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April 11, 2026

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‘Transformative Procurement’ Key to Corporate Clean Energy Goals

Companies committed to 100% clean energy should look beyond the megawatts of solar, wind, storage or other carbon-free power they are procuring, according to a new report from the World Resources Institute.

They should also consider how, where and when those megawatts are being produced and consumed, and their impact on carbon emissions and on distribution and transmission grids.

The report calls for “transformative procurement,” which it defines as strategies and practices that “maximize emission reductions, match [companies’] clean energy purchases more closely to their loads, increase the flexibility of the grid, deploy technologies that enable decarbonization and ensure a just transition to zero-carbon resources.”

In particular, the report targets “large energy buyers,” which it says are “well-positioned to accelerate deep decarbonization because of the magnitude of their energy demand; their staff and resources dedicated to clean energy procurement; and their ability to integrate new technologies, innovate and control their energy usage.”

“Large energy buyers, both companies and cities, have been playing a very important role in driving clean energy on the grid, and we need that to continue,” Lori Bird, WRI’s director for U.S. energy, told NetZero Insider. “[But] as you get more clean energy on the grid, it needs to operate in a different way, and the role of customers and their interactivity with the marketplace is really important.”

A key case study cited in the report is Google’s 24/7 contract with AES, announced in May, guaranteeing the tech giant’s Virginia data centers will receive 90% carbon-free power on an hourly basis. AES is procuring a 500-MW portfolio of wind, solar, hydropower and battery storage for the 10-year contract, according to the report.

Google has also piloted a “carbon-intelligent computing platform” that allows it to load-shift demand at individual data centers, for example, rescheduling nonurgent computing tasks to times when renewable wind or solar are available.

Other modes of transformative procurement that companies can adopt include ensuring their purchases do not create grid congestion or overgeneration that might impede broader deployment of clean energy, and actively driving innovation in new technologies and business models, the report says.

Microsoft Goes Big on Carbon Capture

The impact that large energy buyers can have on energy market growth and innovation is well recognized. In the past decade, corporate procurement has put 35 GW of utility-scale wind and solar on the U.S. grid, out of a total of 130 GW of new renewables, the report says. Industry analyst Wood Mackenzie anticipates U.S. companies will put 85 GW of new renewables on the grid by 2030, but many reports say that in the face of the mounting climate crisis, clean energy deployment must accelerate, along with storage, flexible demand and grid expansion, and modernization.

The report “is trying to emphasize the importance of this next decade and the transition that’s needed and how we might need to think about that differently and take some different actions and enable these customers that really want to drive clean energy to take it to that next level,” Bird said.

For example, the report notes, distribution and transmission grids can only handle finite amounts of intermittent renewables at one time — what the report calls their “clean energy carrying capacity.” Solar or wind overgeneration may result in curtailment, which in turn “can make it harder for future projects to come online,” the report says. Options for large energy buyers to avoid straining the grid’s clean energy carrying capacity include:

  • Firm clean energy technologies: Achieving 24/7 clean energy targets will likely require “firm,” dispatchable clean energy, such as hydropower, nuclear, biomass and even fossil fuel generation with carbon capture. The report notes that developing these firm clean energy resources could require different contract structures based on capacity rather than delivered energy, and the willingness to invest in pilot projects and emerging technologies.
  • Decarbonization-enabling technologies: The report’s focus here is on energy storage and carbon capture. Batteries co-located with clean generation can provide reliability — and soak up excess generation — as well as delivering grid-support services that can be bid into regional markets. Carbon capture can be deployed to “offset emissions that cannot be avoided,” the report says.

Another case study in the report briefly profiles Microsoft’s commitment to invest $1 billion in carbon capture technologies as part of its pledge to become carbon-negative by 2030. The company is working with Northern Lights Carbon Capture and Storage to create open-source software platforms that will be needed to scale carbon capture.

The wide choice of options for large buyers to consider is deliberate, Bird said. “Not everyone can do the same thing, and not all markets actually need the same types of actions because the generation mix is different in different parts of the country and buyers have different load profiles or abilities to purchase different kinds of energy.”

Regulatory barriers can also mean not all options are available in different regions, depending on market structures — regulated, restructured, wholesale or not, she said. “Some companies are more constrained than others in terms of how many resources they have available to do this and the ability to do complex things,” she said.

