Utility Integration

‘Climate action is war. California is Normandy’: Utilities and developers join hands on interconnection at GridTECH Connect Forum

‘Climate action is war. California is Normandy’: Utilities and developers join hands on interconnection at GridTECH Connect Forum
(Scale Microgrids co-founder Tim Hade delivers the keynote address at GridTECH Connect Forum -California in Newport Beach. )

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — Tim Hade doesn’t make the comparison lightly.

Tying the Allied effort to liberate Europe on D-Day to the fight against climate change is deeply personal to Hade, an Air Force veteran and the co-founder of clean energy infrastructure company Scale Microgrids.

Hade often thinks about a quote painted on the wall outside his dorm room at the Air Force Academy delivered by General Dwight D. Eisenhower on the eve of D-Day in 1944: “The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.”

In Hade’s eyes, California is the ‘Normandy’ of the climate fight. It’s here that many of the greatest tools to combat a rising climate were born: the solar PV cell, grid-scale wind farms, and electric vehicles. But California is also confronting many of the energy transition’s toughest challenges head-on, and as the global leader in the climate fight, the state bears responsibility for finding solutions.

“I think some of us have forgotten what D-Day really is,” said Hade, a featured keynote speaker at the GridTECH Connect Forum – California interconnection event. “People have been telling us for a long time that we can’t do big things. The best Americans in history have done big things.”

Eisenhower famously credited U.S. meteorologists for the successes of D-Day. To be sure, they played a critical role in developing forecasting technology that is still used today. But Eisenhower’s tongue-in-cheek comment meant to highlight that there was no silver bullet, and thousands of small developments led to the historic achievement.

Hade believes the energy transition requires a similar focus. Unconventional collaboration between utilities, clean energy developers, and regulators is critical to meeting state, federal, and global climate goals. That initiative was the focus of the regional interconnection event, GridTECH Connect Forum – California, which is underway in Newport Beach.

Two battery energy storage systems developed by Convergent Energy + Power in Orange County, California, are now operating, providing grid resilience for Southern California Edison. Convergent said it would operate and maintain both lithium-ion battery energy storage systems. The systems are 9 MW/36 MWh and 6 MW/24 MWh.(Courtesy: Convergent)

The beachhead analogy lands with Shinjini Menon, the senior vice president of system planning and engineering for Southern California Edison. She acknowledges, too, that “time is not our friend.”

The pace of the energy transition must accelerate drastically, Menon believes, and that requires broad buy-in from all stakeholders.

“What got us here will not get us to where we need to go,” Menon said during the GridTECH Connect Forum – California keynote address. “I know we can do it, but we have to find new ways to collaborate.”

The fight doesn’t have to come at the expense of prosperity either. Dan Shugar, the co-founder and CEO of solar tracker provider Nextracker, has spent nearly three decades building clean tech companies to thrive financially while benefiting the environment.

Shugar implored utilities to embrace established technologies that can help alleviate interconnection queues and unlock additional grid capacity — like grid-enhancing technologies — to expedite the deployment of clean energy resources, like solar, wind, and battery storage.

“We can all come together… and make a ton of money,” Shugar said at GridTECH Connect Forum – California.

Nextracker co-founder Dan Shugar delivers the keynote address at GridTECH Connect Forum -California in Newport Beach.

The utility business model as a result. Capital is no longer “king” for utility executives, according to Quinn Nakayama, the senior director of grid research innovation and development at PG&E. Instead, it’s load growth that will define the energy industry’s next chapter.

“If I’m able to put more load on the system without the infrastructure buildout, I can lower rates and accelerate electrification,” Nakayama said. “I can’t do this alone, and it starts with interconnection.”