A New York clean energy developer has challenged a three-state effort to bring more renewable energy to New England.
Allco Renewable Energy Group filed suit against Connecticut in U.S. District Court in New Haven, claiming the joint effort and Connecticut’s renewable energy subsidies violate the U.S. Constitution’s Interstate Commerce Clause (3:15-cv-00608-CSH). Allco is also asking for an injunction to stop the joint procurement plan by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Allco CEO Thomas Melone unsuccessfully sued over Connecticut’s previous clean power plan, claiming the state illegally excluded renewable energy credits (RECs) generated by his facilities in other states from participating in Connecticut’s programs. RECs represent the environmental attributes of a clean energy project and are sold and traded separately from the energy produced. That case is under appeal. The claims made in that suit under the dormant Commerce Clause and the Federal Power Act are repeated in the new lawsuit.
Connecticut counts RECs from other New England states, and from New York and Canada, under certain circumstances. Melone is seeking to have his solar facilities in Georgia and New York qualified. The determination should be made by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and not the states, the suit says.
“The dormant Commerce Clause prohibits a state from using its regulatory power to discriminate against out-of-state businesses,” according to the suit, filed on April 26.
Allco sued the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the state’s Public Utility Regulatory Authority.
“The three-state procurement is an innovative approach to meeting our renewable energy goals and securing clean power at the lowest possible price for our families and businesses,” Dennis Schain, a spokesman for DEEP said in a written statement to the Hartford Courant. “We believe the procurement is legally sound and will meet court challenges.”
MISO and ISO-NE said last week they have sufficient resources to meet this summer’s demand, but they warned that their reserve margins are shrinking due to plant retirements.
Reserves Good — for Now
MISO estimates that summer demand in its territory will peak at 127.3 GW, with 23 GW of reserve capacity available. That amounts to an 18% reserve margin, above the target of 14.3%.
However, the RTO projects reserve margins will erode because of “current environmental and microeconomic pressures.” That could result in emergency operations, such as suspending planned generation maintenance and the curtailment of non-firm energy sales.
Coal-fired generators are being forced into retirement by cheap natural gas and current and pending emissions limits on mercury and carbon dioxide.
“Starting in the next few years, we are seeing a dramatic shift in the resources available to meet demand during the hottest days of the year,” said Todd Ramey, vice president of system operations and market services at MISO.
ISO-NE Expects Sufficient Resources
ISO-NE also said it will have enough electric generation and demand response resources to serve its forecasted summer peak.
Under normal weather conditions of about 90 F this summer, electricity demand is forecasted to peak at 26.71 GW. Extreme summer weather, such as an extended heat wave of about 94 F, could push demand up to 29 GW. These forecasts take into account the demand-reducing effect of 1,685 MW of energy-efficiency measures acquired through the Forward Capacity Market.
Last year’s retirement of the 615-MW Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant will reduce the region’s reserve margin. Last summer, demand for power peaked on July 2, 2014, at 24.44 GW. The all-time record for peak demand was set on Aug. 2, 2006, when demand reached 28.13 GW after a prolonged heat wave.
Developers have released plans to build the world’s largest fuel cell park at a former gravel pit in Beacon Falls. CT Energy & Technology would develop and own the 63.3-MW park, which would surpass the 59-MW Gyeonggi Green Energy park in South Korea as the world’s largest.
“For practical purposes, the project location in Beacon Falls is perfect because it is next to an electric switch yard, a natural gas tie-in and water,” said William Corvo, president of CT Energy.
Under a letter of intent, FuelCell Energy of Danbury will supply the cells and is expected to operate and maintain the plant under a long-term service agreement. O&G Industries owns the property. CT Energy is developing and will own the project. Corvo declined to disclose the price tag for the project.
State Braces for Large Wind Expansion Because of Clean Power Plan
The state, which generates the majority of its electricity from coal, is anticipating a rapid expansion of its wind portfolio due partly to the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan.
Only five other states are projected to boost wind power as much as or more than Indiana, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The state could triple its wind power capacity over the next decade from 1,744 MW to more than 5,000 MW, said Sean Brady, Midwest policy manager for Wind on the Wires.
That would require 2,000 more wind turbines to join the 1,031 now located in the northern half of the state.
Gov. Paul LePage has nominated a University of Tennessee economist for the remaining slot on the Public Utilities Commission. Bruce Williamson, senior economist at the Institute for Nuclear Security at the university’s Howard Baker Center for Public Policy, told the Portland Press Herald, “I have no agenda in coming to Maine. I’m not bringing any prejudice about one type of energy versus another. It’s all about making sense financially.”
LePage favors policies that encourage expansion of natural gas pipelines and is opposed to subsidies to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency.
