Skip Navigation

Fayetteville, N.C., Utility Planning To Install 1.5-MW Biogas Fuel Cell

May 9, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
May 9, 2022

Fayetteville PWC in North Carolina plans to install a 1.5-megawatt (MW) fuel cell that would be powered by multiple biogas streams.

The project is designed to use biogas captured from the public power utility’s Cross Creak Water Reclamation facility, an adjacent landfill, and methane gases captured from local and neighboring swine farms.

The Bloom Energy fuel cell is planned to sit next to the utility’s P.O. Hoffer water treatment facility and will be one of the first of its kind to blend multiple waste gas sources to produce clean, carbon dioxide-neutral electricity, Fayetteville PWC said.

“This project is an anchor for the broader plan to remediate and establish a Cleanfields Renewable Energy Demonstration Park in the community,” Elaina Ball, CEO and general manager of Fayetteville PWC, said in a statement.

The waste-to-energy project will complement the utility’s existing renewable energy sources and help the utility meet North Carolina Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard requirements, by reducing harmful landfill and agricultural gases and providing pollution free electricity, PWC said.

“This is an innovative project that addresses both our challenging renewable energy mandates and one of the state’s largest industrial polluted sites,” Ball said. “We are excited that the project not only brings creative solutions but numerous other benefits including producing renewable energy, cutting power costs and productive use of local waste gases.”

The fuel cell installation would also border the former Texfi industrial site, which is considered one of North Carolina’s most polluted sites because of residual industrial pollution and contaminated groundwater that poses a threat to the community’s drinking water and the Cape Fear River Basin.

After seeking funds since the early 2000s, the City of Fayetteville and PWC received $220,000 in funding from the state to help launch a pilot program for removing the contaminated groundwater, which is now under way.

Fayetteville PWC is also contributing an additional $220,000 for the project. If proven successful, the pilot technology would be used in full-scale remediation efforts.

Once remediated, plans call for a 250-acre park to be developed into the state’s second Cleanfield Renewable Energy Demonstration Park, where renewable energy resources like fuel cells would be located.

Fayetteville PWC provides electricity to 80,000 customers and water services to 225,000 customers.

Salt River Project To Study Low-Carbon Replacement Options For Coal-Fired Plant

May 3, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 3, 2022

With the coal-fired Coronado Generating Station (CGS) scheduled to close no later than 2032, Arizona’s Salt River Project (SRP) is launching several studies, and working with the local St. Johns community, to investigate possible low- or no-carbon reuses of the plant site.

CGS has a capacity of 773 megawatts (MW), from one 389 MW-unit and one 384 MW-unit.

SRP’s Coal Communities Transition Team has already begun work on a community engagement plan in coordination with the CGS community which consists of four stages, including conducting preliminary assessments of the community, developing economic and workforce plans, executing on the plans and determining post-plant support.

The initial studies into potential sustainable energy options at CGS will help SRP determine what, if any, technologies are viable. Some of the technologies that SRP anticipates researching could include hydrogen generation, solar with battery storage or other storage variations.

In addition, the City of St. Johns, Ariz., has shown an interest in studying the feasibility of transitioning CGS from coal to advanced reactor generation.

Leading these study efforts will be Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN), a U.S. Department of Energy initiative led by Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

SRP will coordinate with GAIN, which will work with experts at INL and other national laboratories to determine whether advanced nuclear reactors would be feasible at CGS. The findings will be a part of SRP’s study to evaluate options at the site.

The deployment of this technology, if proven viable, would likely have a long-time horizon of 20 to 30 years.

In the years leading up to the full operational shutdown of CGS in 2032, as well as in the years following, SRP will continue engaging with St. Johns and Apache County stakeholders and keep them informed of the results of these studies as they become available, SRP said on April 26.

TVA, Canada’s Ontario Power Generation Partner On Small Modular Reactors

May 2, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 2, 2022

Canada’s Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will jointly work to help develop small modular reactors (SMRs), TVA recently announced.

The agreement allows TVA and OPG to coordinate their explorations into the design, licensing, construction and operation of small modular reactors.

Both are also actively exploring SMR technologies. OPG is moving forward with plans to deploy an SMR at its Darlington nuclear facility in Clarington, Ontario. The Darlington site is the only location in Canada licensed for new nuclear with a completed and accepted Environmental Assessment.

TVA currently holds the only Nuclear Regulatory Commission Early Site Permit in the U.S. for small modular reactor deployment at its Clinch River site near Oak Ridge, Tenn.

