The Burlingame Voice

PG&E: The numbers behind more shut-offs

A year ago, we looked at the evolving strategy PG&E has for reducing wildfires by doing Less Trimming, shut-offs .... and more digging.  Just as last year, the Wall Street Journal is ahead of the local pack on reporting on results to date.  Here are a few snippets:

The California utility company has reported to state regulators 62 ignitions in high-threat fire areas so far this year, compared with 65 for the entirety of 2023, according to company executives. Twenty-nine of them occurred in recent weeks after an early July heat wave that set record temperatures throughout the state and dried out grasses and brush, making them more likely to catch on fire.

Most of the ignitions in recent weeks were caused by vegetation coming into contact with the company’s power lines. Most of the remainder occurred as a result of equipment failure and bird contact. None of the fires spread to become significant.  The company has since been relying more heavily on new power-line settings in areas at high risk of fire. The lines shut off within a 10th of a second when branches or other objects touch them, reducing the risk of sparks.

The task force is now evaluating those settings and the current ignition data to determine whether changes should be made. The company has in recent weeks been installing thousands of pole-mounted devices that detect when animals, objects or trees come into contact with the lines.

And yet it seems like trimming is still a major part of the mitigation plan.

PG&E has also been working to reduce the risk of fires spreading by removing flammable shrubs and brush within 10 feet of utility poles that historically haven’t been cleared. The company has about 190,000 poles that aren’t subject to clearance requirements. Though it isn’t required to, the company is working to clear about 50,000 of those poles in the highest-risk areas by Sept. 1. It has so far performed work on about 22,000 of them.

Having just completed my second day of homeowner defensible space work in Tahoe this summer, it's readily apparent this is a never-ending project.  One can only wish Sacramento would put more priority on this instead of the nonsense that passes for governing these days.

ECR: How is this maneuver legal?

Change is afoot for our beloved El Camino Real as the Axe man cometh for the Eucs.  The city e-newsletter notes that pothole repair on a systemic level (as opposed to when someone calls) as "Caltrans is currently completing pothole repair work on El Camino Real, between Howard Avenue and Sanchez Avenue. Work will take place daily, between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. One lane will remain open in both directions, but drivers should expect delays."

One thing that will have to change as 91% of the Eucs get cut down, huge swaths of pavement get dug up at one time, trenches get dug for power/phone lines and drainage piping is the commercial parking habits of various truck drivers.  It's not just Amazon, UPS, FedEx, et al.  Check this guy out resupplying Walgreens!  There's a city lot right there, but hey, let's just shut down half of northbound ECR for half an hour or more.  How is that legal?

Climate Observations: Google, CalFire and You

This is a placeholder post for when we get to the point where we cannot replace our gas stoves or gas water heaters or gas furnaces or gas barbeques.  Hopefully that day is still a few years away, but the smart bet is the climate fanatics will eventually get us.  When we complain about the costs (many hidden including the soft costs of your time), we will be told to suck it up.

In the meantime, two types of events are taking place.  There are 3,543 wildfires of more than 10 acres burning right now in California per the CalFire incident page.  Your barbeque is a problem, but Sacramento (looking at you, Newsom, even though I know you are busy thinking about a promotion) still hasn't addressed the real need for more manpower, equipment, forest surveillance, etc.  Year after year, same old story and the news media always acts surprised.  Massive amounts of smoke, emissions, and cancelled insurance policies that end up as a State (read us) liability via the FAIR program.

And then there are these two tidbits buried in the business news this week:

Google and Microsoft have vowed to slash emissions by the end of the decade, but new disclosures show their numbers are moving in the wrong direction.   Google’s overall emissions increased by 13.5% from 2022 to 2023, according to its annual sustainability report released Tuesday. They are up by nearly half since 2019. A recent disclosure from Microsoft told a similar story. Its total emissions were up by 29% between 2020 and 2023.

Big Tech's servers are using so much electricity that they are doing direct connections to power plants with "behind-the-meter" access.  Some observers are worried this will destabilize the grid and it certainly won't make it any cheaper.  Stay tuned so we can alert you when to start hoarding gas appliances. 

ECR: The Axe man cometh

I should not be surprised, but I still am regarding how few people realize nine out of every ten Eucalyptus trees on El Camino are on Caltrans' chopping block.  People see the survey team out and about up and down the state highway and wonder "What's that all about?"  When you tell them they go "NO, really?"  To which I say "Really".  It interesting to see where some of the stakes are landing--much further into the sidewalks and private property than you would think.  That may not mean what some think it means, but we shall see when property owner notices start going out.  Here's the theodolite--and yes, I did have to look that word up.

