The Exchanges

Q Okay, so there's a big challenge with what to do about fossil generation, and then how to fill in the gap with With, uh, clean sources of power. Um, what is the plan to phase out fossil fuels in, in LA, and what are the complexities of that?

A Okay, so this, this is a great question. So, not to go belabor numbers too much, but if you look at our peak day, uh, a couple years ago in August, um, it was a, it was a day that I was in Santa Barbara. It was ninety-something degrees in Santa Barbara. Nobody had air conditioning, so I know it was hot. Um, but it was, uh, our peak day was a little over 6200 megawatts. At, On that day, we're burning 5000 megawatts, so that 6200 was, was a fossil fuel, and so it had been overcast. Solar was, um, tailing off. It was not as much as we had available in theory. Also, it was hot, and when it's really hot, solar doesn't perform as well when it's cool and clear, and so, um, you know, so we got, so we're looking at that scenario, 5000 megawatts in the next, what, decade, decade and a half, need to go away and be replaced. So a couple key things that we're working on, um, I don't know, probably most folks here are familiar with the Intermountain Power Project. It's a large coal plant in Utah. That plant was scheduled to be decommissioned and then be replaced with a slightly smaller gas plant. That plan now is to transition that gas plant from an initial blend of gas and about 30% green hydrogen. That's green hydrogen created by electrolysis and stored locally. Using those local water source, excess renewables, and there's ability to store it in salt caverns, uh, adjacent to the plant and…

AI assessment note: “transition that gas plant from an initial blend of gas and about 30% green hydrogen”

Q You've seen some pretty remarkable changes, and, um, and now you're witnessing what's going to happen with this transformation of the grid. When you came in, uh, about four years ago to take the general manager position, you also brought back this chief engineer title to the role, which was really important to you. Why, what does that hearken back to you? Why was that important for defining your role?

A Well, you know, it's, uh, it's a great question. When I became GM, uh, The title used to be General Manager and Chief Engineer, and then over the years, we'd kind of lost the chief engineer part, but it's really, you know, it really harkens back to the days that Department of Water and Power was really a leader, both in water and power development, in forward thinking, in developing the city, and a lot of facilities that serve, you know, so much of a big part of Southern California, and, uh, and we've always been a very technical organization, so it meant a lot to I think the organization as a whole to have someone who came from that technical mindset back in charge, because let's face it, at the end of the day, if you're running a utility, um, it's nice to, it's nice to have this, this technical thinking all the way through, uh, so that you can really drive the solutions, because, uh, as you mentioned, the challenges in front of us, um, there's always political challenges and social challenges, but at the end of the day, this is a huge technical challenge that we have in front of us, and how to do that in the right way. Uh, you know, ideally requires technical leadership at all levels, and so I'm, I'm happy to be able to take on that role now.

AI assessment note: “it really harkens back to the days that Department of Water and Power was really a leader”

Q So how, how vast is that challenge when we consider that a hundred percent target by 2035? I mean, uh, I, I set the stakes in my own words, set the stakes for us in your words.

A So, um, you know, the one thing I would never say, you know, somebody could say it's an aspirational challenge, and it's not. I mean, it's something that we actually know through our studies with NREL. It's possible. And so the question now is how do we actually do it? And it's funny when you said how to this, how this, and how this, and the first thing I think is you don't do it alone. And so one thing we know that to move the needle, to move to the future in Los Angeles, we are going to have to partner tremendously with business and industry around us to get there. Everything from electrifying transportation grid to developing new ways to store renewable energy, developing renewable energy projects themselves, Uh, partnering with everything from local solar to large-scale solar, uh, to, to, to wind. Um, this is something that we do not go about by ourselves, because there's no way just the department, even with our 11,000 employees, can take on this task alone. But, um, but we know the challenge can be met. The, the challenges within that are, how do we do it affordably, so that we can make sure that, that at the end of the day, when we get to where we want to be, that the residents can continue to be, to afford to live there. How can we do it reliably? Because we have a tremendously reliable electric grid and we cannot sacrifice that as we move forward. And then how do we re…

AI assessment note: “The challenges within that are, how do we do it affordably”

Q Let's talk about renewables. Uh, so you have to vastly increase the amount of, uh, renewables that you're procuring. Um, what, what, what are we looking at in terms of breakdown of centralized versus distributed? I mean, as I understand it, is it two-thirds of Angelenos don't own their rooftop?

