WAPA Desert Southwest Region Agrees To Participate In CAISO’s Real-Time Energy Market
September 19, 2021
by APPA News
September 19, 2021
The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) on Sept. 15 signed an implementation agreement with the Western Area Power Administration Desert Southwest (WAPA DSW) region to participate in CAISO’s real-time energy market in 2023.
Operated by CAISO, the Western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) footprint currently includes portions of Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, and extends to the border with Canada.
WAPA DSW sells federal hydroelectric power and provides transmission service to nearly 70 municipalities, cooperatives, Native American tribes, federal and state agencies, and irrigation districts. One of those cooperatives, the Arizona Electric Power Cooperative (AEPCO), is comprised of six electric distribution cooperatives and five public power entities that combined serve more than 420,000 residential, agriculture, business and industrial customers.
The agreement applies to WAPA’s DSW region and Western Area Lower Colorado Balancing Authority. The latter includes generation resources in the Boulder Canyon and Parker-Davis projects (PDP) and the transmission systems of the Central Arizona Project, PDP and the Pacific-Northwest-Pacific Southwest Intertie Project.
In addition to the AEPCO sub-Balancing Authority area, participating Balancing Authority entities include the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, Southwest Public Power Agency and other DSW customers in Arizona, southern California and southern Nevada.
By 2023, the Western EIM will have 22 entities representing 84%of the demand for electricity in the Western Electric Coordinating Council (WECC), a non-profit corporation that works to advance a reliable electric system in 14 Western states, Northern Baja Mexico, and two Canadian provinces.
WAPA annually markets and transmits more than 25,000 gigawatt-hours of renewable power from 57 federal hydroelectric powerplants owned and operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and International Boundary and Water Commission in 15 western and central states. WAPA also owns, operates and maintains a more than 17,000 circuit-mile high-voltage transmission system in the West. It is part of the Department of Energy.
EIM Governing Body OKs Plan To Provide Direct Role For Utilities In Real-Time Market
September 11, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
September 11, 2021
The Western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) Governing Body on Sept. 8 unanimously approved the creation of a new category that will allow the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) to work with multiple scheduling coordinators within a single EIM entity balancing authority area (BAA) to schedule and settle non-participating loads and resources.
Under current Western EIM rules, only the participating EIM entity can directly settle load imbalance energy with CAISO. The proposed new “EIM sub-entity” category will permit CAISO to work directly with eligible utilities within the EIM entity’s balancing authority area.
Settlements are the financial outcomes of market activities that result in payments or charges to scheduling coordinators.
In addition, the Western EIM Governing Body unanimously recommended changes to the corporate bylaws, EIM governance charter, and the guidance document to reflect the recently adopted shared-governance framework.
The Western EIM Governing Body also suggested the CAISO Board of Governors consider adding text to the governance documents that clarifies the role of the two bodies when creating an advisory committee that will consider joint authority and/or governance matters.
If the board agrees the language is necessary, the ISO will be required to complete a stakeholder review process to develop a proposal for the Board to review.
The Board of Governors will consider the recommended changes to the governance documents at its meeting on Sept. 22.
Operated by CAISO, the Western EIM footprint currently includes portions of Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, and extends to the border with Canada.
By 2023, 21 active Western EIM participants will represent over 78% of the load within the Western Electricity Coordinating Council.
A number of public power utilities earlier this year began participating in the EIM. The Turlock Irrigation District (TID) and the Balancing Area of Northern California (BANC) Phase 2, comprised of the Modesto Irrigation District (MID), the City of Redding, the City of Roseville, and the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) Sierra Nevada Region, began participating in the West’s first real-time energy market on March 25.
Meanwhile, the Bonneville Power Administration is evaluating whether to join the EIM, with a planned go-live date of March 2, 2022.
California’s Clean Power Alliance, EDF Renewables Sign PPA For Solar Plus Storage Project
September 11, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
September 11, 2021
EDF Renewables North America and California’s Clean Power Alliance (CPA) on Sept. 2 announced the signing of a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for the Desert Quartzite Solar-plus-Storage project.
The project, consisting of a 300-megawatt solar project coupled with a 600 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), is expected to begin delivery of clean electricity to CPA’s customers throughout Los Angeles and Ventura Counties in February 2024. The CPA Board of Directors approved the long-term contract during its September meeting.
