Company Briefs

Duke Energy Carolinas reached a settlement with stakeholders on a revised energy efficiency plan that will add programs for multifamily housing and commercial customers.

The agreement with the Environmental Defense Fund and the North Carolina Utilities Commission’s consumer advocates includes a $400,000 bonus if the company increases energy savings by more than 1% in any year.

Under the old program, Duke recovered the costs of the energy savings program as though they were an investment in a power plant. The new plan will use a shared-savings mechanism similar to that used by Dominion North Carolina Power and Duke Energy Progress.

The new offerings will be available in January if the commission, which held a hearing on the proposal Aug. 19, approves.

More: The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Business Journal

Duke Energy Purchases San Francisco Solar Plant

Duke Energy Renewables has acquired the 4.5 MW Sunset Reservoir Solar Power Project from developer Recurrent Energy. The system’s almost 24,000 solar panels, mounted above the Sunset Reservoir, provides power for municipal facilities through a 25-year power purchase agreement with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC).

More: Renewable Energy Focus

NRC Meets with Duke on Nuclear Plant Incident

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission met with Duke Energy Aug. 19 to discuss an October 2012 incident in which the failure of radiator fan belts caused a shutdown of the Robinson nuclear plant’s shutdown diesel generator.

An NRC spokesman said the poorly maintained fan belts could have meant the generator was not available during a loss of offsite power at the plant in Hartsville, S.C. The agency said it will announce any penalties over the incident at a later time.

More: Associated Press

Damage Suit Reinstated vs. NRG Coal Plant

NRG Energy Inc. must defend a lawsuit claiming that ash and contaminants from its coal-fired power plant in Springdale, Pa., damaged nearby properties, an appeals court ruled. The U.S. Appeals Court in Philadelphia reversed a lower-court decision dismissing the suit, rejecting NRG’s claims that the federal Clean Air Act pre-empts state law claims by property owners.

The residents claim that odors produced by the plant, 18 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, made them “prisoners in their own homes” while ash and unburned byproducts settled on their properties.

More: Bloomberg

Covanta Acquires NJ Waste to Energy Plant

Covanta Waste to Energy Facility in Camden, NJ (Source: Covanta Energy) — (Source: Covanta Energy)

Covanta Holding Corp. announced Aug. 19 it has purchased a 21 MW waste to energy plant in Camden, N.J. from a subsidiary of Foster Wheeler AG. The acquisition increased Covanta’s holdings in PJM to 15 generators totaling about 569 MW.

More: Covanta Holding Corp.

August 27, 2013November 2, 2023

State Briefs

ICC OKs Ameren Transmission Line

The Illinois Commerce Commission approved Ameren Transmission’s proposed $1.1 billion 345 kV transmission line across central Illinois.

The 380-mile Illinois Rivers line will run from Quincy to Terre Haute, Ind., with a branch line running north to Ipava. Construction is expected to begin by April 2015 and be completed in 2019.

The commission denied permission to build several new or expanded substations, saying Ameren had failed to prove the need for the facilities.

More: The News-Gazette

Village Officials Urge Rerouting of ComEd Transmission Project

Burlington, Ill., officials urged citizens to oppose Commonwealth Edison’s Prairie Gateway, a proposed 57-mile 345 kV line between the Byron nuclear plant and the Wayne, Ill., substation.

The Burlington village engineer provided officials and residents a briefing on the proposed line last week. “This town needs to make some noise…and encourage ComEd to go around this village,” said Burlington Trustee Mary Kay Wlezen.

Hundreds of people recently attended ComEd open houses on the project in South Elgin and DeKalb. The company is expected to file a request for a certificate of need with the Illinois Commerce Commission by the end of the year.

