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Silicon Valley Clean Energy, Google Unveil 24/7 Renewable Energy Service Agreement

June 16, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 16, 2022

California community choice aggregator (CCA) Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) and Google on June 15 unveiled a new 24/7 renewable energy service that features hourly renewable energy matching, integrated demand management, and a commitment to ongoing community investments in local building and transportation electrification.

Under the ten-year agreement, SVCE will serve Google’s offices in Mountain View and Sunnyvale, Calif., matching carbon-free electricity with Google’s local demand for at least 92% of all hours in the year.

The agreement utilizes a Carbon-Free Energy (CFE) measure – a 24/7 “CFE Score.” SVCE has incorporated this measure into a commercial energy service for Google, to build and manage an optimized portfolio of complementary clean resources designed to match Google’s local energy demand across all hours of the year, including wind, solar, geothermal, battery energy storage systems and other resources.

In addition, SVCE said that the service supports dynamic management of demand from Google’s growing all-electric building and transportation infrastructure.

SVCE said its new energy service with Google represents a model that can be replicated and scaled in other communities, by other energy providers, and commercial energy customers.

Click here for a case study related to SVCE’s energy service agreement with Google.

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

NREL Report Maps Potential For 3.5 TW Of Pumped Storage Hydropower

June 16, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
June 16, 2022

There is still the potential for as much as 3.5 terawatts (TW) of 10-hour energy pumped storage hydropower (PSH) in the United States, according to a new report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Pumped storage hydropower is “a mature and proven method of energy storage with competitive round-trip efficiency and long life spans” that will make it “crucial to bridge gaps in electricity production as variable wind and solar production continue to comprise an ever-larger portion of the United States’ energy portfolio,” according to the report, Closed-Loop Pumped Storage Hydropower Resource Assessment for the United States.

NREL said it would soon publish a second technical report that would combine the data from the first report with additional resources to “examine how hydropower’s low-cost, flexible energy could support tomorrow’s grid.” Both studies are funded by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office.

A DOE report last winter found hydropower can be a valuable resource in maintaining bulk power system reliability.

Pumped storage hydropower comprises 23 gigawatts (GW) of the nation’s 24 GW of energy storage capacity, nonetheless, no new large pumped storage hydropower station has been built in the United States since the 1990s, the report noted, adding that “attempts to quantify technical potential capacity from PSH project applications to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) suffer from inconsistent site and cost evaluation methodologies and likely are not representative of all PSH opportunities.”

The NREL study seeks to better under understand the technical potential for pumped storage hydropower development by developing a national-scale resource assessment for closed-loop pumped storage hydropower. The report identifies 14,846 potential sites that could technically support pumped storage hydropower. It also details how much a plant might cost and how much energy it could produce.

Excluding undevelopable lands such as national parks and critical habitat for endangered species, the report found that even with using a conservative minimum head height (the difference in elevation between the two reservoirs), technical potential for pumped storage hydropower sites can be found “broadly across the western United States, the Appalachian Mountains, and the Ozark Mountains, as well as in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.”

To create the maps in the study the NREL researchers fixed parameters like dam height and storage duration. They selected a 10-hour energy storage duration because, they said, it tends to be more cost competitive with 4-hour battery energy storage technologies. The researchers also used their geospatial algorithm to search the country for all possible sites. Users can sort and filter those sites by head height, energy capacity, and cost. NREL plans to update the map to give users more control.

“We want to build an interactive map where you can check boxes on and off to choose between 12-hour or 8-hour storage, 40-meter or 60-meter dam height. Whatever people want,” Stuart Cohen, an NREL model engineer and a co-author on both reports, said in a statement.

The study’s results demonstrate a wide cost distribution and suggest that the most cost-competitive sites could be found where the existing topography supports very high head heights, the report’s authors said. And while these results are promising for the future of PSH in the United States, continued expansion of this work will improve PSH resource characterization, and additional grid modeling will help illuminate its potential future in the U.S. energy portfolio,” they said.

