CA also imports 33% of its electricity used from neighboring states:
... California has ties to massive coal-fired plants located near the large coal deposits of the mountain states. Southern California Edison owns a stake in the Four Corners Power Plant, and "the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) operates the coal-fired Intermountain power plant in Utah, which delivers almost all of its output to LADWP and other California municipal utilities," according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration."Due to high electricity demand, California imports more electricity than any other State," says the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The coal-fired plants of the American Southwest and hydroelectric plants of the Pacific Northwest are what's primarily available for import.
............ californiawatch.org
California's Growing Imported Electricity Problem
California’s SB 350 requires the state to procure 50% of electricity from renewable energy and double energy efficiency savings by 2030. And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Clean Power Plan” wants states to “to act more like California.”
Yet, beyond power rates 45% above the U.S. average, California has another problem that makes it less of a model than some proclaim. California now imports 33% of its electricity supply from fast growing neighbors, with about 65% of that coming from the Southwest and 35% coming from the Northwest. These numbers increase most in summer months when air conditioning loads peak. Imports have been rising rapidly: in 2010, California “only” imported 25% of its power.
Per the U.S. Energy Information Administration, California imports because “its wholesale power markets in the region are relatively open and generation from outside the state is often less expensive.” In fact, California imports about 6% of its electricity from out-of-state coal-fired power plants, with another 14% coming from ”unspecified imports,” of a cloudy origin that is generally attributed to hydropower, gas, nuclear, and other renewables.
Besides having the most expensive electricity west of the Mississippi River in the continental U.S., California already has the least reliable electricity. California easily leads the nation with nearly 470 power outages a year, compared to 160 for second place Texas, which is really amazing because Texas produces 125% MORE electricity! ( here). California’s reliability problems will be multiplied as more wind and solar enter the power mix, intermittent resources located in remote areas that cannot be so easily transported to cities via the grid.
In future, California confronts a number of baseload power issues that could surge imports even more. Strangely, hydroelectric facilities greater than 30 megawatts don’t qualify as renewable under the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard requirement. Both large and small hydro generation in California have plummeted over 60% in recent years ( here).
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