More: Elgin Courier News, ComEd

NEW JERSEY

Coal Plant Conversion Hinges on Pinelands Pipeline

Plans to convert a 447 MW coal- and oil-fired generator to natural gas hinge on regulators’ approval of a 22-mile gas pipeline through the New Jersey Pinelands. The proposed pipeline, which would run from Millville to Rockland Capital’s BL England electric generation facility near Atlantic City, has won approvals from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state Department of Environmental Protection and the state Board of Public Utilities.

Its final hurdle is the New Jersey Pinelands Commission, which will consider the proposal at its meeting tomorrow. Opponents say they fear the $90 million pipeline will open the protected region to additional infrastructure development.

More: CBS Philly

OHIO

Ohio Regulator, Foe of Coal Industry, says Gov. Forced Resignation

Environmental groups called on Gov. John Kasich last week to allow a top environmental regulator to keep his job. The Ohio Sierra Club, Ohio Environmental Council and other groups say George Elmaraghy should not have to resign from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, where he has served for 39 years.

Elmaraghy, who has headed the agency’s surface-water division since 2005, said that Kasich asked him to resign because of disputes with the coal industry. He said his last day is Sept. 13.

More: The Columbus Dispatch

PENNSYLVANIA

PA, Allegheny County Weigh Drilling in Forests, under Parkland

Opponents of gas drilling delivered more than 12,000 signatures to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett last week calling for public hearings on a proposal to permit gas exploration in Loyalsock State Forest, where Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and another drilling company own the mineral rights to about 19,000 acres.

More: Williamsport Sun-Gazette

Separately, Allegheny County (Pa.) Council is considering whether to allow gas drilling under county parkland. County officials are weighing an offer to extract natural gas under a county park from wellheads outside the park’s borders. The county could receive $40 million to $96 million under the proposal, the Tribune-Review reported. Opponents say the potential revenue is not worth the risk of polluting the parks.

More: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

PUC Considers Fines for Electric Retailers

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission proposed penalties against two retail electric marketers accused of switching customers’ electricity suppliers without their consent.

IDT Energy, which markets power statewide, will pay a $39,000 fine under a proposed settlement that followed a PUC investigation into 21 consumer complaints against one of the company’s independent sales agents. AP Gas & Electric, which sells in FirstEnergy’s territory will pay $43,200 to settle allegations that it engaged in slamming and violated “Do Not Call” rules.

More: The Morning Call, Fierce Energy

Peco to Fast-Track Smart Meter Installations

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approved Peco’s plan to install smart meters for all 1.6 million customers by 2014, five years earlier than originally planned. The plan will cost $282 million but will save $58 million by eliminating the need to maintain two different meter systems until 2019, Peco said.

More: The Philadelphia Inquirer

Groups ask Court to Stop Delaware Water Gap Power Line

Environmental groups last week asked a federal court judge to block PPL Electric Utilities Corp. from starting work on a transmission line through Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The groups asked for an injunction to prevent construction until a lawsuit they filed in December is resolved.

The project is part of the Susquehanna-Roseland transmission line, a 145-mile span being built by PPL and Public Service Electric and Gas between PPL’s Susquehanna nuclear power plant and PSEG’s Roseland substation near Newark, N.J. PPL plans to begin construction in early September on the 4.3-mile section of the line that runs through the park.

More: The Morning Call

VIRGINIA

VA Hearing Examiner Favors James River Transmission Line

A State Corporation Commission hearing examiner recommended that the panel approve Dominion Virginia Power’s proposed 500 kV line over the James River. The examiner concluded the proposed line from the Surry nuclear power plant to Skiffes Creek is the most cost effective option for correcting reliability violations that will begin to occur in 2015 due to the retirement of Dominion’s Yorktown coal-fired generating plant.

The line is opposed by a number of companies and government officials, who contend it would destroy views and harm tourism in the Williamsburg historic region. James City County had asked to move the line downriver or bury it under the river.

