Overview
The industrial, agriculture and water sectors in California use 30 percent of all the electricity consumed annually in the state. These sectors - vital to California's economy - rely on an affordable, reliable and sustained supply of energy. Through Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D), the program seeks to improve the energy efficiency of industrial processes, agricultural operations, and water and wastewater treatment plants. These sectors are also sensitive to the reliability and quality of electric power. Therefore, besides improving energy efficiency, the program also strives to research, develop, and demonstrate technologies that help these sectors deal with power quality and power supply reliability issues. The following PIER-RD&D priorities were developed in response to the challenges and needs of the industrial, agriculture and water sectors.
Industry - California has a substantial industrial base. The energy reliability of these industries is critical not only for California's economy but for the national economy as well. The major industries - such as food processing, electronics and e-commerce, petroleum refining and production - all depend on continued low cost and reliable energy. The PIER IAW staff analyzed the energy needs of several of these industries, and will work in collaboration with representatives of these industries to identify RD&D options to overcome energy-related problems. PIER IAW - funded projects will focus on RD&D activities that will provide these industries the ability to address the recent energy crisis. Industry is required to keep low operating costs while maintaining environmentally clean and energy-efficient operations. The PIER IAW program will focus its research on activities that will help industry attain this difficult yet critical balance.
Agriculture - Agriculture forms a large segment of California's economy worth $27.2 billion dollars in cash receipts in 2000. Agriculture is highly dependent upon electrical energy for irrigation and post-harvest processing. Electrical costs and power reliability are critical for a successful and sustainable agricultural operation. The PIER IAW program will continue RD&D activities in developing techniques for advanced irrigation and other load management practices that will help this sector cope better in the current electric market. The program will continue to manage funded projects in the area of advanced irrigation practices for water conservation and water recovery.
Water - The availability of low-cost clean water is essential to California's economy and continued prosperity. The state depends heavily upon the transportation of a large volume of water across the state. Also important is the treatment of large volumes of substandard and saline water. Both of these activities rely heavily on electric power. RD&D research will focus on activities that help improve the energy efficiency of processing water for urban, industrial and agricultural consumption and an energy-efficient wastewater recovery. The program will continue to manage contracts with the consortium of water utilities and will work with them for transferring the technologies developed through these projects to potential end users.
We have broadly alluded to industry specific issues and challenges. There is, however, a set of issues that are common to all the sectors. Successful mitigation of these issues is essential for the well being of each sector and consequently to that of California's economy and environment. The issues or challenges common to industrial, agriculture and water sectors are as follows; however, the importance of each issue might vary with the characteristics specific to each sector.
High Cost of Electricity - Energy in general and electricity in particular are essential ingredients of an advanced economy. The high cost of electricity for energy - intensive industries in California puts the industries at a disadvantage in a highly competitive global economy. The worldwide competition, and occasional energy subsidies in other jurisdictions, require that the cost of electricity for California industry be as low as possible without compromising environmental commitments. To that end technology or engineering advances that enable reduction in the electricity cost become important issues that require attention. Consequently, PIER-IAW would focus its RD&D on technologies that facilitate on-site generation, access to competitive electrical markets and auxiliary services, and electric power substitution.
Need for Power Quality Maintenance and Improvement - California's economy has become dependant upon industries that have a high degree of automation and precision in their manufacturing processes. The productivity gains of recent years have been accomplished through digital controls, advance sensors and integration of electronics in their operations. These advances - beneficial as they are - are susceptible to power quality problems. The smallest variation in power quality (voltage sags, harmonics, etcŠ) can disrupt the manufacturing and cause severe economic losses. These maladies can adversely affect food processing, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, biotech, electronics industries and data centers alike. RD&D for the PIER-IAW program will focus on reducing the power quality problems and managing the resulting energy inefficiencies.
Reliability - Sustained availability of adequate electricity supplies is essential for continued operations and growth in California industry and agriculture. The electricity disruptions following the electric industry restructuring have left a gnawing need for managing unexpected or prolonged supply disruptions. Since such problems can cause industries to sustain substantial economic losses, it is imperative that the industry, water and agricultural sectors have access to technologies/engineering remedies that allow overcoming short and long term interruptions in power supply. Therefore, the development and demonstrations of technologies for on-site generation distributed generation; electricity storage and controls that allow for smooth transition to backup power become an integral part of the PIER-IAW RD&D program.
Energy Efficiency Without Compromising Reliability and Productivity - Sustained economic growth in the industrial, water and agriculture sectors is usually accompanied by a corresponding growth in electrical demand. The added demand requires additional generation, transmission and distribution (T&D) assets. Development of these assets, in turn, consumes valuable land and water resources and causes pollution. Siting of both generation and T&D assets is also becoming increasingly difficult and contentious. It is in the public interest that the growth in electricity consumption in IAW sectors be reduced without compromising their economic growth. This is only possible by continually reducing the energy consumption per unit of production or getting a higher output for the same level of energy consumption. Thus energy efficiency is important not only for keeping these sectors competitive, but also for an overall reduction in California's electrical load. Increased energy efficiency also helps the California based energy intensive industries stay competitive in global markets. PIER-IAW will strive to develop energy efficient technologies and processes that normally would not be developed by the private sector.
Reducing Risk in Adopting Energy Efficiency Technologies - This is not a technological challenge as much as one of overcoming entrenched organizational behavior and the primacy of financial goals in a corporation. Regardless of a promise of a technology to provide reliability, improve power quality or improve efficiency, there is a reluctance to make the capital outlays since the promised savings are still suspect. Moreover, the initial costs of new technologies are high and there are doubts about their performance. These concerns lead the financial staff to assign a high discount rate for calculating the net present value or low yields for determining the internal rates of return for investments in new technologies. Regardless of cost, some industries are reluctant to inject new elements in the manufacturing process lest they affect quality of established products or product yields. Food processing, breweries and electronics manufacturing are typical operations. The antidote is actual demonstration in an industrial setting similar to that of a potential end user. Often demonstrating, verifying, and validating the promised performance become essential steps for making the technology acceptable to potential users. PIER-IAW will undertake projects to overcome these barriers.
Increased Need for Water and Wastewater Recovery - California population and consequently demand for water is growing at a fast pace. There is a need to obtain water from all possible sources - including wastewater sources - that were unthinkable a few years ago. These include agricultural drainage water, waste treatment plants, gray water and industrial effluence. Invariably, most of the water treatment technologies necessary to reclaim water are energy intensive. Increasing salinity of Colorado River water, underground reservoirs, irrigation water runoffs and possibility of use of seawater all require energy intensive technologies. Thus improving energy efficiency and economics of water treatment and recovery become a public interest necessity for California. PIER will focus on new technologies and improvement of existing ones that enhance energy economics and efficiency for water treatment.
Program History
Click here to view the program history since 1998.
Energy Efficiency & Technology Transfer Activities
Technology transfer and commercialization of newly developed energy efficiency technologies are logical extensions of RD&D activities. The California Energy Commission has had a long history of engaging in technology transfer of new and existing technologies through information dissemination and financial incentives. Detailed information on such activities is available at the Energy Commission's Planning and Process Energy Office web section.