The plenary panel at the West Coast Utility Best Practice Symposium featured William Edward Mojica at APS, Holly Bowers at Consumers Energy, Austin Hastings at PG&E and P.J. Martin at Xcel Energy talking about how their utilities are redesigning their electric and gas long term planning for a viable future (in the midst of uncertainty).
APS- 9100MW peak over last 140 years will be duplicated in the next 10-15 years. Building a 48” natural gas pipeline to provide the generation growth needed.
CMS Energy -they must grow and decarbonize with a customer first, safe system that accommodates the winter heating load. Planning periods are shortened.
PG&E – 16 year anniversary of San Bruno fires that killed 8…..never forget. Gas system must deliver decarbonization (with renewable natural gas) and affordability. But, yesterday fully 41% of load was generated by gas. Natural gas storage equals 11,000 times electric battery storage. Gas is growing.
Xcel Energy -20GW peak with 20-30 GW in the que. They will spend $60B in next 5 years to support 3% growth mostly due to data centers. $4B is gas capital growth. 8 IRP’s that range from 10-15 year horizons.
It was a great panel. Thanks PG&E for your continued leadership in our industry.
Mike’s New Book
