Full Title: Data Access for a Decarbonized Grid: Policy Solutions to Improve Energy Data Access and Drive the Clean and Resilient Grid of the Future
Author(s): Ted Lamm, Ethan N. Elkind
Publisher(s): Berkeley Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE), UCLA School of Law's Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
Publication Date: February 10, 2021
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Description (excerpt):
California’s electricity infrastructure is entering a period of profound change. From a policy perspective, the state is moving toward goals of 60 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and 100 percent zero-carbon power by 2045, while state and local governments are striving to electrify more buildings and vehicles. At the same time, climate change is destabilizing these efforts, as extreme heat waves and record-setting wildfires are leading to electricity demand spikes, public safety power shutoffs, and questions about the reliability and resilience of an increasingly renewable-powered grid.
As the grid becomes more defined by flexible, distributed assets that generate, store, and consume power closer to when and where it is used—such as smart buildings, battery storage, and vehicle-grid integration—grid planners and stakeholders will need improved access to data about our energy system in order to deploy and operate them efficiently and effectively. The data can include information from the performance of generation assets to individual customer use and billing data. But significant questions remain about how to access, protect, and manage the data. State energy regulators, utilities, and developers of distributed energy resources must resolve long-standing issues around customer privacy, grid security, communication between data systems, and regulatory capacity in a rapidly evolving field.
To address these challenges, UC Berkeley School of Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) and UCLA School of Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment convened leaders from state and local government, utilities, and data management firms in August 2020 to identify top-priority policy solutions. This policy report outlines the vision these stakeholders discussed for California’s energy data framework of the future; key barriers limiting progress toward that vision; and actionable solutions to overcome those barriers.