Case studies in the report focus primarily on the efforts of tech giants like Google and Microsoft, Bird said. The way forward includes developing and scaling the clean energy products and programs that will make “transformative” procurement the industry standard, accessible to a broad range of businesses, utilities and other customers.

Creating new metrics for evaluating impact and greenhouse gas accounting will also be required, which in turn will depend on the ability to obtain accurate, standardized data, the report says. Granular data on the portion of customer load served by clean energy could make it possible to measure “how closely the timing of purchased clean energy meets customer load on a daily and hourly basis.”

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Vt. Climate Council Searches for Equitable Social Cost of Carbon

The Vermont Climate Council is considering a social cost of carbon (SCC) for 2022 of $124/metric ton of CO2 (MTCO2).

That figure is based on calculations released in June by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for its value of carbon guidance to state agencies.

The council’s Subcommittee on Science and Data on Monday recommended that the state follow DEC’s model for establishing an SCC for use in analyzing proposed emission mitigation scenarios for Vermont’s first climate action plan.

An SCC sets a value for the emission reductions that would come from the proposed mitigation scenarios for input in benefit-cost and economic analyses. It is designed to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the value of investments in reducing emissions beyond monetary costs and benefits.

The subcommittee established guidelines for estimating the SCC, finding that the best option is to use a global damage-based approach with a 2% discount rate, Jared Duval, council member and subcommittee co-chair, said during the council’s monthly meeting.

A damage-based SCC approach sets a value for damages in relation to a unit of emissions, e.g., metric ton.

“The only way, in terms of the context of [SCC], that we can be taking responsibility for the costs that Vermont’s greenhouse gas emissions create globally is by using a global damage-based estimation, which is what most jurisdictions are using, recognizing that our emissions do not respect state borders or national borders,” said Duval, who also is executive director of the Energy Action Network.

In its value of carbon guidance, DEC said that a discount rate “reflects the rate at which society as a whole is willing to trade off a value received today with a value received in the future.”

The discount rate, Duval said, is “a question of ethics,” and the council may want to “deliberate more deeply on this question and reserve the option to suggest a different discount rate.”

Based on calculations released by DEC, a 2022 SCC without the discount rate (i.e., 0%) is $2,119/MTCO2. It is $53/MTCO2 at 3% and $411/MTCO2 at 1%. The SCC gradually increases over time, reaching $129/MTCO2 in 2025 and $137/MTCO2 in 2030, with the 2% discount rate.

“We recognize that this is an area of evolving research and improving methods all the time,” Duval said. “The federal [Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (IWG)] will have a report out towards the end of this year or the beginning of next year, and we want to keep our finger on the pulse of that work to see if in the future it is appropriate to update [the rate].”

In February, the Biden administration updated the federal SCC to $51/MMTCO2 for use in decision making based on a 3% discount rate. The IWG said in its technical support document for the updated value that evidence “strongly suggests” the rate should be lower.

How a Discount Rate Plays Out

The discount rate converts future damages into present-day value and helps determine how much weight is placed on impacts that occur in the future, according to Resources for the Future, which helped inform DEC’s value of carbon guidance. A lower discount rate increases the weight of future impacts.

In its work, Duval said, the subcommittee focused on the “intergenerational equity implications of choosing a discount rate that would ask us to do more sooner, rather than delay action into the future.”

That thinking plays out in the analysis of an emission mitigation measure, such as converting a fleet of buses to electric, by increasing the benefits side of a benefit-cost analysis.

An expected decrease in emissions in tons from the fleet conversion is multiplied by the SCC, and that result is placed in the benefits column. A high discount rate creates a lower SCC, so the total project benefits may not outweigh the costs. But if the SCC is higher, the benefits are more likely to outweigh the costs, thereby encouraging decision makers to move forward with the project to deliver long-term change for future generations.

Coming Up

The SCC methodology under consideration by the council does not clearly identify whether it is for carbon only, according to Duval. Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2020 targets the reduction of GHGs, not just carbon.

“We are doing further research to identify whether what we really mean by a social cost of carbon is a social cost of carbon dioxide equivalent,” which includes all harmful GHGs, he said. “We will get further guidance on the very robust and broad work that is happening by the federal IWG on that question.”