SunEdison, developer of the proposed 22-turbine Weaver Wind project near Ellsworth, recently released a statement saying it was withdrawing its power purchase plan and would try to sell its electricity elsewhere in New England, due to issues with the commission.
LePage’s Plan to Attract Nukes Blasted by Environmentalists
Environmentalists and anti-nuclear activists are blasting Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to make it easier to bring small nuclear power plants to the state, because it would strip voters of the power to sign off on new plants, they say. Currently, voters must approve the construction of any nuclear power plant in the state.
LePage wants to remove that requirement for plants that generate 500 MW or less. But opponents say LePage’s proposal would silence those who could be greatly impacted by a potentially risky energy resource. The state’s only nuclear plant, Maine Yankee, closed in 1997, but only after surviving three referendums led by anti-nuclear activists — it closed due to operations and management problems. Patrick Woodcock, director of the Governor’s Energy Office, said the public would still have plenty of opportunities to weigh in through municipal permitting hearings.
Earthjustice Appeals Fed OK of Cove Point Terminal
Environmental group Earthjustice is suing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reverse the agency’s approval of Dominion Resources’ Cove Point liquefied natural gas export terminal near Lusby, Md.
The group said FERC approved the project without conducting a rigorous environmental review. While the environmental studies did cover effects at the plant site, the group argues that it should have considered how increased demand for gas would result in increased pollution in the Marcellus Shale region where the gas is produced, as well as water pollution from increased shipping in the Chesapeake Bay.
Earthjustice — on behalf of state environmental groups Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the Patuxent Riverkeeper and the state chapter of the Sierra Club — filed the suit in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals after FERC denied its request for a rehearing last week. “After months of delay, we will finally get our day in court to challenge the fundamentally flawed approval of Dominion’s climate- and community-wrecking project,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the organization.
The takeover has met significant opposition in the state, where critics believe it would give the Chicago energy giant too much influence over electric service in the region. Criticism also has been fierce in D.C., which is expected to make its decision shortly after Maryland rules.
The acquisition already has won support from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and state officials in New Jersey, Virginia and Delaware.
Constellation, CCBC Team up to Build Solar Project
Constellation Energy and the Community College of Baltimore County are partnering to build a 5.1-MW solar generation project.
The system, spread among the college’s three main campuses, is expected to generate enough electricity to meet about 27% of the school’s electricity needs.
Constellation also will install 10 duplex electric vehicle charging stations as part of the project.
Constellation, the state’s top solar energy producer, will own and operate the systems. CCBC will buy the electricity under a 20-year purchase agreement.
The system will consist of about 16,500 photovoltaic panels on carports across the campuses.
The Pittsfield Community Development Board has approved a site plan for a commercial-scale photovoltaic power generation facility planned on three adjacent undeveloped lots in an industrial park. Solar panels on each lot are expected to produce 650 kW of energy at peak generation, according to officials with U.S. Light Energy.
William Heffernan, operations manager with the firm, said it plans to purchase the lots from Betnr Industrial Development and will produce electricity for distribution through Eversource Energy.
Tesla Motors has reached a deal to buy the Grand Rapids-based auto supplier Riviera Tool, marking the Silicon Valley tech company’s first acquisition, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Riviera makes stamping parts used by Tesla’s assembly plant in Fremont, Calif. Tesla is expected to continue adding jobs at Riviera.
PSC Approves Acquisition of Former Alliant Customers by Co-Ops
The Public Utilities Commission has approved the transfer of about 43,000 electricity customers from Alliant Energy to a consortium of co-ops. Alliant agreed in 2013 to the sale of its business to a group known as the Southern Minnesota Energy Cooperative, which will divide the southern service territory among adjacent co-ops.
The co-ops involved are: BENCO EC, Mankata; Brown County REA, Sleepy Eye; Federated REA, Jackson; Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services, Albert Lea; Minnesota Valley EC, Jordan; Nobles Cooperative Electric, Worthington; Redwood EC, Clements; Peoples Energy Cooperative, Oronoco; South Central Electric Association, Saint James; and Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric, Owatonna. Sioux Valley Energy, headquartered in Colman, S.D., would also add members in its Minnesota territory.
An independent state research institute has walked away from a $66,000 contract with Kinder Morgan to study the impact of a proposed natural gas pipeline, citing a disagreement over the terms of the research. The New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies has been at work on the Kinder Morgan proposal since early March and was scheduled to release its report in June. The non-profit think tank was hired by the energy company to conduct an objective analysis of its proposal for a new pipeline through southern New Hampshire. The work was under the direction of the center’s Executive Director Steve Norton, with most of the research conducted by economist Dennis Delay. A disagreement over the “terms of engagement” led to the cancellation of the deal, according to Norton.
