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November 15, 2024

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FERC Orders Further Southern Tariff Revisions

FERC on Thursday conditionally accepted a compliance filing by Southern Company revising its formula rate protocols, which FERC said are unjust and unreasonable, and directed the utility to provide a further compliance filing in 60 days on remedying the commission’s concerns (ER22-2642).

Southern had submitted its compliance filing in July 2022 on behalf of its subsidiaries Alabama Power, Georgia Power and Mississippi Power in response to a FERC show-cause order, issued last March, that raised concerns about the formula rate protocols filed in Southern’s tariff.  (See FERC Issues Southern Show-cause Order on Rate Protocols.)

The commission ordered the utility to address deficiencies with the protocols in three areas: scope of participation; transparency of information exchange; and ability of customers to challenge transmission owners’ implementation of the formula rate.

Utility Proposed Multiple Changes

In its filing, Southern updated the protocols to clear up each issue.

Regarding the scope of participation, FERC had directed Southern to “provide a definition of the ‘interested parties’ that can participate in customer meetings, information exchange, and challenge procedures.” Southern proposed a definition that would include “customers under the tariff, state utility regulatory commissions, consumer advocacy agencies, and state attorneys general.” It said the wording fit with established commission precedent.

For the information transparency issue, FERC said that interested parties might not be able to access information that would help them evaluate the correctness of the formula rate. In response, Southern suggested adding language that would require its annual informational filings and true-up filings to:

  • provide formula rate calculations and their inputs, along with supporting documentation;
  • specify the information that enables interested parties to replicate the calculation of the formula results;
  • identify all material adjustments made to relevant data in determining formula inputs; and
  • provide underlying data for formula rate inputs that require greater granularity.

Southern also proposed revisions that would allow interested parties to request information and documents necessary to determine the effect of an accounting change, to see if the annual filing includes appropriate data, and to assess the prudence of costs and expenditures. Additional new language would provide for annual meetings regarding the informational filings and joint meetings with other transmission owners. It would also address reorganizations and mergers that affect the inputs to the formula rate.

Addressing other FERC concerns, Southern added language detailing the issues that can be challenged during the review period, procedures for formal and informal challenges, protocols for appointing representatives to work with parties that submit a challenge, and processes for elevating an informal challenge to a formal one.

Clarification Still Needed

FERC accepted most of Southern’s revisions but identified remaining deficiencies that still must be addressed.

The commission noted that the language related to posting of the annual update filings does not include a provision for notification of the filing via email and ordered Southern to add language to that effect.

FERC also said Southern’s proposed true-up filing timeline seemed to require the filings be published by May 1 of the year following the relevant rate year. The proposed protocols, however, require interested parties to file informational requests by Aug. 1 of the rate year. That would be impossible if the filing was not available until the following year, FERC said. The commission required Southern to correct the error.

Regarding the challenge procedures, FERC said that “the lack of provisions in Southern’s protocols to post all information requests, responses to information requests, informal challenges, and informal challenge resolutions [online] could limit” the ability of interested parties to “fully participate in the formula rate process.” It ordered the utility to add a requirement that all relevant information be made available online.

Finally, the commission said that Southern’s proposed timelines for making formal challenges “may not allow interested parties adequate time” to respond. It directed Southern to “propose a date for any interested party to submit an informal challenge … as well as … a formal challenge … after being given a reasonable period of time to review Southern’s responses to the informal challenges.”

The commission set 15 days as the minimum acceptable time between responses to information requests and informal challenge submission deadlines, and 31 days between responses to informal challenges and formal challenge submission deadlines.

Southern is required to submit its compliance filing within 60 days of the date of the order. The original compliance filing is conditionally accepted, effective July 23, 2022, pending its receipt.

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Texas PUC Submits Reliability Plan to Legislature

The Texas Public Utility Commission on Thursday unanimously agreed to the principles necessary to replace ERCOT’s energy-only market with a performance credit mechanism (PCM), sending the proposal to an uncertain fate in the legislature.

Chair Peter Lake guided the commission through a discussion and then an editing session of his “underlying foundation” for the mechanism. The commissioners summarized the proposal in a four-page memo attached to the order (Project 53298).

The PCM has been criticized by some as a sop to the market’s generators. It would reward them with credits based on their performance during a determined number of scarcity hours. Those credits must be bought by load-serving entities, based on their load during those same hours, or exchanged by LSEs and generators in a voluntary forward market.