The subcommittee expects to give additional recommendations to the council at the next meeting in September on methods for GHG-emission accounting and measuring emissions sinks and net emissions in the state’s carbon budget.

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Large-scale Solar is Cropping Up in Small, Rural Massachusetts Towns

Small towns in Massachusetts are approving large-scale solar projects to generate renewable energy for their communities and help the state reach its goal of a 50% reduction in emissions by 2030, but locals are losing forested areas and high-quality farmland in the process.

The planning board in Northfield, Mass., has approved permits for three solar arrays on 76 acres of farmland. Just south of Northfield, Shutesbury is considering a 190-acre solar project on forested land.

In southeastern Massachusetts, Wareham’s planning board approved a solar field on 157 acres of forest.

Northwestern Massachusetts, part of the Connecticut River Valley, is known for its old-growth forests and rich soil, which has supported cultivation for hundreds of years.

Statewide rallies held at the end of July by various conservation grassroots movements called for a moratorium on solar projects larger than five acres that propose building on productive farmland or clear-cutting trees in places where species need to be protected.

“We have to look at everything holistically,” said Meg Sheehan, a rally organizer and member of the nonprofit conservation advocacy group Save the Pine Barrens. “We shouldn’t be rushing through this blindly to get to net zero by 2050.”

Using satellite imagery, Mass Audubon found that in Massachusetts and Rhode Island 4,000 acres of private forest land have been cleared for solar arrays, threatening biodiversity in the states.

Building on farmland also reduces local food production and increases communities’ reliance on produce from cross-country trucking, which expels greenhouse gases.

“We are killing the environment to save it,” said Janet Sinclair, another rally organizer and Save the Pine Barrens member.

A moratorium on solar subsidies for developments on forested areas or agricultural land should be in place until the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) changes state laws to encourage building solar arrays on parking lots or landfills instead, Sinclair said.

Currently, it is more profitable to build on open space than in the built environment. It should be up to the state to create laws that make solar developments in parking lots more profitable, since the developments help meet state climate goals, Sinclair said.

“Developers are just following the money,” she said.

The DOER did not respond to requests for comment on the call for the moratorium or on the future of solar development in the state.

Several Massachusetts towns, including Shutesbury, have strong bylaws in place to protect forested areas. Amp Energy, the Canadian company developing the Shutesbury project, is attempting to circumvent laws that require projects to set aside land for conservation equal to four times the project footprint. For example, a 50-acre landowner could develop 10 acres of land but would have to conserve 40 acres.

Shutesbury also limits solar projects to 15 acres, which “severely limits the projects you can do cost effectively,” said Andrew Chabot, senior manager for Amp Energy in Massachusetts.

Other towns, such as Northfield, had bylaws dating back to 2014 that did not anticipate a rapid acceleration in solar development.

“We had to rely on the Northfield Master Guide, which in general supports the concept of solar,” when approving developer BlueWave Solar’s project, said Planning Board Chair Stephen Seredynski. “We can’t change the rules in the middle of the game, after the project was submitted.”

The town’s Open Space Committee is drafting updates to solar regulations, and Seredynski said the planning board will consider protecting farmland and forests in the new regulations.

How much clean energy a solar project generates compared to how much carbon is sequestered by the forests on land parcels is “data we need to look at in the future,” Seredynski said.

But the wide variety of regulations across Massachusetts’ 350 communities makes it difficult for developers of renewable energy to navigate projects, Chabot said. “Each has its own preferences.”

Making conservation provisions uniform across the state, as grassroots activists are requesting DOER to do, would “create greater certainty more broadly” for developers, Chabot said. However, he said the state has already taken the step conservation groups are calling for through incentives.

Municipal partnerships, such as the one Amp Energy has with Shutesbury, allow a project to be fast-tracked through state approval under DOER’s Solar Mass Renewable Energy program. There is also $450,000 in it for the town in the first year of the project, known as a payment in lieu of taxes, that Amp Energy will provide the municipality instead of paying taxes on the project.

Northfield is also receiving a payment in lieu of taxes for the BlueWave Solar project.