More: The Virginia Gazette, Virginia State Corporation Commission

August 27, 2013

FirstEnergy Issues Coal Plant Layoff Notices as PJM Seeks Delay

FirstEnergy Corp. has begun sending layoff notices to workers at two Southwestern Pennsylvania coal-fired generating plants even as PJM notified the company it won’t complete transmission upgrades in time for the plants’ scheduled Oct. 9 shutdowns.

Mitchell Power Plant (Source: FirstEnergy)

FirstEnergy expects to lay off about 380 workers as a result of the closing the 370 MW Mitchell Power Station and 1,710 MW Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station.

However, PJM asked the company in early August to postpone the shutdown, saying it needed more time to complete transmission upgrades needed to maintain reliability in the plants’ absence.

“We are reviewing their request and will be responding to it,” First Energy spokeswoman Stephanie Thornton told RTO Insider last week. “That’s all I can say at this point.”

PJM’s Tariff requires generators to provide at least 90 days’ notice of plant closings to allow the RTO time to evaluate reliability impacts.

Generators that delay shutdowns for reliability reasons are entitled to compensation to recover operating costs. But the Tariff does not give PJM the power to block a plant shutdown.

PJM spokeswoman Paula DuPont-Kidd said PJM will provide details on the upgrades needed when it completes its review.

Hatfield's Ferry Power Plant (Source: FirstEnergy) — Hatfield’s Ferry Power Plant (Source: FirstEnergy)

FirstEnergy President and CEO Anthony Alexander told analysts on an Aug. 6 earnings call that neither plant cleared the last PJM capacity auction and that some of the individual units hadn’t cleared the auctions for several years. Alexander said the plant closings, which were hastened by environmental regulations, are part of a company-wide cost-cutting plan, which includes an additional 250 layoffs and reductions in medical and other benefits.

FirstEnergy said the two plants represented 10% of its generating capacity but about 30% of its cost to comply with the EPA’s mercury and air toxics standards (MATS). The closure will reduce FirstEnergy’s MATS compliance costs to $650 million from $925 million.

PJM asked FirstEnergy last year to continue operating three Ohio coal-fired power plants slated for closure, the Ashtabula, Lake Shore and Eastlake plants. The company agreed to keep those plants running until early 2015 under “reliability must-run” rules while it installs new transmission lines to maintain reliability.

August 27, 2013

Settlement on FE Coal Plant Still a Bad Deal: Consumer Group

FirstEnergy Corp. reached a settlement last week in a controversial bid to shift a coal-fired generator from its unregulated subsidiary to regulated utility Monongahela Power, but a consumer group says the reduced price is still a bad deal for ratepayers.

Harrison Power Plant (Source: FirstEnergy)

Under the settlement, Mon Power ratepayers would pay Allegheny Energy Supply Company about $800 million for the 80% of the 1,984 MW Harrison plant it doesn’t already own, a reduction from AE’s original asking price of $1.1 billion. The revised deal was signed by the staff of the West Virginia Public Service Commission, the Consumer Advocate Division, the West Virginia Energy Users Group and several trade unions.

FirstEnergy said the deal will provide rate stability by shielding Mon Power customers from “unpredictable spot market prices.” Residential customers would receive a 1.5% rate cut, the company said.

But the West Virginia Citizen Action Group filed a challenge to the settlement Friday, saying the purchase price is still far more than the $554 million value that Allegheny Energy assigned to Harrison before the company’s acquisition by FE in 2011. The acquisition also would leave Mon Power dependent on Harrison and a second coal generator — the 1,107 MW Fort Martin station, which was built five years before Harrison — for 90% of its power.

“West Virginia rate payers will be stuck with obsolete, highly expensive coal-fired electricity long after the market has moved on, thereby locking an already burdened industrial base into the least competitive fuel source on the planet,” CAG’s attorney wrote. The group said it would be cheaper and less risky for ratepayers to purchase power from the PJM market. (See: Natural Gas Group Seeks Voice in West Virginia Coal Plant Acquisition)

On July 31, Virginia regulators cited a lack of fuel diversity for rejecting AEP’s request to transfer a coal-fired plant from an unregulated subsidiary to its Appalachian Power utility.

