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SB Energy Inks 942-MW PPA with Google to Power Data Center

November 2, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 2, 2022

Google has agreed to purchase approximately seventy-five percent of the renewable energy produced by four solar projects under development in Texas under an agreement announced on Nov. 1 with SB Energy. The power purchase agreement totals 942 megawatts.

The Orion 1-3 and Eiffel solar projects, which are expected to be operational by mid-2024, will total 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of capacity.

The capacity will support the energy needs of Google’s data center in Midlothian, Texas and cloud region in Dallas. The agreement is Google’s largest combined clean energy transaction in Texas to date.

SB Energy currently owns and operates 1.7 GW of solar capacity and will have started construction on an additional 1.3 GW by early next year.

Group Submits Signatures For Maine Voters to Consider Public Power Utility in 2023

November 1, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 1, 2022

A group in Maine on Oct. 31 submitted more than 80,000 signatures from voters in 422 Maine towns, which will allow for voters in the state next year to consider replacing investor-owned utilities in Maine with a statewide, consumer-owned utility.

Collected in just under a year, the signatures exceeded the 63,067 required to qualify for the general election ballot in November 2023.

The group, Our Power, said that if enough signatures are certified by the Maine Secretary of State, Maine voters will likely have the chance to vote on the question next year, unless the measure is passed outright by the next Maine Legislature and Governor.

If approved by voters, the initiative would replace Central Maine Power and Versant with the Pine Tree Power Company, a privately-operated, nonprofit, consumer-owned utility.

The initiative does not allow for state ownership or for the use of tax dollars, and the new company would not serve the parts of Maine (97 towns) already served by existing nonprofit utilities.

In Roundtable with Treasury Secretary Yellen, APPA’s Ditto Asks to Keep IRA Guidance Simple and Certain

October 31, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
October 31, 2022

Guidance implementing the energy tax provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) should be simple and certain, American Public Power Association (APPA) President and CEO Joy Ditto told Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and White House Senior Advisor John Podesta.

Ditto’s remarks came as she, other key stakeholders, and Biden Administration officials participated in an Oct. 26 roundtable on clean power generation and the IRA.

In a Statement for the Record for the event, Ditto said APPA has worked for years with other stakeholders to make federal energy investment incentives available to all market participants, and strongly supported the direct pay tax credit provisions in the IRA.

“Now, we look forward to working with the Administration and Congress to ensure that IRA reaches its full potential in implementation,” she said in the Statement for the Record.

Access to energy tax credits “will provide local jobs, under local control, to serve local communities. It also means that all electric power utilities, not just those serving 70 percent of retail customers, can participate in the clean energy transition. Enactment of the IRA was the first step toward realizing that dream. But now comes the hard part, implementing the law in a way that follows the letter of the law while meeting its policy goals,” wrote Ditto.

When it comes to IRA-related guidance, Ditto said that simplicity is critical in ensuring that transactions “are not so beleaguered with paperwork and the need for bespoke legal guidance as to become uneconomic.”

By way of example, she noted that one of APPA’s members that serves roughly 10,000 homes and businesses was quoted a $1,300 per hour rate for an attorney with tax and energy project expertise. “Our members will also have to retain counsel to navigate domestic content rules or forgo receiving direct payments altogether. They may also need and want to secure access to increased and bonus credits for meeting labor requirements or serving low income and/or energy communities.” 

 APPA understands that Congress had specific policy goals in mind “when it drafted each of these provisions. However, it will do no good if a project never gets off the ground,” Ditto said.

“This is particularly important in the context of domestic content rules. While meeting these requirements provides a 10 percent bonus for others, for public power utilities, rural electric cooperatives, and other tax-exempt entities, it is an existential test of whether they qualify for direct payment.”

Similarly, more than two-thirds of public power utilities have been in operation since World War II, and more than half have been in operation for a century or longer. “It is in our genetics to provide reliable and affordable power to our customers. We do not serve the community; we are the community. As a result, our members will not undertake these transactions without certainty as to the amount and timing of any tax credits that might accrue,” Ditto said. 

 With the goals of simplicity and certainty in mind, APPA is seeking clarity in the following areas:

APPA also intends to submit formal comments with the Treasury Department on the implementation of the IRA this week. These comments come in response to an October 5, 2022, notice requesting comments on six areas of IRA implantation including: energy generation incentives; elective payment of energy tax credits; and labor and domestic content requirements for those credits. Treasury is expected issue further notices for additional comments throughout the remainder of the year.

Salt River Project Contracts for Two Battery Storage Projects Totaling 340 MW

October 31, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
October 31, 2022

Salt River Project (SRP) in Arizona has signed contracts with Plus Power for two battery storage systems totaling 340 megawatts (MW) that are expected to be online early in the summer of 2024.

