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NREL report says EV charging stations continued strong growth in early 2020

November 12, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 12, 2020

During the first three months of 2020, public electric vehicle supply equipment grew 7.6%, according to a new report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Of that, direct-current fast chargers made up the largest piece of the pie, expanding by 10.6%, NREL said in the report.

The metrics build on a consistent upward trend across the country for charging stations, according to Abby Brown, a project manager in NREL’s Sustainable Transportation Integration group and co-author of the report.

“Since about 2011, we’ve seen strong year-over-year growth in charging infrastructure,” she said in a statement. “Between December of 2015 and 2019 alone, for example, the number of charging stations doubled. It was much the same in early 2020: more growth in all parts of the country.”

NREL reported that while all regions saw substantial growth during the quarter, a few stood out.

The Northeast (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut) saw an increase of over 10%, the fastest growth in the country.

California’s charging infrastructure grew by 9%, “even as it continued to boast the largest share of the country’s public charging infrastructure,” NREL said.

The states with the highest rate of charging stations per 100,000 people were Vermont (105.3), California (64.0), Washington D.C. (63.3), Hawaii (47.7), and Colorado (40.9).

Private electric vehicle supply equipment, such as charging for transit fleets or employees only, grew by 3.2%, bringing the total of private electric vehicle supply equipment to nearly 14,000.

Direct-current fast and Level 2 electric vehicle supply equipment are 49.6% and 12%, respectively, of the way toward meeting projected 2030 charging demand for 15 million EVs, though 56.2% of public direct-current fast chargers are only available to Tesla drivers, NREL said.

ChargePoint made up nearly 44% of public electric vehicle supply equipment in the station locator, the largest of any charging network.

The report’s statistics tap data from the Alternative Fueling Station Locator, which NREL said is the most widely used tool on the Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center.

The report is available here.

Vanderbilt University, Nashville partner with TVA, NES on new solar farm

November 12, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 12, 2020

Vanderbilt University and the city of Nashville, Tenn., recently announced a Green Invest partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority and Nashville Electric Service that calls for the construction of a solar farm to be built in Tullahoma, Tenn., by Nashville-based Silicon Ranch Corp.

Vanderbilt will be a 25-megawatt co-subscriber to the array for campus operations. The new solar farm project is scheduled for completion in 2023.

This marks the university’s second solar project with TVA, NES and Silicon Ranch through TVA’s Green Invest program.

In January, TVA reported that a partnership between Nashville Electric Service, Vanderbilt University and TVA to bring new, large-scale renewable energy to the Tennessee Valley marked the first of its kind under the Green Invest program.

TVA’s Green Invest program leverages long-term agreements to build new, large-scale renewable energy installations through a competitive bid process.

In other recent Green Invest news, TVA on Nov. 9 said that a new 100-megawatt solar facility in Obion County, Tenn., will supply energy to Google’s data centers in Clarksville, Tenn., and Hollywood, Ala.

Tacoma Power proposes rate to support renewable electrofuel producers

November 10, 2020

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
November 10, 2020

Tacoma Power has filed a pilot rate to support the production of carbon neutral fuels known as electrofuels that could be substitutes for traditional fossil fuels.

Electrofuels are typically made from electricity, water and air. The resulting synthetic fuel can have a variety of forms and uses including the transportation sector. Renewable energy produced by wind, solar and hydropower resources that might otherwise be wasted can be stored as a renewable or “green” fuel.

In a filing with Tacoma’s Public Utility Board (U-11206), the public power utility noted that electrofuel producers could operate differently than most industrial customers because the production process can be interrupted on very short notice and be shut down for extended periods. The production of renewable electrofuels is flexible because the resulting fuel can be stored. That flexibility would allow Tacoma Power to request curtailment of the production process at times when electricity demand and prices are high.

Tacoma Power had conversations with several hydrogen producers, Clay Norris, the utility’s Power Management manager, said. “We realized their business model is driven by electricity costs. We also realized the flexibility of their production. We were looking to take advantage of that flexibility to get to a win-win outcome,” he said.

