ICC to Vote on Rock Island Clean Line at Next Meeting
The Commerce Commission could vote today on the future of a $2 billion direct-current transmission project designed to bring wind energy from the Midwest, including Iowa, into the PJM system.
The 500-mile Rock Island Clean Line would transmit wind energy to a $300 million converter station in Grundy County, where the direct current would be transformed into an alternating current and introduced to the grid. The ICC vote on the project was scheduled for a meeting earlier in the month but was delayed to give commissioners more time to review it. The operators are seeking a certificate of public convenience and necessity.
The project has attracted opposition from landowners along its proposed right-of-way.
More: Morris Daily Herald; ICC agenda
INDIANA
Customer Advocate Calls for Rejection of Duke Energy’s $1.9B Grid Upgrade
The Office of Utility Consumer Counselor said Duke Energy hasn’t provided enough details on its proposal to spend $1.9 billion on transmission and distribution upgrades and that the proposal includes items that shouldn’t be billed to ratepayers.
“The information we found in Duke Energy’s filings does not meet the statute’s requirements, while also falling short of the standards established in previous cases involving the approval of other utilities’ plans,” Consumer Counselor David Stippler said. He said items such as vegetation management, a $3 million energy learning center and radio system improvements that are included in Duke’s seven-year plan should not be included in the rate base.
Stippler has recommended that the Utility Regulatory Commission deny the plan, which would result in rate increases of about 1% per year from 2016 through 2022 for Duke’s 800,000 customers in the state.
A Duke spokeswoman said the company has provided hundreds of pages of documentation and that all its proposed expenses are necessary and responsible. “Our electric grid is aging and many components need to be updated and replaced,” she said. “This plan is about modernizing our electric grid and bringing our system into the 21st century.”
More: Daily Journal
MARYLAND
State Signals Intent to Deny Exelon’s Conowingo Permit
The state Department of the Environment said it needs more information on Conowingo Dam’s impact on the health of the Chesapeake Bay and said it intends to deny a key approval for the Exelon Generation facility. The DEP has scheduled a Jan. 7 public hearing in advance of a Jan. 31 deadline the state must meet to sign off on the water quality portion of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s overall operating permit.
The Susquehanna River hydro facility has already obtained a one-year extension of its current license, so DEP’s decision does not have an immediate impact on plant operations. If the state continues to withhold the water quality permit, Exelon may have to change how it operates the facility. The company has faced persistent criticism about how much nutrient-rich sediment the dam allows downstream.
More: The Baltimore Sun
MICHIGAN
Michigan PSC to be First Agency to Use PACE for New Headquarters
The Public Service Commission’s landlord is using Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing to pay for efficiency improvements at its new headquarters, the first energy agency in the U.S. to use the emerging funding mechanism.
The building’s private owner is using $500,000 in PACE financing for LED lighting, a solar array and HVAC equipment. PACE financing is typically done through a local government agency and the costs are repaid through a property tax assessment, making it easy for building owners to transfer repayment obligations to a new owner. With its headquarters, the commission will repay the costs of the 20-year fixed-rate loan through the project’s energy savings.
“PACE is an innovative way that landlords, tenants and local officials can work together to pursue energy-efficiency projects that would not otherwise take place,” PSC Chairman John Quackenbush said.
More: Midwest Energy News
NEW JERSEY
BPU Again Denies Fisherman’s Energy Wind Project Due to High Prices
The third time was not the charm for the proposed Fisherman’s Energy wind project off the coast of Atlantic City.
The Board of Public Utilities again denied approval for the 25-MW project, saying that the projected energy price of $199.17 per MW/h was too high and that ratepayers could end up responsible for $19 million if the project fails. The project has been in the works for three years and has gained federal funding, but it hasn’t been able to get BPU approval to go forward.
State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a Democrat, decried the state’s failure to build a single offshore turbine since New Jersey passed the Offshore Wind Economic Development Act.
“Over three years ago we passed legislation that was meant to make New Jersey the national leader in wind and renewable energy,” Sweeney said in a statement. “It means hundreds, if not thousands, of new jobs for our state in a time of economic uncertainty. But three years later, even though the bill was signed into law, nothing has happened to make this a reality. New Jerseyans have suffered because of this inaction.”