No exchange of funding is involved. However, the collaboration agreement will help OPG and TVA reduce the financial risk that comes from development of innovative technology, as well as future deployment costs.

Other Public Power Utilities Also Pursuing SMRs

Carbon Free Power Project, LLC (CFPP), a wholly owned subsidiary of Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, continues to advance the development and deployment of its first-of-a-kind SMR nuclear plant at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls, Idaho. 

CFPP successfully and safely completed field investigation activities at the site in January 2022, a major milestone for the project.  

In May 2021, NuScale Power and Washington State’s Grant County Public Utility District on May 26 announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to evaluate the deployment of NuScale’s SMR technology in Central Washington State.

DOE Offers Hydrogen Production And Storage Facility $504.4 Million Conditional Commitment

April 29, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 29, 2022

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Program Office on April 26 offered a conditional commitment for a $504.4 million loan guarantee to the Advanced Clean Energy Storage Project, which would be a first-of-its-kind clean hydrogen production and storage facility capable of providing long-term seasonal energy storage located in Delta, Utah.

The facility will combine alkaline electrolysis with salt cavern storage for grid scale energy conversion and storage using hydrogen as the energy carrier, DOE noted.

The Advanced Clean Energy Storage hydrogen hub was announced in May 2019, and within three years is in the final stages of debt and equity closing.

Currently, the hub has secured all major contracts including offtake; engineer, procure and construct contractors; major equipment suppliers, and operations and maintenance providers.

DOE said that the Advanced Clean Energy Storage project could accelerate the commercial deployment of the clean hydrogen sector as the 220-megawatt electrolyzer bank would be one the largest deployments in the world.

The project could also help reduce curtailment of renewable energy in the Western U.S. by providing long-term energy storage that is currently not available, supporting DOE’s Long-Duration Storage Shot, DOE went on to say.

Participants in the existing Intermountain Power Project (IPP) in Utah have excess supplies of renewable energy, particularly in the spring. This results in the curtailment of renewable energy during those months and a shortage of renewable energy during subsequent months, DOE said.

Advanced Clean Energy Storage would convert that excess renewable energy to hydrogen that can be stored and until needed. This will help to seasonally balance supply with demand and further stabilize the grid, DOE noted.

Utah’s Intermountain Power Agency (IPA), a separate legal entity and a political subdivision of the State of Utah, was organized in June 1977 for the purposes of undertaking and financing a facility to generate electricity — the IPP.

DOE further said that Advanced Clean Energy Storage will convert and store excess electricity to provide the hydrogen fuel to the IPA’s IPP Renewed Project, replacing a coal-fired power plant with a hybrid combined cycle gas turbine capable of operating on hydrogen fuel.

By converting and storing excess electricity via hydrogen to fuel the IPP Renewed Project, Advanced Clean Energy Storage will be able to provide long duration, seasonal storage necessary to support the increasing penetration of intermittent renewable electricity generation.

The IPP Renewed Project is scheduled for start-up in 2025 when existing coal-fueled generating units at the site shut down and will be operating on a 30% hydrogen blended fuel (provided by Advanced Clean Energy Storage). The IPP Renewed Project will use increasing amounts of hydrogen as feedstock, eventually transitioning to 100% hydrogen by 2045.

“While this conditional commitment demonstrates the Department’s intent to finance the project, several steps remain, and certain conditions must be satisfied before the Department issues a final loan guarantee,” DOE said.

DOE noted that it is working to implement the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s hydrogen initiatives, which includes $8 billion for Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs.

According to DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Office, hydrogen from renewable energy costs about $5 per kilogram. Achieving the DOE Hydrogen Shot’s 80% cost reduction goal can unlock new markets for hydrogen, including energy storage, DOE said.    

A report available to members of the American Public Power Association offers details on where the emerging hydrogen market is in the U.S. and globally, what is driving the growing interest in hydrogen and what obstacles are preventing hydrogen technology from being able to scale-up. The report is available here.

DOE Announces Up To $1.6 Million In Grants For Nuclear Education

April 26, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
April 26, 2022

The Department of Energy (DOE) late last week announced plans to award up to $1.6 million over three years for programs that provide local communities with educational resources regarding the benefits of nuclear power.

The Funding Opportunity Announcement would provide up to 11 awards that would develop partnerships between the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy and various communities.