The Desert Quartzite Solar-plus-Storage project is located on unincorporated land in Riverside County, Calif., administered by the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The BLM designated this area as a Solar Energy Zone (SEZ) and Development Focus Area, land set aside for utility-scale renewable energy development. The project will utilize horizontal single-axis tracking solar photovoltaic (PV) technology.
EDF Renewables is one of the largest renewable energy developers in North America.
Founded in 2017, CPA is the locally operated electricity provider for 30 cities across Los Angeles County and Ventura County, as well as the unincorporated areas of both counties.
CPA serves approximately three million customers via one million customer accounts and is a member of the California Community Choice Association, which represents the interests of California’s community choice electricity providers in the legislature and at state regulatory agencies.
Tesla Applies To Be A Retail Electric Provider In Texas
September 11, 2021
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
September 11, 2021
Tesla could begin operating as a retail electricity provider (REP) in Texas as soon as Nov. 15 under a recently filed application with the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT).
The staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas on Aug. 31 said the Aug. 16 application of Tesla Energy Ventures LLC for a retail electric provider certificate was sufficient and set a procedural calendar.
Under that schedule, the deadline to intervene, file intervenor comments, or request a hearing is Sept. 30. The schedule also sets Oct. 15 as the deadline for commission staff to grant final approval or to request a hearing and sets Nov. 15 as the deadline to approve or deny the application.
The filing specifies that Tesla Energy Ventures is seeking REP certification to operate in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) area and not all of Texas. The filing also noted the applicant intends to use shareholder equity and letters of credit to meet the access to capital requirements for retail electric providers.
Tesla Energy Ventures is a whole owned subsidiary of Tesla Energy Operations, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tesla Inc.
In the application, Tesla said its customer acquisition strategy would “target its existing customers that own Tesla products and market the retail offer to customers through the mobile application and Tesla website.” The company also said it plans to use its existing Tesla Energy Customer Support organization, which already provides support to owners of Tesla’s residential solar and battery systems, to provide support and guidance to customers in its customer acquisition efforts.
Scheduling of energy delivery will be managed by ENGIE Energy Marketing NA, while energy forecasting would be managed by Tesla Energy Ventures, which said it plans to “leverage forecasting tools, capabilities, and knowledge already in place to support its utility-scale battery storage system in ERCOT as well as its retail offerings and virtual power plant programs operating today in places ranging from Australia, California, Vermont, Germany, and the United Kingdom.”
Tesla is building a “Gigafactory” outside of Austin, Texas, that would manufacture and supply electric vehicles to the eastern United States and is expected to be completed later this year. And, through a subsidiary, Gambit Energy Storage, Tesla is also building a 100 megawatt (MW) energy storage facility in Angleton, Texas, outside of Houston, according to multiple media reports. The project was originally developed by Plus Power.
Tesla has been selling its megapack energy storage technology to utilities, saying they “enable the world’s largest energy projects” with 1 gigawatt hour (GWh) of energy capacity.
President Biden Announces His Intent To Nominate D.C. PSC Chairman To FERC Seat
September 10, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
September 10, 2021
President Joe Biden on Sept. 9 announced his intent to nominate Willie Phillips, Jr. as a Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Phillips, a Democrat, is currently Chairman of the Public Service Commission (PSC) of the District of Columbia.
Phillips’ nomination will require confirmation by the Senate and, if confirmed, Phillips would return FERC to its full complement of five commissioners after the departure of Commissioner Neil Chatterjee on August 30, 2021. He would also give Democrats a 3-2 majority on the Commission.
Before joining the D.C. PSC, Phillips served as Assistant General Counsel for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a not-for-profit international regulatory authority, in Washington, D.C. He also worked for a Washington, D.C.-based law firm where he advised clients on regulatory compliance and policy matters.
Phillips is an active member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) where he currently serves on the NARUC Board of Directors as Chair of the Select Committee on Regulatory and Industry Diversity.
He has a Juris Doctor from Howard University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Montevallo. He is also a member of the District of Columbia Bar and Alabama State Bar Association.
