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New York State Energy Research and Development Authority seeks renewable energy supplies

January 22, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 22, 2021

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is looking to procure Tier 4 eligible renewable energy certificates (RECs) under a solicitation issued on Jan. 13.

NYSERDA said it is looking to negotiate contracts for up to an aggregate 1,500 megawatts but may exceed this quantity if it receives proposals that are sufficiently compelling.

A New York Public Service Commission October 2020 order established a new Tier 4 within the state’s clean energy standard (CES) in response to a NYSERDA CES White Paper.

The goal of the Tier 4 program is to reduce New York City’s reliance on fossil fuels by increasing the penetration of renewable energy into New York City (New York ISO Zone J) and by optimizing deliverability of renewable resources throughout the entirety of the state.

Through Tier 4, the state will procure the unbundled environmental attributes (in the form of Tier 4 RECs) associated with renewable generation delivered into Zone J. These environmental attributes include the avoidance of GHG emissions, as well as the avoidance of local pollutants such as NOx, SOx, and fine particulate matter. 

Tier 4 is open to the following renewable energy systems: solar thermal, photovoltaics, on-land wind, hydroelectric, geothermal electric, geothermal ground source heat, tidal energy, wave energy, ocean thermal, and fuel cells which do not utilize a fossil fuel resource in the process of generating electricity.

To be compensated under Tier 4, the resource must either be located in Zone J or delivered to Zone J over a new transmission interconnection (that electrically connects after October 15, 2020).

Non-hydropower renewables must achieve commercial operation after October 15, 2020 to be eligible for Tier 4. Hydropower resources must be existing or already under construction as of June 18, 2020.

Offshore wind RECs will be procured separately from Tier 4 resources. Behind-the-meter resources are not eligible under Tier 4.

The request for proposals is available here.

Cuomo details renewable energy progress

In his 2021 State of the State address that he delivered this month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo offered details on how the state plans to advance its renewable energy plans this year.

In 2021, New York will contract with Equinor Wind US LLC for the development of two new offshore wind farms more than 20 miles off the shore of Long Island, in what is the largest procurement of renewable energy by a state in U.S. history. Upon completion, the two offshore wind farms will yield a combined 2,490 megawatts.
 
Once the large-scale renewable and offshore wind farms are complete, more than half of New York’s electricity will come from renewable sources, putting the state ahead of schedule toward reaching its goal of 70 percent renewable energy by 2030.

Over the past five years, the state has contracted for the construction of 68 new large-scale renewable energy facilities including solar farms, onshore wind farms, and three offshore wind farms that are among the largest in the nation. These investments will add 6,100 megawatts of clean energy capacity to the state’s infrastructure.
 
New York will contract for another 24 large-scale renewable energy generation projects in 2021, to bring the state’s total clean energy build-out to nearly 100 projects. “The 23 solar farms and one hydroelectric facility will be the most cost-efficient clean energy construction to date in New York, producing more than 2,200 megawatts of clean power, generating more than $2.9 billion of investment and creating 3,400 jobs in 16 counties Upstate,” Cuomo’s office said in a news release.

New York State this year will also construct a new green energy superhighway of 250 miles. The $2 billion project will create opportunities to maximize the use of renewable energy for the parts of the state that still rely on polluting fossil-fuel plants.

Construction has already started on the New York Power Authority’s (NYPA) 86-mile Smart Path project from Massena to Croghan, and construction will soon start on several key projects in Western New York, Mid-Hudson, and the Capital Region.

In related news, the New York State Public Service Commission recently approved a 93-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line that is being developed jointly by LS Power Grid New York Corporation and NYPA.

The nearly $854 million project, named the Marcy to New Scotland Upgrade Project, is designed to speed the flow of clean, reliable electricity to high-demand markets downstate.

FERC directs NERC to conduct audits of regional entities

January 22, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 22, 2021

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Jan. 19 rejected a North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) proposal to replace audits of regional reliability entities with an undefined alternative oversight program.

At its monthly meeting, FERC approved an order directing NERC to complete audits of the regional entities’ Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Programs (CMEP) by June 30, 2023.

NERC is the Commission-approved Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) and delegates some of its responsibilities to six regional entities.

In a January 2020 order accepting NERC’s 2019 five-year performance assessment, FERC found that from 2011 through 2018 NERC may not have performed comprehensive audits of the regional entities to assess their CMEPs.

