Page 1444 – RTO Insider

May 23, 2016

Brattle Study Sees ERCOT Continuing to Rely on Nat Gas, Renewables

By Tom Kleckner

A Brattle Group analysis of the potential effect of regulatory and market factors on ERCOT’s generation says the ISO will rely primarily on natural gas, wind and utility-scale solar power over the next 20 years, continuing recent trends.

ERCOT’s current monthly demand and energy report shows natural gas is providing 46.7% of its generation this year, followed by coal (19.6%) and wind (18.3%). Nuclear represents 14.6% of the ISO’s generation, but the Brattle study sees that dropping to 9% by 2035. Brattle said low natural gas prices could result in the retirement of 12 GW of coal-fired generation, 60% of ERCOT’s current fleet, by 2022.

Solar accounts for just 0.2% of ERCOT’s generation, but the ISO expects that to grow from 288 MW to more than 1,000 MW by the time summer begins, with another 6,700 MW of solar capacity under study in the transmission queue.

The Brattle Group study assumes that natural gas prices will remain below $4/MMBtu and that solar photovoltaic prices will continue to decline. That will result in reduced carbon emissions and inflation-adjusted wholesale prices equal to those of 2014, the report said, and make proposed federal regulations “largely irrelevant.”

The analysis was commissioned by the Texas Clean Energy Coalition, which has hired Brattle to conduct three previous studies.

ERCOT, Brattle Group — *Information for 2015 for this month has been updated based on final settlements. **Information for 2016 for this month has been updated based on final settlements.

Brattle built its study on four reference cases: low/high natural gas prices and low/high cost of utility-scale solar PV, based on natural gas futures and ERCOT and National Renewable Energy Laboratory forecasts. Analysts also explored three policy scenarios for each case: improved state energy efficiency programs, and mass- and rate-based emission limits under the Clean Power Plan.

This year, ERCOT said its monthly energy use is down 1.1% from 2015, though April’s peak demand was up 12.6% — the first time it has surpassed monthly demand from last year (50,920 MW versus 45,227 MW for April 2015).

Transmission Concerns

ERCOT spokesperson Robbie Searcy said while the Brattle study used “many of the same basic assumptions” as the ISO’s studies, its own analysis indicates “recent environmental regulations may accelerate the pace of unit retirements, potentially faster than the system can adapt to support reliability.”

Searcy said the ERCOT study focused on localized transmission-system reliability, which would be more susceptible to generation retirements. “It could take several years for the transmission system to catch up with these needs, in turn creating potential reliability challenges in the interim,” she said.

May 23, 2016

NY REV Order Revamps Utility Business Model

By William Opalka

The New York Public Service Commission on Thursday approved an overhaul of the way utilities will earn money as the state switches to more distributed and cleaner energy sources.

The so-called Track 2 order in the state’s Reforming the Energy Vision initiative intends to provide a framework for utilities to remain financially sound while offering customers greater choices to interact with third parties (14-M-0101).

The order was contemplated when New York embarked on the REV process two years ago. A part of that initiative continued last summer with the release of a staff white paper that offered a more detailed look at how a utility of the 21st century could operate. (See NYPSC Outlines Reforming the Energy Vision Changes.)

‘Energy and Financially Inefficient’

The current grid was based on utilities earning returns on investments in large, centralized power systems sized to meet peak electric demand that occurs only a few days each year, “an energy and financially inefficient system,” the commission said in announcing the order.

“Cost-of-service ratemaking has allowed regulated distribution utilities to be insulated from the opportunities and the competitive pressures of the modern information economy. As a result, gains in capital productivity remain low and the efficiencies made possible by information technologies and new business models have been slow to materialize in the utility sector.”

The rules will create a new business model with “earnings opportunities for utilities that are aligned with consumer value and with a more efficient and resilient distributed low-carbon electric system,” the 158-page order states.

The NYPSC said the “historic structural reforms” to ratemaking are “unprecedented in its breadth and scope,” an effort to accommodate the digital economy while also transitioning to New York’s clean energy goals of deriving 50% of its energy from renewable resources by 2030. (See Cuomo: 50% Renewables by 2030, Keep Nukes Going.)