Even if DOER were to update its subsidy regulations, Chabot said, it is more carbon-intensive to produce steel solar panels tall enough and safe enough to stand in a parking lot. Many businesses also lease their spaces and cannot put solar on the roof of their shop or office building, Chabot said.

The parcels the company acquired for the project in Shutesbury are just large enough to be profitable, and they exist along an existing transmission corridor.

“It would be cost-prohibitive to go somewhere else and build a substation,” Chabot said.

For that reason, the Northeast is not the region for profitable solar generation, said Mark Andrew, a cultural resource site monitor for the Wampanoag Tribe.

“We are not the wide-open plains of Kansas or Nebraska,” Andrew said. “We are taking down a lot of trees when we can’t do solar panels on a large enough scale for them to be profitable in the small states of New England.”

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PJM Considering New Options for In-person Meetings

PJM is considering holding a “test” meeting by the end of the year as it works toward returning to full in-person stakeholder meetings for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a letter to stakeholders, PJM CEO Manu Asthana said the RTO is still waiting until January for standing committees and senior standing committees to hold in-person meetings to “protect our people, our stakeholders and the security of the grid.” Asthana said remote attendance for all stakeholder meetings will also remain an option.

RTOs and ISOs across the country have been struggling to finalize plans for returning to workplaces and in-person meetings because of the unpredictable nature of the pandemic. (See COVID Resurgence Scrambles RTOs’ Return.)

Asthana said PJM received “mixed” feedback from a recent stakeholder survey, with some wanting to resume in-person meetings in the next few months and others preferring to wait until the start of 2022. He said the survey was also designed to understand corporate travel restrictions among stakeholders.

As a compromise for developing a meeting schedule, Asthana said, PJM is looking at the logistics of having a test in-person meeting before the end of the year. Asthana said PJM is also currently exploring options for an in-person Annual Meeting next year, but the RTO does not currently have a venue under contract for the event.

Asthana said the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus and rising infection rates are forcing changes in plans and monitoring. He said any current plans by PJM “could very well change” based upon guidance from its epidemiologist and other health officials, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Montgomery County Office of Public Health in Pennsylvania.

“Please know that we would like nothing more than to return to some level of normalcy, so that PJM employees can once again personally interface with our incredible stakeholder community,” Asthana said. “We hope that happens soon. However, the wellbeing of our employees and stakeholders, and the safety of the grid, must remain our highest priorities.”

Asthana also discussed vaccination protocols among PJM staff, saying the RTO is not mandating vaccinations for employees “at this time.” But he said the RTO is “strongly encouraging” staff to be vaccinated.

Vaccination discussions among stakeholders have been going on for several months at meetings, with members expressing both the pros and cons of mandatory vaccinations. (See “COVID-19 Update,” PJM Operating Committee Briefs: Aug. 12, 2021.)

“We know through voluntary employee reporting that a relatively high percentage of our people are vaccinated at this point, and we’re fortunate that our surrounding community, Montgomery County, also has relatively high levels of vaccination among the eligible population. Additionally, we have implemented multiple safety protocols on our campuses to help provide a safe work environment for our people.

PJM recently concluded a three-week return-to-campus pilot program for some employees, Asthana said. The volunteer program tested PJM’s readiness and COVID-19 protocols to “identify best practices that will inform our phased return-to-campus plan,” Asthana said, which is still anticipated to start in the fall.

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Entergy Expedites MISO Tx Project, Cancels 4 Others

Entergy companies have expedited a transmission project and canceled four others, the corporation told stakeholders during a MISO South planning meeting on Monday.

Entergy New Orleans said construction of a new 230-kV substation cannot wait on the 2021 MISO Transmission Expansion Plan’s (MTEP 21) December approval by the Board of Directors. The utility said the substation is needed to ensure the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans’ power reliability for stormwater drainage. It said waiting on approval would jeopardize its targeted June 1, 2023, in-service date.

MISO said Entergy is free to proceed with construction. Staff’s Zack Bearden said analyses performed as part of the expedited project review indicated that the project will be able to reliably serve the increased load without adverse system impacts.

Entergy New Orleans will fund most of the $27 million project, with Entergy Louisiana picking up nearly $3 million.

Meanwhile, Entergy Arkansas is withdrawing four small baseline reliability projects in northern Arkansas that were approved under MTEP 18.