Anthony Cannon Installed As Chair of APPA’s Board of Directors

June 15, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 15, 2022

Anthony Cannon, general manager and CEO of Greenville Utilities Commission in Greenville, North Carolina, on June 15 was installed as chair of the American Public Power Association Board of Directors during APPA’s National Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

David Osburn, general manager of Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority in Edmond, Oklahoma, is chair-elect for 2022-2023. Nicholas Lawler, general manager of Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments in Littleton, Massachusetts, is vice chair. Colin Hansen, CEO and general manager of Kansas Power Pool in Wichita, Kansas, is immediate past chair. Layne Burningham, president and CEO of Utah Municipal Power Agency in Spanish Fork, Utah, is treasurer.   

Cannon chose five members of the board to serve with the officers on the APPA Executive Committee.

They are: Daniel Beans, electric utility director of Roseville Electric Utility in Roseville, California; John Haarlow, CEO and general manager of Snohomish County PUD in Everett, Washington; Jonathan Hand, executive director of Electric Cities of Alabama in Montgomery, Alabama; Thomas Kent, president and CEO of Nebraska Public Power District in Columbus, Nebraska; and Michael Peters, president and CEO of WPPI Energy in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.  

Newly elected to the APPA board this year are: Jason Grey, director of utilities of Danville Utilities Department in Danville, Virginia; Roy Jones, CEO of ElectriCities of North Carolina, Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina; Beatrice Limtiaco, assistant general manager of administration of Guam Power Authority; Debra Smith, general manager and CEO of Seattle City Light in Seattle, Washington; and Brian Solsbee, executive director of the Tennessee Municipal Electric Power Association in Brentwood, Tennessee. 

Seven board members were re-elected to new three-year terms: Ellen Burt, general manager of Stowe Electric Department in Stowe, Vermont, John Haarlow, CEO and general manager of Snohomish County PUD in Everett, Washington; Thomas Kent, president and CEO of Nebraska Public Power District in Columbus, Nebraska; Nicholas Lawler, general manager of Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments in Littleton, Massachusetts; Russell Olson, CEO of Heartland Consumers Power District in Madison, South Dakota; Michael Peters, president and CEO of WPPI Energy in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin; and David Walters, general manager of Grand Haven Board of Light and Power in Grand Haven, Michigan.

APPA board members are chosen to represent 10 regions across the country.

Grid Operators Grapple With Sizzling Temperatures, Soaring Power Demand

June 15, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 15, 2022

Grid operators in parts of the U.S. this week have been grappling with soaring power demand resulting from extreme heat.

The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) declared a Maximum Generation Emergency Alert effective for June 15 for the MISO Balancing Authority Area. MISO noted that the reason for the event is because of forced generation outages, above normal temperatures and high congestion.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) reported having a record-breaking peak electric demand on Sunday, June 12, 2022, of 74,917 megawatts, breaking the previous all-time peak of 74,820 MW that occurred on Thursday, August 22, 2019.  

“Current weather and load forecasts predict record-setting hot weather across the state through this week. ERCOT expects sufficient generation to meet the high demand at this time,” the grid operator said on June 14.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and 153 local power companies across the region successfully met a record power demand for the month of June during an early season heat wave on Monday, June 13, TVA reported June 14.

At 6 p.m. ET, the power system was providing 31,311 MW at a region-wide average temperature of 94 degrees. The previous record for June was 31,098 MW on June 29, 2012.

Twenty-Three Individuals, Eight Utilities Win National Public Power Awards

June 14, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 14, 2022

Twenty-Three individuals and eight utilities were recognized for service to the American Public Power Association (APPA) and the public power industry during APPA’s National Conference in Nashville, Tennessee on June 14.

The individuals and utilities recognized at the ceremony were: 

Alex Radin Distinguished Service Award

This award is the highest award granted by the American Public Power Association. The award recognizes exceptional leadership and dedication to public power.

James D. Donovan Individual Achievement Award

This award recognizes people who have made substantial contributions to the electric utility industry, with a special commitment to public power. 

Alan H. Richardson Statesmanship Award

This award recognizes public power leaders who work to achieve consensus on national issues important to public power utilities.