Ambit Energy, an alternate energy marketer in the state, is under investigation by the Public Service Commission. Customers have complained about a lack of notification at the expiration of their contracts and the calculations used for guaranteed savings. Ambit says it is cooperating in the investigation.
The company said it met with the Department of Public Service “to explain how it calculates savings from its Guaranteed Savings Plan. The conversation expanded to include a discussion of the complaints the DPS received in 2014 and 2015 after consecutive, unseasonably cold winters in the state.” The newly formed Consumer Advocate office within the department is heading the investigation.
Hundreds of people turned out at the first of two Public Service Commission hearings on a proposal to subsidize the Ginna nuclear power plant. The hearing in Webster, a town close to the financially troubled nuclear facility and populated by many Ginna workers, was mostly supportive of the plan to prop up the plant to maintain system reliability.
Rochester Gas & Electric officials have said the transmission system is insufficiently robust to be able to deliver enough power to replace Ginna’s supply, should the plant be shuttered. A study done for the company raises the possibility of electricity shortages during periods of peak summertime demand if Ginna were to close now. Under that plan to guarantee rates, residential customers would pay an extra $163 over the next 3.5 years to keep Ginna running. Monthly charges would start at $6.11 and drop in subsequent years.
National Grid transmission-line upgrades would add $20 million to the tax base in the state’s Capital Region and lead to 264 new permanent jobs locally, according to a new study commissioned by the utility. The figures include data from Albany, Columbia, Montgomery, Rensselaer and Schenectady counties, where the construction would take place. Other counties involved in the project include Oneida, Herkimer and Dutchess counties. The total tax base benefit would be $30 million, and the addition to the job base would be 389 jobs.
National Grid is proposing a $1.2 billion upgrade to its high-voltage electric transmission system in the Mohawk Valley and the Hudson Valley.
Nuclear Transformer that Caught Fire was Subject of State Concerns
The state has had concerns for years about the reliability of transformers at the Indian Point nuclear generating station, where a transformer at Unit 3 exploded on Saturday night, spilling oil into the Hudson River.
The unit, which shut down automatically, could be out of service for weeks, according to a spokesman for plant owner Entergy. The fire, which sent black smoke into the sky, was extinguished by a sprinkler system and on-site personnel, the company said.
In 2007, state officials filed a petition with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, saying the plant failed to operate an age management plan for transformers. The “failure to properly manage the aging of electrical transformers could have safety implications for the plant, such as affecting station blackout recovery,” the state told the NRC. Entergy responded that neither industry practice nor NRC staff guidance called for such a monitoring regime, according to a filing last year by the state as part of Indian Point’s licensing renewal application.
In 2013, the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled that the transformers fall under the scope of an age-monitoring review. An engineer called by the state as a witness testified that failure to properly manage transformer aging may compromise the safety of Indian Point, which is located about 35 miles north of midtown Manhattan.
The Republican-led House voted 77-32 to freeze the percentage of electricity sales mandated to come from renewable sources or energy efficiency as part of a regulatory reform package. It would stop an annual progression in a bill passed in 2007, setting the cap for renewable retail sales at 6%. And while the bill provides for local property tax breaks for solar, it also decreases the capacity threshold for solar and wind projects selling back to utilities. That particular amendment was seen as a major loss for solar advocates.
Officials Warn Against Drinking Water near Duke Coal Ash Pits
State environmental officials are warning residents near Duke Energy coal ash pits against drinking or cooking with well water after tests showed that 93% of the 163 wells tested so far showed high levels of toxic metals. It was the second warning about contaminated groundwater. Last month, state officials said 87 wells near eight Duke power plants failed to meet state groundwater standards.
Duke has 32 ash dumps at 14 power plants in the state. A law passed in the wake of a massive coal ash spill last year mandates testing at every site.
Senators Call for Better Tank Car Standards After Fiery Derailment
A crude-oil train’s derailment and explosion spurred the state’s U.S. senators to call for rapid upgrades of tank-car fleets to reduce the chance of future accidents. A 107-car BNSF train derailed and several cars burst into flames near Heimdal, but no injuries were reported.
“We must get the tanker car fleet updated,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said. “It’s all about safety and everyone … has a role to play.”
“Today’s derailment of a crude oil train is the second one in our state in the past year and a half,” Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) said. “We cannot allow these to become the norm.”
Democrat Appointed to Chair PUC; Wolf Eyes Renewable Energy Policies
Gladys Brown
Gov. Tom Wolf has named fellow Democrat Gladys Brown chairwoman of the Public Utility Commission.
She replaces Robert Powelson, a Republican, who has led the five-member group since 2011. His term expires in 2019.
