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UAMPS Signs Updated Agreements for Small Modular Reactor Project

January 19, 2023

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
January 19, 2023

Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems recently signed an updated agreement that will help move its nuclear Carbon Free Power Project with NuScale Power forward.

Specifically, the project management committee for the Carbon Free Power Project reaffirmed its commitment to NuScale’s small modular reactor technology by approving a new budget and plan of finance agreement and an updated development cost reimbursement agreement.

The development cost reimbursement agreement establishes an updated target price of $89 per megawatt hour, which reflects the changing financial landscape for the development of energy projects nationwide, NuScale said.

The budget and plan of finance agreement provides UAMPS with an option to withdraw from the Carbon Free Power Project and be reimbursed for most out-of-pocket expenses if the per megawatt hour price of energy from the project exceeds a certain threshold.

The development cost reimbursement agreement was reached with the receipt and acceptance of the CFPP’s Class 3 project cost estimate, which refined the anticipated total cost of the project.

The Class 3 project cost estimate determined that the cost of the CFPP has been influenced by external factors such as inflationary pressures and increases in the price of steel, electrical equipment and other construction commodities not seen for more than 40 years.

As an example, NuScale said the producer price index for commodities such as carbon steel piping and fabricated steel plates have increased by more than 50 percent since 2020. These inflationary pressures are increasing the costs for all power generation and infrastructure projects, the company said.

NuScale and the CFPP have yet to execute the amendment to the development cost reimbursement agreement adopting the new price target.

The CFPP, sited near Idaho Falls, Idaho, at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, would be the first NuScale Power SMR plant to begin operation in the United States.

The plant would deploy six, 77-megawatt modules to generate 462 MW of carbon-free electricity. The CFPP remains on schedule and is a cost-competitive, carbon-free and dispatchable resource, NuScale said.

UAMPS is a joint action agency serving 49 members in seven Western states.

Reading, Mass., Utility Extends Hydro PPA With FirstLight Power

January 19, 2023

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
January 19, 2023

Reading Municipal Light Department has extended a power purchase agreement with FirstLight Power that will enable it to exceed Massachusetts’ noncarbon compliance requirements, which requires utilities in the state to obtain 50 percent of their power supply from noncarbon sources by 2030.

The agreement calls for RMLD to purchase all the hydroelectric power and renewable energy credits from FirstLight’s Falls Village Generating Station in Falls Village, Conn., which averages around 41,000 megawatt hours per year. Falls Village is a three-unit hydroelectric station on the Housatonic River that is qualified as a Class I renewable run-of-river energy facility. The new power purchase agreement will run from 2025 through 2040.

“This deal with FirstLight Power maintains our portfolio at approximately 25 percent hydroelectric power and reinforces RMLD’s prudent risk management practice of maintaining a balanced power supply portfolio across geography and generation type,” Gregory Phipps, RMLD’s general manager, said in a statement.

The agreement also positions the towns of Reading, North Reading, Wilmington, and Lynnfield as leaders in the state’s efforts to achieve decarbonization, RMLD said.

In November 2020, 21 public power utilities in New England signed agreements to purchase 200 million kilowatt-hours per year of hydroelectric power produced by FirstLight Power in Western Massachusetts in a deal structured and executed by Energy New England.

FirstLight has since extended individual agreements with several participating utilities, including an agreement signed in October with Energy New England that extended the power purchase agreements with 13 Massachusetts public power entities that have agreed to purchase over 110 gigawatt hours per year of hydroelectric power produced by two of FirstLight’s hydroelectric facilities in Connecticut.

Energy New England is a wholesale risk management and energy trading organization serving public power utilities in the northeast.

Reading Municipal Light Department serves over 70,000 residents in the towns of Reading, North Reading, Wilmington, and Lynnfield Center.

Kentucky Public Power Utility Seeks Consultant for Electric Vehicle Readiness Plan

January 18, 2023

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 18, 2023

Kentucky public power utility Paducah Power System is seeking interested consultant teams to submit proposals for a planning project that will develop an electric vehicle readiness plan for the utility’s service territory.

The plan will be developed through coordinated engagement with EV partners and stakeholders, Paducah Power System said in a recent request for proposals.

The consultant is expected to have expertise in utility data and forecasting tools on EVs including the ability to tailor these products to PPS and create mapped analysis of priorities for future EV infrastructure, particularly to increase equitable access to such infrastructure.

The goal of the project is to make the Paducah community EV ready by developing a plan “that provides a vision for EV readiness, identifies key partnerships and actionable strategies needed to achieve the vision, and facilitates community support for electric vehicles.”