A Yeah, so, so yeah, so there's a couple interesting issues, so let me talk about the outside of the city first, and then I'll give it back to the city. So, um, you know, we currently have, About 1700 megawatts or so of, of, uh, out of basin solar capacity and about 1300 plus megawatts of wind capacity. Um, a couple things are owned by the city. Most of it are, are, are plants that are, that we have contracts for with, with, uh, third parties. And so, um, and, and we're, we're building that capacity. Uh, as you mentioned, we dramatically have to increase that. We need about 5700 megawatts of wind. A part of solar and about 4300 megawatts of wind. So that's a lot, but you know, there's a, what a 3000 megawatt increase on wind and a 4000 megawatt increase on solar that we need to build ideally by 20, 35. So huge amount of projects. Um, of course, citing those projects is challenge. And the other thing is probably the bigger challenge is where that, where they are compared to transmission and, you know, can it be cited along transmission corridors and, and then the whole interconnection challenge of getting them tied into the grid. So those are, you know, not insurmountable problems, but, you know, at least there's space and ideas for those projects. One of the things we're doing on those projects is that we always want to combine some kind of energy storage, and so, um, for instanc…

AI assessment note: “let me talk about the outside of the city first, and then I'll give”

Q So of those pieces, what is most difficult to you? Is it the technical challenge, or is it community concerns about Hydrogen. I know that there are some people who just have a resistance to burning anything, and so, I mean, there are some questions about use of hydrogen. What, what, what do you think are the biggest challenges in expanding your use of green hydrogen?

A So, you know, the green, green hydrogen, we know the technology exists. The question is, does it exist at scale? And so we can, we expand, you know, can we get electrolysis and, and, and how we can do that at scale affordably? And of course, the cost is a big killer right now. And so, We know that there's excess renewable energy, um, a lot of times on the grid. California itself, I think, gosh, it was a, I want to say a year ago, April, um, they turn off 80,000 megawatt hours of solar because there's nowhere for the energy to go. Um, we know that solar and wind is not only critical for direct supply, but it's going to be critical for generating clean fuel to be supply at some other time. And so, um, so there's definitely a huge synergy here between You know, basically harnessing Mother Nature to harness hydrogen as, as part of the fuel chain. And so, um, so there's a technical issue in terms of scaling up and in terms of affordability. I think that as we generate this idea of a hydrogen economy in Southern California, looking at as fuels for maybe for heavy trucking, the studies for airline fuels, shipping fuels, and other things like that, will ideally get some economy to scale and start to push those prices down. At the same time, there's social issues. People don't understand what hydrogen is. Um, you know, people want to get off gas, but they don't know which gas they're ne…

AI assessment note: “there's a technical issue in terms of scaling up... At the same time, there's social issues”

Q on that a little bit when you talked about, um, rooftop solar. Uh, the city also passed an equitable hiring plan along with this 100% clean energy plan. What does that do to, uh, in terms of job creation, and when you're thinking about, um, who is going to benefit from the jobs created in building all this new infrastructure? How does that influence the way this plan is implemented?

A So, you know, we're certainly looking at At workforce, and I think anyone in the electric industry sees workforce as a challenge, and particularly when you get to line work and any kind of electrical work like that, and so one of the things that we also know is that folks in LA are looking for opportunities. A lot of people don't know about jobs, don't know about the opportunities, and the fact we're going to have huge growth in workforce, not just city workforce, but also workforce in the industry around us that's supporting us, and so we're trying to create, you know, a pathway, make connections, get Help with education, bring people into the, this line of work, um, working in increasing internship programs, trying to expand it into business, and really reach out to the community, uh, try to get, you know, the whole concept of STEM education, you know, boosted in our school. Um, LA has a tremendous workforce capability, and a lot of those folks just are not tied to the jobs, and so we're hoping to partner Not just ourselves and other city departments with the community, but also bring some of the contractors in and folks that would do work, that would build work and design work to really try to help build city workforce so that as we move into the future, we bring the residents of the city along with us and have a lot of opportunities. We're contracting, I'll tell you right n…

AI assessment note: “so that as we move into the future, we bring the residents of the city along”