“What we want is utilities to start thinking about the ability to use third-party programs, not as something that they have to do because we require them to do them, or they do the minimum to make us happy, but because they want to do this because the earnings they can get from using other resources that drive efficiency can give them as much opportunity as traditional cost of service,” PSC Chair Audrey Zibelman said at the meeting.

“The focus of this decision is to create a modern regulatory model that challenges utilities to take actions to achieve these objectives by better aligning utility shareholder financial interest with consumer interest,” the order states.

‘Transactive’ Grid

The order envisions a two-way “transactive” grid instead of the current one-directional flow.

It builds on traditional cost-of-service ratemaking with the addition of market-based platform earnings and outcome-based earnings opportunities.

The order states there are three principles to ratemaking reform:

The unidirectional grid must evolve into a more diversified and resilient distributed model engaging customers and third parties;
Universal, reliable, resilient and secure delivery service must be ensured at just and reasonable prices; and
System efficiency and consumer value and choice must be improved to achieve a more productive mix of utility and third-party investment.

Platform Service Revenues

Platform service revenues (PSRs) are new forms of utility earnings derived from distribution-level markets. The order contemplates early-stage earnings will come from displacing capital intensive infrastructure projects with non-wires alternatives, such as the Brooklyn-Queens Demand Management Program, which has allowed Consolidated Edison to defer building a $1 billion substation in Brooklyn in favor of less-costly distributed energy resources: solar, batteries and energy efficiency. (See NYPSC OKs Con Ed’s Demand Management Program to Relieve NYC Overloads.)

As markets mature, opportunities to earn with PSRs will increase, the order says. “Earning adjustment mechanisms” are for the design of new incentives earned under several categories:

System efficiency: Each utility will propose a peak reduction target and a load factor improvement target.
Energy efficiency: The Clean Energy Advisory Council will develop targets for energy efficiency beyond the existing energy efficiency transition implementation plan and Clean Energy Fund targets.
Interconnection: A positive earning opportunity will be developed based on satisfaction surveys of DER providers regarding utilities’ delivery of timely and cost effective interconnection approvals. Utilities will be required to meet standardized interconnection requirements (SIR) to earn positive adjustments. The commission will also consider on a case-by-case basis negative earning adjustments for failure to meet benchmarks.
Greenhouse Gas reductions: Utilities will have earning opportunities tied to reducing the cost of achieving the Clean Energy Standard’s (CES) target of 50% renewable generation by 2030. Those opportunities will be better defined in the CES proceeding. “Utilities will be required to develop a more efficient and cleaner network through retail markets for distributed energy resources such as solar, geothermal, wind, fuel cells, combined heat and power and battery storage, energy efficiency and other advanced energy services,” according to the order.

Unregulated utility subsidiaries are permitted to offer competitive value-added services, provided they create standards of conduct to prevent conflicts of interest.

Time-of-Use Rates

Customer participation in advanced rate design will be encouraged through opt-in time-of-use rates. The state will review successful programs adopted elsewhere and seek to improve promotion and customer education while creating smart-home pilot projects through collaborations with third parties or the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority.

Rate cases will examine the existing demand charges applicable to commercial and industrial customers to determine if they can be made more time sensitive.

Zibelman said an “overarching concern” is that utilities maintain their financial integrity because of the large capital requirements needed for initiatives such as vehicle electrification.

Each of the utilities will be required to file a system efficiency proposal by Dec. 1 to reduce high-cost energy generation during times of peak energy demand.

Implementation, with beginning steps from the utilities mandated to start later in 2016, will take much longer.

“I estimate there are at least 100 policy decisions in this item,” Commissioner Gregg Sayre said. “This is a process that will certainly take years. And if technology and markets continue to change at the same pace that they are changing now, we will never be done. And that’s OK, in fact, it’s even good.”

May 23, 2016

Energy Department’s ARPA-E to Join MISO for First-Ever Market Symposium

MISO will partner with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) for the RTO’s inaugural Market Symposium Aug. 18-19 in Indianapolis.

