A Co-Produced Climate Data and Analytics Platform to Support California's Electricity Resilience Investments
Providing customized data, advanced analytics, and powerful cloud computing resources to support climate-informed planning, research, and electricity sector resilience.
Eagle Rock Analytics, Inc.
Recipient
Sacramento, CA
Recipient Location
8th
Senate District
10th
Assembly District
$2,047,618
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
In 2023 and early 2024, the Cal-Adapt Analytics Engine (https://analytics.cal-adapt.org/) provided crucial data and analytical products in support of CEC's demand forecasting activities, worked with two electricity IOUs to provide direct support for vulnerability assessment, advanced climate-informed weather files in support of building sector analyses, and provided data products for consideration by CPUC's integrated resource planning. These efforts build on five data applications that were prioritized through extensive stakeholder engagement that began in 2021, namely: development of threshold-based analytics for asset vulnerability assessment and design standard development; delivery of “hourly climate profiles” (for future time periods) as inputs into production cost, energy load forecasting, and other models; distribution of extreme temperature events to inform peak load, demand forecasts, and other applications; climate metrics and analytics to support long-range wildfire planning and management (in collaboration with other EPIC work); examination of climate impacts on zero-carbon electricity generation and system operation. The first three data applications were developed to include initial functionality. The final application, zero-carbon energy generation, is largely being supported by another grant EPC-21-037 in collaboration with the Analytics Engine.
At an October 2023 CPUC workshop held in support of the Adaptation Rulemaking (R.18-14-019), the Analytics Engine presented on their efforts to provide analytical features and data access in a manner that could support policy decisions and implementation.
The Issue
A warmer and more variable climate has challenged the reliability and safety of California's electricity grid and has contributed to, for example, rolling blackouts and public safety power shut offs. Efforts to make California's increasingly renewable grid more resilient to further climate change requires actionable information that directly supports planning and decision making. Despite scientific advances improving the ability of models to describe regional impacts of climate change, the "last mile" challenge of translating scientific data to actionable, impactful information for planning remains to be addressed.
Project Innovation
The Cal-Adapt: Analytics Engine will guide users to customized and curated localized climate data to make informed decisions based on the best science to improve electricity sector resilience. This platform will provide users with customized data, advanced analytics, and powerful cloud computing resources, allowing users to perform high-level analysis without needing to download massive localized climate datasets. Novel next-generation analytics will provide users with assessments of a range of possible outcomes, enhanced through metrics that convert climate data into electricity sector specific formulations and direct users to the most relevant scenarios for their specific applications. The cloud-based data platform will provide unprecedented computational resources to users, pre-loaded with easy-to-access capacity for the transformation of climate data into stakeholder identified formats, with supporting analytics guiding users to best practices and solutions for specific contexts. Continual outreach will focus on educating and supporting users of the data platform.
Project Benefits
This Agreement will result in the ratepayer benefits of greater electricity reliability, increased safety, and lowered costs.
Reliability
Stakeholder-informed use cases will allow IOUs to plan for and make scientifically-informed investments that target resources toward building a grid that is more reliable in the face of future climate extremes (e.g., reduced brownouts associated with extreme heat).
Safety
Stakeholder-informed use cases will allow IOUs to plan for and make scientifically-informed investments that target resources toward building a grid that is safer in the face of future climate extremes (e.g., more strategically targeted, effective, yet limited PSPS from wildfire).
Subrecipients
The Regents of the University of California, on behalf of the Berkeley Campus
The Regents of the University of California on behalf of the Los Angeles Campus
Spatial Informatics Group, LLC
Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc.
Match Partners
Amazon Web Services
