The Federal Aviation Administration will allow Xcel Energy to use drones to inspect the company’s power lines in lightly populated areas. Xcel wants to use the unmanned aerial devices to inspect lines in some inaccessible and environmentally sensitive areas.
The company said it will conduct some field tests this summer. A spokesman said the company might use drones as damage assessment tools after major storms. Some drones, if equipped with special sensors, could also be used to detect leaks from natural gas lines. The company already used a drone to inspect the inside of a massive boiler at the company’s Sherco plant in Becker, Minn.
Xcel is one of about 400 companies to get approval to use the drones. Southern Co. received FAA authorization earlier this month.
More: Star Tribune
Dominion Fires Back After Tx Line Complaint
Dominion Transmission strenuously responded to a complaint before the Virginia State Corporation Commission that it misled the public about its plans to rebuild a 500-kV transmission line. Farmer Kristopher Baumann, of Rockbridge, Va., said Dominion’s inclusion of a new 230-kV line that added 60 feet to the transmission line’s towers violated terms of the project and ruined the scenic view.
The project was built “entirely within existing right-of-way” of the existing 500-kV Dooms-Lexington Line, Dominion wrote in response to Baumann’s complaint. It did acknowledge, however, that due to an oversight, the project’s website didn’t include information on the additional line. “The company has rectified this administrative oversight and the structure comparison is now accurate.”
It is now up to the SCC to determine if Dominion violated any public notice rules.
More: News Leader
A Mellow Month for MISO
Falling natural gas prices helped make for a rosier April monthly market metrics report by MISO’s Independent Market Monitor.
Average day-ahead energy prices declined about 40% to $25.23/MWh, and real-time energy prices were $24.85/MWh, Monitor David Patton told MISO’s Markets Committee of the Board of Directors last week. The value of real-time congestion fell to $86 million — down 18% from last month and 60% from last year.
The price drop was due to lower fuel costs and lower spreads between the dispatch costs of coal-fired and natural gas-fired generation resources, Patton said.
Meanwhile, MISO’s monthly operations report to the board noted that average temperatures for the month were near-normal and that all metrics were in the “expected” status, a not all-that-common event.
More: IMM Report
Paslawski to Succeed Smith as OMS Executive Director
The Organization of MISO States board of directors Thursday voted unanimously to appoint Tanya Paslawski as executive director, effective June 1. Paslawski, who currently is deputy executive director, will succeed William H. Smith.
Before joining OMS, Paslawski worked for the Michigan Public Service Commission, Direct Energy and ITC Holdings. She holds a bachelor’s in political science from Oakland University and a law degree from the Michigan State University College of Law.
Smith, who has been executive director since 2004, will be retained in a part-time, emeritus role through the end of 2015 to help in the transition, OMS President Libby Jacobs said during the organization’s May board meeting. Smith’s career includes a role as government relations manager for the Iowa Utilities Board and as a legal advisor to commissioners of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Duke Spending $1.1 Billion on New Gas Plant and Solar Farm
Duke Energy announced last week that it will spend $1.1 billion to construct a 650-MW natural gas-fired combined-cycle plant on the site of a to-be-retired coal-fired plant. It will also install a solar farm of undetermined size on the plant’s ash site. The company said it made more sense to demolish the two 51-year-old coal units at the plant on Lake Julian near Asheville, N.C., than to install new emissions controls to extend their lives.
Duke estimated the cost of the facilities at about $750 million. The company will spend another $320 million to build a new substation and a 40-mile transmission line in Spartanburg, S.C., to bring the plant’s electricity to the grid.
Duke said it would be filing a full plan with the North Carolina Utilities Commission by the first quarter of 2016.
More: Citizen-Times; Charlotte Observer
Jennifer Murphy Hired by NARUC as Asst. Gen. Counsel
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners has hired a former Massachusetts regulatory attorney as its assistant general counsel.
Jennifer M. Murphy, who worked for the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities for five years, will represent NARUC before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy and federal courts. She will also be involved in the development and implementation of the association’s Washington Action Program and will serve on the Consumer Affairs, Electricity, Energy Resources and the Environment, and Gas subcommittees.
Murphy received a law degree from Vermont Law School and has master’s degrees in Marine Affairs and International Studies.
More: NARUC
Wisconsin Brewer Goes All-Wind for Power Needs
A Green Bay, Wis., craft brewer has entered into a partnership with Arcadia Power to purchase all its electricity from Midwest wind farms.