The commission ordered PUC staff and ERCOT to delay implementation of the PCM “until such time as the 88th Legislature has had an opportunity to render judgment on the merits of the PCM and/or establish an alternate solution.”

The recommendation fulfills the PUC’s statutory obligation under Senate Bill 3, enacted following February 2021’s deadly winter storm. It completes a process that began in December 2021 and involved work sessions, stakeholder feedback and industry criticism. (See Proposed ERCOT Market Redesigns ‘Capacity-ish’ to Some.)

But State Sen. Charles Schwertner (R), author of SB3 and chair of the Business and Commerce Committee, tweeted that the PUC “chose to ignore the clear direction of the [Texas Legislature] by voting to replace the state’s competitive energy market with a costly and complex proposal that is unlikely to deliver the dispatchable generation resources that Texas needs. It’s unacceptable.”

In a letter to the commission last week, Schwertner said it would be “imprudent” for the commission to act without the legislature’s “consultation and collaboration.” (See PUC Closes in on ERCOT’s Market Redesign.)

The commission’s revised memorandum said it would open a project “to evaluate and establish an appropriate reliability standard” based on the PCM concept outlined in a report by consultants Energy and Environmental Economics (E3). The firm evaluated six alternatives but did not recommend the PCM, saying it would be too complex and costly, estimating the credits could cost retailers $5.7 billion a year. (See Proposed ERCOT Market Redesigns ‘Capacity-ish’ to Some.)

“Once implementation is launched at some point in the future subject to consideration and direction of the 88th Legislature, the commission will develop an implementation plan,” the PUC said in its memo.

It said the plan will identify which entity — including among the commission, ERCOT and the Independent Market Monitor — will be responsible for analysis related to each of 17 “decision points,” including such details as the PCM compliance period and the number of hours per compliance period.

“For decision point items relegated to ERCOT analysis, the commission will direct ERCOT to undertake stakeholder evaluation subject to ERCOT board vote for ultimate recommendation for commission approval,” the commission said. “The ultimate authority for all of these and any additional decision points lies with the commission.”

The commission also tasked ERCOT with evaluating “bridging options” to retain existing assets and build new generation until the PCM can be fully implemented. It said the grid operator should report at the commission’s Jan. 26 open meeting with a proposed date for delivering a report detailing the options ERCOT considered, its board’s preferred solution and implementation steps.

“I think this reflects a deliberative process on the part of the commission,” Commissioner Will McAdams said. “I said a year and a half ago that I think our finest hour is to come, and this is part of it. It’s a good product, and we need to be able to defend it.”

Reaction

Others weren’t so sure.

Katie Coleman 2017-03-01 (RTO Insider LLC) FI.jpg

Katie Coleman, TIEC

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© RTO Insider LLC

 

“It was difficult to know what they were talking about,” Katie Coleman, who represents Texas Industrial Energy Consumers, said after the meeting but before the edited memo was posted. “The PCM they voted on today is not the PCM in [the consultant’s November] report.”

Coleman, who has testified several times before lawmakers and the commission about market designs, noted various legislative committees have requested in multiple hearings that they be given a construct they can consider.

“They’re trying to redesign a market that’s been in place for two decades on the fly in an open meeting. It needs a lot more work and thought than what’s been put into it so far,” Coleman said. “This proposal … seems to have changed substantially behind closed doors since [November].

“All of the things they discussed today are hallmarks of a capacity market. It’s turning into a game of semantics,” she added.

Stoic Energy’s Doug Lewin labeled the mechanism a “Pretty (much a dressed up, overcomplicated) Capacity Market.”

“ERCOT will have a capacity market replacing the only competitive energy market in the U.S.,” Demand Control 2 founder Chris Hendrix tweeted. Demand Control works with market participants to help them access the wholesale market.

“My other concern with pushing some decisions to ERCOT is that Chairman Lake and the ERCOT board and senior staff do not have any retail electricity expertise,” he told RTO Insider.

TIEC last week asked the PUC to reconsider its December order approving ERCOT’s amended and restated bylaws. The changes limited the ability of corporate members and market participants to recommend policy and procedural changes and to vote on governance matters. (See ERCOT Board of Directors Briefs: Dec. 19-20, 2022.)

