PNNL Creates Model For Integrating Grid-Forming Inverters Into The Grid
July 6, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
July 6, 2022
Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed a model for a device that could improve how well renewable power sources can be integrated into the bulk power system.
The device, a grid-forming inverter, converts direct current (DC) electricity produced by sources such as solar, wind or batteries, to alternating current (AC).
The model devised by PNNL engineers is designed to allow utility operators to test how to safely add new power sources to the grid in a way that increases power system resiliency and stability.
PNNL’s grid-forming inverter modeling work started in the development of microgrids. With support from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity Microgrid Program, PNNL led and participated in multiple grid-forming inverter modeling projects for microgrid studies. That research showed it is possible to run a 100 percent inverter-based microgrid using grid-forming inverters, which can operate on their own without the reliance on conventional synchronous power generators.
Building on that work, Wei Du, a PNNL senior researcher, and his team have been investigating how grid-forming inverters affect large-scale transmission and distribution systems.
The PNNL researchers developed the generic droop-controlled, grid-forming inverter model for transmission system studies. That model specification was recently approved by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council’s Modeling and Validation Subcommittee, making it available to be integrated into commercially available grid simulation tools used by thousands of utilities in North America and other parts of the world.
“Grid-forming inverters will become more and more important to power systems in the future,” Song Wang, who chairs the WECC Modeling and Validation Subcommittee, said in a statement. “The existing inverter models in the WECC model library are all grid-following-based and cannot represent grid-forming inverters. The new model developed by PNNL enables WECC to study how grid-forming inverters will impact power grids at the transmission level. Our preliminary simulation studies based on the model show that grid-forming inverters can impact power system stability in a very positive way. We believe the work done by PNNL will greatly help the utility industry better understand grid-forming inverters and their potential impacts on power systems.”
PNNL’s research into the grid-forming inverter model was internally funded with further support from the DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) and Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO).
SETO and WETO recently awarded $25 million to the Universal Interoperability for Grid-Forming Inverters (UNIFI) Consortium to further investigate grid-forming technologies.
UNIFI is a multi-year effort to create an ecosystem for grid-forming inverters that is led by National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the University of Washington, and the Electric Power Research Institute.
The PNNL researchers’ goal is to work with UNIFI to unify the models of various grid-forming technologies and their diverse applications in power systems.
“To achieve the national targets of clean electricity and decarbonized economy, inverter-based renewable generation will be an essential part of the future energy mix,” Henry Huang, a PNNL fellow, said in a statement. “The inverters will fundamentally change power system dynamics and thus require new approaches to model and simulate such a system.”
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Study Recommendations To Yield Lower Bills
July 6, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
July 6, 2022
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) on July 5 announced the completion of a two-year independent power rates study for its renewable electricity service programs, CleanPowerSF and Hetch Hetchy Power.
The recommendations from the study “pave the way for new customer savings, including decreased monthly electricity bills for the vast majority of CleanPowerSF residential and commercial customers,” the SFPUC sad.
The study prioritizes affordable rates for both CleanPowerSF and Hetch Hetchy Power customers, it said.
Effective July 1, CleanPowerSF generation rates will decrease by about 3% for an average residential customer and about 5% for an average small commercial customer for the next year. For average Hetch Hetchy Power residential customers, their bills will be 30% cheaper compared to Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), while most municipal and commercial customers will also continue to see savings compared to the investor-owned utility.
The SFPUC said that the rate study also promotes stability for customers and greater independence from PG&E. The SFPUC said it is committed to only updating power rates once per year to promote predictable rates for customers.
In line with the other recommendations from the study, the SFPUC will also set its own rates and no longer follow PG&E. Since January 2021, PG&E has changed in generation rates four times.
The adopted rates support the city’s climate goals and electrification by offering new electric vehicle rates for Hetch Hetchy Power customers, expanding electricity rates for residential customers transitioning to all-electric buildings, and further enabling CleanPowerSF customers to transition to 100% renewable energy by lowering SuperGreen premiums for all commercial customers. At the same time, there will be funding for investments in new renewable generation and storage, and renewal of the Hetchy Water & Power power facilities.
