Groups Urge Congress to Take Action to Prevent Elimination of $14 Billion in Subsidy Payments

December 19, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
December 19, 2022

The American Public Power Association (APPA) and other trade groups are urging congressional leaders to waive the statutory Pay-as-You-Go-Act of 2010 (PAYGO) before the close of the 117th Congress.

“Failure to do so will result in the elimination of $14 billion in subsidy payments to public entities across the country,” the groups said in their Dec. 15 letter. “Subsidy payments from our federal partners are currently included in the budgets of thousands of jurisdictions. Without certainty of receipt, essential public services may become acutely impacted.”

APPA and the other groups are members of the Public Finance Network, representing nearly fifty thousand public organizations and issuers of municipal securities.

APPA is also urging its members to reach out to their congressional delegation to ask for relief from Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 sequestration.

“As we collectively worked to emerge from the Great Recession over a decade ago, state and local governments and public entities across the country utilized options made available to stimulate the economy and undertook several hundred billion dollars in critical, long-term infrastructure obligations through the issuance of direct subsidy bonds,” the groups said.

At the time, the understanding was that federal payments related to these bonds would not be subject to the appropriation process and would not be subject to sequestration, APPA and the others said.

“To our dismay, the federal government appears on the brink of completely reneging on this deal by eliminating $14 billion in payments to state and local entities. Specifically, unless new legislation is enacted that will waive the PAYGO as relates to the budgetary effects of the American Rescue Plan, thousands of state and local entities will not receive any Build America Bond (BAB), Qualified School Construction Bonds (QSCB), Qualified Zone Academy Bonds (QZAB), New Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (New CREB), or Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds (QECB) payments otherwise guaranteed to them under the law.”

Entities that issued these bonds generally in 2009, 2010, and 2011 did so in partnership with the federal government. For example, a BAB is a type of municipal bond designed to expand the pool of investors for municipal debt at a time when investment in traditional tax-exempt municipal bonds was in decline.

Additionally, projects financed with these bonds helped provide jobs and needed infrastructure investments when the economy needed it most. Unlike a traditional municipal bond, interest on a BAB is taxable to the bondholder and the interest rate paid is higher than for a traditional tax-exempt bond. However, Treasury is required to reduce this additional expense by providing a payment to the bond issuer equal to 35 percent of the interest paid to the bondholder, the groups noted.

In all, nearly 2,400 communities issued BABs to finance $180 billion in infrastructure projects, including school construction, water and sewer improvements, hospital and other health care system upgrades, highway and public transit investments, and electric power utility transmission, generation and distribution.

“Insofar as Congress fails to prevent these credit payments from being eliminated under PAYGO sequestration, it will be our residents who ultimately pay for the increased project costs.”

The groups also noted that Congress sought to make energy investment incentives available to not just investor-owned utilities and merchant generators through the creation of new CREBs to be issued by public power utilities and rural electric cooperatives. This change was made to ease the concentration of tax creditable energy project ownership by merchant power generators.

More than 800 public power utilities, school districts, city governments, and rural electric cooperatives were allocated more than $2.2 billion in new CREB bonding authority to finance, wind, solar, hydropower, and biomass projects. If Congress allows new CREB payments to be eliminated, it will result in their customers either seeing an increase on their monthly bill or in reduced resources available for investments in grid security and reliability, the groups warned.

“Payments to issuers of these special purpose bonds are already laboring under a steady stream of cuts triggered by the Budget Control Act of 2011 due to the failure of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. These ‘Joint Committee Reductions’ began in 2013 and are now expected to continue through 2031. Joint Select Committee reductions will have cut payments by nearly $3 billion by the end of Fiscal Year 2022 and will cut payments by another $1.6 billion by the end of Fiscal Year 2031,” the letter said.

Allowing joint committee reductions to continue “is a travesty because so many public entities depend on this federal-state-local partnership. However, allowing PAYGO to eliminate these payments entirely would be catastrophic to communities that stepped up during the Great Recession to try to create jobs when job creation was desperately needed, to students in schools that are already underserved and to renters and homeowners that are already struggling to pay utilities, taxes, and other bills,” the groups said. 

“As a result, we hope Congress will overcome its differences and fix this problem for all Americans. Thank you for your time and consideration.”

The letter was sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., House Minority Leader, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate Majority Leader, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, Senate Minority Leader.

