S&P, Fitch affirm New York Power Authority’s credit rating
June 15, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 15, 2021
S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings have both affirmed their strong ratings on New York Power Authority’s (NYPA) long-term bonds and short-term debt, NYPA reported on June 15.
NYPA said that the ratings align with New York State’s overall positive fiscal outlook, as announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo June 14.
S&P and Fitch both affirmed an AA rating for more than $1.6 billion of NYPA senior revenue bonds as well as an A1-plus rating and F1-plus rating for the Power Authority’s subordinate lien series 1-3 commercial paper and its series 1 extendible municipal notes.
S&P noted that its positive rating reflects “favorable leverage metrics even after the utility added $1.1 billion of debt in 2020,” referring to NYPA’s historic green bond sale, which won NYPA Bond Buyer’s Deal of the Year 2020.
Fitch noted that “NYPA’s financial profile remains strong” and it “benefits from very strong rate flexibility.”
“These ratings reflect NYPA’s financial strength and stellar credit metrics, and our commitment to maintaining them through this unprecedented pandemic,” said Gil Quiniones, NYPA president and CEO, in a statement. “They ensure NYPA is able to continue leveraging the capital markets so that we can continue to provide affordable, reliable, and green electricity in support of the state’s transition into a clean energy economy.”
Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation names Kimberly Schlichting as new President, CEO
June 15, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 15, 2021
Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation’s (DEMEC) Board of Directors on June 15 announced that Kimberly Schlichting has been named as DEMEC’s new President and CEO.
Schlichting will be the first woman to lead the nonprofit corporation, which owns and operates electric facilities that provide generation, transmission and distribution of electric power and energy to eight municipal electric utility members in Delaware and operates with a $150 million budget.
“In anticipation of Patrick McCullar’s departure, the DEMEC Board undertook a CEO succession planning process, which resulted in the unanimous selection of long-time COO Kimberly Schlichting,” said Board Chair Morris Deputy in a statement.
Schlichting joined DEMEC in 2003 and has held several leadership roles. She most recently served as Chief Operating Officer and senior vice president of power supply. In this role, she provided operational responsibility and leadership to DEMEC’s power supply portfolio management, government relations, communications, technical services, environmental affairs, sustainability, risk, insurance, strategic planning, mutual aid and member programs. This included leading the organization’s North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) compliance activities.
During her tenure, she also led major operational and efficiency improvements in DEMEC’s generation assets, enhanced training programs and advocated with state and federal policymakers on behalf of DEMEC and its members.
Schlichting serves on the American Public Power Association (APPA) Board of Directors and as a member of its Executive Committee. She also serves as the alternate trustee on the American Municipal Power (AMP) Board of Trustees and serves as the Delaware Network Coordinator for the APPA Mutual Aid Working Group.
She will assume her new role on October 16, 2021.
McCullar will remain under contract with DEMEC as a consultant to assist with the transition.
California ISO issues heat bulletin in advance of forecast high temperatures
June 14, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 14, 2021
The California Independent System Operator (ISO) on June 11 issued a heat bulletin in advance of high temperatures forecast for this week.
Although no outages or other power disruptions were expected, triple-digit heat is forecast to start spreading across California and the southwest Tuesday, June 15 through Friday, June 18, and the ISO could take a number of actions to reduce demand and access additional energy.
The National Weather Service on June 14 said that temperatures well into the 110s are forecast for the next few days in the Desert Southwest, and temperatures exceeding 100 as far north as Montana especially June 15 will be 25+ degrees above average. “Dozens (possibly hundreds) of daily record high maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be set over the next few days in California, Intermountain West, Desert Southwest, Rockies, and High Plains,” the NWS said.
The ISO declared a grid Restricted Maintenance Operation (RMO) for noon to 10 p.m. from Tuesday, June 15, through Friday, June 18, due to forecasted high temperatures and demand. The RMO cautions market participants that all available resources are needed, and to defer scheduled maintenance on generators or transmission lines, if possible.
CAISO last week said it was still too early to know the precise impact that the high temperatures will have on the electric grid. But the ISO “is closely monitoring conditions and the anticipated increase in demand for electricity and will issue additional public notifications as warranted.”
Those notifications could include a series of steps aimed at reducing electricity use, such as a Flex Alert, a voluntary call for consumers to conserve electricity between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. In extreme hot weather, those are the most difficult hours of the day to balance electricity supply and demand because solar resources are diminishing as more air conditioners and other home appliances are typically being used.
“In the past, Californians responding to calls for conservation has significantly reduced stress on the grid and avoided further emergency actions, including the need to rely on reserve power resources or rotating outages. But as happened during an intense regional heat wave last August that hit much of the Western U.S., rotating power outages could become necessary if weather and stressed grid conditions persist or worsen,” the grid operator said.