Squatter zoning restrictions being studied for B'game

In a proactive effort to get ahead of the burgeoning trend of squatters taking over uninhabited residences, the Burlingame City Council has asked staff to quickly assess which sections of town should be zoned for squatting.  Staff has been asked to assess whether the zones should be patterned after the new city council districts, the elementary school districts or the zones for legal leaf blowing on a particular day of the week.  There are legal guidelines for squatters to follow as shown here:

Squatters’ rights, also known as “adverse possession”, refers to laws that allow a person to gain legal ownership of a property they have occupied without permission from the legal owner. In California, squatters can make a legal claim to own the property they are occupying after residing there continuously for 5 years. 

Squatters differ from trespassers, in that trespassers occupy a property illegally but make no claim of ownership or legal right to live there. Squatters, on the other hand, occupy the property without permission but may be able to gain legal rights if they meet the criteria for adverse possession.

With the recent arrest of a squatter at the Burlingame train station master's quarters after flying below the radar for several years, the city council felt some urgency to codify which sections of town should and should not welcome squatters.  Enhanced surveillance of the no-squat zones would preclude the 5-year window from opening.

State Senator Scott Weiner immediately attacked the proposed ordinance as "knee jerk NIMBYism of the first degree" and promised to introduce legislation in Sacramento to prevent local governments from reducing the squat-friendly housing supply in the name of fairness and equity.  Weiner did not rule out including affordable squatting requirements based on income and reduced gas and electric rates for young, first-time squatters. 

PG&E: Open Your Wallet a Bit More...and Keep it Open

The story of past, steady increases in our electric bills is here.  One could see the next PG&E hand reaching into our pockets a mile away.  The CPUC's four commissioners rubber-stamped the latest request on Thursday (NBC notes a new board member, who until recently headed the consumer watchdog arm of the CPUC, recused himself from voting.)  The Merc is reporting this vote's effect will be:

This year’s January bills were roughly $53.77 higher than the bills in January 2023, when combined monthly charges for residential customers receiving combined services were averaging $240.73.  (Ed:  That is a 22.3% increase in a year).

Monthly electric bills for a typical residential customer monthly bill are slated to increase by an average of $3.65. The gas bill for a typical residential customer is expected to rise by $1.03 a month, PG&E estimated.

Starting in April, the average monthly PG&E bill for combined services is slated to be around $299.18 a month — just shy of the ominous milestone of $300 a month.

NBC also notes "There is another rate hike in the works. In that case the utility wants to charge $10 more per month, on average, to pay for PG&E’s repairs related to storm damage last year."

Keep that in mind as you run your numbers on a new induction stove, a heat pump, the electric leaf blower you must buy and that EV you have been thinking about.  Hoping to stem the rising tide with rooftop solar just got harder thanks to the very same CPUC.  Commercial customers aren't immune so these increases will ripple through to grocies, restaurant tabs, and pretty much everything else.  It turns out Bidenflation isn't the only source of the pain.

3/12:  Here's a little update from today's Comicle front page.  I'd call it Unintended Consequences, but it is totally foreseeable....

EV charging ahead with preferred parking spots at Walgreens

The news is all pointing to a deceleration in EV sales as car companies' losses per EV pile up and consumers start to really question the benefits of going electric.  People who don't worry about the high initial costs or the lengthy payback (some estimates put it at 7 years) have bought their EVs already.  We are now approaching the trough of adoption while waiting for cheaper versions, longer range and more charging stations.  These trends haven't stopped B'game from going full speed ahead with 16 new charger spaces downtown.  The latest swap of fully public spaces to preferred parking for EVs in need of a boost is coming to the public lot (K) between Walgreen's and Safeway.  This is a busy lot for much of the day and early dining evening.  Per the Daily Journal piece

The City Council authorized the city manager to proceed with negotiations on a contract for Tesla to rent the parking lot space from Burlingame, although councilmembers said they’d like to see details on lease and fee rates as well as plans for signs that would delineate the chargers as usable for all electric vehicles.  Tesla has said they will pay a monthly rent of $6,000, and everything will be free to the city, including installation.

Let's go easy with the F-word (i.e. "free").  It's only "free" if $6K per month covers the lost revenue of the 19 spaces lost.  That's about $315 per month or about a dollar a day per space.  My math says these new charger spaces are far from "free".  

After Beach inquired about the leasing agreement and rental cost, Tesla Supercharger Project Developer Caitlyn Hanner said the company would require a 10-year lease minimum but could provide a rent increase of up to 3% a year.   Installation of the Tesla superchargers would create a loss of three parking spots.

Ten years with a very modest rent escalator is quite a deal.  There are about 57 spaces in Lot K now.  Three will be taken for the e-infrastructure, so about 30 percent of the lot is planned to be preferred parking for EVs.  As the DJ article notes, several council members are Tesla owners and others own other brands which these new superchargers will accommodate.  Did we just witness a conflict of interest that should have caused recusals on the vote?   Just kidding.  But it would have made a great April Fool's Day post.