Byron Harris, director of the West Virginia state Consumer Advocate, acknowledged that the FirstEnergy settlement did not give his office all that it sought. “Any settlement is by its nature a compromise,” he told The State Journal. “There are what we believe are benefits in the settlement.”

The West Virginia commission yesterday ordered parties in the case to agree by Thursday on a hearing date to review the settlement.

More: StopPATH WV, Daily Mail

August 27, 2013

PJM MRC Preview

Below is a summary of the issues scheduled to be brought to a vote at the Markets and Reliability Committee Thursday. (There is no Members Committee meeting this month.) Each item is listed by agenda number, description and projected time of discussion, followed by a summary of the issue and links to prior coverage in RTO Insider.

RTO Insider will be in Wilmington covering the discussions and votes. See next Tuesday’s newsletter for a full report.

2. PJM Manuals (9:10-9:25)

A. Manual 28: Operating Agreement Accounting

Reason for change: Incorporating changes to lost opportunity cost compensation as approved by FERC.

Impacts:

Changes sections 5.2.6 and 5.2.8 (Operating Reserve & Reactive Services Lost Opportunity Cost Credits) to limit lost opportunity cost compensation to the lesser of a unit’s economic maximum or maximum facility output as approved in FERC Docket ER13-1200.
Section 7.2 (Shortage Pricing) amended to incorporate calculation details for non-synchronized reserve market lost opportunity costs.
Modifies section 5.3 (Operating Reserve) to correct errors and provide clarifications on exempting deviations during shortage conditions and revisions for associating interfaces to the East or West BOR regions.
Modifies sections: 5.2.3 to incorporate details of Lost Opportunity Cost Credit for Synchronous Condensing; 5.2.6 (Wind Lost Opportunity Cost) to align language with Tariff; 17.3 (Allocation of Annual and Monthly FTR Auction Revenues) to correct section reference.

PJM contact: Stan Williams

B. Manual 14B: PJM Region Transmission Planning Process

Reason for changes: Updates to reflect changes from FERC Order 1000, switch to two-year planning cycle and revised benefit/cost test for Market Efficiency projects.

Impact:

Separates Reliability and Market Efficiency into subsections
Adds a new section (2.1.2) to explain two-year planning cycle on Market Efficiency projects.
Changes to reflect Order 1000.
Changes energy market benefit calculation component of benefit/cost ratio for Market Efficiency projects eligible for regional cost allocation. The change in total energy production cost and change in load energy payments (previously weighted .70/.30) will be equally weighted.

PJM contact: Tim Horger

3. CETL Stability– Easily Resolved Constraints (9:25-9:45)

Constraints that can be quickly and cheaply resolved would be included in the Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (RTEP) under a proposal MRC will be asked to endorse.

Impact: Before posting the planning parameters for each Base Residual Auction, PJM staff would be required to identify Locational Deliverability Areas in which the Capacity Emergency Transfer Limit is less than 1.15 times the Capacity Emergency Transfer Objective. Upgrades that raise the ratio above 115% would be added to the RTEP if they:

Cost less than $5 million;
Can be completed within 36 months or prior to June 1 of the Delivery Year; and
Does not duplicate customer-funded upgrades already in the transmission queue (e.g., one whose cost is assigned to an interconnection customer).

4. Parameter limited schedules (pls) revisions (9:45-10:00)

PJM will add new processes for generators seeking exemptions from operating parameters under changes endorsed by the Market Implementation Committee Aug. 7.

Reason for change: PJM’s generation parameters set defaults for different types and sizes of generators. The parameters cover minimum run and down times, maximum daily and weekly starts and turn down ratios (Eco Max/Eco Min). They were initiated in 2008 to ensure lower make whole payments for generators whose entire offers were not covered by Locational Marginal Pricing revenues.