The power rates study and subsequent recommendations were the result of a process that began in November 2020.
The study, which is the first such analysis since CleanPowerSF’s inception and is required every 5 years, prioritized several key areas: revenue sufficiency for SFPUC operations and investments, customer equity, environmental sustainability, affordability, predictability, and simplicity.
The rates study included stakeholder input from the Rate Fairness Board, customers, and other partners before it was presented to the SFPUC Commission and Board of Supervisors.
CleanPowerSF began serving customers in 2016. Today, CleanPowerSF serves about 385,000 customer accounts in San Francisco and offers 50% and 100% renewable electricity service options.
Along with CleanPowerSF, the SFPUC operates Hetch Hetchy Power, which generates and delivers energy to more than 4,000 customer accounts, including municipal buildings and facilities, such as City Hall, San Francisco International Airport, schools, libraries and the Muni transit system. Hetch Hetchy Power also provides electricity to some commercial and residential developments, including affordable housing sites.
Collectively, the two programs meet over 70 percent of the electricity demand in San Francisco.
Click here for additional details about the SFPUC.
New York Public Power Community Hosts Smart Grid Chip Pilot Project
July 5, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
July 5, 2022
The public power community of Lake Placid, N.Y., is hosting a smart grid chip pilot project involving Utilidata and NVIDIA.
The demonstration project in Lake Placid involves first generation meter adapters installed at customer locations along the circuit that serves the Olympic bobsled complex. The complex uses a lot of power, providing the opportunity to test out the product. Lake Placid hosted the 1980 Winter Olympics.
The smart grid chip captures and analyzes high resolution voltage and current waveform data to provide insights unique to the device’s location on the grid.
Once the meter adapter is installed, data will begin streaming immediately, a video providing details on the project notes. Devices can be moved throughout the project to various areas of interest.
The chips come preconfigured with core services for each pilot partner’s needs, leveraging waveform data, real-time communications and machine learning.
Chris Fadden, Meter Serviceman for the Village of Lake Placid, assisted with the installation of the inline units that Utilidata supplied.
“It was really just pulling the meter, installing the inline unit and then replacing the meter — about the same as installing a voltage recorder or any other piece of equipment,” he noted in an email.
Patrick Wells, Technical Coordinator for the Village of Lake Placid, said his role was to help pick out the locations for each of the devices. “Every now and then they send me some sample data that I can look at and give recommendations on what format would be best for us. The data they send is interesting and with more I am sure we could do a lot with it.”
The project remains ongoing, he said, and the devices are still operating.
In April 2022, Utilidata, a grid edge software company, announced that it was launching an advisory board with NVIDIA to guide the development and deployment of grid edge software solutions, including its recently announced smart grid chip.
Supreme Court Reverses Appeals Court’s Decision On Trump Plant Emissions Rule
July 1, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
July 1, 2022
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 reversed a U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit ruling striking down the Trump administration’s Affordable Clean Energy rule, which repealed the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP) and replaced it with more limited regulations of carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.
In a 6-3 opinion (West Virginia v. EPA), the majority objected to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) using the CPP to give states the option to promulgate regulations that would encourage “generation shifting,” or moving away from sources, such as coal, to cleaner sources of generation, such as natural gas or renewables.
The majority opinion, which was written by Chief Justice John Roberts, held that EPA’s use of generation-shifting as a system of emission reduction under section 111 of the Clean Air Act required clear congressional authorization under the major questions doctrine and found Congress had not given such clear authorization.
Role of Congress
On EPA’s view of Section 111(d), “Congress implicitly tasked it, and it alone, with balancing the many vital considerations of national policy implicated in deciding how Americans will get their energy,” the opinion stated. “EPA decides, for instance, how much of a switch from coal to natural gas is practically feasible by 2020, 2025, and 2030 before the grid collapses, and how high energy prices can go as a result before they become unreasonably ‘exorbitant.’”
The majority argues that “there is little reason to think Congress assigned such decisions to the Agency,” adding that they also find it highly unlikely that Congress would leave to agency discretion the decision of how much coal-based generation there should be over the coming decades.