The RFP is available at: https://paducahpower.com/uncategorized/request-for-proposals-electric-vehicle-readiness-plan/.

The deadline for responses is February 22, 2023.

Task Force Recommends Decorah, Iowa, City Council Take Next Steps on Municipalization

January 17, 2023

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 17, 2023

A task force created by the City Council of Decorah, Iowa, recommends that the City Council proceed with the next steps in the process of pursuing municipalization, including holding a referendum on municipalization.

A report was completed in December 2022 by the Decorah Municipal Electric Utility (MEU) Task Force, which was created by the Decorah City Council in December of 2020. The report summarizes the work that the task force has done over the last two years. 

Among other things, the report examines the potential advantages and disadvantages of municipal electric utilities, as compared with Decorah’s existing electric utility provider, which is investor-owned Alliant Energy.

With respect to rates, “we find that on average, Iowa MEU residential and commercial customers pay substantially less for their electricity than Alliant’s residential and commercial customers,” the task force said. The report noted that industrial/large user customers served by a MEU in Iowa, on average, pay slightly more than industrial customers served by Alliant.

“We found that the reliability of electrical service provided by MEUs is as good as, or better than the reliability of electrical service provided by investor-owned utilities,” the task force said.

“We found the education session interviews with managers of Iowa MEUs to be particularly informative. We were impressed with the professionalism and expertise demonstrated by these managers,” the task force said.

Feasibility of Forming an MEU

The report also examines the feasibility of establishing a MEU in Decorah.

The task force said it built upon two competing feasibility studies from 2018, analyzed differences between those two studies, and considered new developments from the most recent five years that could impact the feasibility of establishing a MEU in Decorah.

Feasibility considerations included economic feasibility, feasibility of reliable service during and after a potential transition to a MEU, and the feasibility of a successful Iowa Utilities Board application process and service territory acquisition. 

“We find that both feasibility studies in 2018 significantly underestimated Alliant’s projected rate increases, given the magnitude of Alliant’s rate increase that occurred in 2019,” the task force said.

“Our comparison of the two feasibility studies, in combination with new information available since 2018, gives us confidence that a MEU in Decorah could be logistically and economically feasible. The legally required regulatory oversight process provides further reassurance that a petition from the city for municipalization of electric services must be feasible and in the best interest of customers in order to gain approval from the Iowa Utilities Board,” the report said.

The report also includes the task force’s conclusions and a relative assessment balancing the potential advantages and disadvantages of a MEU as well as an acknowledgement of uncertainties.  

The task force found that establishing a Decorah MEU has the following potential advantages:

Along with the report, the Decorah Municipal Electric Utility Task Force recommended that the city of Decorah hold a referendum on municipalization at a time of its choosing.

In addition, the Task Force approved a list of factors that it encouraged the city to consider further as it makes decisions regarding a municipalization process.

Municipalization Gets Closer Look in Other Cities

Municipalization is also getting a closer look in other cities.

A meeting held in October 2022 looked at what it would take to transition investor-owned Rochester Gas & Electric to a public power utility.

The San Diego City Council on October 3, 2022 approved a contract for a consulting firm to examine the feasibility of the California city transitioning to a public power utility.

The contract approved by the San Diego City Council is with NewGen Strategies & Solutions LLC.

The American Public Power Association offers a number of resources related to municipalization on its website.

Nebraska Public Power District Launches Siting Study for Small Modular Reactors

January 17, 2023

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 17, 2023

Nebraska Public Power District is beginning the process of studying sites that could have the potential to host advanced small modular nuclear reactors, it said on Jan. 13.

Under Nebraska legislative bill 1014, the State of Nebraska allocated $1 million of American Rescue Plan Act funding to complete a siting study for small modular reactors.

As an owner of a current operating nuclear power plant, Cooper Nuclear Station, NPPD qualified to apply for these funds to complete the siting study. NPPD’s application for funding was approved by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development on January 6.

The first phase of the siting study involves doing a Nebraska-wide assessment to determine the 15 best locations for siting small modular reactors based on geographic data and preliminary licensing criteria. Some of the key criteria being considered will be access to water and transmission lines among many others. This phase is estimated to be completed in spring of 2023.

The second phase of the study will perform a more in-depth evaluation and will focus on reducing the number of sites from 15 to four. This effort includes detailed field environmental and constructability evaluations based on criteria used by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) when licensing nuclear plants. This phase of the study is estimated to take approximately a year to complete.

