California's Climate Fight May Send Its Power Demand Soaring 90%

(Bloomberg) -- California’s demand for electricity could nearly double by 2045 as the state phases out gasoline-guzzling automobiles and weans buildings off natural gas.

Load on the state’s grid could rise 60% to 90% as a flood of electric vehicles hits roads and people swap out gas-burning stoves and hot water heaters for electric ones,  according to a study prepared for California regulators by the consulting firm Energy and Environmental Economics Inc. 

The group, which presented its findings Tuesday, prepared the study for the California Air Resources Board, which is creating a roadmap for the state to meet its goal of being carbon neutral by 2045. Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has also asked the board to study whether the state can reach that goal ten years early, in 2035.

The group presented a series of models Tuesday for zeroing out emissions by the two target years. All the scenarios call for capturing and storing some of the state’s emissions, while adding substantial amounts of renewable power to a grid that already gets about a third of its energy from wind and solar. 

California’s switch to a greener grid has not always been smooth. So many gas-burning power plants have closed in recent years that the state sometimes veers close to blackouts during heat waves. Companies are plugging large-scale batteries into the grid to help, a trend the models presented Tuesday predict will accelerate. 

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.