The California Energy Commission's geothermal activities

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:887417

Crowley, Barbara

Thank you for the invitation to participate in this distinguished gathering. I would like to briefly relate the interests of the California Energy Commission in geothermal energy. Geothermal energy is a basic component of many of our primary activities, and is expressly cited in our statutory authority, the Warren-Alquist Act (1974). Our mandates affect the geothermal industry both directly and indirectly. The Commission is responsible for 5-, 12-, and 20-year forecasts of California electricity supply and demand. These forecasts are reported in our biennial Electricity Report. These forecasts are used in various official regulatory proceedings. The primary use is in the Commission's power plant siting authority. The forecasts establish the base used to determine the need for new capacity and energy in the current planning period. The forecasts are also used in other Commission activities as well as in proceedings at the Public Utilities Commission. The 1990 Electricity Report represents a dramatic change in the way this agency balances the relative importance of price competition, environmental quality, demand management as a system resource, and the implications of continued reliance on natural gas. Generally, the Commission is grappling with the elusive and complex problems of quantifying the appropriate value to assign to external (i. e., non-market) environmental attributes of competing technologies. While we have not decisively established such values, we do believe that they do exist and that we are moving in the right direction. The adopted policies have positive long term implications for geothermal and the other renewable technologies. The Commission has been in existence since 1975 and during that time has seen the development of geothermal energy in several areas of the state. As a regulatory agency, we have authority over the construction of thermal electric plants over 50 megawatts (MW). To date the Commission has certified the construction of more than 1200 MW in the Geysers. This area is now experiencing a dramatic loss in productivity. The Commission is engaged in a cooperative effort with the parties operating in the Geysers to address the problem of resource productivity. We held a hearing to examine the causes of the decline of the geothermal steam resources and its affect on electric energy supply. An outcome of the hearing was the establishment of a Technical Advisory Committee with the responsibility of providing the Commission projections of capacity and energy under the current rates of steam decline. The Committee was also charged with examining options on efficient resource management, including research and development, testing, and analyses regarding reservoir and power plant operations.

• Research Organization: California Energy Commission, Sacramento, CA
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 887417
• Report Number(s): SGP-TR-134-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
03 NATURAL GAS
15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
ADVISORY COMMITTEES
ELECTRICITY
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
GEOTHERMAL INDUSTRY
Geothermal Legacy
MANAGEMENT
NATURAL GAS
NATURAL STEAM
PLANNING
POWER PLANTS
PRICES
PRODUCTIVITY
PUBLIC UTILITIES
RESERVOIR ENGINEERING
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
STEAM
SUPPLY AND DEMAND
TESTING