More: NJ.Com
NORTH CAROLINA
Gov. McCrory Sues Legislature over Coal Ash Commission Makeup
Gov. Pat McCrory, along with two former governors, is suing Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Thom Tillis over the makeup of the state’s new Coal Ash Management Commission.
The legislature formed the commission after Duke Energy’s massive coal ash spill into the Dan River in February. McCrory, who was a Duke executive before becoming governor, contends that the commission’s makeup — the legislature names six of nine members — violates the separation of powers by giving the legislature control over environmental regulation, a function he says belongs with the executive branch.
“The disagreement among the two branches is not acrimonious, but it is of fundamental importance,” McCrory said. “I have too much respect for North Carolina’s constitution to allow the growing encroachment of the legislative branch into the responsibilities the people of North Carolina have vested in the executive branch.”
Berger and Tillis have said that McCrory could have vetoed the legislation and didn’t.
More: Bloomberg News
OHIO
AEP Ohio’s Energy-Only Auction Results Accepted by PUCO
The Public Utilities Commission has approved the results of AEP Ohio’s energy-only auction, which set the average clearing price of $51.37 per MW/h for 40% of the company’s load from January through May of next year. Five suppliers submitted winning bids during the 14-round auction.
This was the fourth auction, and its results will ultimately determine retail generation service rates through May. The independent auction manager was National Economic Research Associates. Boston Pacific Company monitored the auction. Winning bidder names will be disclosed in 21 days.
A redacted version of the report can be found here.
PENNSYLVANIA
Still Time for Philly Council to Authorize Sale of PGW
It looked like a deal to sell Philadelphia Gas Works to UIL Holdings Corp. for $1.86 billion was dead after the Philadelphia City Council failed to hold hearings on the deal, but efforts to save it are going down to the wire.
A UIL executive breathed life into the proposed sale when he appeared before the council on Nov. 13 and said UIL would consider amended sales terms. Labor leaders are meeting with UIL to address concerns, and Mayor Michael Nutter’s office is continuing to push for the sale. The council could still introduce legislation authorizing the sale at either of its two remaining meetings of the year, Dec. 4 and Dec. 11. The sale agreement expires Dec. 31. Nutter’s office and UIL could also agree to extend the sale agreement if the council doesn’t act in time.
The mayor proposed to privatize the nation’s largest municipal gas utility to pay down its underfunded pension plan and to attract private capital to upgrade the city’s aging natural gas distribution system.
More: The Philadelphia Inquirer
VIRGINIA
Dominion Customers Could See Bills Increase by 30% by 2025 with EPA Emissions Rules
State lawmakers heard from Dominion Virginia Power that efforts to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions mandates could increase bills by 30%, or about $400 more a year, for the utility’s customers by 2025.
“In our world, that does not give us a lot of time,” Robert M. Blue, Dominion Virginia Power’s president, told a joint hearing of the House and Senate Commerce and Labor committees last Wednesday. “We need to start acting now. We don’t have the luxury of waiting.” Interim reduction goals need to be met by 2020.
A more optimistic view was offered by Cale Jaffee, director of the state office of the Southern Environmental Law Center. He said Virginia has already met nearly 80% of the carbon reduction goals and that investment in renewable energy sources could take it the rest of the way.
More: Richmond Times-Dispatch
WEST VIRGINIA
PSC Commissioner Responds to Complaints of Too Much Power
In response to a report complaining that the Public Service Commission had too much power, Chairman Michael Albert said that decreasing the commission’s oversight would be a bad thing for customers.
“Public utilities, whether publicly owned or privately owned, are monopolies,” he said. “The commission fills a special role with respect to public utilities. We are a surrogate for competition that is otherwise lacking in their operations.”
A report commissioned by the West Virginia Rural Water Association and groups representing small public service districts was critical of the commission’s policy of prohibiting public service districts from keeping contingency funds. Albert said the rule is sound because it protects stressed customers from paying utilities to keep a reserve.