“The basic and consequential tradeoffs involved in such a choice are ones that Congress would likely have intended for itself,” the majority said. “Congress certainly has not conferred a like authority upon EPA anywhere else in the Clean Air Act. The last place one would expect to find it is in the previously little-used backwater of Section 111(d).”
Carbon Emissions Caps
The Supreme Court’s precedent “counsels’ skepticism toward EPA’s claim that Section 111 empowers it to devise carbon emissions caps based on a generation shifting approach,” the opinion said. To overcome that skepticism, the government must “point to ‘clear congressional authorization’ to regulate in that manner.”
The government “looks to other provisions of the Clean Air Act for support. It points out that the Act elsewhere uses the word ‘system’ or ‘similar words’ to describe cap-and-trade schemes or other sector-wide mechanisms for reducing pollution.”
But the court said that “just because a cap-and-trade ‘system’ can be used to reduce emissions does not mean that it is the kind of ‘system of emission reduction’ referred to in Section 111. Indeed, the Government’s examples demonstrate why it is not.”
The majority went on to say that capping carbon dioxide emissions “at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from the use of coal to generate electricity” may be a sensible solution,
but “it is not plausible that Congress gave EPA the authority to adopt on its own such a regulatory scheme in Section 111(d).”
While the court noted that its decision was limited to whether the generation-shifting measures EPA identified as the “best system of emission reduction” are within the authority Congress granted under section 111. It did not discuss on what other measures EPA might take, beyond stressing the importance of EPA’s more limited, historical view of its authority under section 111.
The court said that a “decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body. The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is reversed, and the cases are remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
President Biden Directs Legal Team to Work With DOJ To Review Decision
In response to the decision, President Biden on June 30 said that he has directed his legal team to work with the Department of Justice and affected agencies “to review this decision carefully and find ways that we can, under federal law, continue protecting Americans from harmful pollution, including pollution that causes climate change.”
The court’s decision made clear that it is not saying that EPA lacks authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the CAA. In fact, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Spring Unified Agenda EPA is working to develop new rules to regulate GHG emissions from existing and new sources which will be informed by this court ruling.
Background
In 2015, the Obama Administration, through the CPP, adopted a broad view of EPA’s section 111(d) authority, requiring the electric power sector to shift generation away from fossil fuels to renewables.
The CPP was stayed by the Supreme Court in 2016 and never went into effect.
In June 2019, then-EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler signed the final Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule, replacing the CPP. The ACE Rule adopted a narrow view of section 111(d), seeking to curtail greenhouse gas emissions based only on pollution control measures applied at or to the source.
More recently, in January 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit moved to vacate and remand the ACE Rule.
The appeals court found that section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act does not require the best system of emission reduction to be limited to only those measures that can be applied at and to an individual source.
Because the Trump Administration’s EPA expressly based its repeal of the CPP and its promulgation of the ACE Rule on the premise that section 111(d) limits best system of emission reductionto such “behind-the-fenceline” measures, the D.C. Circuit held that the repeal of the CPP and ACE Rule must be vacated.
On October 29, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a review of the case, specifically agreeing to hear the parties’ arguments on whether EPA’s section 111(d) authority allows the agency to regulate the power generation industry in a manner as broad as the CPP.
DOE Announces RFI For Program To Site Clean Energy At Mines
July 1, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
July 1, 2022
The Department of Energy (DOE) on June 29 issued a Request for Information (RFI) for a program to fund clean energy projects on mine lands.
The Clean Energy Demonstrations on Current and Former Mine Land Program is funded with $500 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The aim of the program is to place clean energy demonstration projects on current or former mine lands across the United States.
Operated through DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, the program will fund clean energy projects that demonstrate one or more of the following clean energy technologies: solar; microgrid; geothermal energy; direct air capture; fossil-fueled generation with carbon capture, utilization and sequestration; energy storage, including pumped storage hydropower and compressed air; and advanced nuclear.
Two of the clean energy demonstration projects funded under the program must include solar energy. The DOE is seeking information from respondents about opportunities to use domestically manufactured solar for those projects.