California Grid Operator Calls For Electricity Conservation With Forecast Of High Temperatures
September 8, 2021
by APPA News
September 8, 2021
The California Independent System Operator (ISO) called for voluntary electricity conservation on Wednesday, Sept. 8, due to predicted high energy demand and tight supplies on the power grid.
With above-normal temperatures in the forecast for much of California and the West, the power grid operator was predicting an increase in electricity demand, primarily from air conditioning use, it noted on Sept. 7 in issuing a statewide Flex Alert that called for voluntary electricity conservation from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
During the Flex Alert time period, consumers are asked to lower their thermostats to 78 degrees or higher, if health permits, and take other voluntary measures that include avoiding the use of major appliances and unnecessary lights.
CAISO noted that in the past, reducing energy use during a Flex Alert has helped operators keep the power grid stable during tight supply conditions and prevented further emergency measures, including rotating power outages.
To take full advantage of all available supply, the ISO also issued a restricted maintenance operation (RMO) for Sept. 8 from noon to 9 p.m., notifying ISO participants to avoid taking grid assets offline for routine maintenance until the RMO is lifted.
San Diego County Board of Supervisors Approves Community Choice Energy Move
September 1, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
September 1, 2021
The County Board of Supervisors for San Diego, Calif., voted on Aug. 31 to authorize the county to join a community choice energy (CCE) program called San Diego Community Power.
The CCE launched in March and includes the cities of Chula Vista, Encinitas, Imperial Beach, La Mesa and San Diego.
The county will become part of a joint powers authority which governs the CCE. CCEs are also known as community choice aggregators (CCAs).
Community choice allows cities and counties to buy electricity, including renewable energy like solar and wind for residents and businesses. CCEs offer customers in the county’s unincorporated areas an alternative to buying power from investor-owned San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E). SDG&E would still provide transmission and delivery services, as well as billing.
The CCE could provide residents competitive utility rates and cost savings compared to SDG&E, and also offer more renewable power, the board of supervisors said.
Currently, there are 24 CCEs operating throughout the state including two in San Diego County, San Diego Community Power and the Clean Energy Alliance. The alliance members include Carlsbad, Del Mar and Solana Beach. In all, the state’s CCEs serve 11 million customers.
San Diego Community Power is expected to begin serving county customers in spring 2023.
Association offers new CCA program membership category
The American Public Power Association has initiated a new category of membership for CCA programs.
SRP, BPA Meteorologists Detail Steps Smaller Utilities Can Take To Fill Forecasting Gaps
August 18, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 18, 2021
Arizona’s Salt River Project (SRP) and Oregon-based Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) both have teams that focus on forecasts of temperature and precipitation, among other things.
But what about smaller public power utilities that don’t have a meteorologist on staff? What steps are available to them to help fill the gap in terms of weather forecasting without their having to hire a full-time meteorologist?
“That is a great question because public power utilities vary so much, not only in the number and type of customers, but in the geography they are concerned about,” said Erik Pytlak, who has served as BPA’s Manager of Weather and Streamflow Forecasting since November 2010. “So my advice for a Snohomish PUD is going to be very different than Minidoka, ID, which will be different than the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribe.”
He said it may come down to what weather issues the utility is most concerned about and going from there. “Fortunately, there are many weather apps, websites and whole companies that share weather information – some of it for free or at low cost, for utilities of any size and scale to use,” Pytlak said.
“The other suggestion is for the power utilities to talk to each other,” he said. “Even a power marketing agency like BPA gains quite a bit from networking, coordinating and even collaborating with hydropower utilities in the region and even globally, both large and small, on best practices we are finding and developing.”
Bo Svoma, who has been a meteorologist at SRP for over four years, said that staff in a smaller utility company can become familiar with the products issued by the National Weather Service, Climate Prediction Center, and River Basin Forecast Centers. There are also many private companies that offer weather forecast services, he noted.
“At SRP, management has determined a staff of meteorologists and hydrologists is necessary to plan for the dry and wet years that Arizona has always experienced and will continue to see,” he said.
Unique geographic challenges
Svoma noted that SRP meteorologists are responsible for producing both short-term (same day/weather advisory) and longer term (7-10 day to seasonal) forecasts of temperature and precipitation to support both power delivery and water delivery.