ARPA-E staff will share insights on how technology is reshaping the electric grid. (See “MISO to Hold August Market Symposium,” MISO Market Subcommittee Briefs.) Other speakers have yet to be announced.

“MISO is excited to offer this event for our stakeholders as we explore the future of our energy markets,” said Jeff Bladen, executive director of MISO market services. “The Market Symposium will allow us to discuss challenges and opportunities around designing the energy market of the future.”

The event will feature experts speaking on industry trends and “how MISO’s wholesale market can adapt to future changes.” Topics will cover the market challenges that accompany a decarbonized wholesale fleet, commodity trends and distributed energy resources — including storage, distributed solar and other new technologies.

— Amanda Durish Cook

May 23, 2016

Federal Briefs

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine is calling for better fire prevention, more stringent anti-terrorist protections and better disaster preparedness at the nation’s sites for storing spent nuclear fuel.

In a recently released report, the organization, which studied the effects of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan, said that only luck kept that incident from being much worse.

“This should serve as a wake-up call to the industry and regulators about the critical importance to be able to monitor the condition of the pools, particularly in the event that something happens like Fukushima,” said Joseph Shepherd, an engineering professor at the California Institute of Technology and lead author of the report. The Nuclear Energy Institute, however, said the safeguards are already in place.

More: The Wall Street Journal

NRC Hits Oyster Creek With ‘White’ Finding

A 22-year-old hose linking a storage tank to a pump leading to an emergency generator failed during an inspection earlier this year at Exelon’s aging Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey, leading the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to assess the plant with a “white” finding.

It is one of the lowest safety findings the commission issues, but the commission said the failure was serious enough to merit the violation.

If the finding is affirmed, the plant would be subject to increased federal oversight. Oyster Creek is scheduled for decommissioning in 2019.

More: Micromedia Publications

Entergy, NRC Settle on 2011 Leak at Palisades

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the operator of the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan have reached a settlement concerning a leak that allowed 80 gallons of radioactive water to escape into Lake Michigan in 2011. Instead of a fine, the commission said it is satisfied with Entergy’s decision to take corrective actions to ensure a leak does not happen again.

The leak, less than one drop per minute, came from a 3-inch pipe flange that showed signs of boric acid corrosion, according to documents. The commission characterized the inadequate reporting of the incident by four workers as “willful.” Entergy defined the problem as a failure of the plant’s “organizational safety culture.”

In lieu of a fine, Entergy agreed to prepare a report on the lessons learned and to upgrade training to include those lessons. It will also take steps to increase transparency with the public, agreeing to hold public meetings to discuss plant safety and to allow the public to ask questions at those meetings.

More: Nuclear Street

New York Senators Call For Stop to Algonquin Project

Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer are asking FERC to shut down construction of the Algonquin Incremental Market pipeline until health and safety reviews are conducted.

The pipeline is to run from Pennsylvania to the Hudson River Valley region in New York. The lawmakers say they are concerned about the safety of residents along the route, as well as the sensitivity because the route takes it close to the Indian Point nuclear station.

Construction on the project, which will nearly double the size of the existing 26-inch pipeline to 42 inches, has already started. FERC said it had not yet received the letter from the senators, but it does not comment on congressional correspondence anyway, according to a spokeswoman.

More: The Journal News

Eastern Shore Gas Applies To FERC for 33-Mile Expansion

Eastern Shore Natural Gas has filed with FERC to expand its natural gas transmission system, including the installation of 33 miles of looping pipeline in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.

The company would also install 17 miles of expanded line along with pressure equipment in Sussex County, Del. The system improvements would provide an additional 86,000 dekatherms of gas per day, according to the company.

More: Delaware Business Times

Seabrook Cited for Slow Response to Concrete Problem

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission cited NextEra Energy’s Seabrook nuclear plant for a low-level safety violation after a March 24 inspection.

The commission cited the New Hampshire plant because NextEra’s staff delayed completion of structure inspections after being told of an alkali-silica reaction in the plant’s concrete.

