Dave Yates: The U.S. power grid is not ready to handle the increased demand for electricity

Common sense runs through our veins and helps us avoid idiotic, absurd edicts handed down by well-intentioned, but seriously misguided politicians. The fact is, I’ve always felt that common sense, along with training and knowledge, often handed down from generation to generation, guides our hands and minds as we toil at PHVAC issues.

Once again, California has been smoking the wacky tobaccy while tossing common sense to the trash heap. Just when you think they cannot possibly prove themselves to be crazier than the last edict regarding banning all gas vehicle sales by 2035, along comes the latest version of crazy legislation by including gas furnaces, boilers and water heaters to be banned in 2030. What are the odds folks in California just might drive across state lines after 2034 to purchase a new gas vehicle?

Never mind the fact that just days after passing the edict regarding gas vehicles while promoting the purchase and use of EVs (electric vehicles), California also asked residents to conserve electricity — during a heat wave with peak demand — by not charging their EVs between 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Common sense alone should tell us California needs to generate more electricity and, of course, upgrade the power grid so it can carry the increased demand for electricity. Currently, 40% of California’s electrical power is delivered by fossil fuel-powered generation. At less than 40% operating efficiency from generation source to end user, common sense alone would indicate this is pure folly. In order to avoid rolling blackouts, California had to resort to firing up a number of natural gas-generation power stations.

Nuclear power plants would, in any other state, be a viable option and offer clean power generation. California is in the process of decommissioning its nuclear power stations. We live less than 10 miles from Three Mile Island – the nuclear power station that suffered a partial meltdown on March 28, 1979. We had just gone to see the movie “The China Syndrome” two nights earlier, so naturally, that was a very scary time for tons of folks in our area, ourselves included. “China Syndrome” was, ironically, about a nuclear power plant in California. The Three Mile Island partial meltdown was mostly operator error and today’s nuclear power plants have much more advanced/enhanced safeties that would have prevented the partial meltdown our nearby nuclear power plant experienced.

When Three Mile Island was being built, we were fed the lie that generation of electricity would be so inexpensive, it would be virtually impossible to meter. And just like California, the powers that be began promoting “Good Cents Homes,” homes that would be all-electric with special meters and lower rates charged per kWh. Lots of developers and homeowners fell for the hype and swallowed it hook, line and sinker. No gas for you — all-electric homes and developments had no need for any natural gas infrastructure.

Given that heat pump technology in the early 1970s required electric resistance heating elements (like putting a toaster in the air handler’s airstream), and that air conditioning was considered an expensive luxury, many of the Good Sense homes had electric baseboard heaters and no AC. A decade later, the utility company yanked the rug out from under the Good Sense homeowners and upped their billing rates to what the rest of us were paying. Ouch! The good news for those unfortunate homeowners arrived when inverter mini-splits arrived on the scene a few decades later.

If you think about it, 2030 is less than eight years away! I wondered how long it takes from turning over that first shovel of dirt to completion for new utility nuclear power stations. In most of the USA, that process averages five years, according to world-nuclear.org. Given the added regulations and permitting requirements, California can easily exceed 10 years, per the Penn State Department of Energy.

Attention California Gov. Newsome — you’d best light a fire under whoever builds power plants in California! Natural gas power plants take far less time to complete, but if you’re banning natural gas, that’s not really a talking point. That doesn’t address the sleeping giant: Upgrading the power grid! Yes, solar and wind will help as an assist, but common sense tells us that too cannot fill the gap that California is generating. The folks in charge need a checkup from the neck up.

What’s a mechanical contractor to do? Roll with the punches and make lemonade when you’re handed lemons. For starters, sell more inverter heat pumps and inverter mini-splits. If you’re not already offering these to your customers, get training from manufacturers and/or your wholesalers to take control of this all-electric movement. Even though, here on the east coast, we’re not subject to the nutty notion that bans natural gas, inverter heat pumps (both unitary and mini splits) virtually sell themselves with just a modest effort on the part of mechanical contractors. The higher-efficiency models actually cost less to operate, depending on the rate charged per kWh, than do 95% efficiency natural gas modulating condensing boilers.

But then, our East coast power plants and grid have no trouble handling the increased load, although with each passing year that cushion of extra power gets thinner and thinner. We too need to be getting serious about building additional power stations.

When one of our two central AC condensers died, we installed mini-split concealed air handlers and adapted the ductwork for their low static pressure tolerance by turning our return air ducts into additional supply lines and cut in return air filter grills. We also split the system into four separate systems to micro-zone our room areas. Our home is 100% radiantly heated with 10 zones, and I wanted to see how the newly installed inverter mini split heat pumps would compare. I fully expected to be far less comfortable, but we were pleasantly surprised to find the comfort level was more than acceptable. Once the inverter mini-splits proved their merit for heating, they were turned off and the hydronic radiant heating was reactivated.

Suppose you are the customer who really and truly doesn’t want to give up their natural gas furnace, boiler or water heater. What would you do? Think there’s a sales opportunity come 2029? You betcha! After all, California cannot just cut off the natural gas lines, right? Given the 20-plus year lifespan of natural gas appliances, that just might give the officials in charge enough time to gain some common sense and repeal this idiotic ban on natural gas. Let’s see: Toss out a 95% efficiency natural gas appliance in favor of a highly efficient inverter heat pump that actually pollutes offsite while having an operating plant-to-user efficiency under 40%?

You are truly the master of your own destiny. All you need do is give the customers what they want and charge accordingly. Cha-ching.