The RFI seeks feedback from a variety of stakeholders, including industry, community organizations, environmental justice organizations, labor unions, and state and local governments.
Deadlines for submissions in response to the RFI have not yet been announced.
The DOE is also soliciting public input on how to design the program to best encourage private sector investment in similar projects leading to economic development for underserved communities near current and former mine land while advancing environmental justice.
The DOE said the selected projects should chart a course to navigate federal, state, and local rules and regulations for siting and grid interconnection, mine remediation, post mining land use, environmental safety and other processes to develop and operate clean energy projects on current or former mine land.
“Developing clean energy on mine lands is an opportunity for fossil fuel communities, which have powered our nation for a generation, to receive an economic boost and play a leadership role in our clean energy transition,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a statement. “The investments in the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will help America’s mining workforce apply their skills to grow and deploy cheaper, cleaner energy across the country.”
An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) analysis found approximately 17,750 mine land sites in the United States. If all those sites were redeveloped with clean energy projects, they could provide up to 89 gigawatts of clean electricity, the EPA report said.
A Multi-Pronged Approach to Meeting Infrastructure Challenges
July 1, 2022
by Joy Ditto
APPA President/CEO
July 1, 2022
The North American Electric Reliability Corp.’s Summer 2022 Reliability Assessment, issued in May, painted a sobering portrait of the ability of electric utilities in major portions of the United States to meet power needs this season. NERC identified several factors behind reliability concerns, including persistent drought, reduced generating capacity in some areas, supply chain concerns, and heightened cybersecurity threats. In addition, last summer, several solar photovoltaic resources tripped offline during grid disturbances in California and Texas, which NERC warned could happen again this year. The NERC assessment appears at a time when reliability and affordability of electricity are also challenged by rising natural gas prices and demands for new pipeline infrastructure. The Energy Information Administration recently projected that natural gas prices will remain relatively high in 2022 due to lower-than-average natural gas inventories resulting from constrained supply and increased demand. The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) projects that these high natural gas prices will contribute to higher wholesale electric prices in Summer 2022, with FERC staff reporting that, in May, “futures prices for some major U.S. electric price points are up over last year’s settled prices by between 77% to 233%.” NERC has also asserted that additional gas pipeline infrastructure is needed to serve load reliably.
NERC’s summer reliability assessment attracted national media attention. For example, a commentator from The Wall Street Journal compared the U.S. grids today to those of developing countries, where power outages are a regular occurrence. That’s not the case in reality, but, certainly, dramatic outages in recent years combined with NERC’s assessment, are warning signals of potential further degradation to our comparatively highly reliable grids.
The Washington Post also reported on the NERC assessment in a front-page article, published June 3. The industry’s move away from fossil fuels to renewable resources may be happening too quickly, industry analysts told the newspaper. Coal plants are being retired at a faster-than-expected rate because operators have concluded it would not be cost-effective to invest in upgrades, NERC CEO Jim Robb told the Post.
These challenges all point to the need to continue to invest in 24/7/365 electric system infrastructure, while continuing to integrate intermittent and new types of generation sources that can be properly balanced and backed up when they are unavailable. The need for reliable power becomes even more important as we prepare for the rapidly growing fleet of electric vehicles that automobile manufacturers are already producing. The EV market in the United States is projected to grow from $28 billion in 2021 to more than $137 billion by 2028.
The good news is that public power utilities can “walk and chew gum at the same time.” They understand that reliability and affordability are inextricably linked to sustainability, including addressing climate change goals. They are also preparing to apply for and integrate the federal dollars that have been allocated through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which could help public power utilities with their ongoing work to bring essential utility services to local homes and businesses, while also offering innovative solutions to meet their customers’ needs and ensure sustainable communities.
The IIJA allocates more than $192 billion for infrastructure projects related to electric grid, cybersecurity, electric vehicle infrastructure, and broadband expansion. Public power utilities seeking to tap into this funding should work with their state and local agencies to determine how monies will be distributed and what priorities have been set by these government authorities. We’ve set up a landing page at PublicPower.org/Infrastructure Funding that goes over the latest on IIJA and highlights places where utilities can apply for funding directly. A key part of the immediate task: identify your most important infrastructure needs and make these known to your local and state partners.
