Model to Simulate Distributed Energy’s Impact
Avangrid is working with the MIT Energy Initiative to create a model to simulate the integration of distributed energy resources into the grid.
The model could support New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision plan by simulating how distributed resources, such as solar arrays and battery storage systems, might impact the power system. This model seeks to identify the scale at which distributed resources become beneficial to the grid while taking into account potential impacts on electricity prices, grid reliability and the environment.
The collaboration is part of MITEI’s broader Utility of the Future Study. Avangrid is the newly formed affiliate of the Iberdrola Group that operates New York State Electric and Gas, Rochester Gas and Electric, Central Maine Power and United Illuminating.
More: MIT Energy Initiative
Near Record-Low Power Prices Set in New England
The average price of wholesale electricity, pushed lower by depressed natural gas prices, last year dropped to the second-lowest level in 12 years in New England, according to preliminary figures from ISO-NE.
The lowest and second-lowest average monthly power prices were in June at $19.61/MWh and December at $21.35/MWh. The second-lowest annual average price of wholesale electric energy was set last year at $41/MWh, with the lowest annual average price at $36.09/MWh in 2012.
For most of the year, natural gas prices in New England and much of the nation were at their lowest levels in nearly two decades.
More: ISO-NE
INDIANA
NIPSCO Reaches Settlement For Infrastructure Plan
Northern Indiana Public Service Co. has reached a settlement agreement that would allow it to proceed with a $1.25 billion seven-year infrastructure-upgrade plan. The utility originally sought $1.33 billion.
NIPSCO reached the settlement with its industrial customers, the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, the LaPorte County Board of Commissioners and the Indiana Municipal Utility Group. Infrastructure upgrades include pole replacement, installation of underground cables and replacement of substation transformers and breakers. NIPSCO has also committed to retrofitting utility-owned streetlights with LED bulbs and splitting the cost between customers and municipalities.
The company has filed the settlement with the Utility Regulatory Commission.
More: Zacks
LOUISIANA
PSC Reverses Course, Approves Cleco Purchase
The Public Service Commission reversed itself and voted to permit the $4.9 billion sale of Cleco to a consortium led by foreign investors. Cleco agreed not to raise its rates until 2020, and the utility’s 286,000 customers also would receive credits averaging $500 each for the next few years.
“I think we did a pretty good deal,” said Commissioner Foster Campbell, who flipped his position after negotiating from the dais during the hearing. The PSC had rejected the transaction in February, but the purchase will now close sometime in this month.
Three of the five elected PSC members were needed to approve the sale to a group led by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets and British Columbia Investment Management Corp. In the end, four of the commissioners voted to approve the transaction.
More: The Advocate
MAINE
Bill to Save Biomass Plants Called Costly
A proposed law aimed at saving the state’s ailing biomass energy plants would save logging industry jobs but could add millions of dollars to electricity bills.
The bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to seek competitive bids and negotiate contracts for 80 MW of renewable energy for five years. Central Maine Power said the measure could add up to $48 million to ratepayers’ bills. The utility said that biomass plants have received more than $2.6 billion in ratepayer subsidies over the past 20 years, and despite that, half of them have closed since the 1990s because they weren’t competitive.
A logger group has estimated that the complete loss of the biomass industry in the state would cost 400 jobs at the biomass plants and at least another 900 related jobs. Total economic losses to the state could be as high as $300 million per year, the group says.
More: Portland Press Herald
MARYLAND
2 Large Solar Projects Headed for Delmarva Peninsula
Seattle-based Longview Solar has proposed building two solar projects on Worcester County farm land that together would generate up to 35 MW.
Longview, a partnership between Elemental Energy and Tuusso Energy, says one of the projects, estimated at $20 million, would involve 63,000 solar panels on 125 acres east of Snow Hill. The other would be located west of Berlin, cost $30 million and feature 85,000 panels on 190 acres.
More: DelmarvaNow
MASSACHUSETTS
Landowners Rail Against Pipeline
Landowners last week complained to the Department of Public Utilities at a public hearing about Kinder Morgan’s proposal to take rights of way by eminent domain along the proposed route of its Northeast Energy Direct natural gas pipeline.
Kinder Morgan has identified 39 Berkshire County properties for compulsory land surveying because owners have refused access.
“This is about corporate greed at its most despicable; it is not about the greater good,” said landowner Williams Spaulding, who said he has filed numerous “no trespass” orders against the company but has still had to chase employees off his land.
More: The Berkshire Eagle
MICHIGAN
Exelon Wind Farm Bypasses Moratorium
A Marion Township moratorium to delay wind projects won’t impede the proposed wind farm that inspired the moratorium in the first place.