They are also responsible for quality control of Salt-Verde watershed precipitation records, monitoring the Salt-Verde watershed to inform streamflow forecasts (flood cameras, snow surveys, etc.) and offering expertise both externally and internally for research projects that help achieve SRP’s short-term and long-term goals (snow hydrology, climate change, etc.).
SRP is the largest provider of electricity in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, serving more than 1 million customers. SRP is also the metropolitan area’s largest supplier of water, delivering about 800,000 acre-feet annually to municipal, urban and agricultural water users.
When asked to detail some of the unique challenges he faces as a meteorologist at SRP in terms of the utility’s geographic location, Svoma said that the two wet seasons in Arizona pose unique forecasting challenges that are not present in other parts of the country.
During the summer months, the Phoenix metropolitan area experiences a combination of high temperatures and humidity during the North American Monsoon Season that leads to frequent threats of excessive heat, severe thunderstorms, flash flooding and haboobs, which are intense dust storms.
Svoma said that during the winter, high volumes of inflow into the reservoir system from the Salt-Verde rivers can be generated by rainfall, rain-on-snow, and snowmelt, posing forecast challenges that are absent in many higher latitude basins. Currently, the SRP watershed is in its 26th year of drought, he noted. “Thanks to continuous and efficient planning, SRP has remained resilient and will be able to continue to provide water to its more than 2 million customers,” he said.
Pytlak also addressed the question of some of the unique challenges that he faces as a meteorologist at BPA in terms of the utility’s geographic location.
“I am not sure if this is unique among utilities, but the sheer size of our service territory and river basins feeding our hydroelectric projects means we also have very diverse geography,” he said. “Our forecasting area ranges from deserts in southeast Oregon, to rainforests on the Oregon and Washington coasts, to subarctic mountains in southern British Columbia. The Columbia Basin is also right along the path of the jet stream for much of the year, which also drives quite a bit of weather variability.”
BPA earlier this year profiled the work of Pytlak and his team on its website.
BPA is a nonprofit federal power marketing administration based in the Pacific Northwest. BPA markets wholesale electrical power from 31 federal hydroelectric projects in the Northwest, one nonfederal nuclear plant and several small nonfederal power plants.
The dams are operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation. The nonfederal nuclear plant, Columbia Generating Station, is owned and operated by Energy Northwest, a joint operating agency of the state of Washington. BPA provides about 28 percent of the electric power used in the Northwest and its resources — primarily hydroelectric — make BPA power nearly carbon free.
BPA’s territory includes Idaho, Oregon, Washington, western Montana and small parts of eastern Montana, California, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.
Scorching temperatures this summer
Meanwhile, much of the West has experienced scorching temperatures this summer including Arizona. Svoma was asked whether there have been any surprises in terms of weather patterns so far this summer.
“The early start to the North American Monsoon season, while not entirely surprising given the dry winter in the western U.S., was a little unexpected given that many of the long-range weather models did not indicate an early onset,” he said. The Salt River observed a steady increase in streamflow beginning in early July, earlier than normal and suggesting abundant rainfall in the mountains.
Pytlak said that the June 2021 heat wave “was certainly unprecedented for many of us. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that the weather models that we use from U.S., Canadian, and European weather agencies all handled the extreme event quite well, which gave us and the region valuable time to prepare. The fact we came through the event with virtually no service interruptions was testament to the preparations we always make for extreme events, and how everyone in the region worked together to not only keep the lights on, but also keeping life-saving cooling systems running.”
EIA Reports That Per Capita U.S. Residential Electricity Use Was Flat In 2020
August 18, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 18, 2021
Although many people spent more time at home last year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, retail sales of electricity to the residential sector in the United States, calculated per capita (per person), averaged 4,437 kilowatt hours (kWh) per person, only 1% more than in 2019, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently reported.
Warmer weather in 2020 — including a significantly warmer winter — increased electricity consumption for air conditioning during the summer but reduced U.S. home electricity consumption for space heating during the winter, EIA said on Aug. 6.
From 1960 to 2010, per capita U.S. residential electricity use increased by an average of 3% per year. However, that trend reversed over the past decade because of warmer weather and energy efficiency improvements, EIA noted. Per capita residential electricity use has fallen 5% in the United States since 2010.