In setting priorities, it is important that public power utilities identify their cybersecurity needs and seek to strengthen cybersecurity. The article on page 10 in this issue discusses work underway at APPA, and among our members, to help meet the cybersecurity needs of public power utilities. APPA has a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response (CESER). With the funding provided through the cooperative agreement, we are working to increase deployment of operational technology cybersecurity sensors on utility distribution systems and to grow information-sharing among utilities—all with the aim of protecting our members from cyber-attacks.
Many of the infrastructure challenges facing utilities today seem new. Thirty years ago, we did not worry about sophisticated electronics on distribution equipment or give much thought to infiltration of local utility computer systems. These modern needs are important, but it is remarkable that juxtaposed with our quest to meet these modern-day needs is a project that reminds us of the earliest objectives of public power. I want to thank the volunteers from public power utilities from across the nation who traveled to the Navajo Nation to help the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority meet the most basic of needs: bringing electricity to rural homes. The Light Up Navajo project, an industry effort to bring electricity to 14,000 Navajo Nation homes, is now in its third phase. Crews from utilities in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Ohio, and Texas have worked on the 2022 phase of the project, or Light Up Navajo III. The photo essay that begins on page 20 tells a piece of that story.
The public power movement began in the 1880s. Local leaders brought electricity to Wabash, Indiana, in March 1880—28 months before Thomas Edison’s Pearl Street Station began operating in New York City in September 1882. The need for public power utilities to provide reliable and affordable power “keeping their feet on the ground” was juxtaposed with providing sustainable communities, or “reaching for the stars,” even then. Even with the added challenges we face now, 142 years later, public power has not lost sight of its primary mission.
APPA Details How SEC’s Proposed Climate Disclosure Rule Will Harm Public Power
June 30, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 30, 2022
A proposed climate-related disclosure rule issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will have an adverse effect on the American Public Power Association’s (APPA) members, even though those members, as no-for-profit providers of electric power, are not publicly traded or directly subject to the proposed rule, APPA said in recent comments submitted to the SEC.
More than three million businesses receive their power from a publicly owned electric utility, APPA noted in its June 17 comments. In some instances, these businesses are publicly traded companies that would be required to comply with the proposed rule if finalized, including the proposed requirement that all publicly traded companies disclose their “Scope 2” emissions (i.e., the amount of greenhouse gas emissions attributed to the company’s purchase of electricity).
“As a result, if finalized, the Proposed Rule will have a significant adverse effect on public power utilities through increased costs to provide information to public power utility customers for their SEC filings. These increased costs will not be borne by shareholders or investors, but by the citizens of the communities that own the public power utilities,” APPA said.
The proposed rule will impose significant additional costs on public power utilities “that go well beyond what is currently required to assist customers with their voluntary reporting of greenhouse gas emissions,” the group said.
APPA also said that the requirement in the proposed rule that certain publicly traded companies report their “Scope 3” emissions will have a cascading, extremely costly effect on public power.
Scope 3 emissions are those indirect emissions (other than emissions associated with purchased power) that occur in the upstream and downstream activities of a registrant’s value chain.
Upstream emissions include emissions attributable to goods and services that the registrant acquires, the transportation of goods (for example, to the registrant), and employee business travel and commuting. Downstream emissions include the use of the registrant’s products, transportation of products (for example, to the registrant’s customers), end of life treatment of sold products, and investments made by the registrant.
Registrants are required to report their Scope 3 emissions if those emissions are material or if the registrant has set an emissions goal or target that includes Scope 3 emissions. The SEC believes that many registrants will need to report Scope 3 emissions because those emissions are material.
“The requirement for certain registrants to report their Scope 3 emissions means that public power utilities will also need to report data to their customers that are not publicly traded companies because those customers are going to need to provide data to their customers or suppliers that are publicly traded and need to report Scope 3 emissions,” APPA said.
