Judge Recommends Pause To TEP’s Rooftop Solar Plan
An administrative law judge has recommended that state regulators defer approval of Tucson Electric Power’s plans to expand company-owned solar energy programs pending findings of a separate proceeding on the value of rooftop solar.
As part of a renewable energy plan filed last year, TEP wants to expand a program in which it installs solar panels on the roofs of customers who pay a flat monthly fee for power. It also seeks to build neighborhood-scale solar farms and offer nearby customers the power at a flat rate.
Judge Jane Rodda found that expansion should wait until the results of technical studies and potential modifications to net metering tariffs are known.
More: Arizona Daily Star
SolarCity Spent $140K on Corporation Commission Election
SolarCity last week disclosed that it has spent $140,000 on an independent campaign to re-elect Republican Bob Burns and elect Democrat Bill Mundell to the Corporation Commission.
The commission is expected to decide as early as 2017 the rate structure for utility customers who generate some of their own power through solar. The disclosure comes as the commission debates whether to force Arizona Public Service, which is fighting net metering in the state, to disclose how much it spent to influence the election of two Republicans to the commission. Burns has issued a subpoena to APS for its records, but the state attorney general has said that would require a majority vote from the commission.
Mundell and fellow Democrat Tom Chapin have said they would deliver the necessary votes if elected. But Mundell last week lamented the spending on both sides. “I wish everyone would stay out of the race,” he said.
More: Capitol Media Services
CALIFORNIA
SoCalGas Down to Final Safety Tests at Aliso Canyon
Southern California Gas is nine safety tests away from reopening its Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility in Los Angeles, which it shut down in October 2015 following a massive methane leak.
The state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources must approve the company’s safety testing of 114 wells at the facility before SoCalGas can request authority to resume injecting fuel into the field.
Twenty-seven wells have passed all safety tests, nine await results and 78 are temporarily out of operation, according to a report issued by SoCalGas in early October.
More: Reuters
Environmentalists May Receive $72K ‘Interveneor’ Award in San Onofre Case
Environmentalist group Friends of the Earth could receive $72,000 for participating in the investigation of the San Onofre nuclear plant failure, making it the most recent recipient of so-called “intervener” funds. If approved by the Public Utilities Commission, the award would be significantly less than the $483,503 the group sought.
The commission has awarded more than $600,000 to participants in the case, which is the subject of a criminal investigation into improper contacts between regulators and utility executives.
The intervenor compensation program awards money to groups that contribute meaningfully to commission decisions. The program is funded by utility companies, which pass the cost along to customers.
More: The San Diego Union-Tribune
‘Wiring Error’ Blamed for Flare-Off at Torrance Refining
A “wiring error” associated with an ongoing equipment upgrade project in the South Bay has been blamed for a flare-off last week at Torrance Refining and a power outage affecting some 100,000 Southern California Edison customers.
Torrance Refining was shut down and partially evacuated, according to the Torrance police and fire departments.
Power was restored to the affected customers in parts of Gardena, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Torrance.
More: CBS Los Angeles
Committee Recommends Monterey County Join Power Collaborative
Monterey County’s alternative energy and environmental committee took initial steps last week to take local control over electric power purchasing from Pacific Gas and Electric and promote renewable energy.
The committee recommended that its Board of Supervisors sign a resolution to join the Monterey Bay Community Power agency. The agency calls for a collaborative, including Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties, which would combine their purchasing power to increase renewable energy in their portfolio and use savings from lower-cost power to invest in renewable energy projects.
If the board approves the resolution, the county could start developing a governing joint powers authority agreement and address financing.
More: Monterey Herald
ILLINOIS
Villages Agree to Joint Defense, Confidentiality for Power Line Fight
Five villages bordering the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway are fighting a proposed Commonwealth Edison power line project and have agreed to individually approve a joint defense and confidentiality agreement.
Leaders in Schaumburg, Elk Grove Village, Hanover Park, Roselle and Itasca claim that the West Central Reliability Project, which calls for a transmission line stretching about 9 miles between substations in Bartlett and Itasca, would lower property values and create unpleasant views without serving their residents and businesses.
ComEd spokesman David O’Dowd said he wasn’t familiar with any precedent for similar agreements.
More: Daily Herald
ICC Report: Residents Overpaid $125M for Power
Residents overpaid more than $125 million for power for the 12 months ending in May 2016, according to an annual report issued by the Commerce Commission.
Residents of municipalities that contracted with alternative electrical suppliers other than Ameren and Commonwealth Edison rarely saved money.
Customers who used alternative carriers overpaid an average of $57 more per year, compared with rates offered by ComEd, the report found. Ameren customers using alternative providers largely broke even depending upon where they lived in the state.
More: Illinois News Network
MASSACHUSETTS
Convanta to Receive $562K to Upgrade Facility
Covanta will receive $562,000 in Pittsfield Economic Development funds to upgrade its solid waste-to-energy and recycling facility to meet state and federal environmental standards and remain profitable.
The Pittsfield City Council approved the funds to pay for a state-mandated recycling enclosure and upgrades to Covanta’s fossil fuel boiler.
Covanta, which had announced in July that it planned to close the facility, will sign a four-year contract extension with the city until June 2020.
