GSA: Reject Exelon Path to Merger
The General Services Administration, Pepco Holdings Inc.’s biggest customer in the district, joined the chorus opposing Exelon’s revised merger proposal last week while the two companies continued their advertising campaign seeking approval.
In a filing Thursday, the GSA urged the Public Service Commission to reject the companies’ March 7 petition proposing three potential paths to approving the deal, saying none complies with the PSC’s requirement that all settling parties agree. Also making a filing was the Water and Sewer Authority, which told the PSC it would accept only the original settlement agreed to by Mayor Muriel Bowser. The Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition reiterated its opposition to the deal, as did DC Solar United Neighborhoods. WGL Energy said it would support the terms proposed by Commissioner Joanne Doddy Fort or Exelon’s proposal to redirect $20 million earmarked for smart grid and environmental programs in the Bowser settlement to rate relief.
Exelon has asked the commission to act by April 7.
More: Exelon-Pepco Doubtful as DC Officials Reject Alternatives
INDIANA
IPL Gets less than Half Of Requested Rate Increase
The Utility Regulatory Commission approved a rate increase that will give Indianapolis Power & Light about $30 million in annual revenue, less than half of the $68 million the company requested.
IPL said it is still calculating how the decision will shake out on rates for different customer classes. The final rates must be submitted and approved by the IURC.
The commission also closed an investigation into IPL’s underground transmission and distribution network. A series of underground explosions spurred the investigation. The commission ruled that the company’s network is “basically sound at this time.”
More: Inside Indiana Business
IOWA
Regulator Admits Withholding Funding From Center ‘Not Brightest Decision’
Utilities Board Chairwoman Geri Huser said her choice to hold up funding to an energy research center last year was not “the brightest decision” but said she only did it to gain time to gather more information about the project.
Huser said she didn’t think withholding the $4.4 million from the Iowa Energy Center at Iowa State University was illegal, just ill-advised. When criticism of her decision arose, the board released the funding.
She told the state Senate Commerce Committee last week that she was unaware that the center, which promotes renewable energy, might have to close down without the funding.
More: KCCI; The Gazette
KANSAS
KCC Delays Decision on Westar Rate Increase Request
The Corporation Commission has delayed a decision on Westar Energy’s request to raise its transmission delivery charge, which allows recovery of the costs of providing transmission. The proposal will add about $4/month to the average residential bill on April 1.
The commission also said staff is currently conducting an independent investigation of the proposal and intends to file a report and recommendation by May 30. If staff demonstrates that all or part of Westar’s request is excessive, the commission said, it may then order Westar to refund its customers.
The annual rate review is receiving additional attention this year because the allocation of costs among different classes of customers has changed, a Westar spokesperson said.
More: The Topeka Capital-Journal
KENTUCKY
PSC: No Jurisdiction in Duke’s Piedmont Purchase
The Public Service Commission has concluded it does not have the authority under state law to approve or deny Duke Energy’s proposed $4.9 billion purchase of Piedmont Natural Gas.
Duke asked for the declaratory ruling in order to reaffirm that no state approval or hearing was needed to complete the Piedmont acquisition. In February, Duke said the purchase would not change its basic corporate structure or how it handles its electricity and natural gas operations.
More: Charlotte Business Journal
MAINE
Republicans now Want Net Metering Before PUC
Republican legislative leaders now want the Public Utilities Commission to decide the fate of net metering, not the state Legislature.
Rep. Nathan Wadsworth, the ranking House Republican on a committee considering a solar bill, released a statement calling for the PUC to “stay the course on net metering, protect existing solar customers, installers and the 400 jobs tied to the solar industry.”
House Republican Leader Ken Fredette told the Portland Press Herald that a “bill this complex” should have been considered earlier in the session and may not achieve its goals of preserving solar jobs.
Advocates say the proposed law could create 800 or so new jobs over five years. The bill aims to grow solar capacity in the state from about 18 MW to 250 MW in five years, or 2% of the state’s power needs.