The group said that along with the questionable benefit of gathering and reporting uncertain or inaccurate information, “there are also concerns about the increased costs of substantially expanding the scope and scale of emissions that must reported.”
First, the sheer number of companies that will be required to report will vastly exceed what is being done voluntarily now, APPA argued.
“Second, there will be a huge number of companies that are not subject to the Proposed Rule that will be required to provide information to their customers and suppliers, and this will exponentially increase the number of entities that need information.”
Third, the stakes for customers’ reporting are much higher under the proposed rule than they are for the voluntary programs, APPA said.
It noted that under the proposed rule, accelerated filers and large accelerated filers must provide “reasonable assurance” (after a short transition period) that the emissions calculation that they provide is accurate. Failure of a reporting company to meet this standard has serious liability ramifications, APPA said.
“There is a big difference between providing information to public power customers to assist them with estimating their Scope 2 emissions for a voluntary program and providing information to those customers to aid them in complying with an SEC-mandated program for which there are grave consequences for making a mistake.”
These additional burdens that are associated with the proposed rule will have an adverse effect on public power, APPA told the SEC.
For some public power providers, the effect may be relatively minimal, simply involving the additional cost of ensuring that current practices comport with the new demands for information from customers.
“For others, however, the costs will be substantial, requiring the hiring of additional staff to manage customer requests and outside consultants to ensure responses to these requests meet regulatory requirements.”
APPA noted that one larger public power utility estimates that it would need an additional two to three full-time employees on staff to work through all the calculations of hourly replacement power under contractual agreements with one major supplier and other purchase power agreement counterparties. These staff would also be required to obtain information on the hourly energy mix of the wholesale market to calculate Off-System Purchase and Imbalance Energy emissions.
Moreover, public power utilities do not have shareholders or investors onto whom to pass additional costs of complying with the proposed rule, APPA pointed out.
Rather, because public power is not-for-profit and community-owned, these costs will be passed directly to their residential and business customers.
Some of the areas served by public power utilities are economically disadvantaged communities and households. In addition to being served by public power utilities, many economically disadvantaged areas – particularly rural areas – are served by electric cooperatives.
The fact that poor customers in economically disadvantaged areas are going to have increased costs associated with the proposed rule – “costs that they will have to bear and that cannot be passed on to investors — raises serious environmental justice concerns,” APPA said.
SEC 2010 Guidance
In 2010, the SEC released guidance regarding the types of disclosures that publicly traded companies must report in their SEC filings.
“To the extent that the SEC believes that there are gaps in what is being reported to investors, APPA suggests that the Commission instead update the 2010 Guidance or provide additional interpretive guidance regarding those gaps,” the group said.
“This approach would be much more targeted and streamlined than the Proposed Rule and would have the advantage of adhering to the SEC’s longstanding principle that only information that is material to investors need be disclosed by registrants in their SEC filings.”
Scope 3 Emissions
Under the Proposed Rule, a registrant must disclose their Scope 3 emissions if those emissions are “material,” or if the registrant has set a greenhouse gas emissions target or emissions reduction goal that includes Scope 3 emissions.
“APPA suggests that the SEC consider making any requirement to disclose Scope 3 emissions voluntary. This could result in a reduction in the burden and costs put on public power utilities. Conversely, while this would result in a reduction of the volume of information provided to investors, if that information is duplicative or unreliable,” it would not result in a reduction of information on which investors and shareholders could confidently rely.
CPS Energy’s Five-Year Energy Efficiency And Conservation Plan Is Approved
June 29, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 29, 2022
The San Antonio City Council on June 16 approved a CPS Energy five-year energy efficiency and conservation plan.
The approved plan for CPS Energy’s evolution of its Save for Tomorrow Energy Plan (STEP), will be funded as a $350 million initiative over the next five years. The average bill impact will continue to be $3.50 per month to an energy bill.
The program goals include 410 megawatts of demand reduction, 1% energy savings per year, 16,000 weatherized homes and 1.85 million tons of avoided carbon.