Wolf has not revealed his intention to reappoint or replace the other Democrat on the panel, James Cawley, whose term expired March 31.
Brown, 51, is a Harrisburg lawyer and former legislative aide who was named to the PUC in 2013.
Wolf said he looked forward to working with Brown “to ensure there is a stable balance between consumers and utilities, as well as utilizing PUC to advance the development of Pennsylvania’s infrastructure to support the natural gas industry.”
“I also believe we have a real opportunity to reposition the commonwealth as a leader in developing renewable energy and energy efficiencies,” Wolf said in a statement. “Gladys shares my vision and has the experience to help advance policies to achieve this.”
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — SPP officials and market participants last week celebrated the first year of its Integrated Marketplace, boasting of its on-time, under-budget delivery, while acknowledging there is more work to do.
From left to right: Seth Cochran, DC Energy; Cliff Franklin, Westar Energy; and David Walters, Walters Power.
“We don’t have all the bells and whistles of everybody [else’s market]. But we do have a good pick-up truck to move us down the road,” said Jim Krajecki, Southwest director of wholesale services for Customized Energy Solutions, who moderated the headline session at the Gulf Coast Power Association’s briefing on SPP last week.
Krajecki noted that in its first year, SPP got 95% of its generation from the day-ahead market, while only 2.2% came through self-commitments and 2.5% from the reliability unit commitment (RUC) process. “Other regions took four to five years to get to these commitment levels,” he said.
David Walters, a former Oklahoma governor (1991–1995) who now runs his own international power development company, called the market “a game changer for developers.”
“I’ve been in this business for about 20 years. I think I spent the first … maybe 18 years complaining about SPP. I’ve been quoted as saying it was managed like the Bada Bing club,” the strip joint frequented by mobsters in “The Sopranos,” he said, prompting laughter from the audience of about 70 — and winces from SPP officials in attendance.
“But it’s a lot different now,” Walters continued. “I’m really excited about this Integrated Market. [It is] somewhat delayed compared with the other areas of the country but a remarkably complex system was established with very few hiccups.”
“From an operational aspect things have been very smooth compared to what I saw in ERCOT,” agreed Seth Cochran, manager of market affairs and origination for DC Energy. “Not only that but they didn’t have any slippage in the timelines and I think they did it for a quarter of the cost. So there’s a good story to tell there.”
Improvements Needed: Ramping Product
Speakers also discussed changes they’d like to see. Several speakers called for developing a ramping product to take advantage of the region’s wind resources and incentivize quick-start generators.
Cliff Franklin, senior regulatory specialist for Westar Energy, said SPP is overly reliant on RUCs compared with MISO, which he said makes better use of the day-ahead market.
“The reason that’s bad is because then deviations get hit with all that cost and that discourages imports [and] exports in real time,” he said. “When you need help you don’t want people worrying about their RUC distribution charges. You want people to efficiently trade in the market in real time.”
Krajecki noted that SPP’s available ramp has declined from about 375 MW/minute in August 2014 to 200 MW/minute in February 2015, which he said is leading to more constrained periods and market volatility.
Franklin said ramping can be improved with better compensation.
Fast-ramping units are “getting [payment for] energy and they’re typically at minimum load. That’s not real good incentive,” he said.
But it won’t be easy to achieve, said Richard Dillon, SPP’s director of market design. “It sounds very easy. I’m going to pay somebody for how fast they can press on the gas pedal and get out of the way of the truck coming up the back end. It sounds really easy but you set yourself up for: Am I offering ramp or am I offering energy? And they actually start contradicting each other if you don’t do the design correctly. … That is not going to be a small project.”
Jodi Woods, SPP’s manager of the day-ahead market, said the RTO is working to minimize use of the RUC process. “Some of it’s just been a learning process for the operators who are doing some of those commitments,” she said.
Transmission Congestion Rights Funding
DC Energy’s Cochran said the underfunding of transmission congestion rights has been a big disappointment for his company.
SPP’s 84.5% funding in March 2015 is “bottom-of-the-barrel,” he said, noting that ERCOT averages about 95%.
“If this goes on, it will ultimately drive out liquidity. People won’t want to participate. I’ve talked to numerous traders. When their targeted amounts are getting hair-cut by [as much as] 40% … it just disincentivizes trading. They no longer want to participate in that kind of market.”
Overcollection of Losses
SPP’s Dillon said overcollection of marginal losses is causing too much day-ahead trading at the expense of the real-time market. “As in many designs you go in and you have a lot of theories. And overcollected losses was one of those where it actually played out and we went, ‘Oops, this is providing the wrong incentive.’”
RTO officials hope a revised rule, effective May 29, will solve the problem.