More: Portland Press Herald
MARYLAND
Controversial New Incinerator Loses Permit for South Baltimore
A permit allowing a controversial waste incinerator to be built in South Baltimore has been declared invalid because construction activity has stopped, developer Energy Answers International was told last week.
The Department of the Environment said the permit expired because there had been no construction activity at the Fairfield site since October 2013. Energy Answers, a New York company that secured the permit in 2010, planned to build a $1 billion power plant that would have burned a fuel derived from solid waste.
The Environmental Integrity Project, an environmental advocacy group, had alerted state and federal environmental regulators last month that it intended to file a lawsuit demanding enforcement of the permit’s terms, which prohibit a pause in construction for 18 months or more.
More: The Baltimore Sun
MINNESOTA
Gov. Dayton Vows to Veto Attempts to Slow CPP Work
Gov. Mark Dayton told a group of students that he would press forward on plans to comply with the federal Clean Power Plan, notwithstanding calls from some legislators to bring efforts to a halt. He said he would veto any attempt to block compliance.
“I’d like to see Minnesota’s dependence on coal eliminated, and I won’t even set a date because I want it as soon as possible,” Dayton said. He noted that the state still gets 44% of its electricity from coal-fired plants, so he said efforts should concentrate on encouraging the development of renewable sources.
The governor received applause from the audience for these statements. But he also said fossil fuels will continue to have a place in the state’s energy portfolio, much to the displeasure of the students listening. “You know, there’s no free lunch on energy,” he said. “Until we create the kind of world that you envision, and more power to you, we’re going to be using fossil fuels, we’re going to be using oil.”
More: MPR News
MISSISSIPPI
Mississippi Power’s Kemper Project ‘Fleeced’ the Public, Suit Charges
A customer lawsuit accuses Mississippi Power of “fleecing the public” to build the problematic Kemper County coal gasification power plant.
Seafood processing firm Biloxi Freezing & Processing, Island View Casino and Gulfport resident John Carolton Dean allege that Mississippi Power has tried to dodge liability for “fraud and mismanagement.”
The Kemper County plant was intended to be among the first coal-fired facilities to employ state-of-the-art carbon capture technology. Cost overruns have tripled the initial project budget to $6.5 billion and put the plant two years behind schedule. The Public Service Commission recently ordered the utility to issue credits to its 186,000 customers related to the plant’s costs.
More: Energy Manager Today
MISSOURI
New Bill Would Allow Annual Utility Increases
A state Senate bill would allow utilities to raise rates annually without going through a protracted rate hearing with the Public Service Commission.
The proposal would allow utilities to submit expenses for the previous year and get immediate reimbursement through rate approval if the expenses were deemed “prudent.”
Opponents of the measure say it strips too much power from the commission. “There’s nothing in this bill to keep rates from going up every year,” said James Owen, acting public counsel. The bill caps annual rate increase to 2% for the first two years and no more than 4.75% for any single subsequent year.
More: The Kansas City Star
MONTANA
Environmental Groups File Lawsuit Against PRB Energy Development
Environmental groups have filed suit in U.S. District Court in Great Falls, alleging that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s plans to allow extensive fossil-fuel extraction in the Powder River Basin are illegal.
The lawsuit says the agency’s plans to allow the extraction of oil, gas and coal would make climate change worse and go against efforts to protect the greater sage-grouse species of bird. The lawsuit is backed by the Western Organization of Resource Councils, the Sierra Club and other groups.
More: Billings Gazette
NEW MEXICO
PRC Judge Sides with Environmentalists in PNM Case
A Public Regulation Commission hearing officer sided with an environmentalist group that wants the state’s largest utility to publicly disclose its fuel-supply contract with Navajo Mine Coal Co. for the Four Corners Power Plant.
The issue arose last year when Public Service Company of New Mexico filed for a $123.5 million rate increase, which would boost residential rates by 15.8%. Western Resource Advocates argued that information affecting rates should be open to the public.
PNM has the right to appeal the hearing officer’s order to the five-member commission.