NPPD will be completing the study with the help of engineering firm, Burns & McDonnell, which has experience in the development and design of advanced small modular reactors.

Reliability, Resiliency, Safety and Affordability Flow from Small Modular Reactor Technology

January 17, 2023

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
January 17, 2023

New nuclear technologies, such as small modular reactors (SMR), have reached a point where they are able to help utilities address growing concerns about fulfilling their core mission: delivering safe, affordable, and reliable electric power.

Several industry trends are challenging utility executives’ abilities to balance those three key objectives.

A July report from the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) highlighted the growing threats to reliability, including extreme weather events, the growing proliferation of “inverter based resources” such as photovoltaic solar power and energy storage, and increasing reliance on natural gas-fired generation.

The growth of renewable resources aimed at meeting state and federal goals aimed at addressing greenhouse gas emissions has been impressive. In the first half of the year, 24 percent of utility-scale generation in the United States came from renewable sources, according to the Energy Information Administration. However, as NERC pointed out this summer, as renewable resources have proliferated, gas-fired generators are becoming “necessary balancing resources” for reliability, leading to an interdependence that poses “a major new reliability risk.”

In this environment, if utilities are going to stay on track to meet their clean energy targets while providing secure, safe and reliable electric power to meet growing demand, they are going to need a new solution.

“NuScale Power’s SMR technology offers a carbon-free energy solution with features, capability, and performance not found in current nuclear power facilities,” Karin Feldman, Vice President of NuScale’s Program Management Office, said in an interview.

Several utilities have already begun exploring the potential of a new generation of nuclear technology to help them meet both their clean energy and reliability needs as they work toward meeting growing demand.

NuScale’s project portfolio includes a six module, 462-MW VOYGR™ SMR power plant. Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) plans to develop at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls for their Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP).

NuScale also has memorandums of understanding to evaluate the deployment of its SMR technology with Associated Electric Cooperative in Missouri and Dairyland Power Cooperative in Wisconsin.

“What we bring to the table is a technology that is smaller and simpler; that lowers total costs while providing high reliability and resilience, and greater safety,” said Feldman, who develops and manages NuScale’s portfolio of projects and establishes and maintains project controls, cost estimating, and risk management standards. She is also NuScale’s primary interface with the DOE.

Cost Comparisons

The smaller scale of NuScale’s reactors – 77 MW versus 700 MW or even 1,600 MW or more for conventional reactors – brings several cost advantages, Feldman said. Smaller reactors can be fabricated in a factory, which is cheaper than field fabrication, because it involves repetitive procedures that foster iterative improvement and economies of scale, she said. Smaller reactors also take less time to build, which lowers construction costs.

Because they are modular, an SMR does not force a utility to commit to participation in a nuclear project in the 1,000-MW to 2,000-MW size range. An SMR project can be scaled to meet demand, and modules can be added as demand requires, Feldman said. That helps reduce financial risk for a utility, she said.

Another, related consideration, highlighted by the supply chain disruptions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, is that much of NuScale’s technology can be locally sourced. “We are taking advantage of the U.S. supply chain to the greatest extent possible,” Feldman said. “We have some overseas manufacturers, but we are also engaged to develop additional U.S. capabilities in areas such as large-scale forgings.”

Reliability and Resiliency

Nuclear power plants generally have high reliability, over 92 percent, nearly twice the reliability of coal and natural gas plants, but the smaller, compact design of SMR technology can offer additional reliability advantages, Feldman said. Because NuScale plants are designed to scaled up in incremental steps, if any one of the individual reactors has an issue, the other reactors can continue to generate power, she explained.

NuScale’s SMR technology also enhances resiliency, Feldman said. The design calls for the reactors to be housed in a building below grade, hardening their vulnerability to airplane strikes and very large seismic events, she said.

An SMR plant also is designed with black start capability so that it can restart after a disruption without using the surrounding electric grid. “So, in the event of an emergency, it could be a first responder to the grid, one of the first generators to start up,” Feldman said.

And because the design calls for multiple reactors, a problem with one reactor does not require the entire plant to shut down. An SMR plant can also operate in island mode, serving as a self-sufficient energy source during an emergency, Feldman said.

In some ways, a NuScale SMR power plant resembles a microgrid. In fact, NuScale’s technology team has done a lot of analysis on microgrid capacity, Feldman said, noting that the analysis found that a 154-MW SMR plant could run for 12 years without refueling. “The technology is very good for mission critical functions and activities,” she said.