Seams Coordination
Dillon said SPP also is considering changes to rules setting a single interface price for the seam with MISO, which leaves the RTO vulnerable to gaming by traders — an issue that will become more acute when the Heartland Consumers Power District, Basin Electric Power Cooperative and the Western Area Power Administration’s Upper Great Plains Region join SPP in October. (See Spurned by Entergy, SPP Expands in Great Plains.)
“Our border is very long to begin with,” Dillon said. With WAPA “you have a single price representing from the Gulf Coast all the way up to Canada, [although] the Entergy area is very different from [the] Kansas City area, which is very different from the North and South Dakota area. SPP is looking at [whether it can] mitigate the gaming such that we can break it into multiple prices.”
A former Nuclear Regulatory Commission employee was charged with trying to sell sensitive nuclear weapons information to a foreign government after he was caught by an FBI sting operation. Charles Harvey Eccleston’s attempts to glean information from government computers came to the attention of investigators after he entered an unidentified foreign embassy and offered to sell information.
Investigators said he offered to design malware that would pluck information from government computers in a method known as “spear-phishing.” He was caught in the Philippines on March 27.
NRC Approves Plan to Build at Fermi — but DTE isn’t Building
While the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved plans to build a new reactor at DTE’s Fermi 2 site, the company announced that it doesn’t plan to act on that approval.
A company spokesman said the construction license was sought to preserve DTE’s options. The plan allows for a 1,560-MW facility, which would boost the site’s capacity from the 1,170 MW already in operation.
DTE plans to retire some of its coal plants in the next five years, but the company said it is eyeing natural gas-fired plants if it pursues any immediate construction plans.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved Spectra Energy’s plans to begin site preparation work on its Algonquin Pipeline expansion in New Jersey. Called the AIM Expansion, the project is designed to improve natural gas supply to the Northeast Region of the U.S., which experienced gas shortages during winter peaks.
Delaware Urges Interior to Keep Offshore Water Survey-Free
Delaware’s top environmental official is urging the U.S. Department of the Interior to not permit any seismic surveys off the state’s coast because it is not part of the federal government’s immediate plans for oil and gas development.
“The extent of proposed surveys into waters offshore of Delaware does not correlate to the leasing program areas and we do not see the need for surveys in areas that are not currently subject to leasing,” Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary David Small said in a letter.
The Interior Department has granted seismic surveying off the coasts of other Mid-Atlantic states. Information from the surveys will be part of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management offshore lease programs.
NRC Investigating Incidents at Exelon’s Three Mile Island
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is looking into two recent incidents at Exelon Nuclear’s Three Mile Island generating station in Pennsylvania. Two Sundays ago, a control rod dropped inside the reactor. Four days later, a valve opened and allowed steam to be vented into the atmosphere. Low levels of radiation were in the steam, according to the NRC and Exelon officials.
NRC investigators are determining the cause of both incidents.
FERC Grants Initial Approval to Palmetto Pipeline Project
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has granted pricing and service conditions for Kinder Morgan’s proposed Palmetto Pipeline. The pipeline runs from South Carolina to Florida. When completed, the pipeline will have the capacity to move 167,000 barrels of oil or petroleum products daily.
Kinder Morgan said the project will cost about $1 billion.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the electric automaker’s next new product: the Powerwall, a modular battery storage system aimed at the residential sector. The lithium-ion battery pack, which can be combined with as many as eight other units, mounts to a wall and stores energy from solar collectors.
“If you have the Tesla Powerwall, if the utility goes down, you still have power,” Musk said. “The whole thing is an integrated system that works.” The components will be built at the company’s $5 billion Gigafactory now under construction near Reno, Nev. The company announced two versions of the battery: a 10-kWh unit for $3,500 and a 7-kWh one for $3,000, the latter of which is designed for daily cycling. Tesla is also marketing a version for the commercial sector called the Powerpack.
Initial reaction from analysts was positive. Tesla said it received more than 38,000 orders for the product, including 2,800 for the commercial version. “We’re basically sold out through the first half of next year,” Musk said.
Other companies are working on the same idea, including NRG Energy, which is developing battery storage products. “We have to be in this space,” NRG Home CEO Steve McBee said. “If your goal is to build a meaningful solar business that is durable over time, you have to assume that the solar business is going to morph into a solar-plus-storage solution.”
Dominion’s Annual Meeting Scene of Pipeline Protest
The Dominion Resources annual meeting drew more than 100 protesters opposed to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The Richmond, Va.-based company is a major partner in the $4.5 billion plan to build a 500-mile pipeline across rural parts of West Virginia, Virginia and into North Carolina to bring shale gas to eastern markets.