NextEra said procedures have been changed since the violation occurred. The commission and NextEra confirmed that the plant’s walls, some up to 4 feet thick, still meet federal structural safety standards.

More: The Daily News of Newburyport

EPA Issues Water Permit Even as Pilgrim Nears Closure

EPA issued a draft water use permit for Entergy’s Pilgrim nuclear generating station, updating a permit that was first issued in 1991. Although opponents of the plant have long argued that the water use permit expired in 1996, the agency said regulations allow the plant to use the original permit until a new one is issued.

The plant’s owner, Entergy, has said it will retire the plant in 2019. Most of the plant’s spent fuel is stored in pools inside, meaning the plant will still draw water from Cape Cod Bay even after it closes, opponents say. When operating at full power, the 680-MW plant draws more than 500 million gallons per day.

More: The Patriot Ledger

May 23, 2016

FERC OKs Settlement over SPP Tx Credits for MDU

FERC last week approved an uncontested partial settlement reached earlier this year among SPP, the Integrated System, MISO and Montana-Dakota Utilities.

The commission said its May 19 letter order resolves all seams issues raised by MDU stemming from the Integrated System members — the Western Area Power Administration-Upper Great Plains Region (Western-UGP), Basin Electric Power Cooperative and Heartland Consumers Power District — becoming transmission-owning members of SPP last October (ER14-2850-006, ER14-2851-006).

MDU said that by setting the seams issues for hearing, FERC recognized that utilities in the Integrated System area have highly integrated facilities “as a result of joint planning and ownership of transmission,” and that the arrangements should be reflected in their service arrangements with SPP (such as through transmission facilities credits under the RTO’s Tariff).

The settlement clarifies that MDU does not need to become an SPP transmission owner to receive credits in exchange for providing the RTO transmission service over its facilities. The value of MDU’s credits will be based on its annual transmission revenue requirement for the facilities in question under the MISO Tariff.

— Tom Kleckner

May 23, 2016

Board Orders Negotiation in Auction Disagreement

By Amanda Durish Cook

Carmel, Ind. — Independent Market Monitor David Patton last week asked MISO’s Board of Directors to suspend the RTO’s work on the proposed redesign of its capacity auctions, escalating a running disagreement over the issue.

“I regret we’re at this point,” Patton told board members. “We’re talking about carving out Zone 4,” referring to his concerns that a proposed forward procurement plan for retail-choice areas will isolate the Illinois region.

Patton’s request came shortly after RTO staff produced a handful of revisions to its competitive retail solution construct. The changes included transforming the proposed forward auction to fulfilling full — rather than partial — reserve requirements, eliminating a provision for optional participation among load-serving entities and adding forward-looking transmission modeling.

“The [forward auction construct] we’re proposing today is not that dramatically different from our March 18 proposal,” said Jeff Bladen, MISO executive director of market services.

“I feel like the last proposal was more reasonable than this one,” Patton said. “And, of course, I didn’t consider the last one reasonable — because you’re only pricing one capacity value of megawatts.”

Patton continued to oppose the proposal because forward procurement for competitive retail areas remains “a central piece.” He maintained that price “is going to be massively undervalued in Zone 4.” (See MISO Considering Changes to Proposed Auction Design.)

According to the Monitor, generating units in competitive areas cannot guess three years in advance what procurement offer prices will be outside of their areas. Such attempts at guessing would “dominate” the forward auction, he contended.

Patton offered to run simulations to show that a MISO-wide prompt auction with a sloped demand curve applied to deregulated areas would produce efficient price signals.

He argued that, by 2018, expansion of transmission capability will render Zone 4’s local clearing requirement essentially unnecessary and deliverability constraints would disappear.

Board Says MISO and IMM Need Dialogue

Board member Paul Feldman said MISO mixing auction constructs “is problematic” and asked whether the RTO was trying to guide Illinois into an integrated resource planning (IRP) process.

Richard Doying, MISO executive vice president of operations and corporate services, countered that no one in Illinois is offering a plan for resource adequacy in retail-choice areas.