Larry Hobart Seven Hats Award

This award recognizes managers of small utilities serving fewer than 2,500 meters. These managers have a very small staff and must assume multiple roles.

Harold Kramer-John Preston Personal Service Award 

This award recognizes individuals for their service to the American Public Power Association.

Spence Vanderlinden Public Official Award

This award recognizes elected or appointed local officials who have contributed to the goals of the American Public Power Association.

Robert E. Roundtree Rising Star Award

This award is a scholarship presented to future leaders in public power. The recipient receives a stipend to travel to an APPA conference or training program to advance their education and development in public power.

Mark Crisson Leadership and Managerial Excellence Award 

This award recognizes managers at a utility, joint action agency, or state or regional association who steer their organizations to new levels of excellence, lead by example, and inspire staff to do better.

E.F. Scattergood System Achievement Award

This award honors American Public Power Association member systems with outstanding accomplishments.

Sue Kelly Community Service Award

This award recognizes utilities for their “good neighbor” activities that demonstrate commitment to the local community.

Energy Innovator Award

APPA’s research program, Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments (DEED), nurtures innovation in public power. Each year, the program recognizes innovative utility projects with this award.

New Resource Adequacy Modeling Tools Needed For The Evolving Grid, NRRI Says

June 14, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
June 14, 2022

Traditional resource adequacy tools are not sufficient to ensure reliability in a rapidly changing electric power system, according to a new report from the National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI), the research arm of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC).

Power grids are evolving rapidly from a system served by dispatchable resources to a system that relies on variable energy resources (VERs) and duration-limited storage, the report noted. Those changes are making many of the tools power system planners relied on “obsolete,” according to the report, Resource Adequacy Modeling for a High Renewable Future.

In the past, electric system planners only needed to worry about unusually high loads or high forced outages, the report said. “Now, they must worry about unusually high loads during periods of unusually low renewable output and limited storage duration” that, coupled with more extreme weather, can compound risks and require “a fundamental rethinking of planning for low probability, high impact events,” the report said.

The NRRI report, like other recent reports, highlighted that weather is emerging as a fundamental driver of power system conditions and will require changes in resource adequacy planning to account for increasing uncertainty on both the supply and demand side of the equation.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp.’s 2022 Summer Reliability Assessment identified an “elevated or high risk” of energy shortfalls this summer because of predicted above-normal temperatures and drought conditions.

And earlier this year a paper by NARUC, the National Association of State Energy Officials and Converge Strategies recommended new approaches to estimating the value of resiliency in the face of changing grid conditions and weather patterns.

Updating reliability planning for a “new energy paradigm” will require taking into account meteorology, variable renewable energy generation, forced outages, and energy limited storage, the report said.

The report’s authors argue in favor of using a Monte Carlo simulation that is capable of factoring in multiple inputs and uncertainties while maintaining historical correlations. For example, “traditional models used average or typical time profiles of load and renewables while focusing on generator outages as the primary source of uncertainty, greatly underestimating the risk of load shedding,” they said.

The report also noted that traditional models for resource planning often fail to include weather data, climate impacts, behind-the-meter resources, transmission, or sophisticated data on energy storage availability.

The authors included another example of the failure of traditional resource adequacy modelling. They ask, “At the high end of renewable penetration, how much storage would be required to cover Dunkelflaute, the ‘dark doldrums,’ that occur in the winter when wind ceases to blow for several days?”

To ensure that resource adequacy models can provide valid risk assessments, the report recommended they should simulate random variables as weather dependent; benchmark simulations against historic data; model generator outages as weather driven; scale simulations to match future expectations, and include climate effects in simulations.

EPA Says It Will Reconsider Trump Administration’s Decision On Particulate Matter

June 14, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 14, 2022

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on June 10 announced that it will reconsider the Trump Administration’s decision to retain the particulate matter (PM) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

EPA is reconsidering the December 2020 decision “because available scientific evidence and technical information indicate that the current standards may not be adequate to protect public health and welfare, as required by the Clean Air Act,” it said in a news release.