The Sierra Estrella battery project will be a 250-MW, four-hour battery storage system in Avondale. The Superstition project is designed as a 90-MW, four-hour battery storage system in Gilbert.

SRP said it would have dispatch control of the storage systems, which will give the public power utility the ability to decide at what point each day it will deploy the energy output from each system onto its grid. SRP said deployment would typically occur during times of peak energy demand, usually in the early evening when demand for electric power is high and renewable resources are not available.

“These early deployments will help both SRP and the industry gain experience with this technology, which will play a major role in reducing carbon emissions,” Kelly Barr, SRP’s chief strategy, corporate services and sustainability executive, said in a statement.

SRP selected the two grid-charged battery projects from its most recent all-source request for proposals process. Both projects will be owned and operated by a subsidiary of Houston-based Plus Power.

SRP said the two planned projects push its total commitment to battery storage to 800 MW by 2024 and represent over 10 percent of the utility’s anticipated peak electric demand in 2024.

SRP is also developing the Sonoran Energy Center, an approximately 250-MW system with the solar array charging a 1,000-megawatt hour energy storage system, that is sited in Little Rainbow Valley, south of Buckeye. SRP has also contracted for the 88-MW Storey solar and battery storage project near Coolidge and plans to add a battery to the Saint Solar project, which is also near Coolidge. All three projects are scheduled to enter service in 2023.

In 2021, SRP brought a 25-MW battery storage facility at its Bolster substation in Peoria online.

Silicon Valley Power Signs PPA for Wind Power from Sempra Project in Mexico

October 28, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
October 28, 2022

California’s Silicon Valley Power (SVP) recently entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for the long-term supply of renewable energy from a proposed, cross-border 300-megawatt (MW) wind project Sempra Infrastructure is developing in Mexico.

Under the contract, Sempra would provide electric power to the City of Santa Clara, Calif., from the Cimarrón wind project it plans to build in Baja California where Sempra has an existing cross-border high voltage transmission line that connects to the East County substation in San Diego County.

Silicon Valley Power provides power to nearly 55,000 customers in Santa Clara and is the only full service, vertically integrated public power utility in Silicon Valley that owns generation, transmission and distribution assets.

When completed, the Cimarrón wind farm will have about 60 wind turbines and is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 210,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year.

Completion of the wind project is subject to securing all necessary commercial agreements and permits, including reaching a final investment decision, Sempra said.

Renewable Incentives in Inflation Reduction Act Will Meet Headwinds of Higher PPA Prices: Report

October 28, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
October 28, 2022

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will spur renewable development, but projects still face the headwinds of rising power purchase agreement (PPA) prices, according to a new report on the PPA market.

In the third quarter, North American P25 solar and wind PPA prices soared 9.6 percent to $45.93 per megawatt hour (MWh), pushing them to a level where they are now 34 percent higher than they were at the same time last year, according to a report from LevelTen Energy, an operator of one of the largest PPA marketplaces.

LevelTen’s P25 Price Index represents an average of the 25th percentile PPA price in seven North American wholesale electric power markets. The data is based on prices developers are offering for PPA contracts, not transacted PPA prices. 

PPA prices began rising in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated supply chain challenges. Since then, other factors – including economics, regulations, and permitting challenges – have created an imbalance between PPA supply and demand and led to an increase in development costs, keeping prices high, LevelTen said in the report.

The IRA, which was signed into law in August, extends a variety of energy tax credits and makes them available for projects owned and operated by tax-exempt entities, including public power.

“The IRA will undoubtedly spur significant investment in renewables — as much as 94 gigawatts (GW) of additional wind and solar by 2035,” Martin Anderson, head of research, USA, at Aurora Energy Research, said in a statement.  “While many in the industry expect the influx of low marginal cost generation to significantly depress power and PPA prices, Aurora’s analysis indicates a more muted market response because of supply bottlenecks, rising electricity and natural gas demand, pricing dynamics related to thermal generation, and basis risk.”

“As the hard work of implementing the IRA begins, everyone wants to know when it will lower PPA prices,” Gia Clark, senior director, developer services at LevelTen Energy, said in a statement. “But it’s too soon to say if and when that will happen, for three reasons.”

First, the IRA does not remove immediate, major roadblocks including interconnection queue congestion and supply chain challenges that are stalling buildout, Clark said. Second, development input costs, such as labor, capital, commodities, continue to rise. And, third, demand continues to grow from corporations and utilities, increasing competition for already limited renewable capacity, Clark said.

Prices for both solar and wind projects rose “significantly,” according to the LevelTen report. More specifically, solar P25 PPA prices rose 7.5 percent to $42.21/MWh, while wind P25 PPA prices rose 11.4 percent to $49.66/MWh.

