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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.

TVA issues solicitation for solar, battery storage proposals

June 8, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
June 8, 2021

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is interested in procuring up to 200 megawatts (MW) of new stand-alone renewable energy resources or renewable energy plus battery energy storage systems (BESS), including all the associated environmental attributes, TVA said in a request for proposals issued on June 8.

TVA is also interested in procuring BESS for existing utility scale solar projects signed as a result of 2017, 2019 or 2020 renewable energy RFPs with power purchase agreements (PPA) that do not have BESS currently.

All resources must be located in the TVA service territory or delivered to TVA’s interface with neighboring transmission systems. If any proposal is delivered to the TVA interface, it must have all of the cost components included for an all-in energy price.

TVA said it reserves the right to vary from this target energy quantity based on evaluation of bids that are received. Any transaction resulting from the RFP will be in the form of a PPA.

Proposals must be submitted by July 20, 2021 and TVA will announce the selected projects this winter.

TVA said the RFP supports TVA’s Green Invest program, which has secured solar farms to meet the renewable energy goals of auto manufacturers, data centers, local power companies, cities, and universities. Since 2018, Green Invest has attracted nearly $2.7 billion in solar investment and procured about 2,100 megawatts of solar.

Jeff Lyash, President and CEO of TVA, discussed the Green Invest program in a recent episode of the American Public Power Association’s Public Power Now podcast.

The RFP is available here.

NREL report highlights how electrification increases the need for demand flexibility

June 5, 2021

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
June 5, 2021

Demand-side flexibility can support widespread electrification and a renewables-based power grid by providing operating reserves throughout the year thus reducing the need for natural gas plants and energy storage to fill in demand gaps, according to a new report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Increasing demand-side flexibility reduces the number of low-load hours for fossil fuel generators and reduces the number of starts and shutdowns of natural gas generators, resulting in up to $10 billion in annual operating cost savings in scenarios with the greatest demand-side flexibility, according to the report, Operational Analysis of U.S. Power Systems with Increased Electrification and Demand-Side Flexibility.

The report is the sixth and final in NREL’s Electrification Futures Study (EFS) that was launched in 2017 to explore the potential impacts of widespread electrification in all U.S. economic sectors.

The EFS researchers found that demand-side flexibility—mainly from optimized vehicle charging and flexible operations of end-use equipment in buildings and industry—can alleviate the challenges of operating a highly electrified power system with high levels of variable renewable generation.

Shifting load to align with wind and solar generation reduces the risks of unserved energy and the curtailment of renewable resources, NREL said, adding that the complementary relationship between flexible electric vehicle charging and solar generation is particularly pronounced.

In modeled scenarios with high electrification and high variable renewables, demand-side flexibility can lower annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 8.3% by enabling greater utilization of renewable energy and avoiding fossil fuel consumption, the studies found.

For the EFS project, NREL analysts ran simulations of the national power system, using hourly operations, operational costs, and emissions to study the interactions between different levels of electrification, demand-side flexibility, and renewable energy deployment.

The analysts examined hourly power system operation without demand-side flexibility to test whether electrification — and associated changes in annual energy demand, hourly demand, operating reserve requirements, and the capacity mix — affects the grid’s ability to serve load or operating reserves.

The simulations showed the future power systems envisioned in the EFS can serve nearly 100% of load and 100% of operating reserves with no demand-side flexibility, but energy storage would be critical to balance load and provide operating reserves. Expanded power transfer capability across regions would also be needed to meet increased electrified demand.

The results showed “the importance of all sources of grid flexibility — including transmission and inter-regional power transfers, flexible generation, storage, and demand-side sources of flexibility — will likely be important for operating a power system with high electrification and high renewable energy deployment,” Trieu Mai, NREL analyst and EFS principal investigator, said in a statement.

In the final EFS report, NREL analysts examined how flexible loads change system operations with electrification.

They found that by shifting the timing of electricity demand, demand-side flexibility can provide operating reserves throughout the year, reducing the need for other generation sources such as natural gas plants and energy storage.

“Ultimately, the analysis highlights the value of increased integration and coordination of demand- and supply-side resources in future electric system planning and operations—particularly under high electrification futures,” Ella Zhou, NREL analyst and lead author of the final report, said in a statement.