“I think that we’ll get the attention of the shareholders of the corporation that don’t realize they’re risking lives,” said Yvette Ravina of Churchville, Va., a rural area. Picketers gathered outside the site of the meeting, and at least six were inside the meeting itself.
CEO Thomas F. Farrell II said the pipeline would be critical to providing the natural gas necessary to meet growing customer demand, especially now that the pressure is on to meet Environmental Protection Agency emissions mandates. “Virginia and North Carolina in particular do not have enough gas infrastructure,” he said. “This is extremely important. … it’s going to result in much cleaner air.”
Exelon’s Oyster Creek Down for ‘Electrical Disturbance’
Oyster Creek Generating Station (Source: Exelon)
Exelon Nuclear’s aging Oyster Creek Generating Station was taken offline Thursday due to what the company termed “an electrical disturbance on the non-nuclear side of the plant.” They said there was no release of radiation.
“We want to make sure why it happened, but for public safety and the plant workers the plant is safely shut down,” said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan. “Now it’s a matter of troubleshooting exactly what occurred.”
The 636-MW plant on the New Jersey coast also shut down in March. It is the oldest in the company’s fleet and is scheduled for decommissioning in 2019. The plant received a “white” performance indicator from the NRC because of four unplanned shutdowns in 2013 and 2014. It received a more serious “yellow” finding last month after problems were found with two of five reactor pressure valves.
Duke Energy will buy a 7.5% stake for $225 million in a proposed natural gas pipeline that is to run from Alabama, through Georgia and terminate in Florida. The other partners in the 500-mile Sabal Trail Transmission project are Spectra Energy (59.5%) and NextEra Energy (33%). The pipeline is scheduled to begin operations in 2017.
Southern Co. said it is researching the possible use of drones to inspect its thousands of miles of power lines. It has asked for and received clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration to test unmanned aerial systems for business purposes.
The company has more than 27,000 miles of transmission lines throughout the Southeast. COO Kimberly Greene said the use of drones could expedite storm recovery, and drone inspections could be done safely and cost effectively.
Southern Co. subsidiary Mississippi Power is partnering with Origis Energy to build a utility-scale solar farm in Sumrall, Miss. It will be Mississippi Power’s third renewable project in the state. The company is also building a 450-acre, 50-MW solar station in Hattiesburg, and a 3 to 4-MW facility in conjunction with the U.S. Navy at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport. All three projects, pending approval of the Public Service Commission, are expected to be in service by the end of next year.
Ohio Religious Leaders Appeal to FirstEnergy for Reform
A group of 38 Ohio religious leaders, concerned about low-income customers, have asked FirstEnergy CEO Charles Jones to change the way the utility does business. “It’s time that we as citizens demand corporate America be accountable to us,” Eugene Ward Jr., a Baptist bishop from Cleveland, wrote in the letter to Jones. “We can’t afford the higher rates nor the damage that FirstEnergy is wreaking on our environment.”
Many of the clergy face staggering utility bills from heating and cooling old, inefficient churches. The group also denounced FirstEnergy’s attempt to get approval for its Electric Security Plan, which would guarantee income for underperforming plants.
“This subsidy would rob the poorest among us for the profit of a massive corporation and hurt families by forcing them to underwrite the costs of outmoded facilities whose harmful byproducts make them sick,” the letter said.
PPL’s Susquehanna-Roseland Tx Line About to Go into Service
A 130-mile, $632 million transmission line running from PPL’s Susquehanna nuclear plant near Berwick, Pa., to a substation near Newark, N.J., is set to go into service. Under construction since 2012, the development of the line prevailed despite community opposition. The line follows a previously existing transmission corridor through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area. PPL officials said testing is being done on the line now, and it should go into service by the end of the month.
The 500-kV line was fast-tracked by federal authorities as part of the Obama administration’s drive to upgrade the nation’s power grid. It was constructed in collaboration with Public Service Electric & Gas.
Annual Market Report for RGGI CO2 Allowances Released
No evidence of anti-competitive conduct has been found in the market for Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative CO2 allowances, according to Independent Market Monitor Potomac Economics’ 2014 Annual Report on the Market for RGGI CO2 Allowances.
Firms acquire the RGGI CO2 allowances in the primary market, mainly the RGGI CO2 allowance auctions, and can also buy and sell CO2 allowances in the secondary market. According to the Monitor, the average 2014 auction clearing price was $4.72, a 62% increase from $2.92 in 2013. Secondary market prices were generally consistent with auction prices at an average price of $4.82.
Demand for allowances at auction also increased in 2014. For the second year in a row, no allowances offered at auction have gone unsold. Compliance entities held 85% of the CO2 allowances in circulation at the end of 2014, an increase from 81% at the end of 2013.