The plan includes:
- Weatherization in single homes for the most vulnerable customers along with multifamily units;
- Community and other solar offerings for more low-to-moderate income customers;
- Energy storage, electric vehicle charging;
- Educational curriculum to promote behavioral change towards energy conservation;
- Demand response in the form of enabled technology like smart thermostats both in homes and businesses; and
- Support for the commercial sector to become more efficient through traditional energy efficiency rebates and new programs.
Since June 2021, CPS Energy has held a dozen collaborative sessions to design a new program with feedback from the Board of Trustees, Rate Advisory Committee (RAC), Citizens Advisory Committee, the Municipal Utilities Commission, and public comment during the Board and RAC meetings.
The current STEP program expires on July 31, 2022. With this month’s approval, CPS Energy will work to finalize additional details, including public awareness and community outreach plans.
For more information about STEP, visit the STEP webpage here.
Calif. Public Utilities’ Efficiency Efforts Reduced Demand By 81 MW In 2021
June 29, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
June 29, 2022
California’s publicly owned utilities spent $159 million on energy efficiency programs in fiscal year 2021 helping to reduce demand by about 81 megawatts (MW), according to a new report from the California Municipal Utilities Association (CMUA).
Those energy efficiency investments also helped contribute to 2,851 gigawatt hours (GWh) in lifecycle energy savings and a 254 GWh reduction of annual electricity consumption, the report, Energy Efficiency in California’s Public Power Sector – 16th Edition (2022), also noted.
California’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.
Since 2006, California publicly owned utilities collectively spent nearly $2.5 billion on energy efficiency and demand reduction programs, saving nearly 8,300 GWh in net energy during, the report said.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have an impact on energy efficiency, the report noted. California’s electricity demand was down in 2021, keeping energy efficiency program yields below pre-pandemic levels. In addition, some programs, such as those requiring direct interaction for installations, had to be suspended.
Some of California publicly owned utilities began to return to programs that require direct interaction while others have indicated they intend to return to those programs in 2022.
Also, the pandemic prompted some CMUA members to change their clean energy focus. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), for instance, is expanding its building electrification efforts and is transitioning from an energy reduction metric to a carbon reduction metric, the report noted.
“This important report details the significant investments we are making to help our customers become more energy efficient,” Barry Moline, executive director of CMUA, said in a statement. “Energy efficiency programs are vitally important to help keep rates affordable while meeting California’s climate goals as the state continues to move toward 100 percent clean energy.”
California’s publicly owned utilities offer their customers a wide range of energy efficiency programs, including direct- and self-install programs for lighting and appliances, home weatherization and retrofits, electric vehicle incentives and rebates, energy storage, business and residential energy audits, public education, and low-income assistance, according to the report. The programs are funded from cap-and-trade allowances, the Public Goods Charge, and other sources.
The 40 publicly owned utilities that contributed data for the report provide electricity to about 25 percent of California. The commercial and industrial sectors account for about 72 percent of the annual energy savings and residential programs resulted in 26.6 percent of the total savings, according to the report.
New Report Highlights Key Role Of Natural Gas In Electric Power Sector
June 28, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 28, 2022
Natural gas will continue to be an important driver of electric reliability and cost in the U.S. and the nexus between the electric and natural gas industries will continue to be critical for the foreseeable future, a new report prepared for the American Public Power Association (APPA) states.
The report, released on June 24, was prepared for APPA by GDS Associates Inc., an energy industry consulting firm.
The report covers a wide range of topics including an overview of the natural gas industry, the electric and natural gas nexus and pipeline infrastructure needs.
With respect to the nexus between the electric sector and natural gas, the report notes that in the last 15 years, the intersection between the electric and natural gas industries has expanded and intensified.
“Natural gas has grown significantly as an electric generation fuel source in that time, both as a replacement for retiring coal and as flexible generation, balancing growing intermittent resources like wind and solar,” the report said.
It noted that the prominence of natural gas-fueled generation has been propelled by the shale gas revolution, which significantly increased domestic natural gas production, “resulting in sustained low prices for several years and a redefinition of how the natural gas pipeline network was utilized and expanded.”
Higher and higher intermittent generation penetration and the uncertainty and variability of electric output from these sources “make quick-starting natural gas generation a critical reliability component on the grid,” the report said.