The NREL analysts also noted that additional research is needed on flexible load operation, cost, and value across a wide range of subsectors and end uses, including assessments of grid reliability in a highly electrified system.

NREL has scheduled a June 17 webinar to discuss the findings of its EFS project and the need for further study.

North Iowa Municipal Electric Cooperative Association to offtake power from wind farm

May 27, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 27, 2021

North Iowa Municipal Electric Cooperative Association (NIMECA), power supplier to 13 public power utilities in northern Iowa, will offtake power from a wind farm in South Dakota that has been operational since September 2020.

The wind farm is Willow Creek Wind, a 103-megawatt project located in Butte County, South Dakota, and joins several other wind farms in NIMECA’s power supply portfolio.

The Hancock County Wind Project is owned by NextEra Energy Resources and is located near Britt, Iowa. The project has 148 Vestas turbines with a capacity of 97.7 MW. NIMECA purchases 3.96 MW of the output of this project. NIMECA has a purchase power agreement to purchase energy from the Hancock County Wind Project.

Crosswinds Energy Project was one of Iowa’s first locally owned wind farms. The project consists of 10 farmer-owners pooling their investments for a 10-turbine wind farm totaling 21 MW. NIMECA purchases 4.4 MW from the project. NIMECA has a purchase power agreement to purchase energy from the Crosswinds Energy Project.

NIMECA is a municipal joint action agency serving 13 municipal electric utilities located in Iowa.

TVA unveils solar facility partnership with Facebook, RWE Renewables

May 27, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 27, 2021

The Tennessee Valley Authority recently announced a Green Invest partnership with Facebook and RWE Renewables that will result in the construction of a 150-megawatt (MW) solar facility. Facebook will use 110-MW of the solar energy to support their data center operations in Gallatin, Tenn., and the broader Tennessee Valley.  

Through its Green Invest program, TVA matches demand for green power from large business and industrial customers with renewable projects that TVA puts together with its development partners. The utility says the program confers to commercial customers the benefits of TVA’s scale and negotiating expertise in building power projects.  Since 2018, TVA’s Green Invest program has attracted nearly $2.7 billion in solar investment and procured over 2,100 megawatts of solar on behalf of its customers.

TVA is partnering with RWE to develop the $140 million solar farm. RWE, through a long-term power purchase agreement with TVA, will own and operate the plant, which will be located near Millington, Tenn.

In April, Facebook announced that its operations are now supported by 100% renewable energy. To support that goal, in the last year, Facebook has signed Green Invest agreements for 475 MW of new solar to be built in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.

Since 2018, Facebook has agreed to purchase a total of 852 megawatts of power generated by multiple solar farms linked into the TVA electric grid.  

Since October, TVA has increased its contracted solar capacity by 60%.   

Jeff Lyash, President and CEO of TVA, discussed the Green Invest program in a recent episode of the American Public Power Association’s Public Power Now podcast.

Biden administration, California identify areas with potential for 4.6 GW of wind power

May 26, 2021

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
May 26, 2021

The Biden administration, in conjunction with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, on Tuesday announced an agreement identifying regions off the California coast that could support of the administration’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy by 2030.

The Department of the Interior with the Department of Defense and the state of California identified the Morro Bay 399 Area, which they said could support 3 GW of offshore wind on roughly 399 square miles off California’s central coast. The Department of the Interior is also advancing the Humboldt Call Area off the state’s northern coast as a potential Wind Energy Area. Together, the two areas could support as much as 4.6 GW of wind energy, according to government estimates.

“The offshore wind industry has the potential to create tens of thousands of good-paying union jobs across the nation, while combating the negative effects of climate change,” Deb Haaland, Secretary of the Interior, said in a statement.

In late March, the departments of Interior, Energy, and Commerce, a White House forum, announced the administration’s goal of having 30 GW of wind energy in place by 2030.

At the same meeting, the administration announced the final Wind Energy Areas in waters off the New York and New Jersey coasts known as the New York Bight.

The Biden administration estimates the 30-GW target will trigger more than $12 billion per year in capital investment and create jobs for more than 44,000 in offshore wind by 2030 and nearly 33,000 additional jobs in communities supported by offshore wind activity.

