GFO-24-306 – Applications of Open Data to Support Climate Resilience in California’s Electricity Sector

Purpose

This research will deliver open-source, easy-to-use climate and wildfire tools that build on best available science and data to support resilience planning and outreach by California IOUs and other energy sector stakeholders.

Description

The purpose of this solicitation is to fund applied research and development projects that support California’s transition to an equitable, zero-carbon energy system that is climate resilient and meets environmental goals. Funded projects must successfully accomplish one of the following innovations: · Development of participant-informed, easy-to-use tools on the Cal-Adapt Data Explorer, which is a web application that makes high-resolution climate projections and quality-controlled historical weather data publicly available to inform electricity sector resilience; · Development of an open-access wildfire planning tool to transform extensive data products portraying long-term wildfire risk into insights that can support energy-sector wildfire mitigation and adaptation planning needs; or · Integration of a dynamic weather-wildfire risk model into an open platform for better near-term fire forecasting that reflects recent findings related to fire behavior in changing fuel and climate conditions. This platform will be designed to support situational awareness and smarter risk mitigation by electric utilities and others. The importance of factoring climate change into electricity system and community planning efforts is becoming more apparent each year, with increased frequency and intensity of extreme temperatures, wildfire, atmospheric rivers, and other climate impacts that can disrupt service, damage infrastructure, and exacerbate challenges in managing peak demand. Improving California’s energy resilience to climate change requires integration of the best available climate data into open, publicly available, user-friendly visualization and modeling tools that interested participants can rely on to understand and prepare for risks to their assets, service areas, and communities. Projects funded by this solicitation will deliver open-source, best available climate and wildfire tools that support resilience planning and outreach by California investor-owned utilities (IOUs) and other energy sector participants, building on prior EPIC efforts. Projects must fall within the following project groups: · Group 1: Development of Tools and Visualizations for an Updated Cal-Adapt Web Application · Group 2: Wildfire Planning Tool Leveraging Long-Term Scenarios Developed for California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment · Group 3: Integration of Climate-Informed Science into Open Near-Term Wildfire Modeling Platform