Impact: The proposed change would create three types of exemptions:

Temporary Exception: A one-time exception of 30 days or less.
Period Exception: An exception lasting for at least 31 days but no more than one year during the 12 months between June 1 and May 31.
Persistent Exception: An exception lasting for at least one year.

The changes will require revisions to Attachment K of the OATT, Schedule 1 of the Operating Agreement and section 2.3.4 of Manual 11: Energy & Ancillary Services Market Operations.

Assuming FERC approval, the changes will be effective Oct. 1.

PJM contact: Jacqui Hugee

5. Stakeholder Process on Triennial CONE Review (10:00-10:15)

MRC members will be asked to consider changes to the Cost of New Entry (CONE) triennial review process. CONE values are used in PJM’s Reliability Price Model (RPM) to obtain capacity resources.

Reason for problem statement: PJM and members agreed to explore changes in the review process in a settlement approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in January (Docket No. ER12-513).

Impact of problem statement: The inquiry will assess the use of the Handy-Whitman Index of public utility construction costs for adjusting CONE and other potential changes.

PJM is required to file Tariff changes with FERC in time for the 2014 triennial review or a status report if stakeholders are unable to reach consensus on changes.

PJM contact: Paul Sotkiewicz

August 27, 2013

Market Monitor’s Recommendations

Below are the new recommendations included in the Market Monitor’s State of the Market report for the first half of 2013.

HIGH PRIORITY

Addresses a market design issue that creates significant market inefficiencies and/or long lasting negative market effects.

Operating Reserve — Reexamine allocation of operating reserve charges to participants to ensure payment by all whose market actions result in the incurrence of such charges:
- Eliminate the use of internal bilateral transactions (IBTs) in the calculation of deviations used to allocate balancing operating reserve charges.
- Reallocate the operating reserve credits paid to units supporting the Con Edison – PSEG wheeling contracts.
FTRs — Fix the Financial Transmission Rights overallocation issue:
- Eliminate cross geographic subsidies.
- Improve transmission outage modeling in the FTR auction models.
- Reduce FTR sales on paths with persistent underfunding including clear rules for what defines persistent underfunding and how the reduction will be applied.

MEDIUM PRIORITY

Addresses a market design issue that creates intermediate market inefficiencies and/or near term negative market effects.

Ancillary Services — Remove the distinction between Tier 1 and Tier 2 synchronized reserve, remove the ability to offer MW of synchronized reserve capability, remove the ability to make reserve unavailable, and automatically dispatch primary reserve co-optimized with energy. In the interim, enforce a must-offer requirement for synchronized reserve based on physical capability and increase penalties for non-compliance during spinning events.

LOW PRIORITY

Addresses a market design issue that creates smaller market inefficiencies and/or more limited market effects.

Energy Market — When generator is offline, treat as load (not negative generation) the energy drawn from PJM by those generators for calculating average hourly real-time and day-ahead load.
Demand Response — Load management resources whose load drop method is designated as “Other” should explicitly record the method of load drop.

August 13, 2013

PJM Considers Expanding Seasonal Verification for Generators

All generators would be required to verify their capacity under a problem statement approved by the Planning Committee Thursday.

PJM Manual 21 currently requires only combustion turbines and combined cycle generators to adjust their capacity ratings based on temperatures.

Some operators of other types of generation do not adjust their test results for seasonal conditions. In addition, hydroelectric units are permitted to perform their verification tests at any time during the year.

As a result, PJM’s Tom Falin told the committee, some generator ratings may overstate actual output under peak summer conditions.

In response to a question from Frank Francis, director of regulatory affairs for hydroelectric generator Brookfield Energy Marketing, L.P., Falin acknowledged PJM was unaware of any instances in which hydro units had overstated their capacity.

“We’re looking for a holistic solution,” said Steve Herling, PJM vice president of planning.

The problem statement was approved by acclimation. The lone no vote was cast by Francis, who said he opposed the inquiry because PJM has not shown a problem with hydro units.