Safety First

Cost and resiliency are important considerations, but if a power plant, especially a nuclear power plant, is not safe, other considerations pale in comparison.

Safety is built into NuScale’s SMR design, Feldman said. “The SMR has a dual walled vessel design that gives it an unlimited coping period,” she said. “If an incident does occur, the plant can shut down without operator intervention or action and be safe and secure,” she said.

NuScale’s integrated design encompasses the reactor, steam generators and pressurizer and uses the natural action of circulation, eliminating the need for large primary piping and reactor coolant pumps.

If needed, the reactor shuts down and self cools indefinitely without the need for either alternating current or direct current power or additional water. The containment vessel is submerged in a heat sink for core cooling in a below grade reactor pool housed in a Seismic Category 1 reactor building as defined by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). In essence, the unit continues to cool until the decay heat dissipates at which point the reactor is air cooled, Feldman said.

In 2018, the NRC found that NuScale’s SMR safety design eliminates the need for class 1E power, that is, power needed to maintain reactor coolant integrity and remain in a safe shutdown condition.

In August 2020, the NRC approved the overall design of NuScale’s SMR. In a next step, the NRC in July directed staff to issue a final rule certifying NuScale’s SMR design.

If approved, the certification would be published in the Federal Register and have the effect of law, providing even greater comfort to any entities exploring SMR technology to provide clean, emission free, reliable and affordable power, Feldman said.

The rulemaking is on NRC’s docket for a decision in November.

Finally, after a rigorous years long review by the NRC, the Final Safety Evaluation Report (FSER) regarding NuScale’s Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) methodology was issued. This is another tremendous “first” for NuScale’s technology. With the report’s approval of our methodology, an EPZ that is limited to the site boundary of the power plant is now achievable for a wide range of potential plant sites where a NuScale VOYGR™ SMR power plant could be located.

Long Island Power Authority Unveils Time-of-Day Rate Proposal

January 17, 2023

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 17, 2023

The Long Island Power Authority recently announced a proposal to modernize its electric rates for residential customers in 2024 with a standard time-of-day rate and an optional super off-peak rate. Customers will still have the option to stay on a flat rate.

Customers who try the new rates will receive a 12-month “Bill Protection Guarantee,” which means they will receive a refund if they would have paid less on a flat rate. The Bill Protection Guarantee would cover a customer’s first year on the TOD rate or super off-peak rate.

If after 12 months a customer’s electric bill on the TOD rate or Super off-peak rate is higher than it would have been under the flat rate, LIPA will automatically refund the difference for the entire 12-month period.

With the new TOD rate, customers pay different rates for electricity based on when they use it. Electric rates are higher during weekdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. (peak) but lower all other hours of the day and on weekends and holidays (off-peak). With the super off-peak rate, rates are further discounted in the (super off-peak) hours from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. 

LIPA said the plan would immediately reduce rates for more than 80 percent of customers without any changes to how or when they use electricity.

Under the proposal, customers “would have the ability to save even more money and support a cleaner electric grid by making small changes in their daily routine by conducting energy-intensive activities – such as doing laundry or charging electric cars – in off-peak hours,” it said.

“Time-of-Day rates are an important rate modernization reform that will help lower customer bills and advance clean energy,” said Thomas Falcone, Chief Executive Officer of LIPA. “Once adopted, this plan will save more than 80 percent of customers money while supporting our clean energy transition by reducing carbon emissions and taking the burden off the electric grid during the highest times of demand.”

Most customers will pay the same or less under the TOD rate or super off-peak rate without changing their electricity usage or habits because most customers already conduct most activities during discounted off-peak periods, which make up 88 percent of the hours throughout the year.

The TOD proposal was developed with input from the New York Solar Energy Industries Alliance, the Department of Public Service, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and consumer advocates such as the Utility Intervention Unit, and the Public Utilities Law Project.

LIPA is inviting interested stakeholders to provide input on its rate modernization proposals. There will be two public hearings on February 21, 2023, where customers can sign up to speak. LIPA will also accept written public comments until February 27, 2023.

The proposal is scheduled for consideration at the March 29, 2023 meeting of the LIPA Board of Trustees.

Should the proposal be approved by the LIPA Board at the March meeting, there will be extensive communication to all customers before they would be transitioned into any new plan, including 90, 60, and 30-day notices, which will include information about the plans and how to optimize their rates as well as the Bill Protection Guarantee.

Calif. Community Choice Aggregator Signs PPA Tied to Compressed Air Energy Storage Project

January 13, 2023

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
January 13, 2023

California community choice aggregator Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement for a compressed air energy storage project with Hydrostor.

