Inuit Association Seeks Nunavut Interconnection to Manitoba System
The Kivalliq Inuit Association says connecting its remote electric grid in the far northern, and sparsely populated, territory of Nunavut to Manitoba’s hydroelectric power would be a win for the region, despite the estimated $904 million cost.
An engineering study commissioned by the association said that construction of a transmission line from Churchill, Manitoba, up the western Hudson Bay coast would allow Nunavut to replace costly diesel generation with Manitoba hydroelectric power. The project would save $40 million a year and pay for itself over the course of its 40-year lifespan.
“Ever since I’ve been elected I’ve been pushing for this,” said Joe Savikataaq, Arviat-South member of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut. “Our power plants are aging and the amount of diesel our communities can hold has to be expended.”
More: Nunatsiaq News
ILLINOIS
ComEd Project Aims to Boost Use of Demand Response
A pilot project in Chicago aims to demonstrate that demand response can be a year-round resource able to compete in PJM’s capacity market.
The Combined Capacity Asset Performance Project will combine renewable energy like wind and solar with the DR capability of several Chicago buildings. It is being led by PJM, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Accelerate Group and the Citizens Utility Board.
Under previous market rules, suppliers of DR could choose to participate only in the summer months. New PJM rules require that resources be able to respond whenever there is a critical need.
More: Smart Grid News
INDIANA
Suburu Blames High Power Prices for Advantage Loss
Automaker Subaru says that the state’s increasing power prices are causing its Lafayette assembly plant to lose its competitive advantage.
Industrial electricity prices in the state have risen 75% between 2003 and 2015, about twice the national rate, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. The state had the fifth lowest industrial electricity prices in the nation in 2003, but today 25 states offer lower pricing.
The Indiana Energy Association blames the rise in the state’s industrial electric rates on federal environmental regulations, which have hit the state’s coal-fired power generators. Industrial leaders are pressuring policymakers to allow for the increased use of on-site cogeneration.
More: NWI Times
IOWA
Renewable Tax Credits Sitting Idle in Developers’ Hands
Renewable energy developers are failing to build many projects for which production tax credits have been set aside, according to Midwest Energy News.
A study of Utility Board records shows that 113 proposed wind projects were assigned the production tax credits but were never constructed. The study showed that 37 of those were approved in 2009 but received repeated 12-month extensions. Nineteen other proposed wind projects were on standby because the tax credits had already been assigned.
“There are a few projects that I think are ready to go, and are on the waiting list, and projects ahead of them may never be built,” said Nathaniel Baer, energy program director for the Iowa Environmental Council. Baer called for “a fresh look” at the projects if they haven’t been built years after getting awarded the credits.
More: Midwest Energy News
KANSAS
Kansas Municipal Utilities to Open Training Center
Kansas Municipal Utilities broke ground last week on a $3.2 million workforce training center in McPherson. The center is due to open in June 2016 and is the only one of its kind in a multistate area.
The project is answering the call from Kansas Municipal Utilities’ 176 members, which have aging workforces. The training center would not serve rural electric cooperatives or investor-owned utilities.
More: The Salina Journal
MISSISSIPPI
State Regulators Weigh Rooftop Solar Panel Rules
The Public Service Commission is exploring whether to allow net metering. The state is one of five that do not require utilities to buy surplus power produced by customer generators.
At a two-hour hearing last week, supporters of the proposed net-metering rules say they would benefit all utility customers, while utilities expressed concern that the rules would shift costs to non-producing customers. State regulators are also considering whether it has the authority to order member-owned cooperatives to abide by net-metering rules.
Commissioners extended the comment period, and it’s not clear when they will vote on the issue, which they’ve been considering since 2011.
More: Associated Press
MISSOURI
State Energy Plan Calls for Wind Incentives, More Renewables
The state’s new Comprehensive State Energy Plan, released last week during the Midwest Energy Policy Conference in St. Louis, recommends adopting a building code, requiring power companies to offer efficiency programs and boosting the amount of renewable energy utilities have to offer their customers.
Gov. Jay Nixon launched the effort last year. The Division of Energy has spent more than a year meeting stakeholders. What emerged is a plan calling for incremental changes that will give the state time to adapt.
The Division of Energy says the plan is unrelated to efforts to comply with the federal Clean Power Plan. The plan does offer dozens of policy recommendations on everything from better energy education to complex changes in utility regulations.
More: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
NEBRASKA
Keystone XL Launches New Attempt for Approval
TransCanada, the company seeking to build the Keystone XL Pipeline, is withdrawing its eminent domain claims on the land it planned to use for the pipeline and will instead go to the state’s Public Service Commission for route approval.