“If no one is going through an administrative planning process … there needs to be a market planning process in place,” Doying said.

MISO board members questioned the use of the vertical demand curve in any of the auctions, saying both retail-choice and regulated states could implement a sloped demand curve. But the board ultimately declined to order MISO staff to pursue that option.

“Vertically integrated constructs do not avail themselves of efficient outcomes, [but] I don’t want to re-litigate the sloped demand curve,” Feldman said. “We need productive relationships with the states.”

Feldman added that he was not convinced that MISO had fully vetted the auction design with third parties. He asked MISO and the Monitor to “get back in the room” to rework the proposal.

Phyllis Currie, another board member, agreed: “I think we need to give more thought to this.” Currie also asked for a presentation to explicitly address price volatility.

Bladen said he was open to scheduling a mediated conversation with the Monitor and other consultants.

Patton’s response: There is no way to “remedy MISO’s proposal” without completely rewriting it.

The board asked both parties to attend a joint work session to run simulations on their respective recommendations and be ready to defend their results.

MISO continues to plan for a July FERC filing for the proposal. It is finishing work on a revised competitive retail solution paper and developing Tariff language for stakeholder review in June.

RTO staff is evaluating a tandem filing with seasonality and locational constructs currently under stakeholder review.

A new auction construct could be in place as early as spring 2017 for the 2017/2018 planning year, said Bladen. “That’s dependent on a lot of things falling in place in a straightforward way, but we do believe it’s feasible.”

May 23, 2016

Retiring PJM Board Members Reminisce

By Rich Heidorn Jr.

CAMBRIDGE, Md. — Retiring PJM board members Jean Kinsey and Richard Lahey marked their final Annual Meeting last week with reminiscences on the industry’s past and some views on its future.

Lahey, former dean of engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an expert on nuclear reactor safety technology, was one of two original PJM board members, having joined with Chairman Howard Schneider 19 years ago.

He was there as PJM grew from its roots as a “tight power pool” to its current 13-state footprint with wholesale energy, capacity and ancillary services markets. It became the nation’s first fully functioning ISO in 1997 and the first RTO in 2001.

Diverse Backgrounds

“We had some advantages in that it wasn’t unusual for us to operate that kind of grid,” he said, noting PJM was founded in 1927. “The disadvantage was you were sort of entrenched in a certain way of doing it and it didn’t scale up. Fortunately, there were people on the board who had been from large corporations, and they made some very positive suggestions on how to scale it up.”

At the beginning, Lahey recalled, “our independence was challenged by some of the members, and we took a position that we weren’t going to sit at the board unless we were independent. And because we did that we’ve been able to function very well.”

Lahey said a strength of the board has been its diversity. “There’s people from retail, there’s people from Wall Street-type backgrounds. There’s people from universities, from the industry. What it means is when we come to reach a decision, we have very rich discussions. And a lot of times there’s quite a few changes depending on the input.”

Only a few votes were not unanimous, he recalled.

Steep Learning Curve

Kinsey © RTO Insider, pjm — Kinsey *© RTO Insider*

Kinsey, who holds a doctorate in agricultural economics and is a former University of Minnesota professor who specialized in food safety, recalled the “steep learning curve” she faced after joining the board 13 years ago.

She said the board’s biggest challenge over her tenure was its efforts to perfect PJM’s market design. “We keep tweaking the market as the environment in which [generators] operate changes,” she said, noting current challenges in incorporating the externalities of carbon emissions.

“Going forward, I think the major challenge is going to be how you operate an efficient grid with a lot of smaller generating units — microgrids, behind-the-meter [generation],” she said. “The grid magnifies the economies of scale. If you have things peeling off that, how can you keep the value of that core operation?”

Retirement Plans

Lahey, who retired from RPI seven years ago, is hoping to reduce his outside consulting work to spend more time boating and on the beach with his family at his home in St. Augustine, Fla. “If you retire, it’s sort of nice to have time to enjoy yourself,” he said.

Kinsey, who retired five and a half years ago from Minnesota, is president of the university’s retiree’s association. She plans to spend her free time learning photography.

