Building on the Cal-Adapt Platform to Deliver Actionable Information in Support of Electricity Sector Resilience
Providing data on the changing climate and implications for California’s electricity system through innovative web-based visualization.
The Regents of the University of California, on behalf of the Berkeley Campus
Recipient
Berkeley, CA
Recipient Location
9th
Senate District
14th
Assembly District
$897,109
Amount Spent
Completed
Project Status
Project Result
The project has been completed and the Final Report is in review for publishing. The project has delivered: a new data download tool that makes new hourly observed station data accessible, visualizations of new wildfire scenario projections and sea level rise inundation extent, ongoing website hosting (https://cal-adapt.org), and data services through the Cal-Adapt Application Programming Interface.
The Issue
Electricity sector operations, risk management, and planning require best-available and peer-reviewed data on projected climate and weather-related parameters to maintain safe, efficient, and reliable energy. California's energy infrastructure, including power generation facilities and transmission lines, is vulnerable to climate-related risks and extreme weather events that may differ significantly from historical records due to a changing climate. Understanding projected climate-related risks that may cause disruption and energy vulnerability is critical to energy sector resilience and planning.
Project Innovation
This project built on the Cal-Adapt platform to provide enhanced tools, data services, and visualizations that leverage existing web infrastructure and features to improve usability to energy sector stakeholders. The research team collaborated closely with the Energy Commission and energy stakeholders, including IOUs and the California Independent System Operator, to build on Cal-Adapt, developing enhanced targeted visualizations and tools that allow for improved decision support that leverages projections of parameters associated with climate-related risk. Priority tools address sea level rise and wildfire. These new tools were designed in close coordination with stakeholders, as the requirements of each organization necessitate tools that are specific to their application needs. Targeted visualization tools depict climate-related risks from a variety of stressors on electricity infrastructure, enabling improved planning for future reliability.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
This project is providing needed actionable information to energy sector stakeholders regarding climate change consequences on electricity generation and distribution. California's energy system is facing, and will continue to contend with, a changing climate. Substantial changes in the climate are projected to occur within a timeframe that overlaps with the time horizons of a variety of electricity system planning decisions, such as siting of power generation facilities and transmission lines. Regionally downscaled climate projections with high spatial resolution are valuable resources to better plan electricity and energy infrastructure developments, adaptations, and future siting.
Reliability
This project will improve electricity reliability by supporting planning, management, and adaptation. These benefits are derived from enhanced Cal-Adapt visualization tools that allow integration of up-to-date climate data.
Key Project Members