Forced outages, potential record power use lead to tight Texas grid conditions
June 14, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 14, 2021
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on June 14 asked state residents to reduce electric use as much as possible through June 18. A significant number of forced generation outages combined with potential record electric use for the month of June has resulted in tight grid conditions, the grid operator noted.
Generator owners have reported approximately 11,000 megawatts (MW) of generation is on forced outage for repairs, ERCOT said. Of that, approximately 8,000 MW is thermal and the rest is intermittent resources. According to ERCOT’s summer seasonal assessment of resource adequacy, a typical range of thermal generation outages on hot summer days is around 3,600 MW.
“We will be conducting a thorough analysis with generation owners to determine why so many units are out of service,” said ERCOT Vice President of Grid Planning and Operations Woody Rickerson in a statement. “This is unusual for this early in the summer season.”
According to generation owners, the number of outages should decrease throughout the week.
Wind output for June 14 was expected to be 3,500 to 6,000 MW between 3 and 9 p.m. This is roughly 1,500 MW lower than what is typically available for peak conditions. Wind output is expected to increase as the week goes on, ERCOT said.
The peak load forecast for June 14 may exceed 73,000 MW, the grid operator said, noting that the peak demand record for June is 69,123 MW set on June 27, 2018 between 4 and 5 p.m.
Report finds that California needs 1.2 million electric vehicle chargers by 2030
June 13, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 13, 2021
New analysis from the California Energy Commission (CEC) shows the state will need nearly 1.2 million public and shared chargers by 2030 to meet the fueling demands of the 7.5 million passenger plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) anticipated to be on California roads.
The inaugural Assembly Bill (AB) 2127 Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Assessment examines charging needs to support California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order requiring sales of all new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035 including battery electric and fuel-cell technologies. The initial assessment projects electric charging requirements to meet demand in 2030, while future reports will analyze 2035 needs.
In addition to the 1.2 million chargers for passenger vehicles, the CEC expects 157,000 chargers will be required by 2030 to support 180,000 medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks and buses also anticipated.
More than 73,000 public and shared chargers have been installed to date, with an additional 123,000 planned by 2025, the CEC noted. These numbers fall short of the state’s goal of 250,000 chargers by 54,000 installations. Newsom’s proposed 2021–22 budget includes $500 million to help fill the gap and ensure essential infrastructure arrives as more state residents go electric.
The report notes that the California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project (CALeVIP), the state’s incentive program for EV chargers, is oversubscribed by hundreds of millions of dollars, demonstrating strong market and consumer demand for public funding. Incentives for fast chargers regularly sell out minutes after applications open, according to the CEC.
The assessment also found that in 2030, electricity consumption from passenger EV charging could reach about 5,500 megawatts (MW) around midnight and 4,600 MW around 10 a.m. on a typical weekday, increasing electricity demand by up to 20–25 percent at those times.
To manage the new load and maximize EVs as an energy resource, the CEC emphasized the importance of pursuing vehicle-grid integration (VGI) technology. VGI enables drivers to program charging to make it easy to charge during hours when renewable generation is high, demand on the grid is low, and electricity is cheapest.
Other key recommendations from the report include:
- Ensuring equitable charger deployment throughout the state through targeted public investments;
- Supporting local efforts to prepare for transportation electrification, including community engagement, and land use planning and permitting;
- Prioritizing establishing common connector and communication standards for hardware and software; and
- Supporting innovative charging solutions and financing mechanisms to foster market growth.
The report is available here.
Interior to assess renewable energy development on Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf
June 13, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 13, 2021
The Department of the Interior on June 8 announced its intent to assess potential opportunities to advance clean energy development on the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).
The announcement is part of the Biden Administration’s goal to deploy 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which is part of the Department of the Interior, published a Request for Interest (RFI) in the Federal Register on June 11 to assess interest in potential offshore wind development in the OCS.
The RFI is focused on the Western and Central Planning Areas of the Gulf of Mexico offshore the states of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Although the primary focus of the RFI is on wind energy development, BOEM is also seeking information on other renewable energy technologies.
To date, BOEM has leased approximately 1.7 million acres in the OCS for offshore wind development and has 17 commercial leases on the Atlantic, from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras.
The publishing of the RFI opens a 45-day public comment period to solicit indications of competitive interest and additional information on potential environmental consequences and other uses of the proposed area. BOEM will consider data received in response to this RFI to determine next steps in the renewable energy leasing process in the Gulf of Mexico.
As part of this process, BOEM will convene the Gulf of Mexico Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force to help coordinate planning, solicit feedback, and exchange scientific and process information.