Andrew Fabry, president of Badger State Brewing, said renewable energy is a focal point of the company’s business plan. Arcadia, based in D.C., buys the output of nine wind farms in the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest.
More: Journal Sentinel
National Grid Profits Up; US Investments Increasing
London-based National Grid reported $5.86 billion in operating profit for the year ended March 31, a 1% increase over the year earlier. Adjusted results, reflecting continuing operations before exceptional items, were $5.99 billion, up 5%.
The company’s regulated gas and electric operations in New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts recorded a 3% increase in operating profit to $1.8 billion. Although it absorbed additional costs due to prolonged cold weather, the company benefited from rate increases and new customers. It also made record capital investments of $2.4 billion, boosting its U.S. rate base by 7%. U.S. operations generated an average 8.4% return on equity, down from 9% a year earlier.
“The benefit of filing and delivering effective rate cases can clearly be seen in the progress we have made with NiMo Electric [Niagara Mohawk] and our business on Rhode Island,” CEO Steve Holliday said in an earnings call. Although the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reduced Niagara Mohawk’s allowed ROE, the company “is achieving over 95% of its allowed return in the second year of a three-year plan,” Holliday said. “That’s a very far cry from the performance in 2011, a full 340 basis points up.”
National Grid says its customers in Rhode Island who signed up for the company’s energy efficiency programs will save $427 million over 13 years. The company said 41,500 customers participated in the programs in 2014. The company has invested $102 million in the programs, funded through an energy efficiency charge on customers’ bills.
More: National Grid; Fierce Energy
FirstEnergy Crews Use Aerial Saws for Trimming in Rural Areas
Vegetation management crews with FirstEnergy subsidiary Mon Power in West Virginia are using helicopter mounted aerial saws to trim trees in areas that are inaccessible to bucket trucks. A company spokeswoman said an aerial saw can cover in one day the work a ground crew could handle in a week.
“Suspended from a vertical boom beneath the helicopter, the saw can trim both sides of a 10-to-12-mile right-of-way in about a week,” Mon Power said. “Ground crews work in tandem with the pilot, flagging traffic and removing limbs and smaller branches from roadways, trails, waterways or other sensitive areas.”
Mon Power spends about $70 million a year on vegetation management, maintaining reliability along 4,500 miles of transmission and distribution lines.
More: Fierce Energy
Former Duke CEO Slams NC Lawmakers for Freezing Green-Energy Goals
Jim Rogers, former CEO of Duke Energy, was sharply critical of North Carolina legislators after a Senate committee approved a bill that would freeze the renewable energy standard. The current law calls for utilities to obtain 12.5% of the energy they sell from renewable sources by 2021. The bill now before the Senate would freeze the standard at 6%.
“They are not focused on the future,” Rogers said of legislators. Renewable standards, he said, are “something we need to get behind and figure out how to educate those who claim to be leading us into the 21st century.”
Solar advocates say that the new measure will reduce incentives for renewable power developers. Currently, North Carolina ranks fourth in the U.S. for installed solar generation.
More: The Charlotte Observer
Customers Will Be Able to Phone in Comments on Next PPL Rate Hike
Customers of PPL Electric wishing to weigh in on the company’s latest rate increase request will be able to phone in their comments instead of attending a Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission hearing.
PPL spokesman Paul Wirth said the company welcomes the pilot program, which will be used in two of three scheduled PUC meetings. “We are in favor of getting as much comment into the process as possible,” he said. Acting Public Advocate Tanya J. McCloskey said her office will see how it works before passing judgement. “At this point, this is the first one we have tried and I’m sure we will learn a lot of lessons.”
The company is seeking a $167.5 million rate increase, representing a 3.9% jump in residential monthly bills, or about $10 a month.
More: The Morning Call
NextEra North Dakota Wind Project in Limbo After County Votes No
NextEra Energy Resources said it is shelving a proposed 150-MW wind energy project near Dickinson, N.D., after opposition to the project’s location and aesthetics spurred the Stark County commissioners to deny the project a conditional use permit earlier this month.
NextEra asked the Public Service Commission to suspend its review of the project. “We’ve been talking to those who support and oppose the project as well as looking at potential changes to the project layout that would address concerns expressed by commissioners,” NextEra spokesman Steven Stengel said.
More: ReNEWS