Delmarva Customers May Have to Wait Months for One-Time Credit
Exelon has promised $40 million for one-time customer credits in Delaware as part of a settlement to get approval for its takeover of Pepco Holdings Inc., but there is no telling when customers will see the credit. Public Service Commission spokesman Matthew Hartigan said the PSC first has to lend final approval to the settlement. The commission is awaiting developments in merger settlements the Chicago energy giant is having with regulatory agencies in Maryland and D.C.
More: The News Journal
ILLINOIS
Grain Belt Express Seeks Approval for State Part of 780-Mile Tx Line
Having already received the approval of Kansas and Indiana, the developers of a 780-mile transmission line project that spans the Midwest are going to Illinois for approval. Houston-based Clean Line Energy, which has already garnered the approval of the Commerce Commission for a line that is to run from Iowa to Illinois, is seeking the commission’s ruling on the Grain Belt Express. The line is designed to carry energy produced by vast wind farms in the Great Plains to markets in the East. The Missouri Public Service Commission is expected to release its ruling on the line within the next few months. The Grain Belt Express is expected to be in service by 2019 if it gets the final approvals it needs.
More: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ICC Ruling Preserves View at Frank Lloyd Wright House
The Commerce Commission has ruled that Commonwealth Edison’s Grand Prairie Gateway transmission line doesn’t need to abut a Frank Lloyd Wright farmhouse. The ICC said property covenants associated with land sold by the owners of the farmhouse to the Muirhead forest preserve are strong enough to force ComEd to choose a different route. ComEd agreed to shift the path of the $200 million project to move it away from the preserve. The 345-kV line is to run from a substation in Byron to another near Wayne.
More: Daily Herald
MAINE
Solar Promotion Policies Controversial
The state’s policies on solar energy put it behind its neighbors, advocates say, so proposals to overhaul its approach are intended to help it catch up. A bill sponsored by state Rep. Sara Gideon (D-Freeport) would require 2.5% of the state’s electricity mix to come from solar by 2022 and offer financial incentives to help homeowners and businesses more quickly pay off their solar installations.
But utility representatives, the Office of the Public Advocate and the Energy Office warned that the proposals could add to ratepayers’ bills. Central Maine Power, for instance, estimated that ratepayers would be paying $55 million in solar subsidies by 2022. The state installed 4.5 MW of solar energy in 2014, an 80% increase. Public Advocate Timothy Schneider said that while his office believes adding more solar energy to the state’s grid is positive, the office opposed the bill based on the potential costs to ratepayers.
More: Portland Press Herald
MANITOBA
Manitoba Not Ready to Join Cap-and-Trade … Yet
Premier Greg Selinger said the time is not right for the province to join in a cap-and-trade system with neighboring Ontario and Quebec, but it could happen. “It’s still something we’re looking at,” he said in an interview with the Winnipeg Free Press. “There is a lot of work to get there.”
It has been five years since Selinger said he would introduce cap-and-trade legislation in the province. In 2008, the province committed to cutting total greenhouse gas emissions by 6%, compared with 1990 levels, by the year 2012. But a year after the deadline, the province admitted it wasn’t going to come close to the goal and abandoned the plan.
More: The Carillon
MARYLAND
Lawmakers Pass Bills to Foster Community Solar Projects
A pair of bills aimed to make it easier to plan, develop and activate community solar projects have passed in the House and Senate. If signed by Gov. Larry Hogan, the state will be the 10th in the U.S. to allow community solar projects. The bills would allow multiple parties to invest in a single solar project. Investors or subscribers would become eligible for credits to be used against their electricity bill.
The bills allow for a three-year pilot program permitting construction of community solar projects. A study of the projects will be presented to the General Assembly to consider a permanent program.
More: FierceEnergy
MASSACHUSETTS
Acadia Center Report Outlines Benefit of Solar in State
Acadia Center has released a study that quantifies the grid and societal benefits of solar photovoltaic systems in the state.
Acadia Center assessed the value of six hypothetical solar PV system configurations that determined that the value of solar to the grid ranges from 22-28 cents/kWh, with additional societal values of 6.7 cents/kWh.
Solar PV provides unique value to the electric grid by producing clean energy and avoiding generation and related emissions from conventional power plants. The overall grid value of solar is the sum total of these different benefits.
The benefits vary based on the time and location of output from solar panels. Acadia Center examined these variations in the study, including the impacts of orientation (i.e. west- or south-facing arrays) on the value of solar PV. One key finding is that under traditional net metering, west-facing arrays — which maximize output during periods of peak demand — would receive approximately 20% less credit than a comparable south-facing system, despite the fact that they produce approximately the same overall value to the grid.
