Supporting The Integration of Renewables

A reliable electrical grid is essential to nearly every aspect of modern life, underpinning our economy, national security, healthcare, transportation, education, food safety, and countless other daily necessities. We flip a switch, and the lights come on – but behind the scenes, grid operators must continuously match instantaneous demand with available generation resources.

As our nation and the world transition to cleaner energy sources such as wind and solar power, flexible natural gas assets play a critical role in ensuring the resiliency and reliability of our energy supply. The grid must withstand or quickly recover from unexpected outages as well as disruptive events like natural disasters, cyberattacks, or other unforeseen emergencies.

When offline, these assets serve as non-spinning reserve, ready to start and ramp to full production rapidly if the grid operator needs to rebalance the system in response to an unexpected disturbance. Some units also provide “black start” capability, a critical function for restoring electric service if an extraordinary event causes widespread outages.

By supporting California’s safe and reliable transition to increasing levels of intermittent renewable sources, our natural gas assets play a vital role in reducing carbon emissions from the electric sector. Complementing these assets, the balance of our net owned portfolio consists of 7.5 GW of wind, solar, and energy storage facilities.