Particulate matter includes fine particles, which are 2.5 micrometers in diameter and smaller. They can be emitted directly from a variety of sources, including vehicles, smokestacks, and fires. They also form when gases emitted by power plants, industrial processes, and gasoline and diesel engines react in the atmosphere.

Coarse particles, which have diameters between 2.5 and 10 micrometers, include road dust that is kicked up by traffic, some agricultural operations, construction and demolition operations, industrial processes, and biomass burning.

EPA has regulated particle pollution since 1971 and has revised the standards four times — in 1987, 1997, 2006 and 2012.

EPA’s 2020 policy assessment concluded that the scientific evidence and information support revising the level of the annual standard for the PM NAAQS to below the current level of 12 micrograms per cubic meter while retaining a 24-hour standard.

The agency received numerous petitions for reconsideration as well as lawsuits challenging the December 2020 final action.

EPA said that as part of its move to reconsider the decision to retain the particulate matter NAAQS, the agency will develop a supplement to a 2019 Final Integrated Science Assessment that will take into account the most up-to-date science, including new studies in the emerging area of COVID-related research.  

The supplement will be reviewed at a public meeting by the chartered Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), supported by a particulate matter review panel of scientific experts on the health and welfare impacts of PM.

The CASAC and the PM panel will also review a revised policy assessment and formulate advice to the Administrator.

The public will have opportunities to comment on these documents during the CASAC review process, as well as to provide input during the rulemaking through the public comment process and public hearings.

EPA expects to issue a proposed rulemaking this summer and a final rule in Spring 2023.

For more information on the NAAQS review process and documents related to prior PM NAAQS reviews, visit https://www.epa.gov/naaqs/particulate-matter-pm-air-quality-standards.

In June 2020, APPA and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association submitted joint comments advocating for EPA to retain the annual PM 2.5 NAAQS.

Ditto Urges Members To Share Supply Chain Challenges, Details APPA Efforts To Address Issue

June 13, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 13, 2022

Joy Ditto, President and CEO of the American Public Power Association (APPA), on June 13 urged member utilities to share their supply chain challenges with APPA so that the trade group can relay details on these challenges to federal partners and discuss how critical burdens on the sector can be alleviated.

“Thanks to your responses to our surveys and other outreach, we already know that transformers are extremely constrained,” she said in her remarks at APPA’s National Conference in Nashville, Tenn.

Joy
APPA President and CEO Joy Ditto delivers her remarks at APPA’s National Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. 

APPA is proactively taking steps to address supply chain challenges.

“We have done several things from our end to help,” Ditto said, noting that APPA recently asked the Department of Energy for a temporary waiver from the 2016 transformer efficiency standard to help spur faster manufacturing processes.

In addition, APPA rolled out an additional feature to APPA’s eReliability Tracker that is available to all public power utilities and allows for voluntary equipment sharing by matching systems with the same distribution voltages.

“We are relaying to the federal government what the challenges are and working with manufacturers to better understand and” alleviate constraints, Ditto said.

“This conversation will become more formalized with a tiger team being formed between the electric sector and the Department of Energy, with transformer manufacturers and other manufacturers included as well.”

This tiger team is under the auspices of the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council, led by the various electricity trades and select CEOs from the industry, including several from public power. 

“We have also sent letters to the congressional energy committees on the transformer constraint,” Ditto said.

Cyber Security

Meanwhile, APPA and the electric sector are keeping cybersecurity front and center in 2022, “as we have been for many years.”

She noted that public power utilities have the opportunity to engage in information sharing, cyber mutual aid and more.

“The Infrastructure Act includes $2 billion for cybersecurity and there is $250 million of that $2 billion earmarked for technical assistance and support specifically for municipal and rural utilities.”

Tax-Based Incentives

APPA also continues to fight for tax-based incentives for renewable energy, including wind and solar, to be expanded to allow for nonprofit electric utilities to receive comparable financial incentives in directly owning these projects.

There appears to be bipartisan support for extending such energy credits, including a refundable direct pay credit, she said.

Natural Gas

She pointed out that public power’s transition to cleaner forms of energy is challenged by the interdependencies inherent to the industry. “Unfortunately, sometimes we can’t work on challenges that stem from these dependencies until people see the true need.”