The utility said the outage concerns that prompted the projects are no longer an issue. The canceled projects include the rebuild of 161-kV line segments varying in length from almost four miles to 13.5 miles.

Entergy Arkansas is also withdrawing the construction of a 115-kV breaker station near Little Rock.

MISO’s William Kenney said staff will evaluate all the withdrawal requests and return to a later South subregional planning meeting with a determination of the projects’ reliability value.

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Global Warming Delaying Rainy Seasons, Study Shows

Global warming has delayed the onset of tropical monsoon seasons by four days, which has a ripple effect on agriculture in India, parts of Africa and other regions at the same latitudes.

That is the conclusion of a three-year study by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. The research was published in June in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Part of the origin of the study traces back to PNNL co-researcher Fengfei Song, whose father, a rice farmer in southern China, pays close attention to the monsoon rains and winds in preparing his crops. “Tropical rain is very important in tropical agriculture,” Song said in an interview. PNNL atmospheric scientist Ruby Leung co-authored the study.

Much of the study focused on analyzing temperature data, which is plentiful, along with global precipitation records, which are not. It also looked at increases in greenhouse gases and the reduction in human produced aerosols. Variations in ocean surface temperatures also played into the calculations. The study covers 1979 to 2019.

The researchers concluded that the increase in temperatures and the reductions in aerosols have led to a four-day delay in the start of the monsoon or rainy seasons in the Sahel region of Africa, southern India, southeastern Asia and islands along those latitudes.  The study also extrapolated that the monsoon seasons could be delayed by an additional five days over northern tropical lands and by another eight days over the Sahel by 2100.  The Sahel is the semi-arid part of Africa just south of the Sahara Desert. It extends from Senegal on the Atlantic Ocean coast to Sudan.

Global warming and the reduction of aerosols have triggered a complicated domino effect that results in delays in monsoons and planting seasons, the study concluded.

Greenhouse gases warm the Earth’s surface, which sends more water vapor into the atmosphere. That translates to more heat needed to heat the atmosphere when spring shifts into summer, meaning it will take longer for rainfall to form.

Meanwhile, human-created aerosols from burning fossil fuels reflect sunlight, cooling the atmosphere and combating the warming generated by greenhouse gases. But as the use of aerosols declines, that cooling is lost — which speeds up warming the atmosphere, which in turn delays rainfalls.

The next step for the researchers is to quantify the importance and effects of delaying monsoon rainfalls to farming, Song said.

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American Clean Power, Energy Storage Association Merge

The American Clean Power Association will absorb fellow trade group Energy Storage Association at the beginning of next year, the groups announced Monday.

ESA member companies will join the ACP under the American Clean Power brand, effective Jan. 1, 2022. ESA has more than 210 members, while ACP boasts more than 800.

ACP said it’s creating a storage council so that energy storage becomes a top priority within the association. It said it will spend the rest of the year working with ESA to encourage Congress to enact a storage investment tax credit.

ACP spokesperson Jason Ryan said the trade groups are developing a “thoughtful process” that maps preparations to the merger date. In an emailed statement he said ACP will integrate the ESA team into its existing structure “and provide new opportunities for their growth.”

The boards of directors of both groups and ESA members have approved the merger. The move requires no other approvals, and ACP is not disclosing the dollar amount involved in the acquisition.

“We are thrilled the member companies at the U.S. Energy Storage Association have endorsed the planned merger with ACP. This will enhance our ability to become a more forceful advocate for wind, solar, storage and transmission,” ACP CEO Heather Zichal said in a press release.

“The merger will help deliver more value for our members and build a best-in-class trade association that is nimble, effective and able to represent all clean energy industries with a unified voice on some of our top priorities, including the investment tax credit for storage projects,” Zichal said.

ESA Interim CEO Jason Burwen said the merger marks “a powerful new chapter for energy storage.”

“The U.S. energy storage industry has passed an inflection point in its growth. Merging with ACP will ensure our members have the resources and support they need to attain ESA’s vision of 100 GW of new energy storage by 2030,” Burwen said. “Our clean energy future depends on deploying both energy storage and renewables at scale. We rise faster together.”