Research Examines Participation of Wisconsin Residents in Energy Assistance Program

December 18, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
December 18, 2022

Research funded by the American Public Power Association’s (APPA) Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments (DEED) program examines awareness and participation of Wisconsin residents in a home energy assistance program.

“What dollar amount makes it worthwhile for a household to apply for heating and electric bill payment assistance? According to a recent study, that amount is $612. In a remarkable coincidence, $612 is the exact average statewide benefit received by income-qualified Wisconsin households last winter,” Wisconsin-based WPPI Energy said in a recent news release related to the study. The average included $417 toward heating expenses and $195 for electricity.

The research was initiated when the locally owned electric utilities that make up WPPI Energy’s membership sought more insight on how to best support income-qualified customers, WPPI Energy noted.

“Our joint-action agency is owned and driven by the not-for-profit electric utilities we serve,” said WPPI Energy Senior Energy Services Manager and study co-author Anna Stieve in a statement. “These public power utilities have a strong focus on customers and their communities. So, it’s a natural fit to investigate how to best support some of the most vulnerable residents.”

To help fund the research, WPPI Energy applied for and received a grant through APPA’s Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments (DEED) program.

DEED funds research, pilot projects, and education to improve the operations and services of public power utilities.

The survey was conducted by the Dieringer Research Group with active involvement from Stieve and other WPPI Energy staff experts.

The results revealed that seven out of 10 qualified households were aware of the Wisconsin Home Energy Assistance Program (WHEAP), with women and older residents demonstrating greater knowledge of the assistance available. Notably, only 27% of income-qualified residents applied for the WHEAP benefits available to them.

With respect to the question of why such a large population of eligible residents did not apply for assistance, many indicated they did not believe they would qualify, or did not feel they had a need. One-third of respondents didn’t want to ask for help, and another 16% felt other people needed it more than they did.

“Our survey uncovered that a lot of people don’t apply when they could really benefit from the program,” said Stieve. “This money is set aside to help pay heating and electric bills for those who qualify, and we really want to spread the word so customers don’t miss out on support that’s meant for them.”

To help better understand how to get this message out to customers, the survey asked how respondents heard about WHEAP in the past, and how they preferred to learn about energy assistance programs in the future. Customers would prefer to receive information through utility bill inserts, but are actually more likely to learn about the program through word of mouth.

Marketing Manager Steve Lightbourn, the study’s other co-author, says this and other insights from the survey will help WPPI Energy member utilities spread awareness and hopefully eliminate the stigma associated with receiving assistance.

“When customers take advantage of the programs available to them, it makes the entire community stronger,” continued Lightbourn. “Our member utilities want to support the people they serve, and promoting WHEAP is one of the easiest and most effective ways to do that.”

California Regulators Issue Major Decision on Net Metering

December 18, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
December 18, 2022

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Thursday issued a decision revising the state’s Net Energy Metering (NEM) solar tariff to better reflect value of solar power and solar plus storage to the state’s grid.

The new NEM changes how customers of the state’s investor-owned utilities will be paid for solar power they do not consume and ship to the grid, basing those exports on the utilities’ avoided costs of buying clean electricity elsewhere rather than the utilities’ retail price of electricity.

The decision (Docket #: R.20-08-020) will promote solar exports during the late afternoon and early evening hours, particularly in the summer, when the grid is the most stressed, the CPUC said. The decision has no impact on existing rooftop solar customers, maintaining their current compensation rates.

The CPUC decision also provides extra electricity bill credits to residential customers who adopt solar or solar paired with battery storage in the next five years, which are paid on top of the avoided cost bill credits. Customers are guaranteed the extra bill credits for nine years.

The new NEM tariff also increases the allowable size of rooftop solar systems to cover 150 percent of a customer’s electricity usage in order to accommodate future electrification of appliances and vehicles. And the new NEM regime will also expand access to solar and storage for low-income customers, residents living in disadvantaged communities, and residents living in California tribal communities by providing a larger amount of extra bill credits.

The decision also applies new residential rates that have “significant differences” between peak and off-peak prices as a way of creating incentives for battery storage and load shifting from evening hours to overnight or midday hours, the CPUC said. The new rates aim to incentivize adoption of technologies to replace the use of fossil fuels such as battery storage, electric vehicles, and heat pump water heaters.

Reform of California’s net metering regime was mandated by a 2013 state law, Assembly Bill 327. The CPUC revised its original solar tariff program in 2016, creating NEM 2.0 and, most recently, revised its NEM proposal in November after the inclusion of a grid participation charge met with heavy criticism from many stakeholders.

