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Grid Operators Across U.S. Report New Renewable Energy Records

April 19, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 19, 2022

New renewable energy records were recently set across the U.S., grid operators overseeing organized wholesale power markets in the U.S. said.

The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) set a new record on April 3, when 97.6 percent of electricity on the grid came from renewable energy.

The peak, which occurred briefly at 3:39 p.m., broke the previous record of 96.4 percent set on March 27, 2022. Before that, the grid’s record for renewable power was 94.5 percent, set on April 21, 2021.

The new milestone comes as CAISO integrates growing amounts of renewable energy onto the grid in support of the state’s clean energy goals.

The California grid also set a historical solar peak of 13,628 megawatts (MW) just after noon on April 8, and an all-time wind peak of 6,265 MW just before 3 p.m. on March 4.

Renewable peaks typically occur in the spring, due to mild temperatures and the sun angle allowing for an extended window of strong solar production.

CAISO analysis forecasts a potential for more renewable records in April.

The grid operator has collaborated extensively with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the California Energy Commission (CEC) and a broad group of stakeholders on market and transmission improvements to integrate increasing amounts of renewable energy.

More than 15,000 MW of grid-connected solar power capacity and almost 8,000 MW of wind are now online.

With California committed to a carbon-free power system by 2045, more solar and wind are expected, along with dramatic growth in storage capacity on the system, CAISO noted.

Another 600 MW of solar and 200 MW of wind are projected to be added to the state’s grid by June 1 of this year. The system currently has more than 2,700 MW of storage, most of it in lithium-ion batteries, and that number is projected to grow to about 4,000 MW by June 1.

SPP

Meanwhile, the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) set several renewable records on March 28 and 29, 2022.

At 2:42 a.m. Central time March 29, SPP set a new renewable energy penetration record of 90.2%, beating the previous record of 87.5% set May 8, 2021. This means SPP served 90.2% of the demand for electricity across its 14-state service territory with renewable energy sources and marks the first time a regional transmission organization served more than 90% of its load with renewables, SPP said.

Of total demand, 88.5% was served by wind, beating the previous wind penetration record of 84%, also set May 8, 2021.

SPP also set new wind and renewable production records.

At 9:25 p.m. Central time March 28, the SPP region produced a record 23,802 MW of renewable energy. The previous record of 21,820 MW was set Feb. 15, 2022. And at 10:34 p.m. the same evening, SPP set a wind production record of 22,915 MW, beating the previous record of 21,820 MW from Feb. 15.

SPP has more than 66 gigawatts of renewables in its generator interconnection queue.

“In a decade’s time, our region has gone from thinking of 25% renewable-penetration levels as nearly unreachable to a point where we regularly exceed 75% without reliability concerns,” SPP Senior Vice President of Operations Bruce Rew said. “We’re able to manage wind generation more effectively than other, smaller systems can because we’ve got a huge pool of resources to draw from.”

SPP manages the electric grid and wholesale power market for the central United States. SPP and its group of member companies coordinate the flow of electricity across approximately 60,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines spanning 14 states.

NYISO

In late March, the New York ISO reported that the addition of about 750 MW of new behind-the-meter (BTM) solar facilities over the past year helped the state set a new record for BTM solar production.

The NYISO estimated that BTM solar production reached a record of 2,328 MW during the noon hour on Tuesday, March 22. The previous record of 2,034 MW was reached on April 23, 2021. The NYISO estimates the state’s total BTM solar capacity at just under 3,500 MW. 

When estimated BTM solar production peaked at 2,328 MW on March 22, total bulk power system load was 15,167 MW. Energy provided by BTM solar reduces the amount of load served by the bulk power system, NYISO noted. Without those BTM resources, total bulk power system load would have been about 17,495 MW. 