More: The Berkshire Eagle
MINNESOTA
Regulators Approve Shutdown of Xcel’s Coal-Fired Generators
State regulators approved last week Xcel Energy’s plans to shut down its coal-fired Sherco plant by 2026 but rejected the company’s plan to build a large gas-powered generation plant on the site as a partial power replacement.
The Public Utilities Commission asked Xcel to explore renewable energy options in conjunction with its proposed gas plant. The commission also told Xcel to consider more demand-side management.
The Sherco plant generators are the state’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases.
More: Star Tribune
MISSOURI
PSC Approves Ameren’s Community Solar Proposal
Community solar took a step forward last week when the Public Service Commission approved Ameren’s proposal to build one, and possibly two, 500-kW solar arrays, which could provide residential and small business customers with up to half their energy.
Ameren has indicated that it will not begin construction on the first array until it is fully subscribed.
“I think it sends a very good signal to industry and consumers that utilities are starting to invest more in renewable energy, and are allowing customers to invest in it also,” said Caleb Arthur, chief executive officer of Missouri Sun Solar and president of the Missouri Solar Energy Industries Association.
More: Midwest Energy News
NEVADA
Switch Again Seeks To Bypass NV Energy
Data company Switch filed a September application with the Public Utilities Commission seeking to bypass middle-man NV Energy when it powers a new industrial center it is building in Storey County.
Switch wants to go competitive and have a choice in the energy market, according to Adam Kramer, executive vice president of strategies.
The company, which powers all its facilities with 100% renewable energy, is presently in litigation against the Public Utilities Commission and NV Energy over a ruling denying its application two years ago to leave the utility.
More: KRNV
Voters Seek to Invalidate Energy Choice Ballot Question
Two voters filed suit in Carson District Court to invalidate a ballot question intended to deregulate the state’s energy market regardless of whether voters approve retail choice on Nov. 8.
The question “directs the Legislature to enact legislation providing for the establishment of an open, competitive electricity market by not later than July 1, 2023.”
The lawsuit claims that the ballot question improperly binds the Legislature and governor by mandating they enact specific legislation.
More: Lahontan Valley News
NEW YORK
Protesters Spend 16 Hours in Pipeline
Four protesters carrying food, water and sleeping bags locked themselves inside the Algonquin Incremental Market Project pipeline for 16 hours last week at a worksite near the Indian Point nuclear power plant.
The protest, which coincided with Columbus Day (or Indigenous Peoples’ Day), showed solidarity with groups like the Standing Rock Tribe, which is protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline.
More: The Journal News
Regulators Predict Decrease In Natural Gas, Energy Prices
State regulators predicted natural gas and electricity will be cheaper this winter compared with recent years.
The average residential electric customer will pay 14% less than the five-year winter average, while gas bills will be 10% less, according to an analysis by the Public Service Commission.
Notwithstanding, the commission predicts heating bills will be slightly higher this winter compared with last year because of last year’s unseasonably warm weather.
More: The Journal News
TEXAS
Solar Poised to Create Peak-Hour Price Drop
Developers are expected to build some 4 GW of commercial-scale solar panel capacity in the state by the end of the decade, up from 559 MW this year, according to a report issued last week by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
The report predicts that by 2020, solar power will cause a $2.58/MWh price drop during peak hours in the state’s west hub.
“Just having this new influx of daytime energy production is going to bring down energy prices on average during the day,” said Nicholas Steckler, an analyst at BNEF.
More: Bloomberg
UTAH
Regulators Approve $15.6M Decrease for Electricity Customers
The Public Service Commission approved a $15.6 million rate decrease for Rocky Mountain Power’s electricity customers after the utility beat forecasted fuel and electricity costs. The overall rate decrease is 0.8%, which includes about $6.84 in annual savings for a typical residential customer.
More: Daily Herald
VERMONT
Iberdrola Offers to Pay for Favorable Wind Project Vote
Iberdrola Renewables has offered to pay 815 registered voters in two towns $14.1 million over 25 years if a wind project consisting of 24 turbines that would generate 82.8 MW of power wins voter approval on Nov. 8.
Iberdrola is seeking to build the state’s largest wind project on land spanning Windham and Grafton.
The offer does not violate state law, said Michael O. Duane, senior assistant attorney general. “The proposal doesn’t say that the funds go only to those people who signed a sworn statement that they had voted for it,” he said.
More: The New York Times
WASHINGTON
Voters Consider Carbon Tax on Polluters
For the first time in the U.S., state residents will vote in November on whether to levy a carbon tax on polluters for the greenhouse gases they produce.
The proposed tax would start at $15/ton beginning in July and jump to $25 in 2017. Incremental increases would follow.
More: The Christian Science Monitor
WISCONSIN
Judge Hears Challenge to New ATC Power Line
A La Crosse County judge heard arguments last week on whether to uphold state approval of a high-voltage power line with a $580 million cost that will be passed on to MISO ratepayers.
The 180-mile line is a joint venture of American Transmission Co. and several regional utility companies. It was not presented to the state as a project necessary to meet supply demand, but rather as one that would make the electric grid more resilient and ultimately save ratepayers millions of dollars.
The town of Holland argues the project violates state law because the need for it was not established, the environmental review was insufficient and existing poles should be used to route it through the town.
More: La Crosse Tribune