As a wave of local governments in California roll out policies that promote the electrification of buildings, the state’s energy regulators have been saddled with a complicated task: planning for the future of its natural gas system.
Gas utilities service more than 11 million customers in California, the majority of which are in the Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) and Pacific Gas & Electric territories. And natural gas plays a key role in maintaining grid reliability, according to Christopher Guith, senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute. As more intermittent resources come online, “essentially you’re making yourself overly reliant on gas — which is what California has done. They understand that and so, as a matter of policy… the CPUC, in coordination with the state energy agency, are looking at finding ways to alleviate that,” he said.