Page 1141 – RTO Insider

July 15, 2018December 13, 2023

UPDATED: Texas Regulators Fear Customer Risk from Wind Catcher

By Tom Kleckner

AUSTIN, Texas — Regulators threw a wrench in American Electric Power’s massive Wind Catcher Energy Connection on Thursday, expressing concerns over whether the company will protect ratepayers from the project’s risks.

Public Utility Commission Chair DeAnn Walker made that clear following oral arguments in the contested proceeding involving AEP subsidiary Southwestern Electric Power Co. and several consumer groups (Docket No. 47461).

“I’m going to be upfront with you,” Walker said, addressing AEP CEO Nick Akins, her fellow commissioners and others in the PUC’s hearing room. “At this point, I can’t approve the [project].”

Walker said she would need additional consumer protections from SWEPCO, which would own 70% of the $4.5 billion project. It includes a 2-GW wind farm being built by Invenergy in the Oklahoma Panhandle and a 360-mile, 765-kV line from the facility to Tulsa. Sister company Public Service Company of Oklahoma would own the other 30%.

The two utilities would purchase the wind facility upon its completion, scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2020.

“I have issues and concerns … on the financial impacts to the company,” Walker said, alluding to a recent court decision remanding a SWEPCO rate case back the PUC.

The Texas Court of Appeals for the Third District on July 10 granted a rehearing request by the Texas Office of Public Utility Counsel (OPUC), Texas Industrial Energy Consumers (TIEC), and Cities Advocating Reasonable Deregulation (CARD), reversing a district court’s ruling that the utility’s John W. Turk, Jr. Power Plant should be included in cost recovery (No. 03-17-00490-CV).

Commissioner Arthur D’Andrea said he too would like to see the parties develop additional consumer protections. “But it doesn’t do us any good to protect the consumers, and then have the company fail,” he said.

Moody’s Investors Service’s also recently issued a downgrade watch for Sempra Energy following its $9.45 billion acquisition of Texas utility Oncor earlier this year. (See Texas PUC OKs Sempra-Oncor Deal, LP&L Transfer.)

As is their normal practice following oral arguments, the commissioners will review the arguments and the financial data submitted before issuing a decision. The PUC’s next scheduled open meeting is July 26.

“I’d like some time to look at the transcript,” D’Andrea said.

“I am really struggling with where I am on this,” Walker said. “I was hoping to get more solid on where I am.”

The commission was unmoved by the AEP delegation’s reminder that it faces a time crunch to take advantage of expiring federal production tax credits. Paul Chodak, AEP’s executive vice president of utilities, said the company must give contractors a notice to proceed by Aug. 6 to qualify. He said the company is already moving dirt, securing rights of way and spending “tens of millions of dollars” in legal fees.

“We are on a critical path. Whatever the answer is, we would like it as quickly as possible,” Akins said. “If it’s a bad answer, we can deal with that. If it’s a good answer, we can certainly deal with that too.”

“We’re very aware of the timing implications,” Walker responded.

She encouraged AEP and the other parties to try and “address the customer benefits or protections” before the next open meeting. “Right now, I think there’s more that can be done for the consumers,” Walker said.

“We’re hopeful we can have additional settlement discussions with the intervenors, especially given the PUCT’s encouragement,” said SWEPCO spokesperson Carey Sullivan.

PUC staff, which oppose Wind Catcher, met after the hearing with OPUC, TIEC, CARD and fellow intervenor Golden Spread Electric Cooperative. The group did not commit to further settlement discussions.

SWEPCO operates in East Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. AEP says Wind Catcher will save SWEPCO’s Texas customers $1.7 billion over 25 years. Company representatives pointed to settlement agreements in Arkansas and Louisiana that insulate customers from the project’s risks, including a cap on construction costs, minimum production levels and qualification for 100% of the federal PTCs. They also noted components of Wind Catcher’s 800 turbines will be built in Texas and Houston-based Quanta Services will build the transmission line.