Former CEO Kelly Speakes-Backman left ESA in January to work in the Department of Energy as principal deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Earlier this month, the ACP released its first Clean Power Annual report, which said wind, utility solar and battery storage capacity in the U.S. totaled more than 170 GW and served about 10.7% of the nation’s electricity needs.

A record 26 GW worth of clean-energy projects came online in 2020, according to the report, and another 90 GW worth of projects is under development. ACP estimated that wind, solar and battery energy storage made up 78% of new generation nationally in 2020 and represented about $39 billion in total investment.

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New York Again Presses ‘Reset’ on ESCO Rules

The New York Public Service Commission on Thursday held the first of several public stakeholder meetings to refine the rules governing energy service companies (ESCOs), including the regulatory treatment of green gas in product bundles (15-M-0127).

The PSC and Department of Public Service staff led the so-called “Track II” session to improve state regulation of the industry by defining what constitutes a small, nonresidential energy customer; identifying the products and services likely to benefit customers; and making the calculation of pricing and value transparent for customers.

The commission has been working since 2014 to balance the idea of free markets and free choice with accountability for unscrupulous business practices. ESCOs have lured customers with offers ranging from frequent-flyer miles and casino trips, to new, more efficient HVAC systems.

Annexair-AHR-Expo-HVAC-(Annexair)-Content.jpg
ESCOs have attracted customers with offers ranging from frequent flyer miles to new, more efficient HVAC systems. | Annexair

Prior to its December 2019 order cracking down on ESCOs, the PSC held hearings before two administrative law judges, the transcripts of which totaled thousands of pages. (See NYPSC Reins in ESCOs, Expands Community DG.)

The current Track II collaborative process will have no ALJs assigned to it, so DPS staff will have to “determine what we can or should do with respect to discovery,” DPS assistant counsel F. Thomas Dwyer said. “But to the extent proposals are filed for commission consideration, those would need to be pretty transparent and clear for not only the commission but for all interested stakeholders.”

Among the stakeholders at the meeting was Richard Berkley, executive director of the Public Utility Law Project of New York. “To what extent in evaluation of potential or submitted value-added products and services will [DPS] staff be examining how much their product or service lowers the cost of energy to the consumer or how much it raises it?” he asked.

The three recent commission orders on the subject has made it clear that pricing is key, Dwyer said. As to determining what products provide value to customers, the default has been the “guaranteed savings rule,” which stipulates that a product or service must save an electric or gas customer money compared to their regulated utility bill.

The PSC also has authorized products that may be more expensive but provide additional value streams to customers, such as a fixed-rate or home warranty product, he said. ESCOs also offer green energy deals such as natural gas or electricity bundled with either a carbon offset component or a renewable energy credit (REC) purchase component.

It’s important for the state to review data on these products and understand what the value proposition is to consumers, “so I think discovery would be helpful to establish that so parties can ask questions and just make sure we fully understand these products that are being proposed,” said Kathleen O’Hare, senior attorney at the DPS’ Utility Intervention Unit.

Defining Limits

It’s important not to have a “broad understanding or limitation” as to how a certain home warranty product might apply to a certain sector, attorney Natara Feller said.

A product that focuses only on insurance for hot water heaters and furnaces may not be as attractive to renters, and all customers have varying situations and interests in different products, “so we wouldn’t be excluding it from any customer segment on that basis,” Dwyer said.

The Track II proceeding has two potentially contradictory issues for utilities, said Josh Pasquariello, manager of customer choice at National Grid.

Concerning value-added products, “we probably have to figure out how to separate those from supply charges, which might be an issue for our billing systems if we’re not set up to do that as yet. On the flip side of that, we wouldn’t want charges on those value-added products necessarily rolled up into the supply charges because we wouldn’t want to pay POR [purchase of receivables] on insurance to help cover a water heater; we’d only expect to pay POR on the supply itself,” Pasquariello said.

In a POR program, the utility purchases the receivables of an ESCO at a discount rate equal to the utility’s actual uncollectible debts.

Are ESCOs going to pay less than 100% of the cost of modifying the utility billing platform for more transparency? Berkley asked.

The commission already directed the utilities to start working on some of the changes that may be necessary to improve transparency, but there was no directive to have ESCOs specifically fund those changes, Dwyer said.