More: Santa Fe New Mexican
NEW YORK
PSC Approves Smart Meters For ComEd in NYC, Westchester
The Public Service Commission approved Consolidated Edison’s plan to spend $1.5 billion over five years to install 4.8 million smart meters in New York City and Westchester County.
Con Ed estimates a net benefit of more than $1 billion from the wireless meters, which it says will also give it the ability to better manage outages and service connections during storms.
The utility will install 3.6 million electric smart meters and 1.2 million gas smart meters starting in 2017.
More: New York Public Service Commission; POLITICO New York
NORTH CAROLINA
Governor Abruptly Disbands Coal Ash Management Committee
Gov. Pat McCrory’s office has disbanded the state Coal Ash Management Commission after the state Supreme Court ruled in January that the commission’s appointments were unconstitutional.
The nine-member commission was created to oversee the closure of Duke Energy’s 32 ash ponds in the state following a catastrophic spill of ash-laden water into the Dan River. McCrory, a former Duke Energy executive, last year challenged appointments to the commission.
The commission’s executive director, Natalie Birdwell, resigned after sending an email to legislative leaders on Monday saying she “had just been informed by the governor’s office that the commission was no longer a legal entity.” Days later the commission’s website went dark. The state Department of Environmental Quality said it is fully prepared to implement all ash remediation efforts.
More: The News & Observer
OHIO
PUCO Asked to Stay AEP Request for PPA
The Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, the Appalachian Peace and Justice Network and the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association Energy Group on Monday asked the Public Utilities Commission to stay AEP Ohio’s request for a power purchase agreement pending a FERC decision on the matter.
“To protect 1.3 million Ohio consumers from paying non-refundable rates for a power purchase agreement, these proceedings should be stayed while the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission considers a complaint that would require a review of the PPA between affiliated companies,” the groups said in the filing.
The parties pointed to an incident in 2014 in which AEP was allowed to keep $463 million of state residents’ money after the state Supreme Court overturned a PUCO decision approving an unlawful fee collected from consumers while an appeal was pending.
The filing comes as PUCO is reportedly close to ruling on the PPAs. A decision could come by the end of the month, the Associated Press reported Monday.
More: The Associated Press
Oregon Clean Energy Files To Boost Plant by 161 MW
Oregon Clean Energy, which is developing a combined cycle gas-fired power plant in northern Ohio, asked the Public Utilities Commission to increase the capacity from 799 MW to 960 MW.
The original capacity was set after consultation with PJM to take into account the available transmission capacity in the region. But a subsequent study showed that the grid could handle the increased capacity.
The plant is already under construction. It was not immediately apparent how the requested capacity increase would be obtained.
More: The Blade
TEXAS
Fitch Likes LP&L’s ERCOT Move, Assigns Bonds A+ Rating
Fitch Ratings has assigned an A+ rating for bonds issued by the City of Lubbock on behalf of its municipally owned electric utility system, Lubbock Power & Light.
Fitch based part of its rating on LP&L’s plan to transition about 70% of its load into the ERCOT market in 2019 and secure medium-term power supply contracts to meet its power needs. A smaller portion of the utility’s system, largely consisting of assets it acquired in 2010 from Southwestern Public Service, will be isolated from the portion connected with ERCOT and will remain connected to SPP.
Fitch said it views the plan as reasonable, given the utility’s other options were more expensive and included building significant additional generation. Fitch cautioned, however, that the power-supply transition involves changes in the utility’s business strategy, requires significant capital investment and has a relatively short implementation timeframe.
More: Fitch Ratings
VIRGINIA
State, Dominion and Microsoft Partnering on 20-MW Solar Plant
The state has agreed to buy power generated by Dominion Virginia Power’s 20-MW Remington solar project, and Microsoft will buy and retire the project’s renewable energy credits.
The agreement helps both the state and Microsoft attain renewable energy goals and provides a steady customer for Dominion. Gov. Terry McAuliffe has announced a goal of getting at least 8% of the energy needed for state facilities from renewable energy in the next three years.
More: The Daily Progress