The proposed renewable electrofuel rate could call upon the customer to curtail their electric service for a minimum of 15% of the hours during a year. Participants in the pilot program would also have to be willing to curtail production within 10 minutes of notification for a minimum of one hour and up to three days. The pilot program is currently capped at 65 megawatts (MW).

In return, the utility would offer renewable electrofuel producers rates lower than standard industrial rates. The utility added that renewable electrofuel producers would not likely site facilities in its territory without this pilot rate.

The Renewable Electrofuel Service Pilot was approved by Tacoma’s Public Utility Board on Oct. 28 and is now awaiting approval before the city council. The city council has scheduled hearings on the proposal for November and December. If approved, the rates would take effect April 15, 2021, and the pilot program would end in 2030.

The electrofuel rates are designed to provide a benefit to the utility through increased retail sales, Tacoma Power said in the filing, adding that it does not anticipate a cost associated with the new rate.

Tacoma Power also noted that the new rates could benefit existing utility customers by providing several million dollars a year in revenues from electricity sales to electrofuel producers that the utility would otherwise sell into the wholesale market. In addition, an electrofuel customer represents a long-term energy sale that could generate positive margins, lowering rates for existing customers. And, finally, the community as a whole would benefit from the creation of jobs and additional tax revenue for the city, the utility said.

Tacoma Power would not have to procure firm capacity to serve electrofuel production load. If a regional resource adequacy program were established, the new rate could be characterized as a demand response program – the utility’s first – and would qualify as capacity and, therefore, would not burden existing customers with incremental costs.

Other utilities may adopt similar programs, which would lead to wide-spread beneficial use of surplus renewable power, Tacoma Power said in the filing.

The new interruptible load from hydrogen producers on Tacoma Power’s system would be a useful tool. “For the West Coast in particular, it is a power manager’s dream,” Norris said.

“Meeting climate change policy targets will be impossible without substantial electrification of infrastructure traditionally dependent on fossil fuels,” the utility said in the filing.

Other public power utilities in the Pacific Northwest have been exploring alternatives to fossil-based transportation fuels. The Eugene Water and Electric Board in Oregon last month signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the development of a production facility for renewable hydrogen that could be used in the region’s heating and transportation sectors.

And the Douglas County Public Utility District in Washington and its partners have received a $1.9 million grant from the Centralia Coal Transition Board to fund a demonstration project for the first hydrogen fueling station for fuel cell electric vehicles in Washington state.

Calif. CCA Valley Clean Energy completes repayment to SMUD

November 10, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 10, 2020

California community choice aggregator Valley Clean Energy (VCE) recently made its final installment payment to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), reimbursing SMUD for its assistance with operating services during VCE’s launch in 2018.

The $1.5 million in deferred charges and interest were paid off on schedule, “which demonstrates VCE’s financial discipline while continuing to offer clean electricity at competitive rates,” VCE said in a Nov. 9 news release.

The SMUD payback is the second major financial commitment met by VCE during its start-up. VCE began its operations in 2018 with a $1.5 million seed loan from its three founding jurisdictions: Woodland, Davis and Yolo County.

Don Saylor, chair of VCE’s board of directors, noted that these funds, with interest, were paid back in October 2019, years ahead of schedule.

“SMUD continues to assist us in our business operations and we are grateful for their partnership,” he said.

Tracy Carlson, director of customer services and operations for SMUD, said that the public power utility is proud of its partnership with VCE and believes “that partnership can continue to bring benefits to VCE’s and SMUD’s customers for many years to come.”

SMUD in September 2017 said that it had been selected to negotiate a services agreement to provide VCE with technical and energy services, data management/call center services, wholesale energy services, credit support services and up to five years of business operations support.

SMUD noted that this was its first services agreement in the fast-growing CCA market.

The American Public Power Association has initiated a new category of membership for community choice aggregation programs.