Demand Control 2, San Antonio’s CPS Energy and generation investor Eolian on Tuesday also filed a joint rehearing request with the PUC (54444).

The Texas Association of Manufacturers said it was “concerned with today’s action by the PUC to approve a novel proposal that is not well understood, and has not been modeled, but appears to be designed to ensure a certain profit level for existing generation.”

The group has proposed additional state-backed financing for dispatchable development, temporary property tax cuts for new or modernized dispatchable facilities and a reliability service that “directly rewards” new, flexible generation. “Specifically, we support proposals that ensure market revenues would remain performance-based, consistent with the current deregulated market design, and would avoid a government-mandated capacity market or other similar electricity taxes or fees to support incumbent generators,” it said.

The Texas Competitive Power Advocates, representing large generators that have promised to build 4.6 GW of additional capacity if the PCM is adopted, commended the commission’s work. In a statement, Executive Director Michele Richmond said the mechanism will make it “economically viable for companies to invest in the new dispatchable generation needed during periods of low renewable output in ERCOT.”

“The PCM builds reliability into the successful competitive market in Texas,” Richmond said. “Paying for the reliability that ERCOT needs to power Texas when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining, but without paying resources for merely existing.”

PUC Coalesces Around PCM

The commissioners signaled their intentions in a filing made Wednesday evening. Lake, McAdams and Kathleen Jackson expressed their outright support for the mechanism, but Lori Cobos and Jimmy Glotfelty offered a little pushback.

Jimmy Glotfelty 2023-01-12 (RTO Insider LLC) FI.jpgCommissioner Jimmy Glotfelty | © RTO Insider LLC

“My hesitation with the [PCM] is … we will shift up to $5 billion per year more for something we are getting today: a reliable system. Rising and falling prices are not inherently crisis-based models, but economic principles,” Glotfelty wrote, referencing Lake’s frequent comment that “the cure for high prices is high prices.”

“Over the last 25 years, high prices have led to new investment in transmission and generation all over this state to the benefit of consumers and the environment,” Glotfelty added. “Our ERCOT market has become, arguably, almost too efficient for the value of this much needed commodity.”

During Thursday’s work session, Glotfelty pushed to include evaluating best practices to mitigate market manipulation and guarding against self-dealing and market power abuse in the centrally cleared market.

Cobos focused her comments on “near-term actions to help retain our existing long-duration, dispatchable thermal generation fleet” needed to maintain reliability during multiday extreme weather events. She pushed for replacing reliability unit commitment practices and letting the operating reserve demand curve work “to send market signals for new dispatchable generation investment.”

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FERC Approves NYPA Cost Recovery for Smart Path Project

FERC on Thursday approved the New York Power Authority’s transmission rates for the Smart Path Connect transmission project (SPCP) after the utility showed it received state approval for the project (EL22-15-001, ER22-1014-002).

The commission had approved NYPA’s request fthe abandoned plant incentive (API) in March 2022 — as well as a 50-basis-point return on equity adder and performance-based ROE incentive later in July — but on the condition that the New York Public Service Commission grant the project a certificate of environmental compatibility and need, and approve its environmental management and construction plan (EMCP). These approvals, FERC said, would show the project addresses reliability and congestion, required for the incentives under Federal Power Action 219.

The PSC granted the project, which aims to rebuild about 100 miles of old 230-kV transmission lines in northern New York as 345 kV, the certificate in August 2022 (21-T-0340). But NYPA told FERC that the New York commission has only approved an EMCP for part of the project.

“NYPA explains that, because of the expedited nature of the project, and in consultation with staff from the New York Department of Public Service, the EMCP approval process for NYPA’s part of the project was broken into two segments to enable a timely start to construction of the project,” FERC said in its order. NYPA expects approval of the second segment this February.

NYPA, however, argued that “the EMCP has no bearing on whether the project reduces congestion and saves consumers money,” as those issues were addressed in the certificate. Furthermore, the remaining EMCP approval only relates to how the project will be physically constructed, versus whether the SPCP is needed.

FERC agreed with NYPA. “Upon review of the EMCP approval included with [a] supplemental filing, we agree with NYPA that the EMCP approvals are related to physical construction and do not address reliability or congestion criteria,” it said.

Construction recently began on the project, with an anticipated in-service date of fall 2025, though significant work remains.