Opponents of Exelon’s proposed 68-turbine project in Marion, Bridgehampton and Custer townships had persuaded the Marion Township Board of Trustees last week to approve the moratorium that will halt all future wind development projects. But the 150-MW Exelon project was not included in the moratorium, officials said, because it already had been approved.
“I feel the board lied to and misled the citizens of Marion Township,” said Jennie Schumacher, a wind farm opponent who organized a protest at the local board meeting.
More: The Times Herald
Report: DTE Coal Plants Worsen SW Detroit Air
Industrial air pollution is imposing health risks on low-income and minority residents in Southwest Detroit and the surrounding areas, Newsweek reported. The region does not comply with federal sulfur dioxide standards under the Clean Air Act. More than 15% of adult Detroiters have asthma, 29% more than the statewide average, recent state data shows.
DTE Energy operates two coal-fired power plants that are the biggest sulfur dioxide emitters in the area. A Marathon Oil refinery also contributes emissions, and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is close to granting the refinery a new permit that will allow it to emit an additional 22 tons of sulfur dioxide annually.
Lynn Fiedler, a MDEQ spokeswoman, says the department has been working with companies to bring emissions down, but it’s a “difficult negotiation” because they will likely need to install costly carbon-reducing equipment. Fiedler added that DTE is “reluctant” to take steps in emissions-reduction.
More: Newsweek
MISSOURI
PSC Staff Official Blasts Proposed Ameren Rate Scheme
Public Service Commission Staff Director Natelle Dietrich disparaged a proposal that would make it easier for Ameren to raise rates to pay for grid upgrades, calling it a “radical departure” from the current rate-setting procedure.
In testimony before the House Energy and the Environment Committee, Dietrich said the plan could increase residential rates by 62.1% over 10 years and boost industrial rates up to 94%. The rate scheme would also give Ameren’s biggest customer, Noranda Aluminum, power to negotiate rates in order to keep the troubled smelter afloat.
A group of large industrial customers, including Nestlé-Purina, Doe Run, Ford, General Motors, Monsanto and Anheuser-Busch, urged the state to stay with the current rate system. “Toss this bill on the scrap heap,” said Steve Spinner, representing the industrials.
More: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
MONTANA
PSC Orders Northwestern to Refund State’s Customers $8.2M
State regulators last week ordered NorthWestern Energy to refund $8.24 million that it charged to buy electricity on the open market during a six-month outage in 2013 at the Colstrip coal plant. The Public Service Commission said that NorthWestern failed to take prudent actions to protect customers against the financial exposure from such a massive outage.
The majority of commissioners said the utility should have taken out insurance or pursued legal action against the plant operator to recover some of the costs incurred during the outage, which occurred when equipment malfunctioned following maintenance work at one of Colstrip’s four units.
More: The Associated Press
NEBRASKA
Despite National Trends, Coal Still No. 1 in State
Federal forecasters anticipate that natural gas will surpass coal in 2016 as the nation’s largest fuel source for power generation, but coal remains king in the state. Coal fueled 61.5% of electricity produced last year while natural gas made up 1%.
“It really does boil down to dollars and cents,” said Nebraska Public Power District CEO Pat Pope. The average cost of coal delivered for power generation in the state was $1.34/MMBtu in December, making it the cheapest in the nation and about 30% less than the national average. Natural gas delivered in the state cost $3.44/MMBtu, more than 2.5 times more than coal.
More: Lincoln Journal Star
NEW YORK
NYISO Names New Board Members
NYISO has selected Jane Sadowsky and Bernard Dan to fill vacancies on its Board of Directors, effective this month.
Sadowsky is the managing partner at Gardener Advisory, which provides consulting and advisory services predominately in the electricity power sector. Dan is the former CEO of Sun Holdings, a proprietary trading company that focuses on electronic trading of U.S. and European shares as well as currencies.
“Jane Sadowsky and Bernard Dan bring a wealth of talent and experience to our board,” said Michael Bemis, board chairman. “Their proven leadership and combined expertise in the areas of energy finance, financial markets and business strategy will be instrumental in guiding the NYISO Board of Directors as we continue to advance the efficiency of our markets while reliably meeting consumers’ energy needs.”
More: NYISO
NORTH DAKOTA
Wind Farm Hearing Lasts for 12 Hours
More than 150 people gathered for a 12-hour Public Service Commission hearing about the controversial, 87-turbine Brady Wind Energy Center in Stark County.
For the bulk of the day, attorneys for both Brady Wind, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, and the grassroots Concerned Citizens of Stark County group, questioned witnesses about the wind farm and the effects on the area. Public commenters pushed the hearing into the evening. Commissioner Brian Kalk said it was the longest hearing he’s experienced in his eight years on the commission.
The PSC may take up to two months to make the final decision on the 150-MW wind farm, which was first proposed in late 2015.
