Resource Adequacy
Overview
In August 2020, a record-setting heat wave spanned the western United States- and triggered blackouts in California. Since the outages, a frenzy of finger pointing and fact-checking have jockeyed to answer “how could this have happened?” While those circumstances are critical to understanding these particular events, it’s far from clear they get at the root of the problem. To recognize why, we need to understand how California’s regulatory framework for ensuring reliability, Resource Adequacy, is structured. Did it fail to work as designed? If not, why were there blackouts? Does the program’s design still meet California’s needs, or is it solving for the wrong problem?
Gridworks has launched an initiative to help market leaders discuss current and future challenges for Resource Adequacy, and to evaluate the merits of different approaches to ensure they can meet those challenges. Gridwork’s objective is to benefit policy-makers and stakeholders as they think critically about how to maintain cost-effective reliability as California transitions to a clean and equitable energy
Working Materials
Final Paper
Resource Adequacy – Reliability Through the Clean Energy Transition
Publications
Resource Adequacy May Not Have Failed, But is it Working? A blog discussing how California’s blackouts are a symptom of deeper issues with its Resource Adequacy program.
Reforming Resource Adequacy: First, Establish Where We’re Going
Events
Meeting 3 – December 15, 2020
Meeting 2 – November 2, 2020
Meeting 1 – September 18, 2020