The NYISO estimates BTM production by sampling data from thousands of solar installations throughout the state. The NYISO’s solar forecasting system uses these samples to estimate the impacts of BTM solar at look-ahead periods from 15 minutes to seven days.  The solar forecasting system also uses high quality meteorological measurements from the University at Albany’s Mesonet, a weather network consisting of 126 weather stations, with at least 1 in all 62 counties in the state of New York.

Renewables Dominate Interconnection Queues, Outstrip U.S. Capacity: Berkeley Lab

April 19, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
April 19, 2022

The total of renewable generation and energy storage seeking to connect to the electric power grid is greater than existing installed capacity on the United States, according to a new report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

There was a total of 1,400 gigawatts (GW) of capacity in interconnection queues across the country as of year-end 2021, of which 1,300 GW was solar, wind and energy storge capacity, according to the report, Queued Up: Characteristics of Power Plants Seeking Transmission Interconnection. The installed capacity of the United States is 1,200 GW.

Although not all the projects are likely to reach fruition, the total still represents a milestone. “The sheer volume of clean energy capacity in the queues is remarkable,” Joseph Rand, a senior scientific engineering associate at LBNL, said in a statement. “It suggests that a huge transition is underway, with solar and storage taking a lead role.”

Researchers at LBNL compiled and analyzed data from the seven organized electricity markets in the U.S. and additional 35 utilities outside of those regions, which collectively represent over 85% of all U.S. electricity load.

Rand pointed out that the amount of solar, wind, and storage in the queues today is roughly the same amount needed to derive to 80 percent of U.S. electricity from zero-carbon resources by 2030.

The Biden administration has set a goal of creating a carbon dioxide pollution-free power sector by 2035 and a net zero emissions economy by no later than 2050 to combat climate change.

“The trends in these interconnection queues suggest that developers are eager to meet this ambition, though they may face some headwinds,” Rand said.

Available historical data shows that only 23 percent of the projects seeking connection from 2000 to 2016 reached commercial operations and completion percentages appear to be declining in recent years and are lower for wind and solar than for other resources, the report’s authors noted. In addition, they said, interconnection wait times are rising.

Available data show that the time required from an initial connection request to a project being operational increased from 2.1 years for projects built in 2000-2010 to 3.7 years for those built in 2011-2021, according to the report. With the dramatically increasing volume of submitted projects, developers and grid operators alike are sounding alarms about backlogs in the queues, the report’s authors said.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has initiated an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to study and address interconnection issues, and new research from the Department of addresses the importance of improved planning and policies for transmission and interconnection to facilitate higher levels of clean energy sources.

Of the capacity now in interconnection queues, solar power represents the largest share, with 676 GW. There is also a substantial amount of wind power in interconnection queues, 247 GW, including 77 GW of offshore wind power capacity. And the amount of energy storage in interconnection queues doubled in one year, hitting 427 GW at year-end 2021, the report said.

The proposed solar power projects are widely distributed across the United States, with 147 GW in the PJM Interconnection, 139 GW in the non-ISO West, and 112 GW in the Midcontinent ISO (MISO), according to the report.

Proposed wind power projects are highest in the non-ISO West at 49 GW, followed by the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) with 43 GW, and the New York ISO with 41 GW, which are main offshore wind projects, the report said.

The data showed that proposed wind capacity has shrunk in some historically dominant wind regions such as the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and SPP, but has grown in other areas, particularly those with proposed offshore wind projects such as NYISO, PJM, California and New England.

The capacity of proposed energy storage projects is highest in the California ISO (CAISO) at 136 GW, the non-ISO West at 122 GW, PJM at 54 GW, and ERCOT at 43 GW. Proposals for new natural gas capacity center on the Southeast with 24 GW and PJM with 17 GW, with less than 10 GW in all other regions, according to LBNL.

Reading Municipal Light Department Details New 5-MW Battery Storage Project

April 19, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 19, 2022

Reading Municipal Light Department’s (RMLD) Citizens’ Advisory Board and Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the RMLD to enter into a purchase power energy agreement with Kearsarge Energy for a battery storage system in Wilmington that will be capable of discharging five megawatts over two hours.