The partnerships would work with educational entities and other constituencies to accomplish a “shared mission of utilizing nuclear energy to advance energy, environmental, and economic initiatives” with an emphasis on environmental justice.

The Biden administration has requested approximately $480,000.00 in fiscal year 2022 to fund the program. The awards are contingent upon the availability of funds appropriated by Congress.

“To implement the nuclear technologies of the future we need to communicate the benefits to every community, integrate energy justice into everything we do, and build the next generation of nuclear leaders,” Andrew Griffith acting assistant secretary for nuclear energy, said in a statement.

The DOE identified four areas of focus for the grants:

The Biden administration has identified the current fleet of 93 reactors as a vital resource to achieve net-zero emissions economy wide by 2050. Nuclear power currently provides 52 percent of the nation’s carbon-free electricity.

Grant applications are available at Grants.gov and must be received to the DOE by July 20, 2022.

SMUD, Among Other Utilities, Uses Cloud Seeding To Increase Hydropower

April 23, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
April 23, 2022

Cloud seeding could become increasingly prevalent in California as utilities there face the twin challenges of drought and reaching the state’s net zero emission goals intended to combat global warming.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), one of several California utilities with a cloud seeding program, provides an example of how a public power utility uses the technology to augment its hydroelectric resources.

SMUD uses cloud seeding to increase snowfall on the Upper American River Basin where the utility has a series of hydroelectric dams. Increased snowfall leads to more snowpack. When the snow melts and runs off, it increases the amount of water in the utility’s reservoirs, providing greater potential for hydropower generation during high electric demand summer months.

SMUD has been using cloud seeding since 1969 and has found that “on average cloud seeding increases snowpack by roughly three to 10 percent,” Kaitlyn Bednar, SMUD’s hydrographer, said.

“So, for example, in an average year if we get 50 inches of snow water equivalent, cloud seeding can increase that value to 55 inches, translating to a large increase in runoff and power generation,” Bednar said.

“That extra five inches more than pays for itself and provides carbon free power,” Bednar said, noting that the equivalent generation from a natural gas-fired plant would produce “six thousand times as much carbon dioxide as our seeding program.”

SMUD’s current budget for its cloud seeding program is $1.5 million over five years, but the allocations vary from year to year depending on the hydrological conditions and the number of suitable storms.

SMUD’s program focuses on glaciogenic seeding, which laces clouds with microscopic silver iodide particles. Those particles have a similar crystal structure to ice that allows moisture to attach to them and grow heavy enough to precipitate in the form of snow.

SMUD’s seeding season runs from Mid-November through mid-April. In addition, certain criteria are needed for a successful seeding. The clouds need to have a suitable water content, and the temperature has to be cold enough, at least negative 4 degrees Celsius, for moisture to crystalize on the silver iodide particles and then precipitate as snow. “We rarely have a season we don’t cloud seed,” Bednar said. This season, SMUD had 10 seedable events. The goal is to have the utility’s reservoirs completely full by the end of the winter months. “We’ll take all the moisture we can get,” she said.

A third party, RHS Consulting, does the actual seeding for SMUD by flying in or above clouds and setting off silver iodide flares mounted either on the plane’s wing or belly. Each seeding event uses a handful of flares with each flare emitting anywhere between 20 to 200 grams of silver iodide.

The amount of silver iodide released during cloud seeding is not harmful to the environment, Bednar said. It is low in toxicity, insoluble in water, and has low bioavailability. SMUD also tests the areas seeded every five years and to date has found no adverse effects. The utility uses two control areas outside of the project area where cloud seeding does not occur to compare with its seeded area.

Other California public power and investor-owned entities, such as the Northern California Power Agency and Pacific Gas and Electric, also have been engaged in cloud seeding operations for years. And the California Energy Commission (CEC) with the state Department of Water Resources in November hosted a workshop on Cloud Seeding for Precipitation Enhancement.

The CEC, in fact, “may consider future research related to cloud seeding, as described by the proposed EPIC 4 investment plan,” Michael Ward, CEC’s media officer, said via email.

If approved by the state’s Public Utilities Commission, that initiative could support efforts to, “advance strategies for managing California’s hydropower resources for optimal contribution to grid operations and foster development of cost-effective, robust approaches for meeting anticipated needs for zero-carbon, fast-ramping resources,” the CEC said.

Those efforts could include “field research to measure, and ultimately improve, the cost-effectiveness and efficacy of precipitation enhancement through seeding clouds with tiny particles intended to increase the amount of atmospheric water vapor that condenses and falls to the ground as snow or rain,” The CEC said.