An example of this was last year’s Winter Storm Uri.

“APPA had outlined some issues with increased reliance on natural gas for electricity production back in 2010, but it wasn’t until the storm triggered some of the worst-case scenarios that people started to focus on some of the policy solutions we had previously put forth,” Ditto said.

“We’ve made some progress in this area, but we still need to work toward getting assurances in the gas market via policy-based solutions. Rising natural gas prices over the last several months are only exacerbated by infrastructure siting barriers and contradictory policies that delay permitting.”

Light Up Navajo

Public power utilities continue to work on connecting families to the grid through the Light Up Navajo initiative in partnership with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority.

“Having visited the Navajo Nation for the kick-off of this year’s Light Up Navajo III event in April, I felt the gratitude for what our shared efforts could produce — how much of a difference electricity means to people’s lives shines through in the testimonials from the volunteer crews and the families that newly received power to their homes,” she said.

EIA Expects Natural Gas Spot Prices To Remain High Through Rest Of 2022

June 12, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 12, 2022

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) is forecasting that U.S. natural gas spot prices will increase again in June and then remain high through the rest of 2022.

Natural gas spot prices at the U.S. Henry Hub benchmark in Louisiana averaged $8.14 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in May 2022, and EIA expects the Henry Hub price to average $8.71/MMBtu this summer (June through August).

It expects U.S. natural gas prices to remain relatively high in 2022 because of lower-than-average natural gas inventories resulting from factors affecting both supply and demand.

Consumption of natural gas in the U.S. electric power sector has remained high despite high natural gas prices.

“We expect that consumption of natural gas in the U.S. electric power sector will average 0.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) more in 2022 than in 2021, even though we expect the Henry Hub price to be $3.49/MMBtu higher,” EIA said.

In the U.S. electric power sector, power plants have tended to consume more coal as natural gas prices increase. However, this fuel substitution has been relatively limited in recent months because of supply constraints in the coal market and historically low coal stockpiles, the agency noted.

In addition, EIA expects that U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) will remain high during this summer, partly as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. So far this year, 75% of total U.S. LNG cargos have gone to Europe, compared with 34% in 2021. High international natural gas prices may also lead to more U.S. LNG exports.

EIA expects U.S. production of dry natural gas to increase in 2022, but not as much as demand. “We expect dry natural gas production will average 96.5 Bcf/d in 2022, which is 3.2% (or 3.0 Bcf/d) higher than the 2021 average.”

Because demand for natural gas has outpaced production, natural gas inventories have remained low. Natural gas inventories started the 2022 summer injection season (April through October) 17% below the five-year (2017–21) average. “We expect that natural gas storage levels will be 9% below the five-year average at the end of October, the beginning of this coming heating season.”

EIA forecasts that natural gas prices will fall in early 2023 because of more domestic natural gas production, less LNG export and domestic natural gas demand growth, and more natural gas placed in storage.

DOE Closes On $504.4 Mil Loan Guarantee For Hydrogen Production And Storage Facility

June 12, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 12, 2022

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on June 8 announced it closed on a $504.4 million loan guarantee to the Advanced Clean Energy Storage project in Utah, marking the first loan guarantee for a new renewable energy technology project from DOE’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) since 2014.

The loan guarantee will help finance construction of the largest clean hydrogen storage facility in the world, capable of providing long-term low-cost, seasonal energy storage, furthering grid stability, DOE said.

Earlier this year, LPO announced a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee for Advanced Clean Energy Storage.

The facility in Delta, Utah, will combine 220 megawatts of alkaline electrolysis with two massive 4.5-million-barrel salt caverns to store clean hydrogen.

Advanced Clean Energy Storage will capture excess renewable energy when it is most abundant, store it as hydrogen, then deploy it as fuel for the Intermountain Power Agency’s IPP Renewed Project — a hydrogen-capable gas turbine combined cycle power plant that intends to incrementally be fueled by 100% clean hydrogen by 2045.  

With the closing of this loan guarantee, LPO now has $2.5 billion in remaining loan guarantee authority for Innovative Clean Energy projects.