According to a top executive at PG&E Corp., California's largest energy provider expects its electricity demand to double by 2040, because of artificial intelligence, electric cars and other efforts to affect larger parts of the economy.
PG&E is capable of handle this surge in demand without significantly expanding its power plant fleet, CEO Patti Poppe said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Friday. This is since the energy supplier's system isn’t running at full capability.
“Our network is not being used sufficiently today,” she said. “We expanded the network significantly years ago and now we can use it.”
PG&E's grid is currently at around 45 percent capability, and Poppe expects that to rise to as much as 80 percent. While there can be “some new generations,” the CEO said higher use of existing assets is essential to providing more power without increasing costs.
PG&E shares fell 0.9 percent at 10:46 a.m. in New York. The stock is up 1 percent this yr.
A large increase in electricity demand can be expected in other parts of the USA. The head of the electricity grid operator in Texas estimated this week that electricity demand there’ll almost double by 2030. Several US electricity suppliers have also drastically revised their demand forecasts upwards, but unlike PG&E, other firms are planning to construct latest power plants.
Forest fires
Poppe has promised to stop catastrophic wildfires, which drove the utility out of business in 2019 after its facilities sparked a few of the worst fires in California history, killing greater than 100 people and destroying hundreds of homes.
The utility says it has reduced the variety of ignitions on its equipment by 68% since 2017 by installing more weather monitoring stations, strengthening poles, covering and burying power lines, and taking precautionary measures to shut off power during dry and windy weather.
– With support from Josh Saul.
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