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Decline in hydropower hampered by drought will impact utility costs

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Elderberry:
Mercury News by Jesse Kathan 8/9/2020

Hydroelectric power from dams usually provides about 15% of California’s electricity needs. But in 2015, at the zenith of the worst drought in California’s recorded history, it supplied only 6%.

That loss in electricity generation during the 2012-16 drought cost PG&E and other California utilities about $5.5 billion, a new study says.  As California’s climate becomes more prone to severe droughts, the findings point to future costs that utilities — and ultimately ratepayers — will likely be forced to bear.

The hefty price tag highlights two effects of last decade’s drought: the decreased supply of cheap power and the increased consumer demand for electricity. Several consecutive years of below-average Sierra Nevada snowpacks and parched reservoirs resulted in hydroelectric dams operating far less than normal, as high temperatures associated with the drought caused energy use to skyrocket when Californians cranked up their air conditioners.

When the state’s hydropower wanes during a drought, “something else has to increase,” said Jordan Kern, a hydrologist at North Carolina State University and lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

More: https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/08/09/decline-in-hydropower-hampered-by-drought-will-impact-utility-costs/

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