CellCube Mention in Article on PG&Ehttps://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2019/02/08/bankruptcy-and-new-shut-off-plans-from-pg-e-have.html Bankruptcy and new shut-off plans from PG&E have opened the door to alternative energy sources Two of California’s deadliest wildfire seasons, a bankruptcy filing and hundreds of lawsuits filed by victims have left Pacific Gas & Electric Co. reeling and opened the door to a score of smaller energy companies hoping to capitalize on consumers, cities and businesses interested in more resilient energy options.
Last November, amid the arid, windy weather that would ultimately spark the devastating Camp Fire, the San Francisco-based utility had scheduled a preventive power shut off for about 70,000 Northern California customers. Ultimately, PG&E called the blackout off. Yet what once was
criticized as self-protection by customer watchdog groups is now thoroughly integrated into the utility’s wildfire safety strategy
released earlier this week and will affect 5 million customers.
Former Governor
Jerry Brown has called this climate change-induced increased risk “the new abnormal.”
For cleantech companies like Bloom Energy, which provides backup power and microgrid energy solutions, these intentional outages are exactly when its technology thrives.
The Sunnyvale-based fuel cell maker is part of a swelling number of energy and power storage companies working on resiliency efforts to keep the lights on for residents and businesses while PG&E de-energizes the surrounding grid.
“We see our tech as a tool that helps the utility,” said
Josh Richman, Bloom’s vice president of global business development and policy. “We can work with them as they have to implement wildfire safety plans.”
This is not the first instance Bloom’s microgrid — a system of generators, batteries and electric loads that can be operated in a controlled way — has been installed in the face of heightened natural disasters.
After 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, which left over 600,000 residents in Connecticut without power for days, the city of Hartford wanted to be prepared for the next debilitating storm.
The city’s utility Constellation worked with Bloom to create a 800-kilowatt microgrid system which generates 100 percent of the electricity for Hartford’s elementary school, library, senior center and health center.
PG&E, too, sees a future in which microgrids power “Resilience Zones,” which encircle emergency and community services like first responders, grocery stores and gas stations.
The utility said it plans to progress from using pre-configured grid sections that can be quickly isolated to microgrids “as PG&E’s capability to operate these systems matures.”
The utility’s bankruptcy has also prompted research by cities including San Francisco into power options outside of PG&E. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, at the request of Mayor London Breed, said it is currently conducting a three-month study of “all possible options to ensure continuity for all San Francisco power customers.”
“That is one of the opportunities of the PG&E bankruptcy,” said
Ann Hoskins, chief policy officer at San Francisco-based solar installer Sunrun. “As these conversations happen, we can encourage customers to make investments in more distributed energy (like solar and storage). That’s where we’re going to want to be engaged.”
Hoskins added that microgrids don't have to be built right away, but that by adding more distributed energy sources such as solar panels and smaller energy storage to the grid, California is setting itself up for future success. “I don’t think we have to have that all figured out to start building the blocks for it,” she said.
The potential for rising energy rates due to PG&E's bankruptcy gives added incentive for deploying solar panels and energy storage systems, too, Hoskins noted.
Companies big and small are circling for new business.
Canadian battery maker startup CellCube, which has been in business since mid-2018, sees huge potential to expand in California.
Its community-style solar and flow cell battery storage projects can power between 1,000 to 5,000 households, according to CellCube president Stefan Schauss. “I could see a scenario where communities take power into their own hands,” said Schauss, who is targeting more rural communities near Sonoma and the Central Valley.
Though Bloom said it has seen growing interest from Northern California municipalities for microgrids, companies have been even quicker to jump on board. For high-tech manufacturing companies in particular, even short blips in electricity can be costly. Bloom client JSR Micro, for instance, does research and quality assurance for semiconductors using multimillion dollar cameras requiring exact precision.
“These machines we use are temperamental,” Eric Johnson, president of JSR Micro, recently told the Business Times. “They have to be kept in environmentally pristine spaces, and power outages can be detrimental.”
Bloom’s client list includes Genentech, Apple, Kaiser Permanente and many more, with revenue on the ups. In its earnings report earlier this week, CEO K.R. Sridhar said that Bloom expects to see year-over-year revenue growth in the mid-20 percentage points.
At the same time, California state policies are facilitating this kind of microgrid adaptation. Last September, Governor
Jerry Brown signed a bill to expedite the commercialization of microgrids. SB 1339 opened up the prospect of separate electrical rates and even tariffs by requiring California’s publicly owned utilities to “develop and make available a standardized process for the interconnection of a customer-supported microgrid.”
According to Richman, another California bill regarding microgrids is currently in the works that would mandate that the state’s critical facilities use microgrids as a resiliency measure to withstand power outages.
“The role that technology like Bloom will play is only going to increase,” Richman said