EIA said that per capita U.S. residential electricity use varied widely across the states in 2020, from 2,018 kWh per person in Hawaii to 6,663 kWh per person in Louisiana. Nearly all of the states with the highest residential electricity sales per capita, such as Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, are in the South census region, where air conditioning and electric space heating are most prevalent. About 64% of southern homes heat primarily with electricity, compared with about 25% of homes outside of the South.
The only state with relatively high per capita residential electricity use outside of the South is North Dakota, which has the coldest average annual temperature in the Lower 48 states. About 41% of homes in North Dakota heat with electricity, EIA said.
“In 2020, per capita residential electricity use decreased in many of the states where electricity is widely used for home heating, including many states in the South. In 2020, the District of Columbia’s per capita residential electricity use fell 4% compared with 2019, a larger decrease than for any of the states, followed by Arkansas (-4%) and North Dakota, Indiana, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Missouri (-3% each),” EIA reported.
But per capita residential electricity use rose significantly in the West census region. According to EIA, many states in this region experienced their warmest summers on record in 2020. Arizona’s per capita residential electricity use increased 10% compared with 2019, the largest increase of any state, followed by Nevada, Alaska, and California (9% each).
SPP Board Of Directors Approves Western RTO Expansion Terms And Conditions
August 10, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 10, 2021
Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) board of directors and its strategic planning committee approved the submitted policy-level terms and conditions for regional transmission organization (RTO) expansion in the Western Interconnection during its quarterly joint stakeholder meeting in late July.
Arkansas-based SPP manages the electric grid across 17 central and western U.S. states and provides energy services on a contract basis to customers in both the Eastern and Western Interconnections.
Prospective western participants include Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Colorado Springs Utilities, Deseret Power Electric Cooperative, the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Wyoming Municipal Power Agency and the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA).
WAPA’s evaluation of full RTO participation in the Western Interconnection includes its Upper Great Plains-West region, Colorado River Storage Project and Rocky Mountain region.
All these organizations except Colorado Springs Utilities joined SPP’s Western Energy Imbalance Service (WEIS) market on its Feb. 1, 2021, launch before announcing their intent to explore full western RTO participation. SPP said that Colorado Springs Utilities anticipates joining the WEIS market in 2022 and is also exploring RTO membership as part of this group of entities.
“WAPA anticipates additional value in increasing energy transfers between the East and West through the SPP RTO, providing benefits and mitigating risk for existing and prospective RTO members along with our customers,” said WAPA Interim Administrator Tracey LeBeau in a statement.
If the utilities join or add additional facilities in SPP, they will become the first members of SPP’s RTO to participate in SPP’s Integrated Marketplace in the Western Interconnection. This would extend the reach and value of SPP’s services — including day-ahead wholesale electricity market administration, transmission planning, consolidated balancing authority, resource adequacy and more — and the synergies they provide when bundled under the RTO structure, SPP said.
A recent SPP Brattle study found that WEIS participants’ membership in the SPP RTO would produce approximately $49 million in savings annually for SPP’s current and new members. The western utilities joining SPP would receive $25 million a year in adjusted production cost savings and revenue from off-system sales, and SPP’s members in the east would benefit from $24 million in savings resulting from the expansion of SPP’s market, transmission network and generation fleet.
In the Eastern Interconnection, SPP formed in 1941, implemented operating reserve sharing in 1991, became a certified reliability coordinator in 1997 and earned its RTO designation from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 2004. It launched its first real-time balancing market in 2007 then transitioned to a day-ahead market and became a single, consolidated balancing authority in 2014.
SPP began serving customers in the west in October 2015. SPP subsequently expanded its services in the west in December 2019 when it launched its Western Reliability Coordination service on a contract basis and in February 2021 with the successful launch of the WEIS market.
SPP said that the next step to expand the RTO into the Western Interconnection is resolving the outstanding terms and conditions, including cost allocation for the direct-current ties between the Eastern and Western Interconnections. The remaining terms and conditions are expected to be resolved by the October 2021 SPP board of directors meeting. Prospective participants will also need to complete stakeholder processes.
Once accomplished, prospective participants plan to execute a financial commitment agreement in April 2022 to initiate the western RTO expansion. SPP then plans to file tariff modifications with FERC in October 2022 with approval expected sometime in early 2023.
Once approved, SPP anticipates extending its RTO into the west in early 2024.