BOEM will hold its first task force meeting on June 15. The task force comprises members representing federal, Tribal, state and local governments from Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama.
For more information including a map depicting the RFI area, see BOEM’s renewable energy page.
NREL report sees energy storage capacity increasing fivefold by 2050
June 13, 2021
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
June 13, 2021
Long duration, utility-scale energy storage could grow to 125 gigawatts (GW) by 2050, a fivefold increase, according to a new report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
There are currently about 23 GW of energy storage installed in the United States, almost all of which is pumped hydropower and is assumed to have a duration of up to 12 hours, NREL said.
The report, Economic Potential of Diurnal Storage in the U.S. Power Sector, found that diurnal storage, that is, storage with durations of up to 12 hours, is “extremely competitive on an economic basis.”
There is “significant market potential for diurnal energy storage across a variety of scenarios using different cost and performance assumptions for storage, wind, solar photovoltaics (PV), and natural gas,” the report’s authors wrote.
Across all scenarios, deployment for energy storage exceeds 125 GW by 2050 but, depending on cost trajectories and other variables, could go as high as 680 GW, “indicating a rapidly expanding opportunity for diurnal storage in the power sector,” the report found.
Initially, new energy storage installations will be mostly resources with shorter durations, up to four hours, but then will progress to durations of up to 12 hours as technology costs decrease and renewable resource penetration increases, the report said.
The report’s models project that annual deployment of battery storage will range from 1 GW to 30 GW by 2030 and by 2050 will range from 7 GW to 77 GW.
“These are game-changing numbers,” Will Frazier, NREL analyst and lead author of the report, said in a statement.
To assess the viability of long duration storage, the researchers added new capabilities to NREL’s Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) capacity expansion model to represent the value of diurnal battery energy storage when it is allowed to provide grid services. The cost and performance metrics focused on lithium ion batteries because the technology has more market maturity than other emerging technologies.
The report found that economic storage deployment is driven primarily by the combination of capacity value and energy arbitrage, or time-shifting, value. “The combination of these value streams is needed for optimal storage deployment to be realized,” the authors said.
The report also reaffirmed the strong correlation found between solar PV penetration and energy storage market potential. More PV generation “leads to narrow net-load peaks in the evenings which increases the market potential of storage capacity value. More generation from PV also creates more volatile energy price profiles which increases the market potential of storage energy time-shifting value,” according to the report.
Across the report’s cost-driven scenarios, variable renewable energy reaches penetrations of 43 percent to 81 percent but does not achieve the deployment needed to meet deep decarbonization goals, the authors said. “Future work will consider scenarios with an accelerated transition to a clean energy grid by 2035 and the resulting impact on storage deployment,” they said.
The next report in NREL’s Storage Futures Study series will assess customer adoption potential of distributed diurnal storage for several future scenarios and look at the larger impacts of storage deployment on power system evolution and operations.
Darrin Gordon named new general manager of Missouri’s Hannibal Board of Public Works
June 13, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 13, 2021
Missouri’s Hannibal Board of Public Works (HBPW) recently announced that Darrin Gordon has been selected as the new HBPW general manager, effective Aug. 2, 2021.
The HBPW Board of Directors conducted a nationwide search to fill the position of the general manager vacancy.
Gordon is currently the general manager at Lewes Board of Public Works (BPW), which serves the Lewes, Delaware community. In this role, he manages all facets of the Lewes BPW including electric, water, wastewater, and stormwater systems.
In February 2021, the HBPW Board of Directors announced that Ken Reasoner had tendered his resignation as general manager effective June 1, 2021.
Wide variety of public power utilities participate in community solar working group
June 11, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 11, 2021
A wide variety of public power utilities are participating in a working group that will help them develop a business case for an exploratory or site-specific community solar project.
The American Public Power Association (APPA) is a partner in the National Community Solar Partnership (NCSP), an initiative led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
As a leader in the NCSP Municipal Utility Collaborative, APPA works with stakeholders to identify and address common barriers to community-based solar. Technical assistance is provided by DOE and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as participants seek to create and demonstrate practical, effective, and scalable community solar models.
Public power entities participating in the working group are: Columbia Water & Light (Columbia, Mo.), Longmont Power & Communications (Longmont, Colo.), Village of Minster (Minster, Ohio), Northern California Power Agency (a joint action agency representing 16 members based in Roseville, CA), Riverside Public Utilities (Riverside, Calif.), Seattle City Light (Washington State) and Vernon County Energy District (Readstown, Wis.).
The public power utilities vary widely in terms of customers served, experience with solar energy projects and motivations for pursuing community solar.