NERC was required to make two compliance filings, including one stating definitively whether it had performed any audits of the CMEPs conforming with the requirements of its rules of procedure during the performance assessment period.

NERC was to provide the audit reports if it did conduct the audits, or to outline a plan for performing those audits within the next 18 months and going forward. NERC also had an option to propose an alternative oversight process.

FERC said that NERC’s compliance filing revealed it had neither performed the audits as required by its rules of procedure, instead conducting various limited-scope audits and other oversight activities, nor had it provided a plan for completing audits within 18 months.

The Commission order concludes that NERC’s alternative oversight program falls short and it directs NERC to conduct the audits under the requirements of its rules of procedure.

In addition, the order accepts proposed modifications to NERC’s procedures related to the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC), sanction guidelines, and registration and certification programs.

The order accepts NERC’s description of its reliability guidelines process, its explanation on E-ISAC operations, and its explanation of its all-points bulletin issuances.  

However, the order directs NERC to submit a further compliance filing within 120 days of this order that: 

NOPR

Separately, FERC proposed that NERC submit performance assessments every three years rather than the current five years.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) would require the assessment to discuss any areas of the ERO’s responsibilities and activities, or a regional entity’s delegated functions, beyond those required by FERC regulations that the Commission identifies at least 90 days prior to the expected assessment submission date.

The NOPR also proposes formalizing the method for the ERO to receive and respond to recommendations by the regional entities, users, owners and operators of the bulk-power system, and other interested parties for improvement of the ERO’s operations, activities, oversight and procedures.

Comments on the NOPR are due 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.

Lincoln Electric System places microgrid into service at virtually no cost

January 22, 2021

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
January 22, 2021

Lincoln Electric System (LES) in Nebraska has put a 29-megawatt (MW) microgrid in service at virtually no cost.

The dual-fuel generator at the heart of the microgrid can serve critical loads in downtown Lincoln during an emergency or outage, including city, county and state facilities, as well as the state capitol building, the Pinnacle Bank Arena, gas stations, a grocery store, and local residential buildings.

The microgrid, which entered service in October, uses the existing distribution system and a generator that can be fired either by on-site diesel or piped natural gas.

The generator, which is about 50 years old, has black-start capability and was always capable of islanding and serving critical loads during an outage, but LES had not tested the system for that purpose.

The microgrid concept first emerged in 2016. “We were just talking, and the idea just came up,” Scott Benson, LES’ manager of resource and transmission planning, said.

The idea lost traction for about two years, mostly because “we only wanted to feed critical infrastructure.” In the original conception, the noncritical loads would have had to be disconnected from the generator manually, which would have been time consuming enough to render the operation moot.

Benson said in 2018 they had an epiphany when they realized LES could feed the entire area, residential housing and all. “It made all the difference in the world, said Benson. “We realized we could put the microgrid in place without spending a whole lot of dollars.”

The generator already had islanding capability, so turning it into a microgrid would not require any new equipment or even a microgrid controller. The generator, which mostly runs a handful of times a year as a peaking plant, feeding into the Southwest Power Pool, was already capable of following load. All that was needed was to test the concept.

The generator had never been called on to serve a load as large as downtown Lincoln, and it is not feasible to shut down a portion of the city to test the system, so LES brought in two 5-MW load banks, essentially “two large toaster units” that use a lot of electrical power. They also took an “ultra-conservative” approach, looking at load profiles on feeders from the utility’s peak July-August period to determine the extent of the area the microgrid could serve.

The tests demonstrated that the system was capable of ramping up to full capacity in 5-MW increments. So, if the Lincoln area were hit by a large or persistent outage – a rare occurrence for the region – Benson said LES could put the microgrid in service and dispatch operators, “dropping in load systematically in no more than 5-MW chunks.”

Because the generator is already designed to follow load, it would also be able to handle the distributed energy resources in the downtown area, which include five customer-sited solar facilities totaling about 300 kilowatts (kW) and a 500-kW, six-hour thermal energy storage system that uses chilled water to store energy and defray cooling costs.

“Practically speaking, we could go two decades and not need this system,” Benson said. “At the same time, knowing it’s ready and done and in the background ready to work is worth its weight in gold.”

“Part of the beauty of the system,” Benson said, “is that we had all the pieces, and it all fell into place.” Since the peaking generator could already island and follow load, “in essence it becomes your controller.”