The nearly $1 billion power purchase agreement calls for the delivery of 200 megawatts (MW), 1,600-megawatt hours (MWh) of energy storage to 3CE from Hydrostor’s planned Willow Rock Energy Storage Center that will use the company’s Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage (A-CAES) technology. Hydrostor says the project, when completed, will abate up to 28 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.

The Willow Rock project is sited just outside Rosamond in Kern County and will eventually have the ability to deliver 500 MW of clean power for up to 8 hours, Hydrostor said.

The facility is designed to be charged using surplus renewable energy and to discharge to the grid at times of high demand, reducing the need to build new peaking power plants and deferring the need for new transmission lines, Hydrostor said, noting that the facility will have a footprint of less than 100 acres, which is far smaller than a comparable pumped hydro power facility, which represents the overwhelming majority of long duration energy storage on the market today.

Hydrodstor’s technology combines elements of a compressed air storage system with a pumped hydro system. The process stores energy as compressed air but captures and stores the heat of compression for future use. The compressed air is stored in a purpose-built underground cavern that uses a water reservoir to maintain constant pressure. The facility discharges energy by reversing the process, using the stored heat and pressure to power a conventional turbine generator. The system has no performance degradation over its 50-year plus expected lifetime, Hydrostor said.

Hydrostor said its technology offers the same services as a natural gas plant while having zero emissions because it uses surplus electricity as fuel. The company is targeting high value grid applications such as transmission deferral and fossil fuel generation replacement.

The PPA with 3CE is the first of several Hydrostor hopes to sign to allocate the full 500-MW capacity of the Willow Rock project. The company said it is in discussions with several parties for the balance of the total output.

Central Coast Community Energy is a public agency that sources electricity from clean and renewable energy resources to serve 447,000 residential, commercial, and agricultural customers in Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz counties.

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

TVA to Retire Coal-Fired Power Plant, Construct 1,450-MW Combined-Cycle Natural Gas Plant

January 13, 2023

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 13, 2023

The Tennessee Valley Authority on Jan. 10 said it has decided to retire its Cumberland Fossil Plant and build a 1,450-megawatt combined-cycle natural gas facility by 2026.

TVA noted that it follows the National Environmental Policy Act, which ensures public participation and input and a robust review of all feasible options.

TVA’s two-unit coal-fired Cumberland Fossil Plant will retire in two stages, with one unit by the end of 2026 and the second unit by the end of 2028.

Before the first unit retires, TVA will build a 1,450-MW combined cycle plant on the Cumberland reservation to be in operation by 2026. Replacement generation for the second unit has been deferred to allow consideration for a broader range of replacement options, TVA said.

The construction of the combined-cycle natural gas plant at Cumberland will deliver up to a 60% reduction in carbon emissions from the site, it said.

“Replacing retired generation with a natural gas plant is the best overall solution because it’s the only mature technology available today that can provide firm, dispatchable power by 2026 when the first Cumberland unit retires,” said TVA CEO Jeff Lyash. “In addition, natural gas supports continued reduction of carbon emissions by enabling the integration of renewables, such as solar and battery storage, all while maintaining system reliability.” 

TVA said it will continue to evaluate the coal fleet for retirement and replacement generation. Currently, Kingston Fossil Plant is undergoing an environmental review to determine the potential impacts of retirement and replacement. A draft Environmental Impact Statement is projected in Spring/Summer 2023.

Google Nest, GM and Others Form Partnership to Advance Virtual Power Plants

January 13, 2023

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
January 13, 2023

Consulting firm RMI recently announced the formation of a virtual power plant partnership that aims to advance and support the build out and scaling of virtual power plants.

The founding members of the Virtual Power Plant Partnership include Ford, General Motors, Google Nest, OhmConnect, Olivine, SPAN, SunPower, Sunrun, SwitchDin, and Virtual Peaker with initial funding made possible by General Motors and Google Nest.

Virtual power plants are portfolios comprised of hundreds or thousands of households and businesses that offer the latent potential of their electric vehicles, smart thermostats, appliances, batteries, solar arrays, and additional energy assets to support the grid.

Customers, or their authorized energy management companies, can then use advanced software to adjust charging, discharging, output, and demand from distributed energy resources in response to signals from markets and grid operators in an effort to efficiently balance energy supply and demand.

The threefold goals of the partnership are to:

In December, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District announced an agreement with Swell Energy that would give it the ability to tap into its customers’ energy storage devices to create a virtual power plant.