The system will be used to reduce costs related to peak demand and is projected to average $200,000 in annual savings for the RMLD during the 20-year project lifetime.  The system is expected to be installed in 2023.

The battery project will be collocated with the existing 2.1-megawatt RMLD Community Solar array that is also owned and operated by Kearsage Energy.  

This project adds to RMLD’s existing battery storage capability, including the Minuteman system, also a 5-megawatt, 2 hours system located in North Reading.

RMLD plans to add a total 30-megawatts/90 megawatt-hours of battery storage to RMLD’s service area over the next three years to further reduce costs and increase the resiliency of our distribution network.

The American Public Power Association’s Public Power Energy Tracker is a resource for association members that summarizes public power energy storage projects that are currently online. The tracker is available here.

Company Submits Lease Request For 2,000-MW Washington State Offshore Wind Farm

April 19, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 19, 2022

Trident Winds Inc. has submitted an unsolicited lease request to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) for a commercial lease to pursue the permitting, development, construction, operation, and maintenance of the first floating offshore wind farm off the coast of Washington State. 

The Olympic Wind project is planned to be sited 43 miles off the coast of the Olympic Peninsula, taking advantage of an offshore wind resource that will deliver approximately 2,000 megawatts of energy.  

With the submission of the request for the Olympic Wind Project, BOEM will conduct an initial review to confirm the applicant meets the agency’s legal, technical, and financial qualifications to hold a lease on the Outer Continental Shelf for commercial offshore wind energy development.

Following confirmation of qualifications, BOEM will issue a public notice of a request for interest to determine if competitive interest exists for the proposed site.

North American Solar And Wind PPA Offer Prices Increased 9.7% In Q1 2022

April 19, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 19, 2022

A rapidly growing imbalance between power purchase agreement (PPA) supply and demand, combined with skyrocketing development costs, has raised North American PPA prices 9.7% during the first quarter of 2022 to nearly $40 per megawatt hour, according to a new report from LevelTen Energy. Year-over-year, this represents a 28.5% increase. 

Prices cited represent an average of the 25th percentile of PPA prices of each independent system operator on LevelTen’s Energy Marketplace. 

According to LevelTen Energy, North American renewable energy developers are struggling to build solar and wind projects fast enough to keep up with demand because of the extremely difficult development landscape in the first quarter.

This is leading to a shortage of PPAs for corporations and other large energy buyers, which are critical to bringing new clean energy projects online and meeting corporate and federal net zero targets, LevelTen said.

Many developers rely on PPAs with corporations and other large-scale energy buyers in order to secure the financing required to construct new multi-million dollar solar and wind projects, LevelTen noted. “But the cost models used to price PPAs are becoming increasingly unwieldy as regulatory, interconnection, and supply chain challenges make it difficult to pin down costs and construction timelines.” 

Supply chain issues have also taken a toll on developers in terms of rising costs and shipment delays. A LevelTen survey of 57 developers this quarter revealed that 40% said they were able to find new suppliers that can more reliably deliver components. However, 28% were unable to make changes to supply chain operations despite wanting to do so.  

At the same time, corporations and other large energy buyers aren’t deterred by rising PPA prices, according to LevelTen. “Eager to meet their clean energy targets, energy buyers continue to pursue PPAs, which are delivering higher value as wholesale electricity prices also rise.”

Natural gas prices, which have been driven up in part by the conflict in Ukraine, have also contributed to rising PPA prices. When gas prices increase, the value of locking in renewable energy at a specific price increases, driving more demand to the market, it said.

APPA Supports EPA Finding Tied To Mercury and Air Toxic Standards

April 18, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 18, 2022

Citing the need for regulatory certainty, the American Public Power Association (APPA) is voicing support for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) finding in a proposed rule related to the agency’s Mercury and Air Toxic Standards (MATS) that it is “appropriate and necessary” under a section of the Clean Air Act to regulate hazardous air pollutant emissions from electric generating units.