“Other utilities might also be sitting on a ready-made microgrid like we were,” or might just need incremental work to get there, Benson said.

Meanwhile, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is helping the Department of Energy draft a publication that would highlight LES’ J Street microgrid and its potential to leverage existing infrastructure to provide new community benefits.

More details about LES’ microgrid project are available on slide 58 of the minutes from the utility’s July administrative board meeting.

Biden appoints Richard Glick as Chairman of FERC

January 21, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 21, 2021

President Joe Biden has appointed Democrat Richard Glick to be Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). 

Glick, who announced the news on Twitter on Jan. 21, has been a commissioner since November 2017.  His term runs through June 30, 2022.

Biden was sworn in as President of the United States on Jan. 20.

In a Jan. 21 tweet, Joy Ditto, President and CEO of the American Public Power Association, offered her congratulations to Glick, adding that the public power community “looks forward to working with you in this new capacity!”

In other recent FERC news, Mark Christie was sworn in as a member of FERC on Jan. 4.

Christie, who was previously the Chairman of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, fills the FERC seat vacated by Bernard McNamee in September 2020. Christie is a Republican.

His term runs through June 30, 2025. 

Christie joined Commissioner James Danly (R), Commissioner Neil Chatterjee (R), Commissioner Allison Clements (D), and Glick to give FERC a full complement of five commissioners for the first time in nearly two years.

Danly on Nov. 5 was named FERC Chairman by then-President Donald Trump, replacing Chatterjee as head of the agency, but with Biden’s naming of Glick as Chairman, Danly will now serve as a commissioner.

Treasury releases guidance tied to the $25 billion Emergency Rental Assistance program

January 19, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 19, 2021

The U.S. Department of Treasury on Jan. 19 released guidance for the implementation of a $25 billion Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program authorized as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021.

The American Public Power Association has strongly encouraged its members to reach out to their state (and city and county where those are eligible to receive such funds) to begin to help with the implementation of these programs.

The guidance released in the form of a list of “frequently asked questions” should help in that process. For example, the statute provides that ERA funds may be used for “utilities and home energy costs,” but does not define those terms.

Under the guidance released on Jan. 19, utilities include “separately-stated electricity, gas, water and sewer, trash removal and energy costs, such as fuel oil.”  It does not include telecommunication services (telephone, cable, Internet). Utilities that are covered by the landlord within rent will be treated as rent.

The guidance also clarified that grantees may structure a program to provide less than full coverage of arrears.

Moreover, the guidance emphasizes that grantees should structure programs to “best minimize any incentives for the non-payment of rent or utilities by potential beneficiaries of the program.”

Of particular importance to public power, the guidance also clarifies that a grantee does not need to provide assistance with respect to rent in order to provide assistance with respect to utility or energy costs.

Working with the National Energy and Utility Assistance Coalition and the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, APPA will work to keep track of jurisdictions setting up these programs by way of giving other public power utilities a template from which to work.

Appeals court vacates and remands EPA’s Affordable Clean Energy rule

January 19, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 19, 2021

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Jan. 19 issued an opinion that vacates and remands the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule while also vacating the EPA’s separate action extending compliance timelines for all rules issued under section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act (CAA).

In addition, the court also denied efforts by coal interests to challenge EPA’s underlying authority to regulate power plants’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under section 111.

The court’s opinion was in the American Lung Association et. al v. EPA proceeding.

The appeals court found that ACE, as well as the repeal of the 2015 Clean Power Plan (CPP), “hinged on a fundamental misconstruction of” CAA section 111(d). The decision rejects EPA’s position that the CAA only allows the agency to craft emissions restrictions that apply directly “at the source” of power plants. The position was a departure from the CPP’s sector-wide approach to reducing emissions. “In addition, the ACE rule’s amendment of the regulatory framework to slow the process for the reduction of emissions is arbitrary and capricious.”

In a separate opinion, Judge Justin Walker said he believes EPA was required to repeal CPP, but that it was “wrong to replace it with provisions promulgated under” section 111, adopting arguments by free-market groups that the agency cannot regulate power plants’ GHGs under that section because it already regulates the sector’s air toxics under section 112.

The court’s ruling clears a path for the incoming Biden administration to draft new regulations for existing sources under the CAA. However any new effort to regulate carbon dioxide emissions  from existing sources will likely be challenged and attempts to replace the ACE Rule with a rule that mirrors the Clean Power Plan is risky considering the Supreme Court’s unprecedented stay of the Clean Power Plan in 2016 prior to review by a lower court. Since then, the Court’s conservative majority has grown to 6-3.

