IEEE Electrification - June 2019 - 64

VIEWPOINT

Southern California Edison's Blueprint
for Integrated Electrification
By Manuel Avendaño and Devin Rauss

ALIFORNIA HAS BEEN
aggressively confronting
climate change for more
than a decade. State policy makers,
supported by two-thirds of the
state's adult residents (according to
a recent Public Policy Institute of
California poll), have backed increasingly more stringent regulations to
reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2006, the state legislature
set initial goals to reduce the state's
GHG emissions to 1990 levels by
2020 and to 40% and 80% below the
same baseline by 2030 and 2050,
respectively.
The key pillars of California's climate change strategy to meet the
2030 GHG emissions target include
x reducing the petroleum used in
vehicles by 50%
x doubling the energy efficiency
savings at existing buildings
x managing natural and working
lands so they can store carbon
x reducing the release of short-lived
climate pollutants (for example,
methane and black carbon).
More recently, the state has established a target of 100% carbon-free
energy by 2045. The measure also
requires California's electric companies to procure 50% of their energy
from renewable sources by 2026 and
60% by 2030.

C

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MELE.2019.2906633
Date of publication: 11 June 2019

64

I E E E E l e c t r i f i cati o n M agaz ine / J UN E 2019

Given that electric power ac counts for only 19% of California's
GHG emissions, the state is also
addressing the remaining 81% of
emissions: transportation (45%), agriculture (8%), residential and commercial (11%), and industrial (17%).
Achieving California's goals requires
significant resources, many stakeholders, and a massive and highly
organized effort. The electrification
of energy end uses-transport, heating and cooling, industry processes,
and others-will be vital to achieve
carbon emission targets.
Southern California Edison (SCE)
and its parent company, Edison
International, Rosemead, California,
have embraced the state's ambitious
goals. In fact, Edison International
signed on to the "We Are Still In"
campaign, affirming continued commitment to support the Paris Climate Change agreement's goals,
and has taken concrete steps to
expand the role of efficient electrification fueled by clean energy.
In late 2017, we released a white
paper laying out our vision for the
role of a clean energy future in
achieving California's environmental
goals, based on the results of an
extensive modeling study to assist
in long-range planning. The underlying assumptions are being used in
current and upcoming planning and
continually updated and evaluated
by SCE.

Evaluation of Decarbonization
Scenarios by SCE
The SCE study focuses on reducing
emissions economy-wide by 180 million metric tons (MMT), from 440 MMT
in 2015 to 260 MMT in 2030. The modeling framework incorporates
economic adoption and renewablegeneration optimization models and
provides a view across multiple sectors of the economy. The study assumes
that 144 MMT of GHG abatement will
come from existing and expected
policies identified in the Scoping
Plan issued by California's clean-air
agency, the California Air Resources
Board, to address Assembly Bill 32.
SCE used four key criteria to assess
potential measures and technologies
aimed at decreasing the remaining
36 MMT needed to reach the 180
MMT goal:
1) GHG abatement potential (total
technical potential instead of
feasible potential)
2) marginal abatement costs (cost of
an additional unit of abatement)
3) feasibility (for instance, availability of technology, infrastructure
requirements, economies of
scale, consumer preference, and
timing of deployment)
4) likelihood that technology will
enable California to meet its
more stringent 2050 GHG emissions reduction goal (for example,
(continued on page 61)

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