Maybe the time has come to require chargers to also pay for the parking.  EVs already skirt the gas tax and they inflict more wear and tear on our roads than gas cars due to their higher weight.  I will tag the "Friends with benefits" category as well since this looks like a sweet deal for a few people and the car companies.

Solar stupidity: How to stunt a good thing

The feared attack on roof-top solar has materialized.  We covered it in the proposal stage in December 2022 here.  Now the chickens are coming home to roost.  One has to go through a lot of mental gyrations to think this is good for the environment, grid security or the threatened move to electric heat and appliances in homes.  The Ninth Circuit Court has stunted the later move for now, but look what has been done to people's desire for some degree of grid independence:

Bay Area rooftop-solar businesses are reeling from a statewide change that gutted compensation for homeowners returning surplus power to the electrical grid, causing applications for new solar to plunge to a 10-year low and leading to layoffs in an industry that had expected to lead the vanguard toward more sustainable, environmentally friendly energy use.

Owners of residential solar systems had been receiving enough utility credits to pay for most systems in seven years, industry representatives said, but for systems ordered after April 15, 2023, it will take 11 years. Residents with systems predating the change will continue to receive the same compensation.

“They clobbered the economics,” said Barry Cinnamon, owner of rooftop-solar company Cinnamon Energy Systems in Los Gatos.

Sales of rooftop-solar setups have plummeted about 80% since the commission shrank by 75% the compensation new solar owners get for surplus power, the California Solar & Storage Association said. The group estimated 2,700 jobs have been lost in the Bay Area, of 17,000 statewide. Nearly 13 million homes in California have solar, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

There are varying estimates of how many California homes have solar.  I think that 13 million is a typo or they are counting multi-family differently.  Another estimate puts it at 6.3 million and says that is 45% of all homes.   Other estimates put it closer to 40%.  Either way, there is a long way to go.  With the much longer payback period the rate of adoption will stay slower except in new construction where it started to be required in 2020. Now we can expect new housing prices to go up even faster than before.  What a stupid move.

Green energy: Is wind-power fizzling out?

In a Wall Street Journal article this week titled "Wind-Powered Projects Hit by Rising Costs" we learn that Big Wind is in trouble and backing away from projects.

Some firms have already eaten multimillion-dollar termination fees to pull out of East Coast projects or written down investments because of rising costs, battering clean-energy stocks. Analysts say New York’s attempt to find new price points acceptable to developers, regulators and investors suggests the broader market’s adjustment won’t be easy.  “Does the market have the courage to kind of pay these higher prices for clean energy?” David Hardy, chief executive of energy firm Ørsted Americas, said at a conference in New York last month. 

He added that ratepayers would ultimately be the ones ponying up. “But the question is, like: What’s the alternative?” he said.

If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  There are alternatives that are cheaper and way more reliable and way more safe for sea life and wild life.  Here are the wind numbers that are rising by the week

The new group of projects comes with a projected strike price—a cost index that helps decide residents’ bills—of $145.07 per megawatt hour of electricity over their yet-to-be-finalized 25-year contracts. According to the state, that is about 28% higher than the older proposals’ average but 13% less than the rate developers collectively requested from regulators.

New York’s new proposals will boost ratepayers’ bills by about 2.7%, or more than $35 a year, for the lifespan of the projects, according to state projections. The expected sum is four times more than what officials estimated when the first round of contracts was struck in 2019.

And then the chickens come home to roost as they always do

Equinor last week told investors it wrote down about $300 million from its New York project, or roughly half of its value. Shares in Ørsted, which has projects off the East Coast, Europe and Taiwan, have plunged nearly 80% since early 2021.  Other developers and suppliers have also taken hits. Shares in Siemens Energy, a key producer of turbines and other equipment, crashed to record lows last week after the company said it was in talks with the German government and banks about guarantees to back long-term projects.  General Electric, meanwhile, said in its earnings results last week that it expects to book about $1 billion in losses from its offshore operations this year and next.

As we await the latest rate increases for PG&E at least California isn't going wind-crazy.  I'm always amazed whenever I drive over the Altamont Pass how many wind turbines are still. 

Solar: My, what big batteries you have

That 50-hour power outage in January that sent me off to buy a generator also motivated me to finish the solar installation I started two years ago.  I did the panels first as it was a big job ("might as well do the roof first") and decided with local Mr. Solar Steve Pariani's input to wait on the batteries.  Two sleepless nights in January drove me to finish the project and Steve has just completed it--again on time and on budget.

Readers asked how much it cost and what is the warranty on the batteries.  The two Enphase batteries and some more associated interconnection devices came to a shade under $30K including the plans, the permit, installation and sign-off.  They also qualify for the federal tax credit ("ITC") of 30%.  The good news is that two years ago Enphase was only offering ten-year warranties, but now I have a 15-year warranty.  Here are the batteries as installed and the new Enphase app screen that comes with the batteries (as opposed to the simpler one for just having panels.)