Boulder, Colo., voters decline to pursue municipalization

November 9, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 9, 2020

Voters in Boulder, Colo., this month approved a ballot initiative that calls for the city to enter into a new, 20-year franchise with investor-owned Xcel Energy.

Residents of the city voted on ballot initiative (City Initiative 2C). According to unofficial results as of Nov. 5, the initiative was approved by 28,401 votes (53.30%), with 24,889 (46.70%) opposed.

If the result holds as expected, Boulder will pause its efforts to create a local electric utility and Boulder residents and businesses will remain Xcel customers in a new partnership.     

Franchise allows opt-outs starting in 2023   

The franchise agreement, which is a part of a comprehensive settlement agreement with Xcel Energy, includes unique terms that give the city additional opportunities to end the franchise agreement early under certain conditions.

The city could opt-out of the franchise in 2022, 2024 and 2028 if Xcel Energy fails to meet certain emission benchmarks, and could also opt-out in 2026, 2031 and 2036 for any reason. An opt-out would require a six-person vote of City Council or a majority vote of Boulder voters.   

If the city opted out of the franchise, it could re-initiate the process to create a local electric utility.

Report highlights benefits of public power utility in Boulder, Colo.

A local power financial analysis found that lower renewable electricity prices, lower bond rates and increasing electrification of transportation and buildings means that citizens of Boulder, Colo., can expect that a locally owned utility would at least breakeven financially within five to 10 years of startup.

The analysis was released on Oct. 14 by a coalition called Empower Our Future, a group that opposed approval of the ballot initiative.

TVA reports new solar facility will supply energy to Google data centers

November 9, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 9, 2020

The Tennessee Valley Authority on Nov. 9 said that a new 100-megawatt solar facility in Obion County, Tenn., will supply energy to Google’s data centers in Clarksville, Tenn., and Hollywood, Ala.

Florida-based solar developer Origis Energy is using TVA’s Green Invest program to develop the solar farm, TVA noted in a news release.

The program helps customers like Google meet their long-term sustainability goals with new renewable energy projects. In the past two years, Green Invest has generated $1.4 billion in economic activity in TVA’s service area, TVA said.

Under Green Invest, companies receive renewable energy certificates. Companies initiate a project and TVA sources the power through power purchase agreements.

Through a long-term power purchase agreement, Origis Energy will own and operate the plant. Origis plans to have the solar facility operational by the end of 2022, pending environmental reviews.

To power the data centers, Google had already purchased a total of 266 MW of power generated by multiple solar farms linked into the TVA electric grid.  

Monday’s announcement comes on the heels of four other major Green Invest deals TVA has completed this year involving General Motors, Vanderbilt University, Knoxville Utilities Board and Facebook.

In August, TVA said that a new 70-MW solar facility in Madison County, Tenn., announced in February will support Facebook’s operations in the region. TVA is partnering with Nashville-based solar developer Silicon Ranch to develop the project.

GM will secure half of a 200-MW solar farm announced earlier this year by TVA in Lowndes County, Miss., which is being developed by Origis Energy.

In April, TVA announced that it had selected First Solar and Origis Energy to develop 212 megawatts of solar power to fulfill the Knoxville Utilities Board’s March 2020 commitment to new renewable energy.

KUB is using the Green Invest program to produce carbon-free energy equivalent to 8% of KUB’s annual electric load, TVA noted.

In January, TVA reported that a partnership between Nashville Electric Service, Vanderbilt University and TVA to bring new, large-scale renewable energy to the Tennessee Valley marked the first of its kind under the Green Invest program.

OPPD, Google and Facebook

Other public power utilities have also collaborated with Facebook and Google.

Facebook in 2017 said that it had selected a new Nebraska wind project to supply power to the social media company’s new data center in Papillion, Neb. The Omaha Public Power District played a key role in bringing the data center to Nebraska through an innovative rate plan.

In late 2019, Google announced plans to build a $600 million data center in Papillion, Neb., making it the second company to take advantage of the OPPD rate designed to help meet the needs of large-power, high voltage transmission-level customers.