PJM made it through the winter without having to invoke a temporary cost-based energy offer cap of $1,800/MWh, the Independent Market Monitor reported last week.
In the 75 days ending March 31 that the waiver was in effect, there were 54 cost-based offers between $1,000/MWh — the historical cap — and $1,800/MWh, but none cleared, according to the report, which the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered in granting the waiver Jan. 16 (EL15-31). (See FERC OKs $1,800 Offer Cap.)
“None of the cost-based or price-based offers between $1,000 and $1,800/MWh cleared with an incremental rate above $1,000/MWh, although one unit with an incremental offer curve that included points below $1,000 and above $1,000/MWh was dispatched at incremental offers below $1,000/MWh on three days,” it said.
“The Market Monitor’s review … indicates that energy offers with scheduling rates or with incremental curve offer components above $1,000/MWh did not affect energy market prices or result in uplift payments to generators,” it said. “LMPs greater than $1,000 were the result of transmission constraint penalty factors and not the result of unit offers.”
The Monitor said it was “investigating the offer behavior of several units and will take appropriate actions consistent with Attachment M of the PJM Tariff.”
PJM requested the waiver over concern that some natural gas-fired generators might encounter the same fuel price spikes that occurred during the polar vortex in January 2014. PJM asked for the allowance to ensure that generators would recover their costs if called upon during periods of high demand.
In fact, the cold temperatures of this past winter sent PJM to a new winter record for electricity use on Feb. 14, and the RTO still was able to avert use of the higher cost-based offer cap. Demand hit about 143,800 MW, surpassing the previous peak of 141,846 on Jan. 7, 2014. (See Cold Sends PJM to New Winter Record.)
Analysts have attributed this winter’s lower natural gas prices to ample supply, a later onset of cold temperatures and increased imports of liquefied natural gas to the Northeast.
The waiver request was made as a section 206 filing after stakeholders failed over eight months to come to a consensus.
At the time the waiver was being debated, Market Monitor Joe Bowring said fewer than 25 offers had breached $1,000 in January 2014. While some of the proposed offers were in the $1,700/MWh range, he said, there had been no legitimate offers greater than $1,400/MWh.
VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — PJM will seek to recover up to $15 million in lost opportunity costs erroneously paid to generators that were on forced outages and not eligible for the credits, Chief Financial Officer Suzanne Daugherty told the Market Implementation Committee on Wednesday.
While Daugherty said the mistaken payments most likely extend beyond April 2013, the Tariff allows the RTO to recoup only 24 months’ worth.
“We will be contacting companies before any billing adjustments will go through,” she said. “This is not an immediate billing adjustment.”
The compensation applies to combustion turbines that are scheduled in the day-ahead energy market but are not committed in real time. However, if they are not able to operate in real time, they are not eligible for the credit.
Daugherty said in an interview that the issue came to light by chance several weeks ago.
“We were investigating a certain scenario that wasn’t even related” when staff came across instances in which generators had incorrectly or inconsistently recorded their forced outages in the eMKT system as compared with the eDART and eGADS systems, Daugherty said.
“EMKT is what we use to see if you’re eligible,” she said. Now, “we’re trying to go through and find the anomalies amongst them.
“It could be process issues, it could be training – we have no idea why they might not all have been reported consistently,” she told the committee, noting that it is the generators’ responsibility to report outages.
It will remain the generators’ responsibility to report outages, although PJM is considering adding a process that would flag discrepancies among the entries in the three systems, Daugherty said.
Daugherty said it will take weeks to refine the data and identify how many generators are affected and what their individual charges will be. The current estimate, she said, is that the total will not exceed $15 million.
In the meantime, she advised generators to check their own records. “If you got paid LOC in a time you reported a forced outage, you should know you’re likely to have a billing adjustment,” she said.
PJM stakeholders recently approved tighter rules on lost opportunity costs, correcting a provision that allowed generators to recoup start-up and no-load costs that they hadn’t accrued. The rule change is intended to remove incentives for units to clear in the day-ahead market but not in the real-time market. (See PJM Members Tighten Lost Opportunity Cost Rules; Tech-Specific Eligibility Retained.)
NYISO can force idled generators to allow use of their interconnections for reliability purposes, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled last week, saying that such actions do not constitute an unconstitutional “taking” under the Fifth Amendment.
The commission approved most of the tariff revisions NYISO proposed in its July 2014 filing, which was intended to clarify its rules regarding generator outage states (ER14-2518).
“We find that NYISO’s proposed tariff provisions concerning the termination of existing interconnection agreements and the requirement that a generator’s interconnection points can be temporarily used by the transmission owner during an outage do not constitute takings under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and, therefore, do not require ‘just compensation’ to affected generators,” FERC wrote.