“This is to see whether a change needs to be made,” responded Herling.

August 13, 2013

Manual 1: Data Submittals for NERC Compliance

The Operating Committee heard first reading last week on changes to Manual 1, Attachment B: Schedule of Data Submittals. The committee will be asked to endorse the changes at its next meeting.

Reason for change: The North American Electric Reliability Corp. requires PJM to provide evidence to demonstrate compliance with reliability standards.

Impact: Specifies method of submittal. Adds new requirement. (See table)

PJM contact: Chris Smart

August 13, 2013

Bid to Boost Synch Reserve Penalties Stalls at OC

A proposal to boost penalties for resources that fall short of their synchronized reserve commitments stalled at the Operating Committee last week as utilities called for more details.

The proposal by PJM and the Market Monitor failed on a tie 38-38 vote, with utilities including PSEG, PPL, AEP and Dayton Power and Light voting in opposition. Industrial users and other utilities, including FirstEnergy and UGI abstained.

Performance Lagging

The proposal was meant to address concerns over the lack of a qualification process for participation as Tier 2 Synchronized Reserve resources and the increased participation of demand response. Officials said the current penalty structure was insufficient to ensure compliance.

SR resources provided only 73% of the megawatts they were assigned, with less than one-third of units proving 100% or more of their assignments, said PJM’s Kim Warshel, who presented the issue to the committee.

The analysis found that the increase in demand response from 25% to 33% of SR resources had not hurt overall performance.

Penalties Lack Teeth

PJM and the monitor also concluded the current penalties are insufficient because of the decrease in the number of events of 10 minutes or longer (for which performance measurement applies), and the increase in days between events — currently 13 days. “It doesn’t have a lot of teeth anymore,” said Warshel.

Under current rules, if a resource fails to perform in one hour it doesn’t affect its credit for performing in another hour during the same day.

Dave Pratzon, who represents independent generators, said generators could be inadvertently penalized if plant operators fail to update their availability during the day when they are temporarily unable to perform. “I think more needs to be done before we take a vote on this,” he said.

Shortage Pricing Restriction

Other RTOs have qualification standards for resources seeking to offer in the SR market and conduct random tests to validate capability. The “must offer” requirement accompanying PJM’s Shortage Pricing limits its ability to implement similar procedures.

As a result, PJM and the monitor concluded that the best solution was to increase penalties.

The current language of Manual 11 states that:

The resource is credited for Tier 2 synchronized reserve capacity in the amount that actually responded for the contiguous hours the resource was assigned Tier 2 synchronized reserve during which the event occurred, and;

The owner of the resource incurs a synchronized reserve obligation in the amount of the shortfall for the three consecutive, same-peak days occurring at least three business days following the event.

(Emphasis added.)

The proposed change would remove the “contiguous” hours statement from the same-day penalty, meaning the resource’s credit will be reduced for the entire day if there is a shortfall in any hours. “You can’t stop and come back in and your penalty is erased,” explained Stu Bresler, PJM vice president of market operations.

“I can’t support that,” responded Brad Weghorst, market & regulatory policy manager for PPL Energy Plus.

The proposal also would increase the duration of the following-days’ penalty from three to the average number of days between events, as determined by an annual review.

August 13, 2013

Improved DR Baseline Processes OKd

PJM briefed members Wednesday on manual changes documenting two improved methods for verifying demand response providers’ customer baselines (CBL).

The CBL is used to forecast how much power a resource would have used absent DR. The two methods being added to Manual 11 are already permitted and one is in limited use.

The Same Day (3 + 2) method bases the CBL on the average of three hours before event (after skipping one hour) and two hours after event (after skipping one hour). For an event occurring in hours ending 13-17, for example, PJM would average hours ending 9-11 and 19-20.

The Match Day (3-day average) method uses an average of the three non-event days with the most similar load to the non-event hours on the event day. The hour before and after the event are excluded from the “non-event” hours.