NYPA estimates the total capital cost will be $1.1 billion, with the utility responsible for $641.3 million. The PSC found that the project will produce congestion cost savings of approximately $450 million, as it “represents an upgrade to the transmission backbone system of New York that will improve reliability throughout the state.”

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NY Changes Community Choice Aggregation Rules

The New York State Public Service Commission ordered changes Thursday to improve and standardize the community choice aggregation (CCA) program used by dozens of municipalities.

The PSC said the changes are broadly designed to increase transparency and consistency by clarifying program requirements, imposing commodity price caps, creating an enforcement mechanism to ensure fair and principled operation and ensuring consumer outreach and education efforts are in place.

At the end of 2021, four CCA administrators were serving nearly 100 municipalities with about 200,000 residents, the order said. Many dropped out, however, because of energy market volatility, voided energy service company (ESCO) contracts and utility billing issues.

Many of the changes the PSC ordered Thursday to make CCA participation easier and improve the process are drawn from an April 2021 whitepaper proposal by state Department of Public Service (DPS) staff. The changes include:

  • All customers in a given CCA program will be charged the same product price, regardless of enrollment date.
  • The price-to-compare information for the CCA market will be made consistent across all CCAs and utilities by using the 12-month trailing average of the utility rate plus a merchant function charge and any defined adder that applies to utility supply customers but not ESCO customers.
  • Fixed-rate supply products will be limited to 105% of the 12-month trailing average utility supply rates, and variable-rate products must offer a guaranteed savings, while renewable products will not have a price cap because of limited ability to determine a reasonable price.
  • Department staff will prepare a proposal for a statewide solar-for-all program like the one created by National Grid in its upstate New York service area.
  • Any distribution utility with tariffed provisions providing for CCAs in its territory must add a dedicated CCA page to its website.
  • Standardized templates and guidelines for CCA administrator compliance filings will be created.
  • The CCA administrator, utility and ESCO and must notify each other and DPS staff within 48 hours of learning of a billing error that affects 50 or more customers.
  • CCA administrators must maintain a list of customers that have opted out of the CCA to prevent the customers from receiving future opt-out notifications.

Additionally, DPS staff must define a competitive solicitation for ESCO service to a CCA and propose ways to promote it. Very few ESCOs respond to requests for proposals now.

“This has led to instances where only one bid was received, and that bid was subsequently accepted even though it was a much higher rate than previously, and no customer benefit could be demonstrated,” the order said. “There should never be a case where a contract is signed because it was the only choice in order to keep the program going. In other words, the continuance of the CCA program should not take precedence over the benefit to customers.”

Thursday’s PSC vote was 5-2, with commissioners John Howard and Diane Burman opposed.

Burman said too much was packed into the order with too little deliberation.

Howard questioned the premise that local governments are capable of making utility supply purchases for constituents and said the lack of participation by residents in CCAs is troubling. He said the measures in Thursday’s order will improve the program but do not go far enough.

In a news release after the vote, PSC Chairman Rory Christian said, “CCAs provide local governments the opportunity to support the energy and environmental needs of their constituents by expanding the choices of energy options available. Eligible customers have the opportunity to have more control over their overall energy costs, to spur clean energy innovation and investment, to improve customer choice and value, and to protect the environment, thereby fulfilling an important public purpose.”

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New Md. Governor May Bring New Workforce Tactics to Climate Efforts

Maryland’s new governor, Wes Moore (D), did not promise new climate goals in his campaign, instead endorsing the goals of the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022, which Democrats enacted without the signature of former Gov. Larry Hogan (R).

But Moore may bring new urgency to addressing one of the key obstacles to reaching those goals: workforce development.

Moore, who was sworn into office Wednesday, pledged during his campaign to bolster the state’s career and technical education (CTE) programs by increasing funding and ensuring that “that partnerships with local governments, community colleges and specific employers … better link students to in-demand careers.”

Moore expanded on his plans in his inaugural address outside the Maryland State House on an unseasonably warm afternoon. Moore, the state’s first Black governor, was introduced by Oprah Winfrey.

“While Maryland is home to some of the best and some of the greatest institutions of higher education in this country — something we should be very, very proud of — we must end this myth that young people must attend one of them in order to be successful,” Moore said. “That’s not the path for every student. To be clear, it wasn’t my path. I joined the military when I was 17 years old. I went to a two-year college. And I think things worked out pretty well.”

