Sherry Listgarten, now on Bluesky

It's been a while since I posted here. I am on Bluesky now, where I will post links to new blogs. My latest: paloaltoonline.com/blogs/a-new-sh…

Dear readers: I am going to stop posting on Twitter until the platform stabilizes with policies and quality that I think are appropriate. Until then, you can find my posts at paloaltoonline.com/blogs/b/a-new-… and at the top you can find a link to follow the blog if you are so inclined.

What should the role of oil and gas companies be in the energy transition? Chevron's CFO says they are simply and appropriately following the market. Is that enough? paloaltoonline.com/blogs/p/2022/1…

@AhmadFaruqui Electricity is $0.20/kWh (Tier 2), which is a big help. For payback period and terms, see Footnote 2. 5 years, zero interest, but depends on how much hot water you use. On average for Palo Alto, water heaters are ~30%, space heating ~60% of residential gas use. Conduit included.

@renewelectrons What I've found is that contractors who are used to working in Palo Alto do fine in Palo Alto. And even some others. (Mine was either lucky or good.) With this program, the contractor will do almost nothing but install HPWHs in Palo Alto. You have to imagine they'd work it out.

@SListgarten Let’s hope this goes better than every other clean energy installation…paloaltoonline.com/news/2022/05/0…

Palo Alto has put a lot of time and effort into understanding how it can hit its 2030 emissions target. One outcome of this is an ambitious proposal to drive adoption of heat pump water heaters via a program that goes well beyond rebates. Read more here: paloaltoonline.com/blogs/p/2022/0…

@BorensteinS I am so sorry. You and your colleagues are doing an incredibly important service in pointing this out. People I talk with -- just today, many of them -- are entirely unaware of who is paying for the good deal on solar that they are getting. Nasty self-serving lobbying must stop.

Example of hate one gets for saying NEM creates cost shift and hurts the poor: vmail left for me yesterday. Came with caller ID, links to a company in Chico, CA that installs rooftop solar. faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/borenste/VMAIL…

@MichaelWWara I was also impressed with the imports via the Western Energy Imbalance Market (esp from the Pacific Northwest). Bonneville Power exported almost 6 GW between 4-9pm on Sept 6. See caiso.com/Documents/Real…

My 80-year-old parents fully electrified their 1970 townhouse in Foster City. To learn more about why they did it, how they did it, and what lessons they learned, read on: paloaltoonline.com/blogs/p/2022/0…

Strange times when we are operating our power grid by text alert. For this and more observations from the past few days, see... paloaltoonline.com/blogs/p/2022/0…

@MichaelWWara Hey Michael. There is a lot here about protecting communities, hardening buildings, etc. But our forests are home to so many creatures who aren't helped by that. Is anyone working on what, if anything, we can do to help them to be more resilient as drought and fire worsen?

This is my short view on what we need and should be doing to avoid outcomes like the fire situation today in California:latimes.com/opinion/story/…

The view from Coyote Ridge summit this morning at 630. Drift smoke from the #mosquitofire streaming in. It fills me with sadness and not a little bit of anger. Hoping that everyone at least got out ok and that firefighters are safe.

I've added some interesting data on how we are handling the heat wave in the comments of my most recent post, for example on the role of imports. Check it out! #comment_87824" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">paloaltoonline.com/blogs/p/2022/0…

@Sammy_Roth @California_ISO Well, here's the email Palo Alto sent out...

Update: @California_ISO says they did not, in fact, order any rotating outages.

Savramento ended up hitting 116. And a few Bay Area cities did, in fact, have brief rolling blackouts. latimes.com/california/sto…

Will there be rolling blackouts Monday/Tuesday in California? Read on... paloaltoonline.com/blogs/p/2022/0…

@idontwa86202030 @coopermarcus @Sammy_Roth @TarynLuna Thanks. I get $17/MWh using the numbers here, which is close: nei.org/resources/stat… Seems like a lot - Lazard estimates marginal cost of operating fully depreciated nuclear to be $29/MWh. The cost of electricity matters. This is a loan to PG&E. Who will pay?

@SListgarten @coopermarcus @Sammy_Roth @TarynLuna $15.5 per MWh generated in loans: $1.4B / (2256MW * 0.91 * 8760h * 5)

Wouldn't have believed this possible 6 months ago, but here we are: California lawmakers voted overwhelmingly last night to loan PG&E $1.4 billion to help keep the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant open another 5 years, through 2030. latimes.com/california/sto… via @TarynLuna

@coopermarcus @Sammy_Roth @TarynLuna I meant what I asked because I am interested in how much the subsidy for nuclear energy compares to the cost of generating other types of low-emission net qualifying capacity.

@SListgarten @Sammy_Roth @TarynLuna I think you meant to ask: "How much is that per ton of avoided carbon pollution? (Being sure to count the extra effects of methane leakage!)"

@Vandraedha @BorensteinS Sure. But this is about rolling outages, a completely different beast.

@SListgarten @BorensteinS It's actually good advice during both brownout & PSPS events. If you live in a place where a power outage limits your ability to access critical information & that place is also a high fire danger zone, it's critical to be ready to go (or just go). Better early than in the dark.

California is going into a major heat wave this weekend with the associated strain on the grid. Talking to many reporters and reading/watching media, it's clear that there is still a lot of confusion about what this means. So, a🧵

@DavidSacerdote1 Or is it more impactful for the city to learn about and encourage electrification in these early days? I was thinking it's an easy and free thing for a city that wants to encourage, quantify, and learn about electrification to do. Maybe it's enough to do that with permits. IDK.

I electrified my heating. Now Palo Alto Utilities thinks my gas meter is broken. paloaltoonline.com/blogs/p/2022/0…