Utility-scale batteries like the one in Panton could account for much of that new storage, along with hydropower pumped into reserve reservoirs.
Lund said to expect a wide range of impacts from low reservoirs this summer, including reduced hydropower production and reduced water deliveries to agriculture, fish and urban areas downstream.
There’s the actual energy San Diegans consume, which for SDG&E is only 31 percent zero-carbon, meaning it comes from energy sources like solar, wind, biomass or hydropower.
For components that are easier to replace or retrofit, or for operational changes like altering reservoir operations at hydropower dams, we can take a wait-and-see approach.
For Wright, agreeing to those demands risked undercutting the profits the utility earned from selling its hydropower at higher rates to outside markets.
The cheapest and cleanest of all energy sources is hydropower.
Indeed, hydropower from Canada offers Americans an almost too-good-to-be-true source of energy.