Moore graduated with an associate degree from Valley Forge Military College before graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins University. He later led a poverty-fighting foundation and a Baltimore-based business that helped underserved students.

His platform called for expanding access to CTE programs and investing in dual-enrollment programs that allow high school students to obtain college credits prior to graduation. He pledged to increase funding for apprenticeships and work with labor and businesses to “drive students into high-demand and high-paying jobs.”

He also supports a service year option for high school graduates in exchange for job training, mentorships and college tuition support, and he set a goal of producing 150,000 science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) graduates by 2027.

The Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Biden last year could create nearly 537,000 jobs a year for a decade, according to a study commissioned by The Nature Conservancy. But where those workers will come from is a major concern for policymakers.

Moore’s education plans are central to his vow to address the people “left behind” amid Maryland’s prosperity. “We know it is unacceptable that while Maryland has the highest median income in the country, one in eight of our children lives in poverty,” he said, rejecting the notion that “in order for some to win, others must lose.”

He also dismissed those who say climate change is not an urgent problem.

“We’re often told that climate change is a problem for the future, or something that you only have to worry about if you live in farmland or in a flood zone. But climate change is an existential threat. And it is happening now in our communities. And so confronting climate change represents another chance for Maryland to lead,” he said.

“Clean energy will not just be a part of our economy. Clean energy will define our economy and Maryland. But that requires everybody — companies, communities, state and local governments and the people — to take bold and decisive actions.”

The Climate Solutions Now Act increased Maryland’s emissions-reduction goals to 60% below 2006 levels by 2031 and net zero by 2045. (See Md. Climate Bills Become Law Without Hogan’s Signature.)

Cabinet Secretaries Named

Before being sworn in, Moore named his cabinet secretaries, including former California regulator Serena McIlwain as secretary of the environment, and Josh Kurtz, Maryland executive director for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, as secretary of natural resources.

McIlwain had served as undersecretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency since 2019 after stints at the U.S. EPA, where she was director of the Office of Continuous Improvement and assistant regional administrator at the agency’s Region 9 office in San Francisco.

Kurtz worked previously at The Nature Conservancy.

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SERC Forum Touts Internal Communication in Enforcement

Speakers at a SERC Reliability-hosted webinar on Tuesday credited changes to the regional entity’s compliance monitoring and enforcement process for helping build a stronger connection both within the RE and between it and other industry stakeholders.

Presenting at SERC’s 2023 Open Forum, General Counsel Jimmy Cline, said that the RE’s Risk Assessment and Mitigation (RAM) and Enforcement departments realized in 2020 that their approach to violation processing needed an overhaul, resulting in the move to a risk-informed violation processing procedure. The first step was for the two departments to work more closely to clear the mounting backlog of violations.

“Our old process was a siloed approach, where RAM [and] Enforcement worked separately, resulting in duplication of work,” Cline said. “We replaced that siloed approach with a collaborative team approach to create alignment between RAM and Enforcement throughout all processing phases.”

Ted Franks (SERC) Content.jpgTed Franks, SERC | SERC

Ted Franks, SERC’s director of reliability assurance, discussed the way the RE’s new internal information-sharing practices have improved the efficiency of violation processing. It starts with its Inherent Risk Assessment (IRA) and Entity Risk Profile (ERP), which are produced as part of SERC’s regular risk-based monitoring program every three years; recently the organization stepped up its monitoring of higher-risk entities, for which it now produces an enhanced ERP about every 18 months.

When the RE receives a report of an entity’s potential noncompliance, the RAM team shares the most recent IRA and ERP with the Enforcement department, along with records of any previous audits involving the utility. RAM Manager Todd Beam told attendees this sharing helps investigators get up to speed quickly, both on the entity’s compliance history but also “how it functions within the” bulk power system.

“The prior audit information is helpful; it allows RAM and Enforcement to assess how audit information is used within an entity, and if it is indeed being used as a point of information regarding risk,” Beam said. “Discovery of issues by acting on an [information] provided through audit, or perhaps a recommendation, shows a willingness and a drive by the entity to act on the information and to do the investigative process. This is exemplary behavior; it shows a keen interest by the entity in ferreting out and eliminating risk.”