Regarding what constitutes a small, nonresidential customer, several stakeholders felt that the 750-dekatherm threshold is too high for a gas customer, and that determining an electric customer by meter type was inappropriate. The electricity definition should be volumetric and not based on the meter classification, which would also be consistent with other commission rules and those in other states, said Jeff Donnelly, director of regulatory affairs at Family Energy.

Green Gas

The clean energy proposals submitted last year generally fell into two categories: a carbon offset product or a REC product, Dwyer said.

The former was set up to offset a percentage of the customer’s natural gas usage by purchasing carbon allowances from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The REC products proposal would offset a customer’s natural gas usage by purchasing and retiring RECs or making alternative compliance payments to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

“On tracking of the carbon offset products, we’ve been offering this type of product for several years, and we track it internally and we audit internally, so it could simply just be an annual reporting requirement to commission staff on how many customers are on that product and confirming and validating the proper amount of purchase of carbon offsets,” Donnelly said.

Dwyer responded that staff were more concerned with the calculation itself, which could be addressed in later hearings.

The DPS slideshow asked whether green gas products would encourage customers to use more gas, to which Angela Schorr, NRG director of regulatory affairs, said they “found it actually the opposite.”

NRG’s Green Mountain Energy is a renewable brand “that’s been offering 100% renewable electricity for years, and we actually started offering green gas because … customers that already have gas are looking to do something about it … like how can they help the environment even though they are using gas.”

The DPS is focused on offsetting gas usage, Dwyer said. “We really didn’t see a ton of proposals to specifically provide customers with renewable natural gas or an alternative.”

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Restoration Efforts from Tropical Storm Henri Nearly Complete

Most of the remaining power outages in Connecticut from Tropical Storm Henri, primarily concentrated in the eastern part of the state serviced by Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES), will be restored by late Monday, according to the utility.

Eversource reported that 1,730 out of its 1.28 million customers in Connecticut were without power as of 5 p.m. Monday. Its crews — boosted by thousands of additional utility workers from Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and Canada — have restored power to more than 67,000 customers. Crews also repaired or replaced 44 broken poles, removed more than 240 trees and restrung more than 25 miles of downed wire. Eversource said it prepared for up to 69% of customers in Connecticut to lose power during the storm and that restoration work could last as long as three weeks.

To facilitate restoration efforts, Eversource prepositioned crews in cities and towns across Connecticut and at multiple staging areas across the state, including the Pratt & Whitney airfield in East Hartford.

Eversource spokesperson Tricia Taskey Modifica told RTO Insider that “we were fortunate that Tropical Storm Henri didn’t materialize as expected here in Connecticut” and “planned accordingly.”

“We knew our communications efforts were a key element in the response and worked to be sure they were where we believe they needed to be,” Taskey Modifica said. “We coordinated with Gov. [Ned] Lamont, state officials and all 149 communities we serve.”

Taskey Modifica added that once restoration work finishes, Eversource will “thoroughly review our storm preparation and response to identify any areas where we can improve.”

“Our customers expect a great deal from us,” Taskey Modifica said. “We understand that and take that responsibility very seriously.”

United Illuminating (UI) (NYSE:AGR), which serves the greater New Haven and Bridgeport areas of Connecticut, has 47 outages out of more than 340,000 customers. UI also doubled the size of its field crews ahead of the storm, including line workers, tree trimming and damage assessment teams. In addition, UI pre-staged crews throughout its service territory to limit travel to damaged locations.

In Rhode Island, where the storm made landfall near Westerly on Sunday, National Grid (NYSE:NGG) had 24,476 outages from approximately 500,000 customers, including 21,298 in Washington County. National Grid estimated that power would be restored to most of its customers by late Wednesday morning. (See related story, Conn., RI Take Substantial Hit from Tropical Storm Henri.)

PURA’s Preliminary Assessment

Marissa Gillett, chair of the Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, told RTO Insider that she has positive initial assessments of the utilities’ preparation and performance for the storm. Gillett said she has not heard any of the widespread communication “horror stories” with customers and municipal officials that followed Tropical Storm Isaias last August, which knocked out power to hundreds of thousands and led to nine days of restoration work. Gillett added that while Connecticut did not take a direct hit from Henri, the prepositioning of restoration resources by Eversource and UI was “significantly better” than what she saw last year.

