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Fox40 Sacramento: Governor Newsom requests funding to strengthen state electrical grid

Posted by Gurajpal Sangha on May 13, 2022

Fox40 Sacramento detailed California's proposal to improve grid reliability as the state continues to deal with potential blackouts, quoting AEE's Emilie Olson on how clean energy solutions can help . Read snippets below and watch the segment here.

In his revised budget proposal for the next fiscal year, Gov. Gavin Newsom is hoping to improve the electrical grid by spending more than $5 billion to increase the state’s production capacity by 5,000 megawatts over the next few years — or enough energy to power roughly 375,000 homes.

This follows a week after the Independent System Operator, which runs the grid, predicted potential blackouts this summer during heat waves.

“We have to be looking at these challenges from a multi-year lens,” said Emilie Olson, with Advanced Energy Economy. “This is a tremendous starting point, an opportunity for conversation about what more we can do for reliability and affordability.”

She adds that as the state grapples with wildfires, heatwaves, and blackouts, it needs to equip communities with localized clean energy solutions like micro-grids and on-site solar, plus, storage systems to keep facilities like hospitals and grocery stores open — and find ways to work together with other states on clean energy.

“To make sure that we are able to take the great clean energy resources we are generating in our own state and sharing those resources with the other states and vice versa,” Olson said.

Watch the segment and read the full article here.

Topics: California Engagement, 21st Century Electricity System, United In The News, Emilie Olson