SERC Violations (SERC) Content.jpgBetween February 2020 and November 2022, the number of violations waiting to be resolved by SERC fell from 500 to 231; by the same month their average age had dropped to 6.2 months, down from 13.7 months in August 2021. | SERC

Cutting down on internal duplication of effort allowed SERC staff to dispose of violations more quickly and created the chance for deeper collaboration between the RE and registered entities that do need more attention. In its interactions with utilities, SERC aims to identify frequently violated reliability standards and help entity staff set up better internal practices to reduce noncompliance issues.

Revamping the enforcement process paid big dividends, Cline asserted, pointing to statistics that showed SERC’s inventory of unresolved violations fell from 500 in February 2020 to 231 in November 2022, while the average age of the RE’s inventory fell from 13.7 months in August 2021 to 6.2 in November 2022. Clearing out the inventory and reducing the processing time gave the department “much more time to conduct thorough risk assessments and work with entities on mitigation,” he added.

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Washington Home Builders, Realtors Balk at Climate Role in Local Planning

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington’s home construction industry and Realtors said this week they oppose a bill to make climate change a part of local governments’ land-use planning, saying it would make it difficult to build homes in the “wildlife-urban interface.”

Senate Bill 5203 would amend the Growth Management Act to require comprehensive proposals, development regulations and regional plans to support state greenhouse gas emission targets and improve resilience to climate impacts and natural hazards. A similar bill is working its way through Washington’s House.

“It would chart a course for our communities over time,” bill sponsor Sen. Liz Lovelett (D) told the Senate Local Government, Land Use and Tribal Affairs Committee Tuesday.

She added that bill would encourage density over urban sprawl, which was an intention of the GMA when it was enacted in 1990. The law sets land use designation and environmental protection requirements for all Washington counties and cities.

Josie Cummings, representing the Building Industry Association of Washington, told the committee that adding climate change to the Growth Management Act would codify wildfire risks to the point where that factor would handicap new housing. Washington has experienced an increase in wildfires, which has been largely blamed on climate change. Wildfires have frequently threatened Washington’s small towns and villages in rural areas.

“This would reduce housing,” said Bill Clarke, representing the Washington Realtors.

In contrast with the industry groups, a large majority of the public testimony and sign-in sheets favored the bill, with 1,218 signed up at the hearing in favor of the bill without testifying, while 15 signed up opposing the bill without testifying.

Nineteen of 23 people testifying Tuesday supported the bill, and two were undecided. Supporters included state agencies, environmental groups, some individual small town council members and three disabled people, who argued the cities will improve their public transit authorities if trimming emissions leads to more bus service.

John Flanagan, a senior policy adviser to Gov. Jay Inslee, said climate change should be a factor in land use decisions at all levels of government. “We cannot rely on the actions of a few. We need to be all in,” Anacortes city council member Ryan Walters said.

“It only makes sense that the [Growth Management Act] align with other state laws,” Leah Mission of Climate Solutions said. She was referring to state law requiring Washington’s carbon emissions to be trimmed by 95% by 2050.

“If we passed this 10 to 20 years ago, we wouldn’t be in this dire climate situation that we are right now,” Redmond City Council President Jessica Forsythe said.

“We need to plan for rising tides,” Adam Maxell of Audubon, Wash. said. Washington has an extensive coastline.

Some argued that if trimming emissions leads to more bus service, then the state government needs to provide money to support expanded public transit. “If you move forward, it is critical you provide funding for this as well,” said Paul Jewell, representing the Washington Association of Counties, which has not yet decided whether to support or oppose the bill.

This is the third year that this bill has worked its way through Washington’s legislature.

The House passed it in 2021, but it stalled in a Senate committee. In 2022, both the Democrat-controlled House and Senate teetered on the edge of passing the bill before Republicans in the Senate and House used parliamentary maneuvering to kill the bill on the final day of the session.

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MISO Actions During December Storm Spark Debate

MISO’s emergency declaration during the December winter storm has ignited a debate over whether the RTO should issue the alert to sustain its neighbors during extreme weather.

The grid operator in December made the emergency declaration as a wintry blast forced generation outages and higher than forecasted load in the system, pushing MISO into a three-hour maximum generation emergency to use its collection of load-modifying resources. It lifted a maximum generation warning for its South region a few hours before the evening peak. (See FERC, NERC Set Probe on Xmas Storm Blackouts.)

Jason Howard, MISO’s director of operations and risk management, said during a Reliability Subcommittee meeting Tuesday that staff and members “successfully managed through the event.”