Solar supply chain challenges are one factor driving up solar PPA prices, LevelTen said, noting that polysilicon prices are at a ten-year high because of high demand and low supply, driven in part by a U.S. ban on polysilicon from Xinjiang Province, China, where production has been tied to forced labor. In June, the Biden administration began enforcing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, leading to more than 3 GW of solar panels being held at the border.

Higher wind PPA prices are being fueled by “inflation, permitting issues, and transmission constraints” in regions like the Midcontinent ISO and the Southwest Power Pool, Jason Tundermann, chief operating officer at LevelTen Energy, said in a statement.

In July, MISO approved 18 new high-voltage transmission lines that will enable the addition of 53 GW of renewable energy capacity to the grid. Those lines will improve the region’s grid resilience, but they are expected to take between six to eight years before they are in service, “meaning that additional renewable capacity may remain limited until then,” Tundermann said.

ISO New England Stakeholders Outline Steps In Case of Extreme Winter Weather

October 27, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
October 27, 2022

ISO New England stakeholders outlined the steps they would take to work together to navigate potential energy shortages this winter.

The stakeholders discussed scenarios and strategies during a tabletop exercise in Westborough, Massachusetts. Participating in the workshop were operations and communications personnel from the ISO and the its regional utilities: Central Maine Power, Eversource, National Grid, Rhode Island Energy, United Illuminating, Unitil, and VELCO. Officials from all six New England states, as well as federal and regional agencies were also present to observe the exercise.

The stakeholders explored a scenario similar to the winter of 2017-2018, when two weeks of extreme cold strained the supply of fuels used to generate New England’s electricity.

In the past two years, four out of seven ISOs and RTOs in the U.S. have resorted to controlled outages because extreme weather led to limited energy supplies. In New England, however, a winter energy shortfall that involves several days of inadequate fuel supplies, would present “different operational challenges than capacity deficiencies that have been more common historically and typically involve just peak hours,” ISO New England said in ISO Newswire.

ISO New England released a report in August at the request of New England Power Pool stakeholders that evaluated how the region’s grid would perform under the double burden of increased levels of renewable generation sources and higher demand. “The region may struggle to maintain necessary operating reserves in scenarios of high electrification and more aggressive retirements of existing resources,” the report found.

“While this type of emergency is unlikely, it would be profoundly impactful and close coordination between all involved entities is paramount,” Peter Brandien, ISO New England’s vice president of system operations and market administration, said in a statement. “Through exercises like this tabletop, ISO New England and the region’s utilities can work together to better understand how to best respond if these conditions materialize.”

During the tabletop exercise representatives of ISO New England, transmission owners, and local distribution companies described steps they would take to:

Despite Possible Fuel Constraints, FERC Sees Sufficient Supplies For This Winter

October 27, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
October 27, 2022

Despite some possible regional fuel constraints, electricity markets will have sufficient capacity to maintain reliable operations this winter, under normal winter conditions, according to a report from staff at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

“All regions anticipate adequate reserve margins, although extreme winter events may stress operations,” the authors of the report, Winter Energy Market and Reliability Assessment 2022-2023, wrote.

Extreme weather events aside, this winter could be mild for much of the country, implying lower-than-average electric and natural gas demand, the report said citing data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Although prolonged cold weather could cause disruptions and price impacts, the long-term NOAA data suggests a 50 percent to 80 percent likelihood of higher-than-average temperatures in Southern California, the Desert Southwest, Texas, and the Eastern Seaboard, with lower-than-average temperatures expected for the Northwest and the West North Central regions.

Natural gas prices, which set the marginal cost of wholesale electric power for much of the country, are expected to remain higher than they have been in recent years, the report said.

Despite the expectation that natural gas production will be 3.2 percent above last winter and will outpace the expected 2.4 percent increase in domestic natural gas demand growth, forecasts anticipate that continued growth in net exports, including from liquified natural gas (LNG) export facilities, that will place additional upward pressure on natural gas prices this winter. The Henry Hub natural gas futures contract price is averaging $6.82 per million British Thermal Units (MMBtu) for winter 2022-2023, up 30 percent from last winter’s settled price, the report said.

Natural gas supplies will continue to experience constraints in New England and California may also face constraints this winter due to ongoing pipeline outages, which could lead to higher natural gas and electricity prices, the report said. The authors, however, added that ISO-NE expects to maintain reliability this winter under mild and moderate winter conditions and has concluded it does not need a dedicated winter reliability program, unlike in past years.

