkovski said. “So that’s potentially a way for disadvantaged communities to lower decarbonization and electrification costs.’”
Ludkovski himself will focus on projecting how climate change might impact the grid over the next decade. For instance, hotter temperatures increase air-conditioner use, driving up…