APPA, which outlined its position in April 11 comments submitted to EPA, noted that its members continue to utilize coal-fired power subject to MATS.

“The Association and our members have and continue to be dedicated to clean air in our communities and protection of the environment. Our members have made significant investments to reduce air toxics and become compliant with MATS,” APPA said.

“Many members continue to pay for those investments through loan obligations.  For these reasons, APPA members have a significant stake in EPA’s Proposed Rule and the forthcoming residual risk and technology review (RTR) process,” it said.

Air emissions data from the utility sector show vast reductions in emissions and hazardous air pollutant emissions, APPA noted. “MATS compliance is a significant contributor to this result.  These reductions provide important context for EPA’s reconsideration in the proposed rule and for the forthcoming RTR.”

Finalized in 2012, the MATS rule, paired with other rulemakings at the time, caused significant reductions in mercury and other hazardous air pollutants in the electric utility sector, the trade group pointed out. EPA estimates coal- and oil-fired electric generating units have reduced total hazardous air pollutant emissions by 96 percent since 2010.

These achievements have not been without expense to generators and end users, APPA said. Owners and operators of coal- and oil-fired electric generating units have spent more than $18 billion to comply with MATS, while concurrently retiring and investing in replacement generation, such as natural gas, renewables, hydro, and nuclear. Utilities opted to either retire affected units, based on economics often dictated by unit capacity, or install the control technologies required by the rule.

“APPA emphasizes that retirements to comply with MATS are part of the unprecedented investment to air quality made by numerous cities and municipalities. A decision to retire a coal facility is not reversable given permit restrictions, physical decommissioning, and the economics of the power market. Contemporaneous with retirements, public power made substantial new investments to replace the coal-fired baseload generation with lower or non-emitting generation resources,” the trade group said in the comments.

Regulatory Certainty Is Essential

“Regulatory certainty is essential to municipalities and cities,” APPA went on to say. “At this juncture, the electric utility industry has fully implemented MATS. States have relied on MATS-related ancillary benefits in their state plans for other Clean Air Act programs.”

Sources have also relied on these same controls to comply with other Clean Air Act obligations, such as requirements for non-hazardous air pollutant MATS surrogate pollutants.

Now that these capital expenditures are complete, sources are realizing the value of their investments and anticipate doing so in the future, APPA said. Electric generating units “have relied on MATS rulemakings when making these substantial financial commitments. Single unit and single plant owners cannot pivot quickly to regulatory change. Generation shifting is not an option.”

APPA noted that cities and municipalities are committed to the transition to cleaner energy.  “Renewable energy projects require financial investment, asset procurement, and permitting.  Commissioning clean energy requires time and money. If public power utilities must contend with unanticipated new environmental projects for MATS, resources may need to be diverted away from renewable projects to address new MATS-related environmental projects.”

APPA continues “to emphasize that public power has fully implemented MATS and has relied on previous investments to reduce” hazardous air pollutants in planning for future energy transitions. “Regulatory certainty is critical to ensuring future plans can be sustained to transition to a cleaner energy future. For these reasons, we ask EPA to consider the challenges that a change in MATS would have on this cost-sensitive subset” of electric generating units.

EPA’s proposed rule recommends revoking a prior finding that it is not “appropriate and necessary” to regulate electric generating units under Clean Air Act Section 112. The proposed rule instead finds that it is “appropriate and necessary” under Section 112(n)(1)(A) of the Clean Air Act to regulate hazardous air pollutant emissions from electric generating units. The proposed rule uses a new methodology to support its proposed “appropriate and necessary finding” the new approach considers the advantages of regulation (public health, environmental effects) and disadvantages of the regulation (costs, impacts to the EGU sector, and society). EPA has also offered an alternative methodology which compares the monetized benefits and consequences of the rule.