TVA and OPPD in 2018 were recognized as among the top-ranking U.S. utilities in economic development by Site Selection magazine.

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to build storage systems

November 9, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 9, 2020

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is preparing to build four new battery energy storage systems.

The agency’s board of directors in October voted to authorize $2.2 million to design the battery systems at water treatment plants in Granada Hills, La Verne and Riverside’s Temecula Valley as well as a pump station in Lake Forest.

The systems will boost the district’s energy resilience and cut operational costs by optimizing solar power and reducing peak load at its facilities, it noted in a news release.

With completion expected in mid-2022, the projects will allow Metropolitan to store excess power to use during peak periods.

The energy storage systems will be built with a microgrid configuration, meaning they can be connected to the larger electricity grid, or function independently to continue powering the facilities during a grid outage, Metropolitan noted.

The projects at Metropolitan’s Jensen, Weymouth and Skinner plants, along with its OC-88 pump station, also are in line with Metropolitan’s Energy Sustainability Plan. The plan identifies ways to contain energy costs, move toward energy independence and reduce price volatility through cost-effective alternative energy projects.

The projects are estimated to cost $11-12 million. However, Metropolitan said that through energy savings and incentives from the California Public Utilities Commission, Metropolitan is expected to recoup its costs within three years.

“Over the last decade, Metropolitan has invested about $28 million in solar power systems at the Jensen, Weymouth, Skinner plants and our Diamond Valley Lake Visitors Center to reduce our operational costs, protect against energy market price increases and cut our carbon footprint,” said Metropolitan Chief Engineer John Bednarski in the news release. “These battery energy storage systems take our commitment a step further – allowing us to store excess energy generated during peak solar hours for later use.”

The four Metropolitan sites identified for the energy storage systems were selected because of their on-site solar power generation, their location within high-threat fire districts and/or their location in low-income/disadvantaged communities, conditions for approval for the CPUC incentives.

The American Public Power Association this year launched a Public Power Energy Storage Tracker, which is a resource for association members that summarizes energy storage projects undertaken by members that are currently online.

Voters in Minnesota cities reject proposals to abolish public utility commissions

November 6, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 6, 2020

Voters in the Minnesota cities of Princeton and Shakopee this month rejected proposals that would have abolished public utility commissions in the cities.

In Princeton, city residents rejected a ballot initiative that would have abolished the Princeton Public Utilities Commission and transferred all direct oversight and responsibilities to the Princeton City Council. The ballot initiative was rejected by a vote of 1,102 against and 524 in favor.

The Princeton Public Utilities Commission, appointed by the city council, provides oversight and guidance over all policies, finances, and operations of the city’s utility, Princeton Public Utilities.

Princeton Public Utilities provides electricity and water to a variety of customers both inside and outside of city limits. 

In Shakopee, voters rejected a ballot initiative that called for the elimination of the utilities commission and result in the electric and water utilities being governed directly under the city council. 

A total of 11,794 residents voted against the proposal, while 8,312 residents voted in favor of the proposal.

Shakopee Public Utilities is an independent entity governed by a separate board of five commissioners. These commissioners are appointed by Shakopee’s City Council.

The commission was established by city council on December 12, 1950 and took over the responsibility of the utilities on April 1, 1951.

Public power utilities actively work to support pollinators in a variety of ways

November 6, 2020

by Taelor Bentley
APPA News
November 6, 2020

Public power utilities across the country are working hard on biodiversity efforts in their communities and one example of these efforts can be found in their support of pollinator populations.

Birds, bats, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, wasps, small mammals, and bees are pollinators, the Pollinator Partnership notes on its website. Somewhere between 75% and 95% of all flowering plants on the earth need help with pollination, according to the partnership.

In the power sector, transmission rights-of-way and solar facilities offer prime real estate for the cultivation and support of pollinator populations.

The Bonneville Power Administration on its website notes that the area beneath a transmission line right-of-way “may merely look like low-growing shrubs and grasses to you, but to a pollinator, those wildflowers are shelter, food and even a place to lay eggs.”