Representatives of TIEC and CARD argued Wind Catcher would saddle Texas consumers with hundreds of millions of dollars in future rates, saying it would be more expensive and less efficient than the recently approved Xcel Energy wind facility. (See Texas PUC Issues Final Order for SPS Wind Farm.)

“This project is not needed in any traditional sense,” said TIEC’s Rex VanMiddlesworth, pointing to AEP’s argument that Wind Catcher will provide a hedge against higher natural gas prices. “All these parties that have dug into that — staff, the cities and OPUC — have disagreed with that and have presented [countering] evidence. If [SWEPCO’s estimate] was the case, we’d all be saying we want it, like we did for the [Xcel] wind facility.”

“Our concern is not the accuracy of SWEPCO’s forecasts. … Our concern is that the risk of those projections being accurate is on the ratepayer,” said CARD’s Alfred Herrera. “Our concern is that when this project goes into the rate base, the customer will pay.

“SWEPCO is asking you to approve a multibillion project and guarantee its returns,” Herrera said. “That’s the effect of what will happen if this plant comes into the rate base. That’s not how competitive markets work. If this deal is such a good deal, then let the competitive market build it.”

PUC staff oppose an administrative law judge’s preliminary decision approving AEP’s application, saying “the evidence presented does not support a sufficient probability of improvement of service or lowering of costs to ratepayers.”

Staff are recommending that the commission condition its approval on a requirement that SWEPCO guarantee tax credits in the amounts represented by the utility, and some level of net benefits to customers.

PUC Grants Utilities’ SMT Rehearing Request

The PUC granted a motion for rehearing and issued a final order for Smart Meter Texas (SMT), a website that provides customers and authorized market participants access to electric usage data (Docket No. 47472).

The utilities involved in SMT (AEP Texas, CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, Oncor and Texas-New Mexico Power) filed the request in June “to address limited clarifications.”

The utilities agreed to provide on-demand meter readings as a substitute for home area network (HAN) functionality. Walker filed a memo clarifying that the utilities can’t discontinue support of a customer’s existing HAN device unless the customer requests that the device be disconnected.

SMT allows customers to download and view their energy data or share them with competitive service providers, companies that market energy efficiency, demand response, distributed generation and other services. (See “Commission Streamlines Smart Meter Texas Portal,” Texas PUC Issues Final Order for SPS Wind Farm.)

July 15, 2018

NYPSC: Offshore Wind ‘Ready for Prime Time’

By Michael Kuser

ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York Public Service Commission on Thursday voted unanimously to authorize state agencies to procure 800 MW of offshore wind energy by next year, the first phase of a plan to develop 2,400 MW by 2030.

offshore wind nypsc — Rhodes | © *RTO Insider*

Offshore wind is “viable, valuable and ready for prime time,” PSC Chair John B. Rhodes said.

Under the commission’s July 12 order (18-E-0071), the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority will issue a solicitation for 800 MW of offshore wind in the fourth quarter, in consultation with the New York Power Authority and the Long Island Power Authority.

NYSERDA will announce the award in the second quarter of 2019 and, if needed, issue a second solicitation next year to meet the 800-MW goal. The agency will hold a technical conference on the solicitation process from July 23 1-3 p.m. at the Department of Public Service’s office at 90 Church Street in New York City; it will also be available via webinar.

High-Stakes Race

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office said that offshore wind will not only help achieve the state’s Clean Energy Standard goal of obtaining 50% of electricity from renewables by 2030 but also will support nearly 5,000 new jobs, nearly 2,000 of them long-term career opportunities in operations and maintenance.

“We’re in a race right now with our fellow states along the Eastern seaboard to get these staging and fabrication facilities for this new industry built in our state, and of course they want it in their states,” Commissioner Gregg C. Sayre said. “I think it would be appropriate for us to get moving quickly and win this one for New York.” (See Competition, Cooperation and Costs the Talk at OSW Conference.)