At the same time, the Department of Energy (DOE) made available details of its $3 billion in capital to support offshore wind project through its Loan Programs office. And, in partnership with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the DOE announced the award of $8 million to 15 offshore wind research and development projects.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) plans to hold an Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force meeting on June 24 to discuss the identified areas off the north and central California coasts as potential Wind Energy Areas (WEA).

Following the task force meeting, the WEAs can be finalized and will undergo environmental analysis, and the BOEM will undertake government-to-government tribal consultation. The processes for the northern and central coasts will then be merged in a Proposed Sale Notice for one lease sale auction, targeted for mid-2022.

On the East Coast, the BOEM plans to publish a Proposed Sale Notice followed by a formal public comment period and a lease sale in late 2021 or early 2022.

In selecting the Wind Energy Areas on the West Coast, the Department of the Interior collaborated with the Department of Defense to find offshore areas compatible with the Department of Defense’s ongoing military testing, training and operations.

In March, the Department of the Interior also began the environmental review of Ocean Wind LLC’s 1,100-megawatt wind project off New Jersey coast, marking the third review it has begun.

Interior has already begun environmental reviews for the Vineyard Wind offshore project in Massachusetts and South Fork offshore wind project in Rhode Island. The department expects to begin environmental reviews for up to 10 more projects later this year.

DEED board commits $637,707 to support public power research and students this spring

May 25, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 25, 2021

Grants and scholarships totaling $637,707 have been committed by the board of the American Public Power Association’s (APPA) Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments program to support students, research in solar, electric vehicles, battery storage, hydrogen generation, and low-income residential energy efficiency, among other topics.

Seventy two percent of DEED grant applications were approved for funding. More specifically, eight of the eleven submitted applications were approved and amounted to funding of $572,707.

Additionally, 16 students interested in energy careers will be supported by $65,000 for ten internships (10 x $5,000), one student research grant (1 x $5,000), and five lineworker and technical education scholarships (5 x $2,000).

Details on the eight grant projects and 16 scholarships are as follows:

Grants

Additional details on projects tied to grants

Solar plus Storage Operations Support Trailer, Alabama Municipal Electric Authority

The Solar plus Storage Operations Support Trailer will be used by AMEA to offer support to AMEA members during outages due to storms, construction projects, and as an educational tool for solar and battery backup information.

Property Energy Plan: A public utility tool to reduce energy use and costs in the residential sector, Burlington Electric Department 

With this funding, customized property energy plans and portfolio assessments will be developed and implemented for 25 residential properties, with a focus on larger multi-unit buildings emphasizing affordability and equity. The residential sector is responsible for 25% of BED’s annual kilowatt hour sales and provides an opportunity for building electrification to advance BED’s Net Zero Energy vision.

Public Power’s Role in Attainable Housing, City of Westerville Electric Division

The City of Westerville will conduct an extensive data analysis to understand Westerville customers’ residential energy burden. With a greater understanding of residential consumption at the meter- and customer-level combined with other publicly accessible data, the utility hopes to implement incentive and efficiency programs for customers with a high energy burden, to support the community’s goal of attainable housing. The new programs would ultimately decrease residential utility bills, the city’s environmental impact, and the utility’s peak load while improving customer equity and engagement.

Panel Level Energy Storage Demonstration Project, CPS Energy

This project looks at maximizing the benefit of locally generated solar power by utilizing a behind the panel designed battery energy storage system. The project will focus on solar, shifting the benefit of the grid, utilization of demand-response, and cyber security evaluation. The outcome can provide utilities with a companion system to distributed solar installations.

Producing renewable hydrogen from hydropower, Douglas County PUD

Douglas PUD will produce renewable hydrogen from its Wells Hydroelectric Project. Using anelectrolyzer, water particles will be split and the resulting hydrogen will be captured and stored. This hydrogen can then be sold as a transportation fuel, agricultural fertilizer additive or used in industrial processes. This pilot project will demonstrate the ability to create power sales moderation and maintenance and reserve capacity efficiencies.