More: Acadia Center
DPU Scraps Rule Requiring Bill Recalculations if Switching
In an attempt to reduce confusion for customers switching electric suppliers, the Department of Public Utilities has scrapped a rule requiring utilities to recalculate customers’ bills if they were leaving their “basic service” plans. The rule often resulted in small “surprise” bills — but sometimes credits — for residential and small business customers.
The rule had been in place for the past 15 years, but more light was shed on it as a result of last winter’s higher energy bills that spurred more customers to seek competitive suppliers. The rule called for recalculations to be done if the customer was in the middle of a six-month service period, which sometimes resulted in an additional charge being reflected because of variable costs charges. Some utilities, including Eversource Energy, said the cost of dealing with customer confusion was higher than the cost of eliminating the “true-up” from recalculations.
More: The Boston Globe
MICHIGAN
Group Tries to Get Anti-Fracking Measure on Ballot for 2016
A grassroots organization is trying to get a statewide anti-fracking measure on the ballot for the 2016 election. It will be the third attempt to do so: the group failed to get the necessary 250,000 signatures in 2012 and 2013. “This time we’re going to go all the way,” LuAnne Kosma, chairwoman of the Committee to Ban Fracking, said on Friday. “We have the resources that we need this time to get to 250,000. We’re getting a lot more people involved, and we definitely have more awareness of the issue statewide.” The state’s Board of State Canvassers will review the forms prepared for the collection of signatures, a requirement before the group can begin gathering names.
So far in Michigan, there has only been test drilling for fracking operations.
More: Detroit News
Sens. Urging US to Oppose Canadian Plan to Bury Nuclear Waste
U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters are asking the Obama administration to oppose a plan by Canadian authorities to bury nuclear waste near the shores of Lake Huron. “Building a permanent nuclear waste dump in such close proximity to Lake Huron could cause significant, lasting damage,” Peters wrote. “The Canadian government should seek out an alternative site, and I urge the State Department to take action to keep this troubling project from moving forward.”
The plan calls for Ontario Power Generation to bury 7.1 million cubic feet of low- and intermediate-level waste from its Bruce Power nuclear generating station about 2,230 feet below ground. Opponents fear the waste could contaminate groundwater, which would then flow into Lake Huron.
More: Associated Press
Lansing Leaders Contemplate Answers to Aging Powerhouse
Lansing city leaders are pointing fingers at former management of the Board of Water & Light’s Eckert Power Plant for letting it deteriorate to the point where at least $100 million will be needed for infrastructure investment over the next six years.
The aging coal-fired plant near the city’s downtown area can’t be replaced without generating capacity and upgrades to the board’s transmission infrastructure, its interim general manager told the city this month.
The Lansing State Journal reported that part of the capital plans include doubling connections to the grid, which would help provide additional resources in the event the plant experienced a generation disruption.
The aging plant supplies power to about 97,000 customers.
More: Lansing State Journal
MINNESOTA
Enbridge’s Sandpiper Pipeline Gets Nod from Judge; PUC Ruling Pending
Enbridge’s proposed $2.6 billion Sandpiper pipeline — designed to carry North Dakota crude oil across Minnesota to refineries in the East — has received approval from a state administrative law judge who ruled it was necessary. The project still needs approval from the state Public Utilities Commission, but the recent ruling was seen as a defeat to environmentalists opposing the line. North Dakota already has approved its portion of the 610-mile route.
More: Star Tribune
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Lawmakers Ask for Extension for Northern Pass Comment Period
The state’s congressional delegation says a 60-day comment period is not enough time for what is expected to be a voluminous environmental impact report on the proposed Northern Pass transmission project, a 187-mile transmission project that would cut through North Country forest on its way from the Canadian border to a substation in Deerfield with 1,200 MW of new hydroelectricity from Quebec.
The delegation has asked the federal Department of Energy to extend the time to 90 days. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte, along with Reps. Annie Kuster and Frank Guinta, have written to energy officials in anticipation of the release this spring of a report they say will exceed 2,000 pages. They say it’s “imperative” that the department allow more than the usual 60-day period before the start of public hearings on the report.
There is no set date for the report’s release.
More: New Hampshire Public Radio
Seacoast Line Raises Concerns
The Seacoast Reliability Project being developed by Eversource is nothing like the scale of Northern Pass, but Seacoast community members have labeled the project “the Northern Pass of the Seacoast.” They’ve raised concerns about noise, interference with telephone, television or radio reception, health risks, and effects on real estate values.
The project would follow a 13-mile existing distribution corridor from Madbury to Portsmouth, mostly through Durham. The Eversource right-of-way is now occupied by 40-foot wooden poles, but these would be replaced by larger metal poles ranging in size from 60 to 108 feet, which would support the 115-kV line.