However, he said the emergency was necessary to manage reliability while the RTO provided a “significant amount of exports” to its neighbors. Howard said staff was able to access additional capacity once they declared the emergency.

“There wasn’t a concern for capacity,” he said. “It was a matter of maintaining reliability and helping our neighbors out. [There was] no disruption of power to the MISO footprint.”

Howard said staff felt “very comfortable” with its capacity position ahead of the storm but that MISO and the industry “struggled” with forecasting an “unanticipated, drastic increase in demand. He said the gas generation fleet began depleting its supply as the system entered the evening peak on Dec. 23.

The emergency decision was ultimately necessary to “get at emergency reserve to maintain sufficiency and export upwards of 4 to 5 GW to help our neighbors,” he said, referring to SPP, the Tennessee Valley Authority, Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc., and the Southeast planning region. Howard said MISO had a responsibility to act because some of its neighbors were either facing or actively in load shed.

Director of Market Administration John Harmon said MISO was simply “assisting in an emergency,” as it would want to similarly be aided during an emergency.

Independent Market Monitor David Patton said he was still reviewing the event, adding that his initial conclusion is MISO should define what lengths it’s willing to go to in helping neighbors at the expense of its own markets.

“I will say that I totally appreciate and agree with the notion of wanting to help your neighbors, but you should be following your operating procedures,” Patton said. “The action that any RTO takes to help a neighbor can have serious financial impacts for customers.”

Stakeholders debated whether the grid operator should call on load-modifying resources to support non-firm exports. Patton said LMRs to support exports can trigger shortage pricing “that could cost millions.”

Hwikwon Ham, with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, pointed out that MISO’s risk assessments depend on imports from PJM and Canada to help keep the footprint afloat.

Minnesota Power’s Tom Butz said that had MISO not helped TVA during its emergency, the ramifications might have been more dire than a matter of “economic convenience.”

“This is a first for MISO,” Howard said of MISO’s status as a net exporter during the weather event. He said staff is going to have to determine its “operational philosophy” regarding emergency procedures in aiding neighboring regions.

MidAmerican Energy Co.’s Dennis Kimm argued that MISO’s issue in December wasn’t a gas supply one, but a timing problem. He said staff didn’t commit gas generators ahead of time, thus failing to provide them enough time to secure additional supplies. Kimm said gas purchases are especially challenging to procure during a holiday weekend and after 5 p.m.

Stakeholders asked whether MISO might consider clearing additional gigawatts of gas generation in the day-ahead market to serve as a buffer when extreme temperatures are forecasted.

Staff said MISO’s five-year plan includes devising methods to better manage uncertain conditions. Howard said they are working on providing its members better situational awareness so they can make more informed decisions on fuel procurement.

Howard acknowledged “issues” with sending notifications to market participants on Dec. 23 and said that the RTO is examining the communication issues to see what went wrong.

He said the winter storm’s high pressure kept MISO’s wind production high, unlike the February 2021 winter storm that brought in a low-pressure system. “These are unique differences that we have to manage that makes the planning challenging,” he said.

Staff said their first report on the storm contained only preliminary findings but promised more discussions on the system’s performance in December. The Resource Adequacy Subcommittee is planning to discuss the storm and its implications on capacity accreditation during its March meeting.

MISO issued a cold-weather alert and conservative operations instructions for its South region Dec. 22 through Dec. 26. It also declared conservative operations for its North and Central regions and two local transmission emergencies due to congestion on Dec. 23.

Staff said the South region’s warning was necessary because of a request by joint parties to the regional transmission transfer between the Midwest and South regions that MISO reduce flows across the link. Staff said they were still in discussions with the utilities to understand why the request was made.

Factoring in exports, MISO served peak demand of 111 GW on Dec. 23. Its load averaged 78 GW during December.

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MISO: Too Early to Gauge 23-24 Capacity Supply

MISO told stakeholders Tuesday that it is not yet able to make “quantifiable conclusions” about the amount of capacity available for the 2023-24 planning year after completing its first seasonal planning resource auction (PRA) in April.

“From the supply side, it’s very early in the process to begin making predictions,” Eric Thoms, senior manager of resource adequacy operations, said during a Resource Adequacy Subcommittee meeting. He said many load-modifying resources have not yet begun the registration process and some generators haven’t completed verification test capacity data.