APPA said that the public power community has expended substantial resources to comply with MATS. “Notably, our support does not extend to all aspects of EPA’s ‘appropriate and necessary’ methodology and analysis in the proposed rule. We note that the Section 112(n)(1)(A) analysis is a one-time event and has no application in other Clean Air Act contexts.  The proposed rule should have no precedential influence in other Clean Air Act regulatory frameworks.”

The BCA monetizes the benefits and consequences of the rule. The proposed rule, using the BCA approach, found that the benefits of MATS regulation far exceed costs, even without accounting for nonmonetized benefits of reduction.

The BCA approach is “a reliable, analytic approach to tally benefits and costs of regulating EGUs under Section 112,” APPA said. APPA said it supports EPA’s decision in the proposed rule, reiterating the need for regulatory certainty.

APPA, Other Groups Send Letter To EPA

Meanwhile, in an April 11 letter to EPA, APPA and other trade groups and unions said that restoring the appropriate and necessary determination responds to the Supreme Court’s decision in Michigan v. EPA that EPA must consider costs in evaluating whether it is “appropriate and necessary” to regulate “and enables electric companies to remain focused on getting the energy we provide as clean as we can as fast as we can, while maintaining the reliability and affordability that our customers value.” 

The groups also said that should EPA move forward with any reconsideration of the RTR, it should ensure that any new standards are consistent with the ongoing transition of the power sector and allow for companies to make holistic decisions as they deploy additional clean energy resources.

Along with APPA, the following groups signed on to the letter:

EPA Releases 29th Annual U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory

April 18, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 18, 2022

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released its 29th annual inventory of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and sinks, which offers a national level overview of annual greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 to 2020.

EPA reported that net U.S. greenhouse gas emissions were 5,222.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020, a nearly 11% decrease in emissions from 2019.

The sharp decline in emissions from 2019 to 2020 is largely due to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on travel and economic activity. “However, the decline also reflects the combined impacts of several factors, including population trends, energy market trends, technological changes including energy efficiency improvements, and the carbon intensity of energy fuel choices,” EPA said. 

For the latest release, EPA said that it has made several important improvements. For example, EPA has added estimates for two important sources of methane: emissions from post-meter uses of natural gas, which includes leak emissions from residential and commercial appliances, industrial facilities and power plants, and natural gas fueled vehicles; and emissions from flooded lands such as hydroelectric and agricultural reservoirs.

Additionally, EPA worked with researchers to include estimates of methane emissions from large anomalous leak events, such as well blow-outs.  

The GHG inventory covers seven key greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and nitrogen trifluoride.

In addition to tracking U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the inventory also calculates carbon dioxide that is removed from the atmosphere through the uptake of carbon in forests and other vegetation. 

The report has been compiled annually since 1993 and submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The report is prepared by EPA in collaboration with numerous experts from other federal agencies, state government authorities, research and academic institutions, and industry associations.

Click here for additional details about the inventory.

Agencies Warn Of Cyber Threats Against ICS/SCADA Devices

April 18, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 18, 2022

The Department of Energy, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation are warning that certain advanced persistent threat actors have shown the capability to gain full system access to multiple industrial control system/supervisory control and data acquisition devices.

Those devices include Schneider Electric programmable logic controllers (PLCs), OMRON Sysmac NEX PLCs, and Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) servers, the agencies said in an alert.

The actors have developed custom-made tools for targeting industrial control system/supervisory control and data acquisition devices. The tools enable them to scan for, compromise, and control affected devices once they have established initial access to the operational technology (OT) network.

Additionally, the actors can compromise Windows-based engineering workstations, which may be present in information technology (IT) or OT environments, using an exploit that compromises an ASRock motherboard driver with known vulnerabilities, the agencies said.

By compromising and maintaining full system access to industrial control system/supervisory control and data acquisition devices, these actors could elevate privileges, move laterally within an OT environment, and disrupt critical devices or functions.