The federal power marketing administration notes that the way it manages the plants in its transmission rights-of-way “is critical to minimizing the risk of tree encroachment on power lines and has the secondary benefit of providing habitat that benefits not only the pollinators but also the Northwest ecosystem.”

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), a California public power utility, is involved in various pollinator efforts including several research projects.

One research project involves funding and technical support for a pollinator habitat demonstration with educational signage adjacent to a bike trail.

The public power utility is also a part of a collaborative effort with the Utility Arborist Association, the United States Forest Service, PG&E, and scientists at the Sonoma State University Center for Environmental Inquiry to evaluate the impact of integrated vegetation management on plant communities and wildlife diversity.

According to SMUD’s website, the study is taking place in an El Dorado County transmission corridor that was burned in the 2014 King Fire. Research on multiple test plots, including vegetation management cost and revegetation success, is ongoing.

SMUD has also come up with a conceptual plan for the integration of pollinator-friendly native grasses and wildflowers, grazing management, and soil carbon storage for a utility-scale solar project.

Operational programs at SMUD to support pollinators include its Shade Tree Program, which provides customers with an array of flowering trees that provide nectar and shelter for a variety of pollinators.

Meanwhile, in the Midwest, Logansport Municipal Utilities (LMU) in Indiana is another public power utility working to increase biodiversity.

Inovateus Solar began construction of Logansport’s first solar power plant earlier this year. Financed by a 30-year power purchase agreement (PPA), the solar installation will reduce LMU’s carbon emissions, help to stabilize energy costs for LMU’s customers, and also host a bee and butterfly habitat that will benefit agriculture in the surrounding area.

Inovateus has also designed a 45-foot vegetation buffer around the solar array. The buffer will feature native Northern Indiana trees, plants, and more than 100 tulip trees donated by the community. Inovateus has partnered with Fresh Energy and the Bee & Butterfly Habitat Fund to plant a pollinator seed mix under and around the solar panels instead of traditional ground cover. The pollinator mix will cultivate honeybees and butterflies that local farmers rely on for pollinating their crops.

In New England, earlier this year, Vermont Public Power Supply Authority (VPPSA) and Encore Renewable Energy announced that construction began on a new solar array in Morrisville, Vermont. Encore also evaluated the potential for establishing pollinator-friendly wildflower groundcover to provide support for bees, butterflies, and other creatures.

Chad Ferrell, CEO of Encore Renewable Energy, stated, “We have a goal of delivering 100% of our projects with either pollinator-friendly ground cover or for dual land use with agrivoltaics (generally sheep farming in our neck of the woods). Given the current state of both of those markets, we are more focused on pollinators at this point but are looking into both. The next batch of projects we are delivering for the Vermont Public Power Supply Authority will all be finished with pollinator-friendly ground cover. This portfolio includes six projects with a total capacity of 13 MW and 60 acres of ground cover.”

In 2016, Chris Schoenherr, Director of Agency and Government Relations and Chief External Affairs Officer at the Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (SMPPA), detailed in a blog for the American Public Power Association how SMPPA organized a two-pronged effort to establish monarch habitat and raise awareness in member communities.

Currently, SMMPA member communities have established 68 monarch “waystations,” ranging from 100 to 1,000 square feet, on utility, municipal, or community property. Each site was planted by either utility employees or community groups and includes signage describing the program. Also, nearly 11,700 seed packages have been distributed to customers in member communities to provide a simple, no-cost way for citizens to join the effort by establishing monarch habitat on their property.

Schoenherr stated, “In 2018, SMMPA established a 3-acre prairie, including pollinator habitat, at its new Owatonna Energy Station. In 2018-2019 we released about 90 monarchs from caterpillars we found on the habitat at our urban headquarters. This year (2020) has been a little tougher. We assisted a group in Princeton to establish a larger pollinator habitat on a riverfront park.”

According to a recent T&D World article, City Utilities (CU) of Springfield in Missouri is highlighting the importance of pollinators through a community showcase and habitats.