FERC Directs NERC to Assess Effectiveness of Physical Security Reliability Standard

December 17, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
December 17, 2022

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Dec. 15 issued an order directing the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to submit a report to the Commission analyzing the effectiveness of the existing NERC reliability standard addressing physical security of the bulk power system.

At its monthly open meeting, FERC directed NERC to conduct a study evaluating the need for improvements to Reliability Standard CIP-014-3, which pertains to physical security for the electric grid.

FERC staff noted that in recent months, there has been an increase in reports of physical attacks on electric substations that in some incidents have resulted in thousands of customer outages. In early December, Duke Energy responded to power outages caused by vandalism against utility equipment in North Carolina.

In its order, FERC requires NERC to provide an assessment of the effectiveness of the physical security reliability standard that considers, but is not limited to, the potential risks highlighted by recent events. 

Specifically, the order directed NERC to conduct a study evaluating:

• The adequacy of the applicability criteria set forth in the standard;
• The adequacy of the required risk assessment set forth in the standard; and
• Whether a minimum level of physical security protections should be required for all bulk-power system transmission stations and substations and primary control centers. 

The report is due 120 days from issuance of the order.

Small Modular Reactor Technology Delivers Reliability, Resiliency, Safety, and Affordability

December 17, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
December 17, 2022

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.

Utility Scale Battery Storage Growth Tracks Renewables, But is Even Faster: EIA

December 16, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
December 16, 2022

Utility-scale battery storage capacity is poised for explosive growth in the United States as it tracks and outpaces renewable growth, especially in California and Texas, according to a report released this week by the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA). 

Over the next three years, U.S. utility-scale battery storage capacity could reach 30 GW by year-end 2025, from 7.8 GW as of October 2022, according to the EIA’s latest Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory, which is based on data reported to the agency by developers and power plant owners.

Battery storage in the United States was “negligible” prior to 2020, but began growing rapidly, the EIA said. The growth of battery storage capacity tracks the rising pace of wind and solar installations but is even outpacing the early growth of utility-scale solar capacity, which grew from less than 1 GW in 2010 to 13.7 GW in 2015, according to EIA data.

U.S. battery storage capacity was 1.5 GW in 2020 and by year end it could reach 9.2 GW with another 20.8 GW expected to come online between 2023 and 2025. More than 75 percent of the 20.8 GW in development is in Texas and California, which account for 7.9 GW and 7.6 GW, respectively, of the expected additions by 2025. Both of those states are also leaders in renewable resources.

Texas has 37.2 GW of wind capacity, more than in any other state, and developers expect to add an additional 5.3 GW over the next three years, the EIA said. Texas also has 10.5 GW of utility-scale solar capacity and developers plan to install another 20.4 GW between 2023 and 2025 in the Lone Star state.

California has more utility-scale solar capacity than in any other state with 16.8 GW and another 7.7 GW expected to be added between 2023 and 2025.

As more battery capacity becomes available to the U.S. grid, battery storage projects are also becoming larger, the EIA noted. Before 2020, the largest U.S. battery storage project was 40 MW. The 250-megawatt (MW) Gateway Energy Storage System in California, which began operating in 2020, marked the beginning of large-scale battery storage installation, the EIA said.

Now, the 409-MW Manatee Energy Storage facility in Florida is the largest operating storage project in the country. Developers have scheduled more than 23 large-scale battery projects, ranging from 250 MW to 650 MW, to be deployed by 2025, according to EIA data.

NuScale, UAMPS, Others to Assess Small Nuclear Reactors for Hydrogen Production

December 16, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
December 16, 2022

NuScale Power and its partners, including Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) and Shell Global Solutions, are assessing the development of a process for producing hydrogen using small modular nuclear reactors.

In addition to UAMPS and Shell, research participants in the project also include Idaho National Laboratory, Fuel Cell Energy, FPoliSolutions, and GSE Solutions.

In July 2019, UAMPS members executed power sales contracts totaling more than 150 megawatts (MW) of subscriptions in UAMPS’ Carbon Free Power Project, a 12-module small modular reactor (SMR) being designed and built by NuScale at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory.

The hydrogen project calls for development of an economically optimized Integrated Energy System (IES) using electricity and process heat from a NuScale small modular reactor.

NuScale said the ultimate aim would be to balance and stabilize power grids dominated by renewable energies through hydrogen production, for example, by producing hydrogen when electric demand is low and, when energy demand is high and renewable energy production is low, using the hydrogen as an end-product or as fuel to create electricity using a reversible solid oxide fuel cell.