Stakeholders asked the grid operator to publish more frequent and precise supply data before auctions are conducted, a result of a 1.2-GW shortfall across MISO Midwest in last year’s PRA. MISO leadership has said there will be more capacity shortfalls in future auctions unless members quickly bring more generation online. (See “Stakeholders Ask for Data Improvements,” MISO Promises Stakeholder Discussions on Capacity Auction Reform.)

Thoms said reserve requirements will likely look the same by the time the auction rolls around. Staff currently estimates the RTO will need 132 GW to meet summer load, 125 GW to cover the fall, 127 GW for the winter and 124 GW for the spring. MISO’s preliminary numbers show that several of its 10 local resource zones will require more reserves for non-summer seasons, a first for the footprint.

The grid operator’s 7.4% summer planning reserve margin is lower than the 8.7% margin used in last year’s PRA. Staff said the decrease was driven by switching to seasonal modeling and “changes in resource mix/performance and load factors.”

Thoms said MISO is in the process of evaluating load-serving entities’ load forecasts to find reasons behind the smaller forecasts. He said staff has yet to form a “narrative” on why system demand is expected to decline.

Monitor Revises Mitigation to Fit Seasonal Design

MISO’s Independent Market Monitor has been prepping for seasonal auction market mitigation.

IMM David Patton has created a website for market participants to request reference levels and participation exclusions for those who don’t want to offer into the auction. He said the reference level and exclusion process will be revised to account for shorter seasonal capacity periods; it will also share the penalties for accreditation suppliers that enter generation outages.

Patton said he will consider when outage penalties and diminished accreditation make it uneconomic for a resource to offer into the seasonal auction. He said he will issue exclusions when a resource’s “expected penalties and accreditation costs in future planning years is likely greater than its forgone revenues.” He said that non-exempt generator outages render auction participation worthless when they last more than 45 days of a 90-day season and exempt outages render participation worthless at longer than 75 days.  

MISO’s tariff does not allow the risk of penalties to be included in reference levels, Patton noted. He said he will not accept requests to address outage penalties in reference levels.

Patton asked market participants to submit lists by March 14 of deliverable resources they don’t intend to offer into the PRA or be included in fixed resource adequacy plans.

Stakeholders requested additional time with the monitor to better understand market mitigation under a seasonal auction construct.

When asked by stakeholders whether Patton supported MISO’s 2023 seasonal capacity auctions or thought they were rushed, he laughed and demurred from an answer.

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Washington Hydrogen Bill Praised, Panned

OLYMPIA, Wash. — The potential creation of public authorities to run hydrogen manufacturing and distribution facilities in Washington drew praise from transit authorities and criticism from the state’s business community at a hearing of the Senate Environment & Energy Committee Wednesday.

Senate Bill 5325,  sponsored by Sen. Sharon Shewmake (D), would allow the creation of “public transportation benefit areas” to boost the use of hydrogen-fueled vehicles.

The bill would allow local governments to create authorities and to seek federal funding and ask voters for a sales tax, a business-and-occupation tax, or a utility tax to produce and sell hydrogen to power vehicles.

The transit authorities from Lewis County (just south of Olympia) Pierce County (Tacoma) and Kitsap County (across Puget Sound from Seattle) supported the bill Wednesday.

But Mike Ennis, representing the Association of Washington Business, criticized the bill, saying it would give local governments a competitive advantage over private ventures.

Washington has four hydrogen facilities being built or under consideration.

The Twin Transit Authority in Lewis County expects to have a hydrogen refueling station running by the end of this year. Its first customers will be a few hydrogen-fueled buses.

The Douglas County Public Utility District is building a hydrogen manufacturing facility next to the Columbia River in central Washington that is also aiming to be operational by the end of this year. The PUD plans to buy a handful of hydrogen-fueled vehicles and will ship the bulk of its hydrogen elsewhere.

The Port of Seattle and the Kitsap County Transit Authority are also considering whether to manufacture hydrogen.

The Port of Seattle and the Douglas County PUD did not attend Wednesday’s hearing.

Washington does not have any hydrogen vehicles because there is no way to refuel them. David Warren, head of Twin Transit, said the creation of hydrogen refueling stations is handicapped by the lack of such vehicles. “It’s a classic chicken or egg” situation, he said.

Warren said Interstate Highway 5 — which stretches from Vancouver, B.C., to Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles — would be a good corridor to locate hydrogen refueling stations.