Natural gas-fired electric generation will remain critical to maintaining reliable electric service for the foreseeable future, according to the report.
It points out that the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that natural gas resources will remain relatively constant as approximately one-third of the generation capacity mix through 2050, with some regions likely at a higher percentage.
Natural gas remains an important fuel for generating plants owned by public power utilities to serve the customers in their communities. According to analyses by APPA, natural gas-fueled power plants accounted for 44.1% of generating capacity owned by public power utilities as of 2020, and 34.4% of the energy generated by public power-owned facilities, the report noted.
It said that the importance of natural gas-fueled generation to reliable electric service “creates significant interdependencies between the electric and natural gas industries. These interdependencies have been areas of particular focus for years, often highlighted by severe winter weather events when peak electricity and natural gas usage coincide.”
Impact Of Natural Gas Prices On The Cost Of Power
Meanwhile, the report notes that there is a well-established connection between wholesale natural gas and power prices.
The recent increase in natural gas prices has been attributed to reduced exploration due to the COVID pandemic and environmental policy, fallout of the February 2021 arctic weather event, increased difficulty financing exploration, and increased liquefied natural gas (LNG) export activity, among other factors.
“Indeed, over the past seven years, the amount of LNG exports from the U.S. has consistently risen and is expected to continue to rise. This trend has only been accelerated and intensified due to the war in Ukraine, and domestic users of natural gas are increasingly competing with global users.”
As natural gas electric generation has grown and played a large part in replacing coal generation, the U.S. electric system is more heavily impacted by the price of natural gas. “Coal continues to compete with natural gas resources – and is relatively advantaged because of the recent increase in natural gas prices – but large amounts of coal generation have retired so its role as a substitute for natural gas fuel has diminished,” the report pointed out.
Renewables can also compete and substitute for natural gas generation, but their variable output means that natural gas generation also serves a complementary role with renewables. “Both coal and renewables have been challenged with supply chain disruptions which also reduce their capability to compete with natural gas.”
The importance of natural gas to reliable and affordable electric service “highlights the need to ensure an adequate and reliable natural gas supply chain, including sufficient natural gas transportation infrastructure,” the report said.
Among the report’s key conclusions was that “[w]ithout adequate natural gas supply and the pipeline infrastructure to transport it, natural gas, power, and home heating customers are likely to experience elevated energy prices.”
Regulation and Pipeline Infrastructure
As for regulation and natural gas pipeline infrastructure, the report notes that as the lead regulator with authority to approve new interstate natural gas pipeline facilities, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) plays a significant role in ensuring adequate infrastructure exists to meet demand for natural gas, including that for electricity generation.
In the past few years, FERC has been undertaking an overhaul of its processes for reviewing new pipeline applications, with potentially significant implications for natural gas supply and price reliability, the report said.
In 2018, FERC began exploring whether it should revise its gas pipeline certification policy statement that was originally issued in 1999. More recently, FERC in March 2022 voted to seek additional comments on two policy statements it issued in February that provide guidance regarding the certification of interstate natural gas pipelines and consideration of greenhouse gas emissions in natural gas project reviews.
“As the need for natural gas to address critical needs persists, including ensuring electric reliability, regulatory processes for review and approval of gas pipeline infrastructure must be efficient and provide regulatory certainty and predictability to applicants and other stakeholders,” the report states.
“Efficiency is achieved by having decision processes that are as streamlined and expeditious as possible, given statutory requirements, to provide reasonable outcomes while avoiding unnecessary delays or effort. Certainty is achieved with concrete and clear approval requirements. There should be a clear path to approval if required conditions are met. Efficiency and certainty are critical pillars of regulatory approval processes that should harmonize with the extent of statutory requirements of review.”
FERC’s goal to have legally durable pipeline approvals “is entirely consistent with the need for regulatory certainty and efficiency. A regulatory approval process can and should meet statutory requirements (avoiding judicial reversals) while also providing efficiency and certainty for applicants.”
At the same time, the report said that if regulatory approval processes are inefficient or create uncertainty, then needed infrastructure investment can be adversely affected.