The U.S. Department of Energy in June awarded a $18.5 million grant to NYSERDA to lead a nationwide research and development consortium for the offshore wind industry, with the state to match the federal funds.

In May, Massachusetts awarded a contract for 800 MW of offshore wind and Rhode Island agreed to procure 400 MW. (See Gov. Signs NJ Nuke Subsidy, Renewables Bills.)

Massachusetts officials hope to develop supply chains for the nascent industry in the Port of New Bedford but will have to avoid interfering with fishing operations there, the No. 1 fishing port in the U.S. (See Overheard at ISO-NE Consumer Liaison Group Meeting.)

According to the environmental impact statement issued by NYSERDA in June, the New York offshore wind projects will affect only 3% of the state’s fishing grounds.

Bidding Details

David G. Drexler, DPS managing attorney, told the commission that NYSERDA will solicit two separate bids from each participating bidder. One would be for a fixed-price offshore wind renewable energy certificate (OREC), while the other would be based on a variable OREC tied to an index.

To contain costs, NYSERDA will reject bids higher than a confidential “upset price,” like the method used in Renewable Energy Standard Tier 1 procurements, Drexler said.

“NYSERDA … would at all times have the authority to reject any and all bids, taking into account not only the benchmark upset price but also recent auctions and market conditions,” Drexler said.

NYSERDA will rank bids based on the following weights price (70%); economic benefits (20%); and project viability (10%). The agency will have discretion in fixing the specific terms of the contract, which will run for 20 to 25 years.

Transmission Component

The Phase 1 order for the initial 800 MW makes the generation developer responsible for its own radial transmission to shore, calling it “the most easily implementable and feasible option for jump-starting offshore wind development in New York.”

NYSERDA recommended that backbone transmission and independent ownership be reserved for consideration in Phase 2, to procure the remainder of the 2,400 MW total. It noted that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has sold only one wind energy lease directly off New York — Equinor’s site, which is capable of hosting approximately 1,000 MW. The agency said a shared radial system would create unnecessary risks of stranded assets and provide limited cost advantages.

Equinor and Vineyard Wind supported the direct generator lead approach in the early stages of development, arguing in joint comments that “requiring a separate transmission provider would increase project uncertainty and the risk of delay.”

The Green Building Council, the Sustainability Institute and transmission developer Anbaric argued that the first phase should include soliciting bids to develop an “Open Access Offshore Transmission” system, with Anbaric saying it would provide more information about the best options and potentially reduce the costs of the procurement.

Anbaric said that requiring direct generator leads would lead to a piecemeal approach and would not optimize the interconnection, potentially increasing costs for later stages of development. The Green Building Council and the Sustainability Institute concurred with Anbaric’s argument, saying that the generator lead approach would result in a highly inefficient array of separate transmission cables.

Central Hudson Gas & Electric, Consolidated Edison, New York State Electric and Gas, National Grid, Orange and Rockland Utilities, and Rochester Gas & Electric, filing as “Joint Utilities,” also argued that the state should immediately consider developing a transmission backbone and optimizing onshore interconnection locations. They said utility ownership of the transmission portion could produce substantial ratepayer savings. NYPA and New York City also urged that “a coordinated approach to transmission should be initiated immediately,” with NYPA adding it was prepared to assist in the effort.

“Anbaric remains eager to deliver offshore wind to the New York onshore grid quickly and economically,” Anbaric CEO Edward Krapels said in a statement Friday. “We will intensify our development of our New York OceanGrid and look forward to working with generation companies to link the first 800 MW of offshore wind to the New York state grid.”

Cryptocurrency Tariff Change

The PSC also approved new electricity rates for an upstate utility, Massena Electric Department, that will allow high-density load customers, such as cryptocurrency companies, to qualify for service under an individual service agreement.