The opinion is available here.

North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency seeks battery storage proposals

January 19, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 19, 2021

North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency (NCEMPA) has issued a request for proposals for ownership of a standalone battery energy storage system (BESS).

NCEMPA is seeking competitive proposals for a BESS to support NCEMPA’s demand response activities. As outlined in the RFP, NCEMPA is requesting pricing for six different BESS system configurations.

NCEMPA intends to select one of these configurations based on site-specific cost and project evaluation criteria.

Commercial operation for the BESS is scheduled for December 2022.

Proposals are due by March 11, 2021 and the RFP is available here.

NCEMPA is a joint action agency. NCEMPA’s members are 32 cities and towns located in eastern North Carolina, each of which owns and operates its municipal electric distribution system.

NCEMPA is the full requirements wholesale power supplier to its members and procures power from an investor-owned utility, pursuant to which the supplier provides native-load firm power to serve the loads of NCEMPA’s members.

The American Public Power Association offers a Public Power Energy Storage Tracker as a resource for association members that summarizes energy storage projects undertaken by members that are currently online.

Secretary of Energy asks states to prioritize critical energy infrastructure workers for COVID vaccine

January 19, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 19, 2021

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette on Jan. 15 urged the governors of 55 states and territories to prioritize critical infrastructure mission-essential workers during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the letter, Brouillette noted that the critical infrastructure workforce should be prioritized for receipt of the COVID-19 vaccine, in both the public and private sector, including: investor-owned utilities, municipal-owned utilities, cooperatives, the Department of Energy’s Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sites, as well as members of the oil and natural gas subsector.    

The electric power industry, including the nation’s investor-owned utilities, municipal-owned utilities, cooperatives, and the PMAs, “provide 24-7/365 electricity, necessary for the health and safety of all Americans,” he wrote in the letter.

“These critical electric infrastructure utility workers support and preserve the infrastructure and operations centers critical to maintaining the backbone of the electric grid. By prioritizing their health and safety for vaccine distribution alongside other frontline workers, we assure electricity distribution to the nation’s rural and urban communities,” he said.

Brouillette noted that essential critical infrastructure workers at the PMAs and NNSA sites conduct highly specialized tasks and cannot work from home or in isolation from others on the job site. “The PMAs operate electric systems and sell the electrical output of federally-owned and -operated hydroelectric dams in 34 states; their employees operate facilities that are needed to maintain the reliability and security of the nation’s energy grid.”

Similarly, NNSA’s essential workers “handle a range of issues including nuclear weapon systems, global and potential domestic nuclear security threats, the management and disposal of hazardous nuclear materials, and the safe and secure transport of nuclear materials. These individuals continue to work every day, putting both themselves and their families’ safety at risk in service of our nation,” wrote Brouillette.

He said that prioritizing vaccination access for mission-essential workers is consistent with guidance contained in the October 2, 2020, Framework for Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 vaccine, by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the October 29, 2020, COVID-19 Vaccination Program Interim Operational Guidance for Jurisdictions Playbook, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These reports recommend critical infrastructure workers be considered for prioritization based upon job function and exposure to risk.

“The PMAs’ and NNSA’s mission-essential workers must receive the vaccine through the states and territories, and therefore I respectfully ask that states and territories also include federal energy workers along with private energy sector workers as a high priority for voluntary access to initial inoculation. Such work is critical to public health and safety, as well as our economic and national security,” Brouillette said.

Steep U.S. GHG emissions drop in 2020 are not sustainable, says Rhodium Group

January 15, 2021

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
January 15, 2021

In 2020, the United States saw the single largest annual decline in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020 anytime since World War II, putting the country’s GHG emissions below 1990 levels for the first time, according to preliminary data from the Rhodium Group.

The research group estimates that the slowdown in activity related to steps taken to reduce the spread of COVID-19 led to a 10.3 percent drop in GHG emissions. Those restrictions reduced travel, altered demand for goods and services, and resulted in record high unemployment, the Rhodium analysts said. In 2009, GHG emissions declined 6.3 percent as a result of the Great Recession.