In the aftermath of Isaias, Eversource and UI made changes mandated by the Take Back Our Grid Act, which directed the PURA to develop and implement performance-based regulations, including fines and reduced returns on equity. In addition, the PURA recently finalized a $28.6 million civil penalty and annual profit reductions of about $31 million against Eversource following an investigation into its Isaias response. Eversource has appealed the ROE reduction in state court. Still, the preparation for Henri, and Tropical Storm Elsa earlier this summer, indicates to Gillett that the legislative and regulatory remedies are getting through to the utilities.

“I would really like to believe that they have received the message, but more importantly, if they haven’t received the message, I think PURA and the legislature and the governor have demonstrated that we’re capable of reinforcing that message should it need to be,” Gillett said.

One point that Gillett said she is still trying to drive home with Eversource and UI is that she is happy to collaborate on enhancing emergency response and grid resilience programs. But ultimately, she is the utilities’ chief regulator and has to deliver an objective assessment of their performances.

“I think there’s a negative connotation associated with having tension in the relationship; I think there should always be tension,” Gillett said. “It’s my job to drive them to do better.”

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Conn. DEEP Commissioner Still Stumping for TCI-P Passage

Leading lawmakers in the Connecticut General Assembly have not ruled out a special session this fall that could provide advocates another chance to push for passage of the Transportation and Climate Initiative Program (TCI-P).

A bill to enable TCI-P made it out of the Environment Committee during the last regular season but not to a full vote.

Republican legislators and gasoline trade associations labeled the cap-and-invest program as another gas tax in the form of potential pass-down costs from fuel suppliers to consumers. Analysis by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection did show that Connecticut’s TCI-P participation could boost gas prices by 5 cents/gallon beginning in 2023, assuming fuel suppliers choose to pass down 100% of allowance costs to consumers. Multiple consumer protection safeguards, including a cost-containment reserve, would kick in at 9 cents/gallon.

Opponents countered the 5- to 9-cent increase applies only to the first year of TCI-P, with prices potentially rising by as much as 26 cents. (See Conn. Officials Push Back on ‘Gas Tax’ Label of TCI-P.)

Gov. Ned Lamont signed a memorandum of understanding in December 2020 along with Massachusetts, Rhode Island and D.C. to launch TCI-P, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles by 26% from 2022 to 2032 and invest hundreds of millions of dollars per year in cleaner transportation choices and public health improvements. Since then, DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes has been Connecticut’s chief advocate for one of Lamont’s legislative priorities.

Speaking last week during a webinar hosted by the Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs, Dykes is back on the stump “to counter some of the myths that are out there” about TCI-P.

“Either it’s going to subject us to more risks and challenges, or it’s going to be an engine of helping to grow jobs, transform our economy and improve our public health here in the state,” Dykes said.

TCI-P is projected to raise up to $89 million starting in 2023, increasing to $117 million by 2032. The program would direct at least 50% of this money to communities overburdened by air pollution or underserved by the transportation system. It also would establish an equity and environmental justice advisory board to counsel DEEP and the Department of Transportation on TCI-P to ensure equitable outcomes.

Speaking of outcomes, Dykes said that she continues to hear from legislators who were disappointed that TCI-P did not move forward during the last session and had “good, constructive conversations” with those who were unsure about the program or not supporters. Dykes added that Connecticut’s success with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which aims to cap and reduce emissions from the power sector, shows a viable path for TCI-P.

“We’ve proven this [cap-and-trade] mechanism with RGGI,” Dykes said. “We know how important it is to take action, and we know what the impacts are to our communities by not taking action, so that’s why we’re continuing to listen and think about ways that we can address concerns and make this a bill that we’ll get to the governor’s desk.”

As for gearing up for another tussle with TCI-P opponents, Dykes said, this is not the first time that she’s heard regulations mischaracterized as a tax, which is why she has been “very transparent” that the program will affect the consumer price of gasoline. She also wants to have a “fair discussion” about higher health care costs to address asthma and other acute care, borne from decades of slow action on climate change.

“That is an enormous tax,” Dykes said. “It’s 2021. It is beyond time for us to be debating. It is very clear that not putting in place common-sense programs subjects us to much higher and accelerating costs to help protect our communities from runaway impacts from climate change. It makes great economic sense to do this.”