More: The Bismarck Tribune
OKLAHOMA
Commission Asks OG&E to Include DG in Rate Case
The Corporation Commission says distributed generation and its effect on the grid should be explored in Oklahoma Gas & Electric’s pending $92.5 million rate case.
OG&E included a distributed generation tariff in its rate filing to comply with a 2014 law that requires utilities to establish a separate class for distributed generation customers if they can show those customers are not paying their fair share of grid-connection costs. The utility wants to establish a $2.68/kW demand charge for residential and small commercial customers. With the average peak demand for a residential customer at 6 to 8 kW, the demand charge could be $16-21 per month.
A hearing in the rate case is expected to begin May 3.
More: The Oklahoman
OG&E Seeks Approval For Sooner Scrubber
Oklahoma Gas & Electric next month will make a third attempt to win regulatory approval for a $500 million scrubber project at its Sooner coal-fired plant.
The Corporation Commission last year rejected a more comprehensive, $1.1 billion case and a pared-down modification of the utility’s environmental compliance plan. OG&E has asked for a rehearing and says it needs a decision by May 2 to meet a series of engineering and construction deadlines if the scrubbers are to be installed.
The utility is arguing for coal generation to remain a significant part of its fuel portfolio, while critics question why OG&E wants to keep a 35-year-old coal plant running for another 30 years when market and environmental forces are turning against the fuel.
More: The Oklahoman
PENNSYLVANIA
Plan to Generate Power From Tires Scrapped
A company that had planned to build a $360 million, 90-MW plant to generate electricity from old tires instead will partner with a high-tech firm to develop a facility to make diesel fuel and other products from the material.
Crawford Renewable Energy said it changed tack because a drop in the wholesale price of electricity made the Greenwood Township power plant proposal “economically unfeasible.”
The newly proposed non-combustion facility would recycle the tires into carbon black, a component in photocopier toner, and into the type of low-sulfur diesel required by the federal government for trucks and other heavy vehicles.
More: The Meadville Tribune
RHODE ISLAND
National Grid Substation Construction Started
National Grid has started construction on a new substation that will improve electricity delivery to downtown Providence and the South Street Landing project.
The new substation will replace one dating to 1919. It is expected to be completed late in 2017.
“This facility will meet the electric demands of a major portion of the city for the immediate future and beyond,” said National Grid Rhode Island President Timothy F. Horan.
More: Providence Journal
Plant Would Scuttle Emissions Regulations
A Brown University professor is arguing that the construction of a new natural gas-fired power plant in Burrillville would make it impossible for the state to meet its target for reducing carbon emissions in the coming decades.
J. Timmons Roberts, who helped write the state’s climate change regulations, says building the 900-MW Clear River Energy Center conflicts with the Resilient Rhode Island Act, the 2014 law that set a non-mandatory goal of reducing state greenhouse gas emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.
Roberts is submitting the testimony on behalf of the Conservation Law Foundation, a regional environmental group that is opposed to the power plant, which was proposed last year by Invenergy.
More: Providence Journal
VERMONT
Digester Generating Heat at the Farm
Opponents of a proposed electricity-producing manure digester in St. Albans say the project would jeopardize the wetlands that it ostensibly is designed to protect.
Green Mountain Power has applied to the Public Service Board for a Certificate of Public Good for the digester, which supporters say is a proven agricultural technology for improving water quality and reducing emissions of methane from dairy farms and compost operations. Green Mountain says its digester is the only one in the state that includes advanced systems for removing phosphorus from manure slurry.
But a vocal critic, Tim Camisa, co-owner of St. Albans-based Vermont Organics Reclamation, says the project would be located only 200 feet from a stream, too close to protect the streambank and wetlands from accidents.
More: Burlington Free Press
VIRGINIA
SCC Greenlights Dominion Natural Gas-Fired Plant
The State Corporation Commission has approved Dominion Virginia Power’s plan to build a natural gas-fired power plant in Greensville County.
Construction is expected to begin this year on the $1.3 billion plant, which would generate 1,588 MW and be situated on 55 acres.
The company said customers will save $2.1 billion over the life of the plant through fuel savings compared with the cost of buying power on the open market.
More: PennEnergy
WYOMING
Wind Tax Revenues Down, Cause Unknown
State tax revenues from wind energy fell by 15% in 2015, coming at a time when the state is already suffering the effects of a pronounced downturn in the oil, natural gas and coal sectors. The reason for the 2015 tax decline was not immediately apparent.
The Cowboy State became the first in the nation to tax wind production when it approved a $1/MWh levy in 2010. Tax collections have varied between $2.6 million in 2012, the first year the levy was imposed, to $4.4 million in 2014. Last year, the state collected $3.7 million.
The state’s wind production capacity has remained unchanged since 2010. A lack of transmission capacity has stymied further development in the state.
More: Casper Star-Tribune