{"id":443189,"date":"2026-08-25T17:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/443189\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T17:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:22:09","slug":"contributor-sacramento-should-save-the-program-that-is-saving-the-grid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/443189\/","title":{"rendered":"Contributor: Sacramento should save the program that is saving the grid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Your power bill is too high. Electricity prices have risen by as much as 40% since 2020<\/a>, far outpacing overall inflation. And after decades of nearly flat growth in energy consumption, data centers are driving up grid demand for the first time in roughly 35 years<\/a>. Then heat waves, like the one currently cooking Southern California, push the whole system to the edge.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why In 2022, California launched the Demand Side Grid Support program.<\/p>\n

I ran the Department of Energy during the Biden administration. I know innovation when I see it. California\u2019s grid program has been historic and should serve as a model for the entire United States.<\/p>\n

To understand the program, start with how the grid becomes strained. During a heat wave, like the one currently cooking Southern California, millions of people turn on their air conditioning to keep cool. Suddenly, their homes use a lot more power. Certain power plants \u2014 called \u201cpeakers\u201d because they come on during peak demand \u2014 rev up to generate more electricity. These plants are more expensive than others to run, so electricity costs more. Sometimes, there still isn\u2019t enough power, and we get blackouts.<\/p>\n

The Demand Side Grid Support program steps in to prevent blackouts and price spikes with hundreds of thousands of home batteries. The program pays customers to send energy from their solar and storage systems when Californians need extra power and when the price of electricity spikes. This vast network of batteries is what energy wonks call a \u201cvirtual power plant.\u201d In effect, it works much like a traditional \u201cpeaker\u201d power plant. Except instead of burning fossil fuels, cheap, clean energy surges in from people\u2019s homes to keep the lights on.<\/p>\n

The effect has been inspiring. Last year, more than 200,000 at-home batteries discharged more than 1 GW back to the electricity grid<\/a>, about the size of a nuclear power plant. That\u2019s enough to keep up in real time with San Francisco\u2019s peak demand. And they can do this every day.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s grid support program also benefits lower-income Californians. It has participants in 53 of the state\u2019s 58 counties. One in four <\/a>sites is located in a county where the median solar adopter earns less than $100,000 a year. Lower-income adopters actually enroll at higher rates.<\/p>\n

And its price tag is manageable. In the four years since the Demand Side Grid Support program began, the program has cost just $13 million<\/a> to administer while paying $66 million to participating households. California stood up a vast, flexible, clean energy (virtual) power plant that lowers bills for California without building any new infrastructure. This is innovation at its finest.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s largest utility, PG&E, praised the system\u2019s performance<\/a> after it successfully discharged during several test events last summer, saying it \u201cproved that everyday Californians now play a big role in keeping the lights on.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if the program isn\u2019t funded this legislative session, it will run out of money<\/a> by the end of this year. Lawmakers shouldn\u2019t let this happen. Every dollar spent on this program returns $2, according to research<\/a> by UC Santa Barbara. It\u2019s projected to save all California ratepayers $206 million<\/a> if extended to 2028. This significant return investment is worth preserving for California.<\/p>\n

Importantly, the Demand Side Grid Support program is tied to a school electrification program<\/a>, which pays for the HVAC upgrades that keep classrooms cool, save schools money and let students breathe clean air. Unfortunately, nearly $200 million sits unspent<\/a> in the California Schools Healthy Air, Plumbing, and Efficiency Program \u2014 known as CalSHAPE \u2014 while thousands of schools await critical funding for upgrades. Unless the program is extended, it will sunset at the end of this year too.<\/p>\n

I have worked in government. I understand that there are budget constraints. There always are. But grid resiliency and school electrification (and ventilation) are no-brainers for California. If we turn our back on them, we\u2019ll be stifling years of innovation and leaving our communities less protected.<\/p>\n

California is currently baking under another heat wave. Deactivating 1 GW of capacity and blocking air conditioning for schools does not make sense, especially with a \u201csuper\u201d El Ni\u00f1o<\/a> on the horizon that will break even more heat records. California should send a message that it is still the nation\u2019s leader in clean energy innovation. New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts and Virginia are doubling down on customer-sited, distributed energy as a clean and affordable solution to support the electric grid. California should stay out in front.<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers should be proud of their nation-leading energy programs. They should act now to restore funding for the Demand Side Grid Support program and support school electrification by extending CalSHAPE. Importantly, the California Senate\u2019s budget plan included a proposal to do exactly that<\/a>, but it did not end up in the final adopted budget.<\/p>\n

Sustaining this progress is not only the fiscally responsible thing to do but also lets working-class Californians help alleviate grid strain, manage their utility bills and keep kids safe in school. Let\u2019s continue to dream big and boldly tackle our hardest challenges.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Granholm was governor of Michigan and secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. She lives in Oakland. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your power bill is too high. Electricity prices have risen by as much as 40% since 2020, far…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[62229,7,175616,175618,49129,175621,19931,1073,3310,4576,121,123,122,175619,175617,175620,3293,72],"class_list":["post-443189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-air-conditioning","tag-california","tag-certain-power-plant","tag-clean-energy-surge","tag-energy-consumption","tag-grid-program","tag-heat-wave","tag-home","tag-innovation","tag-program","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-school-electrification-program","tag-school-money","tag-storage-system","tag-thousand","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}