The company’s decision came on the eve of the state trial on the eminent domain issue, which was scheduled to start Oct. 19. Even if it had prevailed in state court, TransCanada would have still had to get approval from the PSC to go forward.
“The writing’s kind of on the wall,” said University of Nebraska law professor Anthony Schutz. “The prospect of losing was significant enough that they probably looked at the tea leaves and said, ‘Why don’t we just go forward with that process now?’ ”
More: Associated Press
Local Power Providers Challenge NPPD Rates
Facing a shortfall to pay for retirement benefits, Nebraska Public Power District is asking its biggest wholesale customers for more money. However, 10 local power districts and cities are speaking out against a proposal they say is discriminatory, unfair and even outlandish.
NPPD says it needs $25 million more a year to address a shortfall in its retirement fund. It is asking for a 3.85% increase in the wholesale rate. However, those that sign a new contract will get a discount, so their increase would be just 0.6%.
A handful of cities and power districts are abandoning the public power supplier and shopping for electricity from other producers, which NPPD CEO Pat Pope says he did not anticipate.
More: NTV-TV
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Hassan Declines to Reappoint Consumer Advocate
Hassan
Gov. Maggie Hassan will not reappoint Susan Chamberlin, the incumbent consumer advocate on utility issues. Opponents of a Kinder Morgan natural gas pipeline project, who see her as an ally in proceedings before the Public Utilities Commission, are upset by the move as well as delays in finding her replacement.
State officials have known since July that Chamberlin, whose term expires Nov. 5, was not likely to be reappointed. “The dismissal of one of the most powerful advocates for New Hampshire residents, and the significant delay in nominations for a replacement, is a telling lack of concern for all of New Hampshire ratepayers,” said Maryann Harper, a spokesperson for the Pipeline Awareness Network of New Hampshire.
The decision regarding Chamberlin was the result of a review in which the committee received confidential, anonymous feedback from managers, peers and direct reports that were not favorable enough to lead to a reappointment.
More: New Hampshire Union Leader
Kinder Morgan Pipeline Route May Change
Kinder Morgan announced Thursday that it is exploring a modification to the proposed Northeast Energy Direct pipeline route in Merrimack. Barry Duff, project manager, said the company met with officials from two businesses about some newly proposed amendments.
“I am happy that the businesses are being listened to,” said Jody Vaillancourt, Town Council member. However, she maintained the community is at a huge disadvantage because new modifications are being introduced in the final hours.
Kinder Morgan said the original route was amended and moved farther to the east to minimize impact to a nearby school and to avoid conservation land.
More: New Hampshire Union Leader
NEW MEXICO
PNM, Attorney General’s Office Refute Manipulation Claims
Public Service Company of New Mexico and the state’s Attorney General’s Office are challenging an advocacy group’s allegations that PNM manipulated numbers to justify the company’s plans for the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station. PNM proposes to close two of the plant’s four coal-fired units and replace the lost capacity from other sources, including coal-generated power from another unit at the plant.
David Van Winkle, an expert for Santa Fe-based New Energy Economy, last month filed written testimony claiming PNM significantly understated the size of rate increases the utility would seek during the next 20 years if the state’s Public Regulation Commission approves its plan.
PNM’s Patrick O’Connell last week filed a response that said the consultant’s “derogatory and inflammatory accusations about PNM’s alleged manipulation of data to achieve a ‘predetermined’ result are totally false.” Andrea Crane, a consultant from The Columbia Group, a Connecticut-based firm specializing in utility regulation that is contracted with the Attorney General’s Office for cases involving utilities, also filed a rebuttal last week.
More: The Santa Fe New Mexican
NEW YORK
Long Island Officials Challenging PSEG Rate Increase
Elected officials are asking for a halt to PSEG Long Island’s rate increase hearings, saying the rate case is flawed because of “constitutional and contractual” concerns.
The request comes a week after the Long Island Power Authority tentatively approved a $325.4 million rate increase. The increase still needs a final vote. In a letter to the state Department of Public Service, 12 Long Island Republican state assemblymen contend that there is “no true oversight” over PSEG and that the LIPA board lacks “objectivity and expertise.”
PSEG, which originally sought a $387 million increase, said it followed the rate increase request process dictated by the 2013 LIPA Reform Act.
More: Newsday
NORTH CAROLINA
Advocacy Group Testing Duke’s Solar ‘Monopoly’
NCWARN, a solar advocacy group, installed a solar facility atop a Greensboro church and is selling the power directly back to the church, bypassing area utility Duke Energy. The move is intended to create a test case for state regulators.