“As part of our continuing effort to balance the needs of existing customers with the need to attract new companies, we must ensure that business customers pay a fair price for the electricity that they consume,” Rhodes said. “However, given the abundance of low-cost electricity in upstate New York, there is an opportunity to serve the needs of existing customers and to encourage economic development in the region.”

The commission’s order (18-E-0211) said that the individual service agreement tariff includes provisions to protect customers from increased supply costs resulting from the new service.

The program will apply to customers who have a maximum demand of at least 300 kW.

The new rates become effective July 17.

Low-income CDG Initiatives

The commission also adopted three measures to enhance the ability of low-income residents to participate in community distributed generation (CDG) programs: a bill discount pledge program; an income verification service; and a loss reserve fund (15-E-0082).

CDG projects are generating facilities located behind a nonresidential host meter coupled with a group of off-takers who receive bill credits based on the generation of that facility. New York defines low income as at or below 60% of the state median income.

Public funds will be held in reserve to cover losses that CDG project owners or their lenders may incur if low-income subscribers default on or terminate their subscriptions at a higher rate than other customers. DPS staff reported that “a relatively modest amount could provide surety for hundreds or even thousands of subscriptions” but did not define the amount.

Con Ed Smart Solutions Program

The commission approved, with modification, Con Ed’s request for a Smart Solutions Program, which included an enhanced gas energy efficiency program, a new gas demand response program, a new “Gas Innovation” program to encourage renewable alternatives to natural gas heating technologies, and a new market solicitation for non-pipeline solutions.

The order (17-G-0606) established criteria for continued development of the gas innovation program and denied the company’s request “to recover costs associated with parallel pipeline development efforts, thereby maintaining customer protections associated with unsuccessful pipeline development projects.”

The commission said Con Ed’s proposed gas DR program and non-pipeline proposal both “require further information from the company, input from stakeholders, and review from staff, and therefore, these components of the petition will not be considered in this order.”

July 15, 2018

NYISO Business Issues Committee Briefs: July 11, 2018

RENSSELAER, N.Y. — The NYISO Business Issues Committee voted Wednesday in favor of changing how the ISO reports on historic congestion, agreeing with management that the current process is resource-intensive and the resulting data underutilitized.

The BIC’s vote recommends that the Management Committee endorse the new process, which will require Tariff changes, to the Board of Directors.

Some of the congestion metrics required by the Tariff can be extracted from production security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC) runs but other data require rerunning SCUC to calculate the difference between the actual constrained grid and an unconstrained system.

“In our review of the site traffic, we realized there was not much use of the historic congestion data, so it’s of limited value in finding where congestion is on the system,” said Timothy Duffy, manager of economic planning. “We don’t believe there are any stakeholders using that data meaningfully.”

The proposed changes would eliminate the requirement to compare historic data to an unconstrained system.

The ISO will continue providing the historic metrics generated by SCUC: the value of demand congestion by constrained element or contingency; load and generator payments; and total load and generation scheduled.

It will add a new set of metrics: actual congestion rents by constraint, based on modeled flows and shadow prices.

Consolidated Edison’s Jane Quin representative abstained, saying it was premature to change the current reporting before the ISO has moved ahead with an economic transmission project to address congestion. Quin also said NYISO had not shown that the current Tariff requirement was unduly burdensome.

“Data we are pulling is not used in any settlement proceeding at all … and the data we are presently required to produce [that we would no longer produce] would not be of any value in planning an economic transmission project,” Duffy responded.

By the fourth quarter, the ISO will provide a report of historic congestion information relating to 2018 data utilizing the new metrics, broken into quarterly figures to mesh with quarterly reports beginning with 2019 data.

The data will continue to include actual demand ($) congestion by constrained element/contingency; load and generator payments ($); and total load and generation scheduled (MWh).

The reporting of historic congestion will incorporate actual congestion rents by constraint based on modeled flows and shadow prices.