The agencies urged critical infrastructure organizations, especially energy sector organizations, to implement the detection and mitigation recommendations provided in the alert to detect potential malicious advanced persistent threat activity and harden their industrial control system/supervisory control and data acquisition devices.

The alert is available here.

California’s Peninsula Clean Energy To Buy Energy From Geothermal Facility

April 15, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 15, 2022

Ormat Technologies has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Peninsula Clean Energy, a California community choice aggregator, under which the CCA will purchase 26 megawatts (MW) of energy from Ormat’s Heber 2 geothermal facility located in Imperial Valley, Calif., effective January 1, 2023.

The PPA marks the successful completion of Ormat’s first ever solicitation for bids, with a request for bids (RFB) on the Heber 2 facility issued in July 2021.

The RFB was published immediately after the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued its Mid-Term Reliability decision, requiring the procurement of 1,000 MW of weather invariant, zero-emission, 80% capacity generation by all California load serving entities by 2026.

Power from the Heber 2 facility complies with related guidelines, making it the first geothermal PPA to meet the new CPUC requirements, Ormat said on April 14.

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

South Dakota Cities Find Success With Water Heater Programs

April 15, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 15, 2022

The cities of Volga and Howard, S.D., are finding success with water heater programs, with customers in both cities taking advantage of rebates on water heaters offered by Heartland Consumers Power District.

Volga and Howard offer Rheem Marathon water heaters for sale at the local utility.

Heartland began offering rebates to residential and commercial customers in 2015 for installing electric water heaters with a lifetime warranty. Marathon water heaters are the most popular brand fitting that description.

The program was developed because it was seen as a win-win: the customer had an efficient water heater with a lifetime warranty and the utility saw an increased electric load. They are also a great fit for a load management system.

Currently, Heartland offers a $200 rebate for the purchase of a water heater 50 to 79 gallons. For water heaters 80 gallons and larger, a $400 rebate is available.

Since Heartland began offering rebates on water heaters, customers in both Volga and Howard have qualified for a proportionately large number of rebates.

Heartland provided rebates for the installation of 291 water heaters from 2015 through 2021. Of those heaters installed, 89 were in Howard and 76 in Volga. The installations in those communities represent 56% of total installations, with 30% in Howard and 26% in Volga.

The city of Volga has been selling Marathon water heaters as far back as 2010.

The city offers both 50- and 85-gallon models, offering discounts to the customer on both. Fifty-gallon water heaters are offered at a price of $768.50, a discount of $368.50 from the city’s cost to purchase. With the $200 rebate from Heartland, the customer pays $568.50. The 85-gallon water heaters are sold for $1,165.50, which includes a discount of $365.50. After the rebate, the final cost to the customer is $765.50.

The city attributes the success of the program mostly to word-of-mouth. While the information is available on the city’s website, they don’t actively promote it.

To make it as convenient as possible, the city will deliver the water heater at no extra cost.

To get the discounted pricing, the customer must have the water heater hooked up to the city’s load management system. This helps keep the city’s peak demand down, which keeps the city’s costs down.

City Electric Superintendent Chad Collins says the program is worth continuing because minimal time is taken by city staff to run it. The city orders water heaters as needed, more when they know a new development is in the works. Because the tanks are so efficient, they don’t get complaints about them being controlled through load management.

Howard has also been selling Marathon water heaters for over ten years. The city originally started the program with the idea that it was a good customer service — since customers purchase both water and electricity from the city, efficient water heaters seemed like a good product to sell at a discount.

Like Volga, the city of Howard doesn’t advertise the Marathon program. Word-of-mouth is the main advertising tool. Local plumbers are aware of the program so when they get a call from someone needing a new water heater, they refer them to the city.

Including the rebates offered by Heartland, Howard sells the water heaters for about half price. A 50-gallon heater costs the purchaser $487.77 after rebate while an 85-gallon model costs $576.

In order to qualify for the discounted pricing, the water heater must be hooked up to the city’s load management system.