The organization says it entered into a three-year contract to sell the power directly to the church as a way to spur a ruling on what it sees as Duke’s monopoly on direct sales to customers. Current law requires the owners of a solar facility to either use the power themselves or sell directly back to the area utility.
NCWARN earlier this year built a 5.2-kW solar project on the roof of Faith Community Church and signed a three-year agreement to sell the power back for 5 cents/kWh, about half the rate charged by Duke. NCWARN is asking the state Utilities Commission to rule that the three-year arrangement is legal.
More: Charlotte Business Journal
OHIO
Staff: PUCO Should Reject AEP Profit-Guarantee Plan
Public Utilities Commission staff have recommended that the commission reject American Electric Power’s proposal that would guarantee profits at some of its power plants.
“Staff recommends that the commission deny the [proposal] as it is currently proposed,” said Hisham Choueiki, a senior energy specialist for PUCO. “However, it is possible that the [proposal], if properly conceived, may be in the public interest.”
Last month, staff recommended that the commission reject a similar proposal from FirstEnergy. AEP has said its plan will help to reduce volatility in electricity pricing and preserve jobs at power plants that may otherwise close.
More: The Columbus Dispatch
OKLAHOMA
State is Likely to Meet Stricter Ozone Regulations
The state is expected to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently unveiled tighter limits for ground-level ozone. Officials were still studying the new standards, but the Department of Environmental Quality said the state likely would fall under a three-year period that includes monitoring data from 2014-2016.
Based on monitoring data from 2013 and into 2015, all counties would meet the new standard of 70 parts/billion, said ODEQ spokeswoman Skylar McElhaney.
Bud Ground, environmental and regulatory affairs consultant with the Oklahoma Oil and Gas Association, said the new limits could put Oklahoma City and Tulsa counties closer to non-attainment status and wouldn’t leave much room for variation in years with hot summers, nor would it account for smog coming over the border from Texas.
More: The Oklahoman
TEXAS
Coal Plant Battles Local Tax Appraisal District
Goliad County has set aside tax revenue collected in 2014 from Coleto Creek Power because the power company is embroiled in a lawsuit with the county’s tax appraisal district. The company is challenging the plant’s tax valuation. It was assessed at $353.7 million in 2014 and $403.9 million this year.
Coleto Creek Power claims that the 35-year-old coal-fired plant “has faced dramatic adverse developments” due in part to a newfound abundance of natural gas at low prices. The 632-MW plant also has to contend with stricter emissions requirements and is spending more to transport coal from Wyoming to Texas because a railroad agreement has expired.
Legislation that became effective Sept. 1 requires counties to repay tax revenue back with 9.5% interest, according to the county judge. The next court date is in May.
More: Victoria Advocate
Hearing Requests Withdrawn for North Texas Gas Plant
Van Alstyne residents have withdrawn their requests with the Commission of Environmental Quality for a formal hearing of a proposed Navasota Energy power plant.
In September, some residents named themselves as affected parties of Navasota Energy’s plans to build just outside the town’s city limits. That would have required Navasota officials to secure an air-quality permit from TCEQ.
A TCEQ spokesperson said that because the affected parties had withdrawn their requests, the commission now anticipates the matter will come back to the commission as uncontested.
More: Sherman Herald Democrat
VERMONT
More Wind Farms Likely as Part of ‘Energy Revolution’
The wind industry held a two-day conference to promote renewable energy, which attracted several dozen protesters who warned that large-scale mountaintop wind turbines are a poor match for the state.
Gabrielle Stebbins, executive director of Renewable Energy Vermont, the trade group that hosted the two-day conference, said the state’s “energy revolution” is picking up speed, investment and credibility. That momentum will very likely include the ridge-top development of more large-scale wind projects, she said.
The group outside waved signs reading “ridgelines are not renewable,” “stop destroying Vermont,” “no wind turbines” and “save the ridge.”
More: Burlington Free Press
WISCONSIN
Lawmakers Working to End 32-Year Nuclear Ban
Republican lawmakers in the state are trying to end a 1983 ban on new nuclear construction. Bills sponsored by Sen. Frank Lasee of De Pere and Rep. Kevin Petersen of Waupaca would waive the Public Service Commission’s requirement that a waste repository be in place in order to approve new nuclear generation.
Similar bills were introduced in 2005 and 2009 but did not advance. With the 2013 closure of Dominion’s Kewaunee nuclear station, the only operating nuclear generating station in the state is NextEra’s Point Beach facility. Dairyland Electric Cooperative’s La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor in Genoa was shut down in 1987 and is in the midst of decommissioning.
More: La Crosse Tribune