Supplemental Resource Evaluation Improvements

NYISO has made progress in clarifying the minimum deliverability requirements for capacity from PJM, Rana Mukerji, ISO senior vice president for market structures, told the BIC.

ISO officials made presentations on the current Supplemental Resource Evaluation process and potential changes at joint meetings of the Installed Capacity Working Group and Market Issues Working Group in April and May. The ISO will present the market design proposal for process improvements at a joint ICAPWG/MIWG meeting July 26.

In his Broader Regional Markets Report, Mukerji also discussed NYISO’s efforts since 2016 to find an alternative approach for calculating locality exchange factors, which measure the capability of import-constrained regions relative to neighboring control areas.

NYISO has concluded the stability and transparency of the current approach is preferable to a probabilistic approach. The ISO has told stakeholders that further work on this effort is unlikely to yield an implementable methodology and continued investigation of a probabilistic approach is not warranted.

Mukerji also discussed Public Service Electric and Gas’ May 3 complaint against Consolidated Edison concerning two transmission lines, B3402 Hudson-to-Farragut (B line) and C3403 Marion-to-Farragut (C line). PSE&G alleged that underwater portions of the lines may have been permanently damaged and should be removed; however, the complaint acknowledged that a prior leak in the B line has been repaired.

NYISO filed a protest with FERC on June 6 indicating that removal of the lines would undermine resilience in both New Jersey and New York. The lines support grid resilience by providing opportunities for operational flexibility and emergency service in both the New York Control Area and PJM. The ISO’s protest noted that PSE&G’s complaint did not demonstrate that another leak from either of the lines was imminent and requested that the complaint be denied.

Public Website Redesign Update

NYISO Business Issues Committee Transmission Congestion — Draft Web Page | *NYISO*

Dave O’Brien, NYISO project manager, provided an update on the project to redesign the ISO’s public website.

The main objectives of the redesign are to improve the site navigation and search engine capability and implement a document library. The project will recategorize the most frequently accessed documents to make them easier to find.

O’Brien indicated that existing webpage and document links on www.nyiso.com would be changing because of the project, but he emphasized there would be no changes to existing mis.nyiso.com (OASIS) links. The project is targeting a launch by year-end.

BIC Elects Aaron Breidenbaugh Vice Chair

The BIC elected Aaron Breidenbaugh of energy management consulting firm Luthin Associates as its vice chair.

In addition to helping clients in procuring electricity and natural gas, Luthin also represents an unincorporated group of nonprofit institutional customers known as Consumer Power Advocates before the ISO, Public Service Commission and FERC.

“I’m happy to be able now to pay back into the NYISO governance structure,” Breidenbaugh said.

Energy Prices up 32% YoY

NYISO prices averaged $32.53/MWh in June, up from $28.78 in May and higher than $31.76 in the same month a year ago, Mukerji said.

Year-to-date monthly energy prices averaged $47.70/MWh through June, a 32% increase from $36.01 a year earlier. June’s average sendout was 445 GWh/day, higher than 397 GWh/day in May but down from 454 GWh/day a year earlier.

Transco Z6 hub natural gas prices averaged $2.45/MMBtu, down 4% from May but up 4.5% year-over-year.

Distillate prices dropped slightly compared to the previous month but were up 56.3% year-over-year. Jet Kerosene Gulf Coast and Ultra Low Sulfur No. 2 Diesel NY Harbor averaged $15.47/MMBtu and $15.32/MMBtu, respectively.

Total uplift costs and uplift per megawatt-hour rose from May, with the ISO’s local reliability share at 18 cents/MWh in June, lower than 22 cents the previous month, while the statewide share climbed from -17 cents/MWh to 12 cents.

Thunderstorm Alerts in New York City, which cause more conservative operations with reduced transmission transfer limits, cost 39 cents/MWh, up nearly fivefold from 8 cents in May.