With GHG emissions now 21 percent below 2005 levels, the U.S. is expected to “far exceed” its 2020 Copenhagen Accord target of a 17 percent reduction below 2005 levels, according to Rhodium’s Green Stimulus and Recovery Tracker.

Nonetheless, the Rhodium analysts warned that its preliminary 2020 data should not “in any way be considered a down payment” toward the U.S. meeting its 2025 Paris Climate Agreement target of GHG declines of 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels.

The U.S. left the Paris Agreement on Nov. 4, 2020, but president-elect Joe Biden has said it will rejoin the pact early in his presidency.

“The emission reductions of 2020 have come with an enormous toll of significant economic damage and human suffering,” Rhodium said. “With coronavirus vaccines now in distribution, we expect economic activity to pick up again in 2021, but without meaningful structural changes in the carbon intensity of the US economy, emissions will likely rise again as well.”

With economic activity expected to bounce back in 2021 — most forecasts currently project GDP growth of 3 to 4 percent — Rhodium noted, “emissions will likely increase as well absent a concerted effort.”

In October, the International Monetary Fund forecasted that U.S. GDP would decline 4.3 percent in 2020, Rhodium noted, adding that year-end year estimates by Bloomberg and Goldman Sachs put that decline at around 3.5 percent. And while the COVID-10 related decline was “significantly less drastic than the IMF’s April forecast, it goes “well beyond the 2.5% contraction the U.S. experienced during the Great Recession of 2009,” Rhodium said.

Several of the hardest hit economic sectors — transportation, electric power, and industry — are also the leading sources of U.S. GHG emissions, the Rhodium analysts noted.

With the possible exception of the power sector — where coal’s decline has been driving a steady reduction in power sector emissions over the past decade — emission reductions in 2020 resulted largely from reductions in overall economic activity, Rhodium said.

Travel demand was hard hit in 2020, resulting in a 14.7 percent decline in transportation sector emissions between 2019 and 2020. Industrial emissions were down 7 percent and emissions from buildings were down 6.2 percent year-over-year, Rhodium said.

Power sector emissions dropped 10.3 percent, driven by a nearly 19 percent reduction in year-over-year emissions from coal generation, the largest year-on-year decline in recorded history. Year-over-year electricity demand declined only 2 percent.

Before the pandemic hit, Rhodium has projected that power sector emissions would drop by as much as 7 percent in 2020. But coal’s decline was “only accelerated by weakened electric power demand during the pandemic,” Rhodium said.

After decades as the predominant fuel for US electric power, in 2020 coal became only the third-largest fuel source after natural gas and nuclear, with renewables close behind.

In 2020, coal’s share of US power generation dropped from 24 percent to 20 percent, with natural gas and renewables picking up most of the slack, rising to 39 percent and 18 percent, respectively. The uptick in natural gas generation offsets more than 10 percent of the reduction in emissions from coal-fired power.

According to the recently released Energy Information Agency short-term outlook the share of U.S. electric power sector generation from natural gas will decline from 39 percent in 2020 to 36 percent in 2021 and 34 percent in 2022 in response to significantly higher natural gas fuel costs and increased generation from renewable energy sources. Coal’s forecast share of electricity generation will rise from 20 percent in 2020 to 22 percent in 2021 and 24 percent in 2022, which is close to its share in 2019.

Electricity generation from renewable energy sources will rise from 20 percent in 2020 to 21 percent in 2021 and 23 percent in 2022. The nuclear share of U.S. generation will decline from 21 percent in 2020 to 20 percent in 2021 and 19 percent in 2022.

DOE extends deadline for hydro-related opportunity for technical assistance

January 15, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 15, 2021

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) has extended the application period for a Notice of Opportunity for Technical Assistance (NOTA) for improving hydropower’s value.

Part of WPTO’s HydroWIRES (Water Innovation for a Resilient Electricity System) Initiative, “this opportunity will provide hydropower decision makers—such as utilities and system operators—with national lab expertise and capabilities to address current challenges and capture new opportunities for their systems,” the DOE noted.

Additionally, the DOE said that work under the NOTA can help to validate national lab-led modeling, analysis, and tools developed under the HydroWIRES Initiative for the benefit of the broader hydropower community, “as well as further our collective understanding of possible roles for hydropower in an evolving grid.”

WPTO in December 2020 extended the application period for the NOTA.

Interested applicants must submit initial concept papers by February 17, 2021. Applications can be made by clicking on this link.

Additional information is available here.