Department of Energy Moves To Offer Support For At-Risk Nuclear Power Plants

April 20, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 20, 2022

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on April 19 announced plans to seek applications and sealed bid submissions under the $6 billion Civil Nuclear Credit Program (CNC) to support the continued operation of U.S. nuclear reactors.

The guidance directs owners or operators of nuclear power reactors that are expected to shut down due to economic circumstances on how to apply for funding to avoid premature closure. This includes instructions on formulating and submitting sealed bids for allocation of credits.

“This critical investment, made possible by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will help avoid premature retirements of reactors across the country due to financial hardship, preserve thousands of good-paying clean energy jobs to sustain local economies and protect our supply of carbon-free electricity generation,” DOE said.

The Biden-Harris Administration has identified the nation’s current fleet of reactors as a vital resource to achieve net-zero emissions economy-wide by 2050, DOE said, noting that shifting energy markets and other economic factors have resulted in the early closure of 12 commercial reactors across the United States since 2013.

The first CNC award cycle will prioritize reactors that have already announced their intention to cease operations. Future CNC award cycles — including for the second to be launched in the first quarter in FY2023 — will not be limited to nuclear reactors that have publicly announced their intentions to retire.  

For the first CNC award period, DOE is accepting certification applications and bid as a single submission to implement the program on a more rapid timeline.  

Additional information about the CNC Program and the guidance is available here.

Applications for certification and sealed bids for credits for the first CNC award cycle must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time on May 19, 2022.

Ditto Asks President Biden To Prioritize Modernization Of The Columbia River Treaty

April 7, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 7, 2022

President Biden should direct the State Department and a negotiating team working under National Security Council officials to move faster on renegotiating the Columbia River Treaty with a particular emphasis on the rebalancing the power provisions between the U.S. and Canada, Joy Ditto, President and CEO of the American Public Power Association (APPA) in an April 4 letter to Biden.

“Failure to act quickly on negotiations will continue to cost American consumers millions of dollars a year, as well as the continued loss of renewable, baseload hydropower important to keeping the grid reliable,” Ditto wrote in the letter.

She noted that public power has a heavy footprint in the Pacific Northwest, where community-owned electric utilities buy power generated on the Federal Columbia River System (FCRS) marketed by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA).

BPA rates are set to cover all generation and transmission costs, as well as repayment, with interest, of the federal hydroelectric projects. None of the costs are borne by taxpayers.

“This multi-decade partnership has proven wildly successful, providing affordable, emissions-free, and reliable power that has served as the cornerstone of the Pacific Northwest’s economy since 1937. However, this success is increasingly threatened by the outdated Columbia River Treaty that has American ratepayers losing $150 million a year in lost hydropower value to Canada,” Ditto said.

The U.S. and Canada agreed to the Columbia River Treaty in 1964 for the mutual development of the Columbia River power and flood control systems.

Under the Treaty, the U.S. provides payments to Canada, called the Canadian Entitlement (CE), in the form of returned power generation. The CE amount is calculated using a formula from 1961, which was based on the expected improvement to U.S. hydropower generation capability due to Canadian storage.

Today, these calculations exceed the actual benefits of coordinated operations by an estimated 70-90 percent. “An equitable rebalancing of this problem is worth more than a billion dollars to U.S. consumers at a time when many are already facing rising energy prices,” Ditto wrote.

“I strongly urge you to direct the State Department and the entire negotiating team working under National Security Council officials to move faster on renegotiating the treaty with a particular emphasis on the rebalancing the power provisions between the U.S. and Canada,” Ditto said. “Making full use of the nation’s hydropower resource is key to ensuring that the nation’s grid remains reliable and resilient, and that utilities can meet emission reduction goals to address climate change.”

New York Leads Multi-State Group To Develop A Regional Hydrogen Hub Proposal

March 29, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
March 29, 2022

New York State, along with Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, has formed a coalition to develop a proposal to become one of at least four regional clean energy hydrogen hubs designated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The New York-led consortium also encompasses an initial group of 40 hydrogen ecosystem partners, including Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) and the New York Power Authority (NYPA).

The agreement calls for the consortium partners to collaborate with New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), NYPA, and Empire State Development (ESD) on proposal development to advance hydrogen projects under the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The partner states of the consortium will coordinate with their respective state entities to help align the consortium’s efforts with each state’s climate and clean energy goals.