— Michael Kuser

July 15, 2018

MISO Resource Adequacy Subcommittee Briefs: July 11, 2018

Responding to a stakeholder query, MISO staff have determined that it’s appropriate and possible for capacity import limits between local resource zones to bind in the RTO’s annual Planning Resource Auction.

MISO says that while, historically, the local clearing requirement has always bound before the CIL, it is “mathematically possible and reasonable” for CILs to be more restrictive than LCRs.

In this year’s capacity auction, MISO Local Resource Zone 3 in Iowa and Zone 6 in Indiana and Kentucky came closest to binding on their CIL, with Zone 3 coming within 938 MW and Zone 6 within 1,290 MW. MISO said the two zones could have bound if either the LCR or amount of exports varied.

capacity import limit resource adequacy — Sutton | © *RTO Insider*

During a July 11 Resource Adequacy Subcommittee meeting, MISO engineer Matt Sutton said it remains “highly unlikely that the capacity import limit” will bind in future capacity auctions, although that could be subject to multiple variables, such as transmission transfer capability.

“Though we’ve not seen a capacity import limit bind, it is a necessary parameter in the auction,” Sutton said.

Some stakeholders said they could not understand how CILs could bind before LCRs. WPPI Energy’s Steve Leovy said MISO staff have previously told him that CILs should not be enforced. Sutton said he thought MISO staff responsible for resource adequacy would disagree with that viewpoint.

Other stakeholders pointed out that market participants can replace capacity from other resources at midyear and that MISO must still ensure that import limits are not violated.

RTO staff committed to more discussion on the topic at future RASC meetings.

Stakeholders Quiet on Uncertain OMS-MISO Survey Results

Stakeholders offered muted reaction to this year’s annual resource adequacy survey by MISO and the Organization of MISO States, which predicts adequate reserves through 2019 but is less certain about thereafter.

“It’s important to keep in mind that this is a point-in-time forecast,” Ryan Westphal, MISO resource studies manager, told stakeholders.

Over the next five years, MISO’s footprint could see anything from a 7.5-GW surplus to a 4.5-GW shortfall. The results were less optimistic than last year’s survey, which showed MISO would have anywhere from 0.7 to 7.3 GW of excess resources in 2018-2022.

Westphal said the forecast is even more uncertain as MISO continues its conversion from coal generation to a mixture of gas, wind, solar and load-modifying resources.

Stakeholders asked why Zone 4 in Illinois experienced such a large dip in forecasted reserves year over year. Westphal attributed the decline to a combination of retirements, potential retirements and changes in generator performance.

Coalition of Midwest Power Producers’ Mark Volpe asked if MISO adjusts survey responses to reflect interzonal transactions that may go unreported. Westphal said MISO staff reach out to load-serving entities for clarification on some survey responses.

— Amanda Durish Cook

July 15, 2018

MISO Delays Combined Cycle Model Update

MISO will not implement improved combined cycle modeling until it has a new market platform in place, stakeholders learned last week.

The RTO plans to initially offer seven different modeling options, including combinations of combustion and steam turbines, but operators of combined cycle generators must now wait until 2022 for the improved model.

MISO last month completed a conceptual design for the more sophisticated modeling that can accommodate different combinations of combined cycle units and their dependencies. And while the RTO originally hoped to have software in place by 2020 to offer new modeling options, its outdated market platform is limiting what improvements it can undertake. (See “Limited Improvements for Old Platform,” MISO Platform Replacement Risks Delay, Budget Overrun.)

MISO combined cycle units market platform — Hansen | © *RTO Insider*

Speaking at a July 12 Market Subcommittee meeting, MISO market analyst Chuck Hansen said the conceptual design will still be turned over to a third-party vendor for more in-depth work during the 18-month pause on the project. He said most of that work is not dependent on having the new market platform operational and can be advanced without delay. He also said MISO’s legal team will begin drafting Tariff language during the hold.

