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How a California Utility Solved the Duck Curve
Episode 90 of The Productivity Podcast dives into one of the most stubborn problems in energy economics: the duck curve. As solar penetration rises, midday power floods the grid, then drops off sharply as the sun sets, forcing fossil plants to ramp up fast—an inefficiency that costs billions. Lucas and Luna examine how Pacific Gas and Electric, along with CAISO, tackled this using a combination of time-of-use pricing, battery storage mandates, and a little-known market signal called the 'flexible ramping product.' They walk through the numbers: how California went from 6 percent…
The skinny
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