Scott Gunzenhauser, Supervisor-Vegetation Management at CU, told APPA that, “The showcase garden in front of our viewing platform has grown nicely and it in itself has attracted some interesting pollinators including the hummingbird hawk-moth and monarch caterpillars. In addition to the caterpillars showing up, we have partnered again with some of the Master Naturalists in our area and they have given us some chrysalis’s to hatch out and we have them doing that on that property as well and have set up a time-lapse camera to capture them coming out.  So far we have hatched out 4 chrysalis’s, two of which were on an invasive pear tree in our plot to which we now call our ’Labor and Delivery’ tree.” 

City Utilities of Springfield has also treated 10 acres at two separate City Utilities locations of previously mowed areas with herbicide and has burned two of the eight sections as a control to see how that works. The utility will be planting that 10 acres this winter. 

Nebraska’s Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) is currently in its third year of establishing native grasses and wildflowers on over 305 acres across several sites through its Prairie in Progress initiative. The objective of the project is to drive more sustainable landscapes on the district’s properties to lower maintenance costs and increase plant and wildlife diversity including pollinators. OPPD partnered with Save the Monarchs organization to achieve this goal.

Chris Vrtiska, Wildlife Nature Resource Specialist at OPPD, stated, “Establishing or restoring prairies is a long and sometimes difficult process which can often take three to five years. OPPD has experienced successes on the majority of its acres and it has some sites that are struggling to establish. It has been a learning experience for all the staff involved in the project.”

Of the 305 acres in the initial phase of the project, there are approximately 75 acres that for one reason or another have struggled to establish themselves. Currently, OPPD has a management strategy to improve those acres.

“While prescribed burns are a very valuable tool in establishing and managing prairie restorations, many of our sites that are struggling are in urban interface locations which preclude the use of fire as a management tool. Working with Save the Monarchs organizations and other experts, we have developed plans using an herbicide in the place of fire to control unwanted vegetation and promoting the growth of desirable species.”

Another Nebraska public power utility, Lincoln Electric System (LES), recently resolved to create opportunities to engage in pollinator issues with co-workers, customers, and the Lincoln community, noted Melissa Landis, an environmental specialist at LES.

“Toward that end LES initiated ground preparations this year to convert a four acre greenspace at a local generating station from cold season grasses to pollinator habitat,” she said in an email.

On the four acre site “we collaborated with Save our Monarchs on a site plan to oversee the conversion process, establish some baseline pollinator monitoring data, and we look forward to seeding the site with a pollinator-friendly seed mix yet this fall.” 

LES is looking forward to participating in National Pollinator Week (June 21-27, 2021) to celebrate pollinators and spread the word about ways to protect them, she said.

National Pollinator Week 2020 (June 22-28) was the thirteenth consecutive year of bringing greater awareness to the issue of pollinator conservation since the Pollinator Partnership founded the initiative in 2007.

Meanwhile, in 2019, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) launched a statewide pollinator initiative. Maura Balaban at NYPA, stated, “Work on the rollout of this initiative at the Niagara Power Project was postponed due to emergent work taking place is the same general area as the pollinator field. The joint initiative between NYPA’s Sustainability and Rights-of-Way Maintenance departments is currently scheduled to begin later this year.”

APPA and several of its members (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Bonneville Power Administration, Salt River Project and the Tennessee Valley Authority) sponsored EPRI’s “Power for Pollinators” documentary. The film describes how electric power companies can support pollinator conservation while balancing affordable, reliable, and safe electricity. 

In addition, several public power utilities are involved with the “Power-in-Pollinators” initiative.

The initiative aims to promote and support pollinator conservation among utilities. The partnership shares the latest scientific findings, case studies and tools to assist with the integration of pollinator-friendly practices into utility vegetation, facilities and land management.

Launched in 2017, the initiative is now the largest collaboration for electric power companies to work together on pollinator research.

Public power utilities involved in the initiative are NYPA, LADWP, SMUD, SRP, LES, BPA and NPPD.