The report also noted that supply constraints may affect coal deliveries and coal stockpiles this winter across regions that have relied on increased coal-fired generation during recent stress periods, including the Southwest Power Pool, the Midcontinent ISO (MISO), the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the SERC Reliability Corp. in the Southeast, and the PJM Interconnection.

Meanwhile, the generation addition and retirement patterns that have prevailed for the past several years will continue through the winter.

The U.S. will add 43 gigawatts (GW) of net winter capacity between March 2022 and February 2023, mostly from wind and solar power, while 15 GW of net winter capacity, mostly coal-fired plants, are expected to retire during the same period, the report said.

Nearly 6,700 line-miles of new transmission lines and transmission upgrades are expected to have come online through this winter, mostly in the MISO, PJM, and Southeast regions, the report said.

Forecast generation and transmission additions could change or be delayed, however, as regions are reporting some projects are being impacted by component unavailability, shipping delays, and labor shortages, the report said.

Department of Energy Seeks Input on Bolstering Cybersecurity for Public Power

October 24, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
October 24, 2022

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently issued a request for information (RFI) seeking public input on a new $250 million program to bolster the cybersecurity posture of rural, municipal, and small investor-owned electric utilities.

The Rural and Municipal Utility Advanced Cybersecurity Grant and Technical Assistance (RMUC) Program will help eligible utilities cyber harden energy systems, processes, and assets; improve incident response capabilities; and increase cybersecurity skills in the utility workforce, DOE said.

The RMUC program will provide financial and technical assistance to help rural, municipal, and small investor-owned electric utilities improve operational capabilities, increase access to cybersecurity services, deploy advanced cyber security technologies, and increase participation of eligible entities in cybersecurity threat information sharing programs.

Priority will be given to eligible utilities that have limited cybersecurity resources, are critical to the reliability of the bulk power system, or those that support our national defense infrastructure. 

The Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) will manage the RMUC Program, providing $250 million dollars in funding over five years.

To help inform program implementation, DOE is seeking input from the cybersecurity community, including eligible utilities and representatives of third parties and organizations that support or interact with these utilities.

The RFI seeks input on ways to improve cybersecurity incident preparedness, response, and threat information sharing; cybersecurity workforce challenges; risks associated with technologies deployed on the electric grid; national-scale initiatives to accelerate cybersecurity improvements in these utilities; opportunities to strengthen partnerships; the selection criteria and application process for funding awards; and more.  

DOE hosted a series of listening sessions for utilities and stakeholders to ask questions and provide feedback that will help inform the development and implementation of the RMUC program. The final listening session will take place on October 25, 2022. For more information and to register, go here. 

Responses to the RFI must be submitted via email to DE-FOA-0002877@netl.doe.gov by 5:00 p.m. ET on December 19, 2022. Download the RFI to see the full list of questions, topics of interest, and submission guidelines. 

The American Public Power Association plans to submit comments in response to the RFI and welcomes member feedback. Members can contact Bridgette Bourge, Senior Director for Cybersecurity at APPA, at Bbourge@publicpower.org with thoughts on this RFI.

For additional information, visit the RMUC Program webpage on CESER’s website. 

Electrify America Unveils First Application of Megawatt-Level Battery Storage System

October 22, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
October 22, 2022

Electrify America recently unveiled its first application of a megawatt-level battery energy storage system (BESS) for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations.

The move builds upon the company’s existing BESS installations at over 150 stations across the U.S., including more than 100 installations in California. 

The megawatt-level energy storage system combined with a solar canopy goes a step further than Electrify America’s existing BESS in managing energy costs and reducing stress on the grid by acting as a buffer to supplement power to charging stations when local utilities limit the amount of power a station can draw from the grid, it said.

“This application leverages energy storage and solar as a ‘non-wires alternative’ in lieu of relying on additional utility ‘wired’ infrastructure (i.e. power lines) that may not be feasible,” Electrify America said.

Such innovative approaches become critical to expand EV charging into more remote areas to reach more consumers where utilities may not be able to deliver the capacity needed to install or expand charging infrastructure, it added.

Electrify America selected the Baker station in California for the first deployment of the megawatt-level energy storage system because of its remote location and its utility capacity constraints. The project involves the integration of roughly 1.5 MW/3 MWh energy storage system with 66 kW of generation potential from the solar canopy.

The energy storage deployment builds upon Electrify America’s previous announcement of having surpassed over 30 megawatts of installed energy storage now featured at over 150 locations.

In California, over 50 charging stations coupled with energy storage constitute the largest operating Virtual Power Plant (VPP) of its kind shifting the use of on-peak energy to lower carbon intensity off-peak hours in the California Independent System Operator’s wholesale energy market.

Electrify America, a subsidiary of Volkswagen of America, is the largest open DC fast charging network in the U.S.