The proposal defines generator outage states, including how long they may remain in them and their eligibility to participate in the capacity market. NYISO said the changes will incentivize generators to make repairs quickly and return units to the market, and provide grid operators more certainty when planning system reinforcements and expansions.
The ISO’s proposal would allow it to terminate a generator’s eligibility to participate in the installed capacity market after six months in a forced outage if repairs have not been started.
It also defined a “mothball outage,” referring to units voluntarily removed from service for reasons not related to equipment failure; they are also ineligible to participate in the ICAP market.
“We find that, in general, NYISO’s proposal to formally define various outage states, with related changes, will help increase predictability and transparency, and help ensure that the only units participating in the ICAP market are those that reasonably expect to be able to provide capacity during the delivery period,” the commission said. “We note that, although protesting parties take issue with various aspects of the proposal, they acknowledge that NYISO’s proposal is, in large part, beneficial to NYISO’s markets.”
The Independent Power Producers of New York challenged the proposal, saying it would interfere with contractual rights they had negotiated with transmission owners. While the group supported the six-month rule for participating in the ICAP market, it said FERC should reject a requirement that generators on outage respond to reliability needs by returning to service or making their interconnection points available.
The commission, however, said that the rule “will help resolve imminent reliability issues.”
Cost Provision Rejected
However, the commission rejected NYISO’s proposal that generators that fail to return to service in the time required pay costs incurred to install an alternative reliability solution.
IPPNY argued that the proposal would unfairly overcharge generators. It asked the commission to order a requirement that a generator pay the difference between the cost of the reliability solution and the amount customers would have paid if the generator had returned to service on time.
The commission said it recognized that a penalty structure may be appropriate to ensure generators return to service quickly.
But it said that “imposing the full cost of the alternative reliability solution on the generator is not just and reasonable because NYISO has not demonstrated that requiring a generator to pay the full cost provides a reasonable penalty for a generator not returning to service on the agreed upon date.” The commission urged the ISO to work with stakeholders on an alternate proposal.
The order is effective May 1, subject to a compliance filing NYISO must make within 30 days.
NEW YORK — Distributed resources are receiving too much blame for the utility industry’s problems, current and former regulators said at the Infocast Grid Transformation Summit 2015 last week.
From left to right: Michael DeSocio, NYISO manager of energy market design; Mike Kormos, PJM executive vice president of operations; Jim Davis, CEO of Smart Wires; and Elliot Roseman, VP of ICF International.
“I think the main problem is the declining sales of energy,” said Betty Ann Kane, chairman of the D.C. Public Service Commission. Kane said distribution-only utilities facing declining revenue due to their dependence on volumetric rates will find it difficult to modernize the system for rooftop solar and other distributed resources.
“We have started to move gradually — and I would say too gradually — away from the volumetric charges to have a customer charge pick up more of the costs,” she said.
In D.C., the monthly service charge for meter reading and grid connection has gone from $6 to $12 since 2007 and is headed toward $20, Kane said.
Other speakers at the conference, which drew about 100 people to the ONE UN New York hotel, spoke of renewable energy’s progress — and the backlash against it.
“There have been efforts in a number of states to pull back on [renewable portfolio standards],” said former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Jon Wellinghoff, now a partner in the law firm Stoel Rives. “On the other hand, there have been efforts to increase renewables. One of the most notable is California, which recently set its goal to 50%.”
Wellinghoff noted that renewables’ declining costs mean the mandates are less necessary than before.
“At the wholesale level we’re seeing wind at less than 3 cents/kWh and the average at utility-scale solar generation is less than 7 cents/kWh. That’s an average for all the contracts signed in 2014, while some are at 5 cents,” he said.
Fixed Costs vs. System Benefits
Wellinghoff also disputed claims that net metering and renewable subsidies result in low-income customers subsidizing wealthier customers able to afford rooftop solar. Wellinghoff cited studies showing that distributed resources provide net benefits to the grid.
“The problem is they’re not analyzing the entire benefits to the system with these distributed systems,” Wellinghoff said of critics. “You can’t look solely at the costs of energy, of retail rates versus wholesale costs. It’s avoiding new generation, it’s avoiding new transmission.”
“I think the concern about the cross-subsidization is solar is overplayed,” Kane agreed.
NREL Study
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., is studying the operational challenges facing utilities on a 1-MW system with distributed solar, smart devices, electric vehicles and other technologies.
Bryan Hannegan, associate director of energy systems integration for the lab, described the questions NREL is attempting to answer: “When you have a more distributed and dynamic grid, how do you operate that in a way that doesn’t sacrifice reliability and affordability that consumers have come to expect, while pursuing the clean energy objectives we’ve set out for ourselves as a nation?”