APPA highlights public power initiatives aimed at bolstering cybersecurity

November 5, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 5, 2020

Responding to a recent report issued by Moody’s Investors Service, the American Public Power Association on Nov. 5 highlighted a variety of initiatives that APPA and public power utilities have undertaken to bolster cybersecurity.

In the Nov. 4 report, “Cybersecurity readiness depends on scale, business model and generation ownership,” Moody’s said that in order to see how well electric utilities are prepared to defend themselves from cyberattacks, it conducted a survey of global electric utilities and power companies from March through September of this year.

“The results reflect key differences across what is otherwise a largely homogeneous sector. All observations in this report are based on our survey results and do not represent a definitive assessment of cybersecurity readiness,” the rating agency noted.

Among other things, the report asserts that very large utilities exhibit better cyber governance, and risk management practices, than midsize and small utilities.

At the same time, Moody’s noted that not-for-profit utilities with total assets of less than $10 billion are more likely to have stand-alone cyber insurance “and derive greater coverage value from their policy than similarly sized, regulated peers.”

“Cybersecurity is a journey, not a destination and requires ongoing risk mitigation,” said Joy Ditto, President and CEO of APPA. “Public power utilities are constantly looking to up their grid security game and are doing so in a variety of ways,” she said.

“Every public power utility is different, and each takes a risk-based approach to grid security, which includes evaluating threats. They invest appropriately in personnel and measures to meet local needs and protect their varied assets and information,” she said.

Ditto noted that the Department of Energy (DOE) has recognized the importance of not-for-profit utilities investing in deploying solutions to cyber and cyber-physical threats. The DOE recently awarded $6 million to APPA to continue to develop operational technology (OT) solutions for its members.

In addition, many APPA members don’t have SCADA (industrial control) systems, which means that their OT systems are not susceptible to cyber-tampering.

GridEx

Public power utilities also regularly exercise their incident response plans.

GridEx, which takes place every two years, allows utilities, government partners and other critical infrastructure participants to engage with local and regional first responders, exercise cross-sector impacts, improve unity of messages and communication, identify lessons learned and engage senior leadership.

The 2019 GridEx, which occurred in November 2019, marked the fifth such exercise. Public power participation increased 47%, from GridEx IV in 2017 to GridEx V.

APPA is encouraging its members to sign up for GridEx VI early and to participate, either as an active participant, or just to observe.

APPA’s RP3 survey includes questions about cybersecurity

In addition, APPA’s questions for its Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3) program includes several that touch upon cybersecurity.

APPA’s RP3 program recognizes utilities that demonstrate high proficiency in reliability, safety, workforce development, and system improvement. Utilities keep the RP3 designation for three years.

Alex Hofmann, APPA’s Vice President for Technical and Operations Services, noted that the RP3 questions on cybersecurity serve as a proxy for a comprehensive cybersecurity survey and are reviewed by the 18 member RP3 panel.

The 114 designated RP3 utilities in 2019 answered as follows to these cybersecurity-related questions:

Definition of utilities

The report defines the following types of utilities as responding to the survey:

Regulated Utilities

Unregulated Utilities

Not-for-profit Utilities

“This breakdown and the associated dataset do not tell a clear picture for several reasons,” said Sam Rozenberg, APPA’s Director of Security and Resilience.

For example, he pointed out that some municipal utilities fall into the state-owned bucket and many public power electric utilities fall into the regulated bucket, including those that are required to comply with North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) requirements.

Meanwhile, Rozenberg pointed out that, when determining a cybersecurity posture, public power utilities use a risk-based approach and therefore threats are taken into account when it comes to cybersecurity.

“Throughout the report, the data presented is intermixed to show the picture that government-owned utilities are weaker, without mentioning the threat level difference between them and larger utilities,” he said.

Rozenberg also noted that the report is based on an international survey of 115 utilities, but said it is unclear how many of the nation’s more than 2,000 public power utilities participated.

While 71 of the 115 surveyed utilities are “American,” the universe of U.S. electric utilities is more than 3,000, he noted.