More: Manchester Union-Leader
NEW JERSEY
BPU Approves $95 Million More Energy Efficiency Spending by PSE&G
The Board of Public Utilities has approved a plan by Public Service Electric & Gas to spend another $95 million in energy efficiency programs for health care facilities, apartment buildings, small businesses and nonprofits. This is on top of the $227 million already invested on energy efficiency programs in those areas. The utility will be allowed to recover the investment in its rates.
“These three programs are targeted at segments that can achieve significant bill reductions from energy efficiency programs but were held back from making these investments for a number of reasons,” said Joe Forline, vice president of Customer Solutions for the company.
More: Philly.com
NORTH CAROLINA
Judge Grants Extension to Duke for Coal Ash Plea
Duke Energy has received a four-week extension to enter its guilty plea to Clean Water Act violations relating to the massive Dan River spill last year. The guilty plea was to be part of the $102 million settlement the Charlotte-based company reached with federal authorities over the incident, in which up to 39,000 tons of coal ash and 27 million gallons of coal slurry gushed into the Dan River in February 2014. Duke filed a motion seeking the extension after saying it was concerned that a guilty plea, and a sentence of probation for the company, could prohibit it from continuing to supply electricity to two military bases in its territory – Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune.
The company says it is negotiating with the Environmental Protection Agency to have that limitation lifted from the terms of probation. State authorities are continuing to investigate Duke’s role in the environmental disaster, and no settlements or plea deals have been announced. Separately, a federal investigation into possible criminal charges relating to the spill is reportedly ongoing.
More: Los Angeles Times
Professor Gets $500,000 Grant to Further Wind-borne Energy Research
A University of North Carolina-Charlotte professor researching ways to create electricity by using tethered, wind-borne generators has received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Chris Vermillion, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is working on ways to develop kite- or wing-borne wind energy systems that would carry turbines into the sky, while remaining connected to the ground. Such technology could generate 30 to 200 kW of energy.
“This is the only platform in the world — at such a small scale — that replicates both the flight dynamics and the control of airborne wind-energy system lifting bodies,” Vermillion said. The professor and students at the college are developing 1/100th-scale models of the lifting bodies and using the university’s water channel facility to test them. The idea is to develop a model that could replace some of the earthbound wind turbines currently used.
More: Charlotte Observer
TEXAS
State Considers Scratching RPS, Renewable Zone Initiative
While other states are increasing their renewable energy sources, the Senate voted to do away with the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard and end its Renewable Energy Zone initiative. Senate Bill 931, introduced by Republican Sen. Troy Fraser, was passed 21-10 and now goes to the House. Fraser, in defending the bill, noted that the state’s renewable energy goal of 10,000 MW of wind and solar by 2025 was attained in 2010. Texas now boasts having 12,800 MW just in wind. “We’re No. 1 in the nation by a long shot,” he said during a Senate session. “We have the lines there. We can handle another 6,000 or 7,000 MW of wind and solar.”
More: FierceEnergy
WISCONSIN
FERC Approval ‘the Easy Part’ for Wisconsin Energy-Integrys Merger?
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission earlier this month approved Wisconsin Energy’s $9.1 billion purchase of Integrys Energy Group — but that approval may have been a cakewalk compared with the uproar before state regulators, who still must vote on the deal.
The Wisconsin Paper Council and Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, along with retail ratepayer watchdog Citizens Utility Board, have told the Public Service Commission they’d like to see a guarantee of monetary concessions for ratepayers in light of relatively high rates.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that a consultant for Wisconsin Energy has estimated that the merger could result in annual savings to customers of $78 million to $138 million after five or 10 years.
But the utility stopped short of offering a guarantee and said such concessions would amount to overreaching and illegally penalizing shareholders.
The Citizens Utility Board told the state commission Wisconsin Energy has shown “outsized influence, hubris and preference for protecting shareholders at the expense of customers … particularly when it expresses gall at customers’ attempts to secure actual, quantifiable benefits and meaningful protections from the transaction.”
More: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Ex-OMS, PSC Head Joins Law Practice
Former Public Service Commission Chairman Eric J. Callisto has become a partner at the Madison office of Michael Best & Friedrich.
Callisto will represent client interests in energy-related legislation in Congress. Callisto has served as president of the Organization of MISO States and held leadership positions in the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.
“His extensive background in regional and national energy matters and his recognition as a thoughtful regulator provide him with unique experience and perspective that will benefit the firm’s present and future energy clients,” said Dan Sanford, managing partner of Michael Best’s D.C. office.
More: Michael Best & Friedrich
Compiled by Ted Caddell