Self-Service Ride & Drive and Rural EV Sharing, Northern Wasco County People’s Utility District

Electric vehicles have been gaining market share in large urban areas but their popularity in smaller towns and rural areas remains limited, primarily due to rural residents’ lack of access to EVs. Forth’s new Self-Service Ride & Drive and Rural EV Sharing program offers great promise as an accessible, cost-effective, user-friendly way to overcome barriers to EV adoption in rural towns. Users simply download a car-sharing app, create an account, and then unlock the EV with their smartphone or a radio-frequency identification card. The same vehicles can also be made available to low-income housing residents as a low-cost car-sharing service, thereby expanding users’ mobility and supporting utilities’ transportation equity initiatives.

Research to Support Income-Qualified Customer Segment, WPPI Energy

Research consistently shows a gap between how trustworthy income-qualified customers and average residential customers view their local utility. This marketing research project will both review secondary research and conduct primary research with an aim to dramatically increase customers’ trust in their utility and participation in energy assistance programs. There will be an identification of customer barriers and equity limitations when applying for energy assistance funding and a determination of the best messaging to overcome those barriers. There will also be an exploration of how a local utility can best support its customers when applying for energy assistance programs.

Cost-Benefit Analysis of Undergrounding Electric Cabling Through Co-Deployment With Optical Fiber, Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co.

The UMass Energy Transition Institute in partnership with Groundwork Data and the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company are developing a statistical model to help municipal utilities around the country better understand the costs and benefits associated with jointly undergrounding electric and broadband infrastructure. The research takes into account the latest construction methodologies, mapping tools, and data analysis techniques to calculate costs of construction, and it integrates a wide range of benefits including increased broadband access, smart grid technologies, and enhanced resiliency. The completed research will inform long-term capital planning and strategic decision-making for municipal utilities across the country

Scholarships

Internships

Student Research Grant

Lineworker and Technical Education Scholarships

For additional information about APPA’s DEED program, click here.

Co-locating solar and storage can pay off, Lawrence Berkeley study says

May 21, 2021

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
May 21, 2021

Coupling battery energy storage with renewable energy projects is more economically attractive than the independent siting of batteries and renewable resources, according to a new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The study, Are coupled renewable-battery power plants more valuable than independently sited installations?, found that the value of adding a 4-hour battery sized to 50 percent of renewable-plant nameplate capacity is $10 per megawatt hour(/MWh) on average across all Independent system operators (ISOs). The study found the value of batteries and renewables deployed independently to be $22.5/MWh, indicating a $12.5/MWh “penalty” for co-locating a project.

The study attributed the penalty to the greater flexibility in siting and operation. For example, batteries co-located with solar projects are eligible for a federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) but are penalized if they are not charged by those solar panels.

However, the co-location penalty is tempered by potential cost savings of around $15/MWh in the form of construction cost savings and use of the ITC for co-located battery projects, which “outweighs our estimated coupling penalties,” the authors said, “making coupled project development more attractive than independent siting of battery and [intermittent renewable] technologies on average.”

The authors also emphasized the importance of regional variations in determining the value of renewable and battery storage projects. California, for instance, is one of the most attractive locations for co-location. There, the value of adding storage to a solar project averages $15/MWh, the study found.

In California, batteries can partially offset the decline in the value of solar power that results from high solar penetration. “As other regions increasingly install solar, they may demonstrate greater interest in solar-battery projects as well,” the study’s authors said.

Regional variations in prices and regulations also affect the value of potential coupling penalties, suggesting that “the tradeoff between coupling penalties and savings will vary by situation,” the authors said. Therefore, “roles exist for independent and coupled projects from a system optimization perspective.”

There is also reason to believe that “real-world coupling penalties” will tend to be lower than the default-case penalties in the study, the authors said. Developers’ choices in project design, such as grid charging, can reduce the coupling penalty by about $5/MWh, they said.

In the study, the authors set out to address the fact that prior research on the value and cost savings of resource coupling did not consider the geographic constraints of co-location.

So, they studied how pricing volatility differences between nodes within electricity markets impact the system value of coupled renewable-battery projects compared with independently sited renewable and battery installations. The study used wholesale power market prices from 2012 to 2019 across the seven main ISOs.

The study did not address system values not currently priced in wholesale markets, such as the benefits of mitigating dynamic stability issues in weak grids, but the authors noted “these can be another important reason to site storage near renewables.”