New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act calls for the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 85 percent by 2050. Connecticut’s Global Warming Solutions Act sets a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, while Massachusetts set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2050, and New Jersey’s Global Warming Response Act set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.

The consortium members also committed to develop a proposal in response to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funding opportunity announcement, anticipated to launch in May 2022 with $8 billion in funding available.

In addition, the coalition members agreed to work together to define the shared vision and plans for the regional hydrogen hub that can advance safe green hydrogen energy innovation and investment to address climate change; advance a hub proposal that makes climate and environmental justice central to its strategy; and to perform research and analysis necessary to support the hub proposal and align on an approach to quantifying greenhouse gas emissions reductions resulting from use of the technology.

“We at the New York Power Authority are intrigued by the role that hydrogen may play in pushing us toward that decarbonized future and we are supporting green hydrogen firms like Plug Power at multiple locations throughout the state with low-cost hydropower,” Justin Driscoll, NYPA’s interim president and CEO, said in a statement.

The consortium members described the project as “a multi-state approach to a hydrogen hub that connects the entire value chain of hydrogen producers, users, technology and equipment manufacturers, and the research and development community including national labs and universities,” adding that the group would welcome the participation of other states in the future.

In her 2022 State of the State address, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also announced that NYSERDA, with the Department of Public Service and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, would work to develop a green hydrogen regulatory framework to measure emissions reduction and health benefits and will evaluate and develop codes and standards to ensure the safe operation of green hydrogen.

NYSERDA is also developing a program to support locally owned green hydrogen-powered microgrid solutions and plans to release $27 million in Hydrogen Innovation funding to support product development, pilots, and demonstration projects.

NYSERDA is also working on a green hydrogen demonstration project for district heating and cooling and plans to launch a Green Hydrogen Prize Program to support green hydrogen firms seeking to expand in New York State.

To help public power utilities understand the potential — and the limitations — of hydrogen, and why they should get involved, the American Public Power Association developed Understanding Hydrogen: Trends and Use Cases.

EIA Energy Outlook Sees Renewables Reaching 44% of U.S. Power Generation

March 21, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
March 21, 2022

The share of U.S. power generation from renewable generation will reach 44 percent by 2050, according to projections from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The projected increase, from 21 percent in 2021 to 44 percent in 2050, will mainly come from new wind and solar power resources, according to the EIA’s most recent Annual Energy Outlook 2022.

The contribution of other forms of renewable energy, such as hydropower, will remain largely unchanged through 2050 and sources such as geothermal and biomass will collectively remain at less than 3 percent of total generation, EIA said.

Solar power, both utility-scale solar farms and small-scale rooftop end-use systems, will overtake wind power as a generation source by the early 2030s, according to EIA projections.

While the early growth in wind and solar was driven by federal tax credits set to expire or to significantly decline by 2026, declining costs for both technologies now play a significant role in both near- and long-term growth, EIA said.

Meanwhile, the share of U.S. fossil fuel-fired power generation is expected to decline from 60 percent to 44 percent as a result of the continued retirement of coal-fired plants and the slow growth in natural gas-fired generation, according to EIA projections.

The EIA noted that although gas-fired generation is expected to increase in absolute terms, the share of natural gas in the total generation mix is likely to decrease slightly, from 37 percent in 2021 to 34 percent in 2050.

Coal and nuclear plants will continue to retire, the EIA said, with nuclear power’s contribution to overall power generation dropping from 19 percent in 2021 to 12 percent in 2050 and coal’s contribution declining from 23 percent in 2021 to 10 percent in 2050.

The EIA expects generation from renewable sources to increase to offset the declining share of generation from coal and nuclear sources, mainly because existing regulatory programs and market factors incentivize renewable sources.

Although not recorded in the EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook as a generation source, energy storage, either as stand-alone batteries or solar-battery hybrid systems, will play a role in the growth of renewable resources by making renewables more competitive with natural gas generation by providing back-up capacity for times when non-dispatchable renewable sources are unavailable, the EIA said.

Last August, the EIA reported that the installed capacity of large-scale energy storage batteries grew by 35 percent in 2020 and tripled in the last five years.

The EIA’s most recent Annual Energy Outlook also projects that electricity demand will grow slowly, increasing competition among fuels. U.S. production of natural gas and petroleum, meanwhile, will continue to rise, driven by growing demand for exports and from industry.

EIA projections also show that electricity will continue to be the fastest growing energy source in buildings with renewables and natural gas providing most of the incremental electricity supply.