“I’ve become quite interested in photography becoming art, where you can take a piece of a picture and create a design out of it,” she said. “The other part of my brain is crying to be recognized.”

May 23, 2016

PJM Members Committee Briefs

CAMBRIDGE, Md. — Keeping the lights on, planning for the future and facilitating efficient electricity trading will continue to be PJM’s core mission, CEO Andy Ott told members in reviewing his first year at the helm of the RTO.

Andy Ott, PJM Members committee — Ott © *RTO Insider*

But PJM needs to be positioned for changes, he said, like the ones that necessitated the move toward Capacity Performance — legacy assets were becoming less reliable, and new gas generation didn’t have fuel security.

“We addressed that change abruptly. We need to avoid those kinds of abrupt changes in the future — abrupt change in the markets doesn’t help anybody,” he said. “Our goal … is to stabilize our rules to make sure we see these emerging trends coming.”

The industry is evolving rapidly, Ott noted, “not only the volume of change, but how quickly those changes are occurring.”

He pointed to changing load profiles and fuel mix, the Clean Power Plan, gas-electric coordination, renewable and distributed energy resources (DER) and cybersecurity.

“The key is to make sure that as we look forward, we strategically evaluate how those changes are going to affect our markets,” Ott said. “We can’t get caught by surprise. We need to make our systems more and more resilient.”

He also singled out some areas that he said need to evolve: the Regional Transmission Expansion Plan process; PJM markets, to accommodate gas-electric coordination and DER; and enhancing the value of the RTO’s services.

“I see a tremendous opportunity for us if we can find a way to harness the distributed energy resources that are inevitably coming onto the system,” he said. “It will make the grid more resilient and will result in lower cost and … less operational uncertainty.”

Ott said PJM also will be studying the value of fuel diversity from an operational perspective.

“Should we be looking at fuel diversity as an attribute? And under what circumstances would we do that?” he said.

The topic will be the subject of an upcoming report, he said.

Md. Energy Adviser Delivers Keynote

Mary Beth Tung delivered the keynote address at the final session of the PJM Annual Meeting last week, just two days after being appointed director of the Maryland Energy Administration by Gov. Larry Hogan.

Maryland, with 12,264 MW of capacity, is a net importer of energy, she told the group.

Coal and nuclear power supply more than four-fifths of the state’s generation; among the challenges the state faces is that nearly 66% of its coal-fired power plants are at risk of retirement. To address that loss, the state has a number of new natural gas-fired facilities scheduled to come online in the next few years.

A member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Maryland has a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 40% compared with 2006 levels by 2030, she said.

Maryland faces a unique hurdle in that its geography lends itself to air pollution, Tung said — 70% of pollution wafts in from surrounding states.

Still, she said, the state has been successful in reaching its energy goals.

In 2008, legislation imposed a requirement to reduce per capita electricity consumption by 15% from 2007 levels by 2015. It achieved 99% of that directive and plans to continue toward a 2% reduction in electric sales at a rate of 0.2% annually.

Board Members Elected; Standing Ovation for Lahey, Kinsey

Members unanimously elected Dean Oskvig and Mark Takahashi to the Board of Managers and re-elected Terry Blackwell to a new term. Blackwell was appointed last year to fill the term of William Mayben.

The new members take the place of Jean Kinsey, who served on the board 13 years, and Richard Lahey, who held his seat for 19. They received a standing ovation. (See Committee Recommends 2 Industry Vets for PJM Board.)

Oskvig recently retired as CEO of Black & Veatch. Takahashi is CFO of Ascendant Group.

Stakeholder Survey Indicates Member Satisfaction

A survey of stakeholders last year drew an 87% approval rating, compared with 90% in 2013.

PJM listed the key drivers of satisfaction as markets/reliability management, the stakeholder process, member support and corporate reputation.

Going forward, it plans to establish best practices for employees to assist members via email; increase the use of the Salesforce tool; and promote the knowledge base among members.

PJM also is creating a forum to discuss tool-related changes and information technology efforts that affect members, and offer more tool-specific training.