“Vernon County Energy District’s mission is to help communities and individuals transition to locally owned and operated renewable energy sources. Instead of sending energy dollars out of the county and out of the state, community solar will help make economic rejuvenation more likely in our rural communities,” said Samantha Laskowski, Vice-President of Vernon County Energy District.
Community solar is one way to “retain energy dollars in our local communities and to support local ownership when folks can’t afford or can’t install renewables on their own. It is also a good way for low and middle income folks to get access to renewable energy,” she said.
“We have been pursuing the idea of community solar for a number of years and we believe we have many pieces of the puzzle in place. However, there are still barriers that need to be overcome and we hope that participating in the Municipal Utility Working Group will help us develop concrete and achievable ways to overcome those barriers,” Laskowski said. “Financing remains a tough nut to crack. Also, weatherization and improving energy efficiency are critical to reduce the rural household energy burden and ultimately make community solar more affordable.”
“Renewable energy plays a significant role in our long-term utility planning,” said Brandon Renaud, Utility Services Manager at Columbia Water & Light. “As part of that plan, we are working to expand direct access to renewable energy throughout the community,” he said.
“We are participating in the community solar Municipal Utility Working Group to gain insights into best practices, lessons learned, and exploring how other municipal utilities are expanding access to solar energy to benefit their communities,” he said.
The Village of Minster has installed two utility scale solar arrays within the last year “and this has put us at the forefront of utilizing renewables in west central Ohio. These utility size solar arrays were installed to help the village keep energy costs low for our customers,” said Donald Harrod, Village Administrator.
He said that community solar “is the next logical step to continue our push to offer various options to our customers, so they can better control their monthly energy costs. In addition, many customers cannot afford or choose not to put rooftop solar on their homes, community solar gives those customers the opportunity to participate in a solar project at a more personalized level.”
Harrod was also asked to detail the key objectives that the Village of Minster hopes to meet through its participation in the Municipal Utility Working Group.
The key objective that the village hopes to achieve is the development of a program “that will allow our customers to participate in a solar program and give them better control over energy costs. We believe that by participating in the Working Group, the village will be able to garner knowledge from others in the group to help us customize a program that will enable the village to implement a successful community solar program for our customers,” he said.
Working sessions for the working group kicked off with the first meeting on April 28. The working sessions will occur monthly through the end of 2021.
Additional details on the NCSP and community solar resources offered by APPA are available here.
BPA, WAPA and Trinity Public Utilities District take steps to help mitigate wildfire threat
June 9, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 9, 2021
According to Wood Mackenzie and the U.S. Energy Storage Association’s (ESA) latest U.S. Energy Storage Monitor report, 910 megawatt-hours (MWh) of new energy storage systems were brought online in the first quarter of 2021, an increase of 252% over the first quarter of last year, making it the biggest first quarter so far for the U.S. storage market.
After a record-setting quarter for deployments in the final quarter of 2020, the pace of storage deployments slowed in the first quarter, but despite the dip this quarter, the storage market still notched its third-highest megawatt total for one quarter.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2021, deployments are expected to accelerate dramatically, according to the report. Wood Mackenzie, a research and consulting group, forecasts that nearly 12,000 MWh of new storage will be added in 2021, which is three times the amount of new storage added in 2020.
Wood Mackenzie and the ESA said that one of the most significant storage market developments in the first quarter was the introduction of a stand-alone storage investment tax credit (ITC) in Congress. If passed this year, a stand-alone storage ITC would result in a 20-25% upgrade to Wood Mackenzie’s five-year market outlook in megawatt terms.
“An extra 20 to 25% growth for the US market over the next five years would supercharge an already fast-growing energy storage market,” said Chloe Holden, Wood Mackenzie Energy Storage Analyst, in a statement. “The front-of-the-meter (FTM) segment would see the largest incremental growth, with an extra 6 GW of capacity expected through 2025, which is 25% of our base case market forecast. Without the stand-alone storage ITC, we forecast that the FTM segment will add 3,674 MW in 2021 and 6,915 MW in 2026.”
As noted in the report, the U.S. residential storage market set yet another quarterly record in the first quarter of 2021. The market has grown for nine quarters in a row and broke 100 MW deployed in a single quarter for the first time in the first quarter.
Holden said that backup power to complement rooftop solar systems has become the key selling point for residential battery systems in all U.S. markets. Although other states also have growing markets, California will continue to lead the residential segment by a significant margin through 2026, she said.
The non-residential market (commercial and community-scale) is not seeing the same growth as other sectors, with between 25 and 35 MW of new projects installed in each of the last five quarters.
The report also notes that the FTM interconnection queue now sits at over 200 gigawatts.