Each NuScale nuclear power module produces 250 MW of thermal energy that can be used to drive a steam turbine generator or for a variety of industrial processes, including the production of clean hydrogen, Diane Hughes, NuScale’s vice president of marketing and communications, said via email. A single 77-MW NuScale power module, working with a state-of-the-art fuel cell, is capable of producing up to 2,053 kilograms of hydrogen per hour, or nearly 50 metric tons per day, she said.

NuScale plans to conduct a techno-economic analysis to assess the number of NuScale power modules needed for hydrogen production and the quantity of hydrogen stored for subsequent electricity production. In addition, local economic factors from the UAMPS Carbon Free Power Project will be assessed, such as the impact in the Western Energy Imbalance Market, resource adequacy programs, and other local market factors.

In the second phase, NuScale plans to modify a control room simulator to evaluate the dynamics of the integrated energy system, including models for a solid oxide electrolysis system for hydrogen production and a fuel cell for electricity production.

One of the concepts being explored in the study is whether NuScale’s multi-module SMR power plant design could produce reliable clean electricity for the grid while allocating one or more modules to economically produce hydrogen when electricity demand is low, Hughes said.

NYPA Forum Details Ingredients for Moving Large Transmission Projects Forward

December 16, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
December 16, 2022

New York stakeholders detailed some of the strategies that have helped them move transmission projects forward in the state during a recent online forum sponsored by the New York Power Authority (NYPA).

The forum, Collaborating To Get It Done: How New York State Is Expanding Transmission for Its Clean Energy Economy, brought together transmission stakeholders, including NYPA, the New York Independent System Operator, GridWise Alliance, and a dairy farmer from upstate New York.

A recent report by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found institutional and structural barriers that are preventing hundreds of gigawatts of clean energy from coming online due to interconnection issues. Average interconnection costs for recent transmission projects have nearly doubled relative to historical costs from 2000 through 2018, LBNL found. New York State, meanwhile, is building more transmission than it has in 40 years and is upgrading or building hundreds of miles of transmission lines.

Three elements underpin NYPA’s success with transmission projects, “having people in the field with a local understanding,” building on that understanding, and “taking a long-term view,” Phil Toia, president of NYPA Development, said at the event.

“We know those areas,” whether it is vegetation management or asset management, “we do what we say we are going to do” and that helps with the regulatory and permitting aspects of a project, Toia said.

Toia said he has seen more transmission development over the past couple of years than he has in the past 30.

Earlier this month, NYPA, with National Grid NY, began construction on the Smart Path Connect transmission project that is rebuilding and strengthening about 100 miles of power lines in the state’s North Country and Mohawk Valley. NYPA is also working on the Smart Path project that entails the rebuilding of the Moses-to-Adirondack transmission lines.

Work also began in December on the 339-mile Champlain Hudson Power Express transmission line being developed by Transmission Developers Inc.

The Champlain Hudson Power Express and the Clean Path NY project, which is being developed by NYPA and Forward Power, a joint venture of Invenergy and energyRe, are the largest transmission developments in New York State in the last 50 years, NYPA said.

In addition, NYPA and LS Power New York are developing the Central East Energy Connect project that calls for the rebuilding and expansion of nearly 100 miles of historically heavily congested transmission lines in the Utica-Albany corridor.

New York Transco’s New York Energy Solution calls for the rebuilding of approximately 54 miles of transmission lines in the Hudson Valley, a project that is already underway, and NextEra Energy Transmission New York recently completed and energized the approximately 20-mile Empire State Line Project in Western New York. All told, New York’s transmission investments total nearly 1,000 miles of new and upgraded projects.

NYPA has also collaborated  with TransCo to submit a set of solutions dubbed Propel NY Energy to the NYISO’s solicitation for proposals for connecting new offshore wind resources to the Southeastern New York power grid. A decision on those proposals is expected in the first part of next year.

“Originally we were rebuilding old lines,” now “we are starting to look at the next phase” and at projects that are larger and more complex, Toia said. “There is always a balance in trying to get as much out of our existing resources and building new projects.”

“Interconnection is an important issue and a challenging one,” Emilie Nelson, executive vice president of the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), said during the forum. “In many areas, we have established an effective approach, but there is room for improvement.”