Members Endorse Revisions

The committee endorsed the following as part of the consent agenda:

Revisions to Manual 34: PJM Stakeholder Process as a result of a periodic review. The changes update language and formatting for clarification and graphics for better readability.
Changing the emergency energy default customer baseline (CBL) from the “hour before” methodology to the current default economic CBL. (See “Members Endorse New Way to Measure Emergency DR,” Market Implementation Committee Briefs.)
Tariff and Operating Agreement updates incorporating business rules for dynamic transfers.

— Suzanne Herel

May 23, 2016

Northern Pass Decision Delayed Nine Months

By William Opalka

The New Hampshire siting board said Thursday it needs more time to consider the Northern Pass transmission line, pushing back its decision until Sept. 30, 2017.

The state’s Site Evaluation Committee, following guidelines in state law, originally thought it would wrap up its review by the end of the year. (See Committee Rules Northern Pass Application Complete.)

But the Society for the Preservation of New Hampshire Forests, citing the complexity of the case, filed a motion asking for a suspension of the normal schedule. The committee agreed.

Committee Chair Martin Honigberg said it was “unrealistic” to complete the review by the end of the year, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. He said September 2017 “was probably the right date” and didn’t anticipate any further delay.

The 192-mile, $1.6 billion project would bring 1,090 MW of Canadian hydropower into New England. Project developer Eversource Energy, which had hoped to begin construction next year and have the line in operation in 2019, called the decision “disappointing.”

“It will only delay the realization of the substantial benefits of this project in New Hampshire and throughout New England,” Bill Quinlan, president of Eversource’s New Hampshire operations, said in a statement. “We look forward to the written order outlining the details of this schedule and in the meantime will be evaluating our options for seeking reconsideration.”

Eversource had agreed to bury 60 miles of the line, but preservationists and advocates for the state’s tourist industry had opposed the impact of the line on the natural environment and wanted the entire project underground.

“We applaud the SEC subcommittee’s decision to extend the timeframe to consider the Northern Pass application. It will improve the process. Taking an appropriate amount of time to consider all of the impacts a 192-mile transmission line would have on New Hampshire makes sense,” Jack Savage, spokesman for the forest society, said in a statement.

May 23, 2016

FERC: LS Power Texas HQ not Jurisdictional

By Rory Sweeney

FERC reassured LS Power last week that the company’s plan to base some of its interstate administrative and operational activities in its Austin, Texas, office won’t trigger commission jurisdiction over ERCOT and its market participants (EL16-46).

CityView Center building, Austin (Loopnetdotcom) - FERC LS Power Texas control center — Cross Texas Transmission is renting 16,000 square feet at the CityView Center building in Austin. *Photo source: Loopnet.com*

New York-based LS Power, which maintains infrastructure across the country, is developing the Cross Texas high-voltage line connecting wind farms in the Texas Panhandle to the ERCOT grid.

Cross Texas’ primary and backup control centers are in Austin, and LS Power wants to use those facilities to monitor, operate and control similar transmission infrastructure outside of Texas. But first, the company wanted to confirm the administrative work across state borders wouldn’t require FERC’s involvement.

ERCOT doesn’t fall under FERC supervision through the Federal Power Act, and it has been very careful to maintain that autonomy.

LS Power argued that the activities of its Austin-based employees “will not result in any change to the power flows into or out of ERCOT or mean that electric energy is being sold or transmitted in interstate commerce.” Therefore, the terms of ERCOT’s autonomy should remain intact, they argued.

FERC agreed.

“ERCOT utilities are not generally subject to commission jurisdiction under the FPA because their facilities are neither used for transmission nor for sales of electric energy in interstate commerce (except as a result of interconnection and wheeling service provided pursuant to orders under Sections 210 and 211 of the FPA),” the commission said.

“Petitioners’ employees providing control center services does not change that fact; their actions will not involve the flow of electric energy, or the commingling of electric energy, between ERCOT and the rest of the continental United States, nor will they involve sales of electric energy at wholesale between ERCOT and the rest of the continental United States.”