The authors also noted that as storage technologies continue to develop, many questions will remain, such as how values will change under high levels of penetration of both solar and storage resources. They also noted that although ancillary service markets currently play a small role in wholesale power markets, they could become increasingly important as renewable resources continue to proliferate.

In current markets, developers can mitigate the “coupling penalty” by considering “alternative approaches to integrating battery storage,” the authors said. “This result implies that renewable-battery power plants will play an increasing role in electricity systems if they can be built for $2/MWh to $13/MWh less than independent projects of comparable size.”

Origis Energy to develop solar farm in support of renewable energy needs for Knoxville

May 18, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 18, 2021

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) recently announced the selection of Origis Energy to develop a 200-megawatt solar farm in Clay County, Miss., to support the renewable energy needs of Knoxville, Tenn.

Knoxville Utilities Board’s (KUB) investment in the project will enable 50 megawatts of new battery storage technology that will increase power grid resiliency, TVA said.

KUB provides electric, natural gas, water, and wastewater services to more than 468,000 customers in Knoxville and parts of seven surrounding counties.

Scott Fiedler, a TVA spokesperson, noted that KUB will receive renewable energy credits (RECs) generated from the solar facility.

A REC is a market-based instrument that represents the property rights to the environmental, social and other non-power attributes of renewable electricity generation. RECs are issued when one megawatt-hour of electricity is generated and delivered to the electricity grid from a renewable energy resource.

Last November, KUB announced that 20% of Knoxville’s electricity will be generated from renewable sources. KUB’s investment in more than 500 MW of solar will help Knoxville meet its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, compared with 2005 levels.

Origis Energy will supply solar energy through a long-term power purchase agreement through TVA’s Green Invest program. Origis will develop, build, own and operate the plant using industry-leading land stewardship techniques.  Origis will complete the facility in late 2023, pending environmental reviews.  

Since 2018, Green Invest has attracted nearly $2.7 billion in solar investment and procured over 2,100 MW of solar on behalf of its customers, TVA said.

Jeff Lyash, President and CEO of TVA, discussed the Green Invest program in a recent episode of the American Public Power Association’s Public Power Now podcast.

Platte River Power Authority begins permitting for 150-MW solar project

May 13, 2021

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
May 13, 2021

Platte River Power Authority has initiated permitting for a 150 megawatt (MW) solar power project in Weld County, Colo.

Platte River Power Authority is undertaking the Black Hollow Solar project with BHS Solar, a subsidiary 174 Power Global. The public power utility intends to use the electrical output from the solar project to replace its share of the output from the coal-fired Craig Unit 1, which is scheduled to retire in 2025.

The solar project, if approved by Weld County planners and commissioners, would be located northeast of Black Hollow Reservoir and span between 1,000 and 1,400 acres, with the final location and layout determined through a review of physical, environmental and land-use constraints and feedback from numerous stakeholders, including neighbors, state agencies, and county leaders.

The solar project would provide work for an estimated 320 full-time workers during construction and up to 450 workers during the peak of construction and then require eight to 10 permanent positions to manage the solar farm after it enters service.

Under the agreement with Platte River, 174 Power Global will build, own and operate the Black Hollow Solar project and sell the electricity under a long-term power purchase agreement to Platte River beginning in 2023. Energy would be delivered to Platte River’s owner communities in Colorado’s north Front Range through a substation to be built adjacent to existing Platte River transmission lines.

Platte River Power Authority serves Estes Park, Fort Collins, Longmont and Loveland, Colo. 

“The addition of the Black Hollow Solar project will take us approximately halfway toward our goal of providing 100% noncarbon energy,” Jason Frisbie, general manager and CEO of Platte River Authority, said in a statement. “This is one of many significant steps we’re taking to achieve our Resource Diversification Policy, and we’re excited to move forward with construction.”

When the Black Sparrow Solar project is completed, it will give Platte River Power Authority more than 200 MW of solar capacity when combined with its 30-MW Rawhide Flats solar project, which entered service in 2016, and its 22-MW Rawhide Prairie Solar installation, which began operation – along with 2 megawatt hours of battery storage –in March.

Platte River also receives about 230 MW of wind energy under long-term power contracts.