Extensive investment in transmission resources is going to be necessary to deliver the renewable energy needed to meet New York State’s climate goals, Nelson said. That can be seen particularly in the imbalance between the upstate and downstate resource mix in the state. Zero emission resources make up about 90 percent of upstate electricity production while fossil fuels generate up to 89 percent of downstate electricity production.

In addition, between 111 gigawatts (GW) and 124 GW of renewable generation will need to be added to the NYISO grid by 2040 to meet New York’s goal of having an emissions free grid.

In that context, “we need to find better ways” to understand core reliability issues and “to efficiently evaluate and finalize and allow these projects to move forward,” Nelson said. One of the keys, she said is communication and figuring out how to have the parties involved effectively engage on the issues. “We absolutely need these transmission projects and supply resources to materialize.”

One of the key constituents in those discussions are landowners and, particularly in upstate New York, farmers. “You are never going to find a farmer who is going to say, ‘oh, yeah, build a tower on my land,’” Jon Greenwood, founder of Greenwood Dairy.

A farmer’s biggest concern is where the towers are going to be located because they can present impediments to planting and sowing operations, Greenwood said.

Cash offers based on appraised land values are often “not really indicative of the value of the land to our operation,” Greenwood said. A developer could pay 90 percent of the value of the land, “but it doesn’t really compensate. No one would voluntarily pay that kind of money to put an obstruction in their field.”

Anything that can be done to avoid placing a transmission tower on crop land or placing them in the least obstructive way will help smooth the path and help the developer win farmers’ cooperation, Greenwood said.

Greenwood recommended that transmission planners engage with farm owners early in the process and ask the owner’s advice on issues such as where would be the best, least obstructive location for tower access roads. He also said that monopoles are “a big improvement” over the more conventional four-legged towers that are harder to maneuver around.

“The best thing for a farmer is to work with the powers that be from the get go,” Greenwood said. For instance, a developer should ask a farmer where he would like the lines to come in rather than just using the right of way. “Communication in the key,” Greenwood said.

DEED Program Appoints Eric Miller to Board of Directors

December 14, 2022

by Jackson Bedbury
APPA News
December 14, 2022

The American Public Power Association’s (APPA) Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency (DEED) Program on November 3 appointed Eric Miller, Manager of Engineering and Project Management at Kaukauna Utilities (Wisconsin) to fill a vacant seat on the program’s board of directors.

Miller will serve as the director representing Region 2, comprising Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, for a three-year term.

As one of twelve DEED program directors, Miller will act as a resource to help utilities refine grant applications prior to the advisory board’s review, in addition to contributing to funding and policy decisions for the program.

Region 3 Director Seat Opening

The DEED program is also currently seeking to fill a director position to oversee Region 3 (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota). The nomination deadline for the seat is January 16, 2023, and the form can be accessed here.

For any questions regarding the DEED program or board of director nominations, please email DEED@PublicPower.org.

Department of Energy Reports Major Breakthrough in Fusion Energy Research

December 13, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
December 13, 2022

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Dec. 13 announced the achievement of fusion ignition at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), a development that DOE said is a “major scientific breakthrough decades in the making that will pave the way for advancements in national defense and the future of clean power.”

DOE reported that on December 5, a team at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) conducted the first controlled fusion experiment in history to reach this milestone, also known as scientific energy breakeven, meaning it produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to drive it.

LLNL’s experiment surpassed the fusion threshold by delivering 2.05 megajoules (MJ) of energy to the target, resulting in 3.15 MJ of fusion energy output, demonstrating for the first time a most fundamental science basis for inertial fusion energy. 

DOE said that many advanced science and technology developments are still needed to achieve simple, affordable inertial fusion energy to power homes and businesses. DOE is in the process of restarting a broad-based, coordinated inertial fusion energy program in the U.S.

Fusion is the process by which two light nuclei combine to form a single heavier nucleus, releasing a large amount of energy.

In the 1960s, a group of scientists at LLNL hypothesized that lasers could be used to induce fusion in a laboratory setting. This idea became inertial confinement fusion, kicking off more than 60 years of research and development in lasers, optics, diagnostics, target fabrication, computer modeling and simulation, and experimental design.

To pursue this concept, LLNL built a series of increasingly powerful laser systems, leading to the creation of NIF, the world’s largest and most energetic laser system.

NIF, which is located at LLNL in Livermore, Calif., is the size of a sports stadium and uses laser beams to create temperatures and pressures like those in the cores of stars and giant planets, and inside exploding nuclear weapons.

Click here for a news conference held on Dec. 13 by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and other officials related to the announcement.