MISO Market Design Engineer Congcong Wang said the proposal will represent one of the most complex participation models in the RTO’s energy and ancillary service markets to date. The RTO has predicted the new model could save an annual $14 million to $34 million in production costs.

MISO currently has 44 combined cycle gas turbine resources, with more predicted to come online. Since its markets began, MISO has been modeling combined cycle units as either a single aggregate resource or as individual units.

— Amanda Durish Cook

July 13, 2018

CAISO Q1 Prices Surge on Lower Hydro, Higher Gas

By Robert Mullin

CAISO prices surged in the first quarter on falling hydroelectric output and increased costs for natural gas, the ISO’s Department of Market Monitoring told stakeholders Wednesday.

Speaking during a call to discuss the department’s quarterly market issues report, Amelia Blanke, manager of monitoring and reporting, noted that the ISO is accustomed to a pattern of lower prices in the first two quarters followed by rising prices later in the year.

“That was not the case in Q1 of this year,” Blanke said.

Average five-minute prices jumped 50% ($12/MWh) compared with the same period a year earlier, while 15-minute prices rose 20% ($6/MWh), putting prices close to levels seen last fall. Day-ahead prices were also up about $6/MWh during the quarter (See chart).

CAISO gas prices hydropower — Average Monthly Price | *CAISO Department of Market Monitoring*

“One of the factors that influenced this include the availability of hydro generation,” Blanke said, adding that hydro output was just under half the level seen in the first quarter of 2017.

Despite heavy snowfall in March, snowpack in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains ended the winter at just 52% of normal. That was well short of the near-record snowpack many areas reported last year, which required dam operators to release water from reservoirs earlier than usual.

Increased congestion also provided a boost to Southern California day-ahead prices, adding about $2/MWh to average prices in the Southern California Edison area and $5/MWh in the San Diego Gas & Electric area. But the lack of congestion in the north helped reduce Pacific Gas and Electric prices by about $3/MWh.

Tight Gas, High BCR

Tight gas supply was the other key factor driving up power prices, Blanke said. PG&E Citygate gas prices were up 19% over the first quarter of 2017, while SoCal Citygate added 7%, continuing last year’s trend of rising gas prices. (See Gas Costs Drive Sharp Gain in CAISO 2017 Prices.)

“There was a higher frequency of high same-day gas prices and shortage conditions for gas in the southern part of our balancing area,” Blanke said.

Grid operations in Southern California are still hamstrung by limited gas supplies from the Aliso Canyon storage facility north of Los Angeles. As a result of market operations intended to preserve that supply, the ISO paid out $11 million in bid cost recovery (BCR) in February because of a cold snap — the highest BCR expense for any month since 2011, the Monitor said.

Limited gas supply in the SoCalGas system during a period of high gas demand led to both high regional gas prices and the reinstatement of Aliso gas cost scalars, both of which contributed to high real-time bid cost recovery in February, the DMM report said.

CAISO implemented the scalars — or price adders — in 2016 to help ensure that gas-fired generators can recover fuel costs in the face of potential price spikes stemming from the Aliso Canyon limitations. (See FERC Approves CAISO’s Aliso Canyon Response Plan Ahead of Summer.) When activated in the real-time market, the adders boost the commitment proxy gas cost calculation to 175% of the day-ahead gas reference price, while gas prices in the default energy bid calculation are set to 125% of the day-ahead price.

The Monitor has opposed the ISO’s reliance on the scalars, instead recommending the ISO develop the ability to update gas prices in real time.

FERC gas prices hydropower — Hourly System Marginal Energy Prices | *CAISO Department of Market Monitoring*

“DMM believes that each use of the Aliso Canyon gas adders on default energy bids and commitment costs highlights the problems associated with the use of these adders,” the Monitor said.

The first problem, according to the DMM, is the delay in activating and deactivating gas adders in response to actual conditions.

The second problem is the mismatch between the gas price based on the adders and actual volatility over the same day, the Monitor said.

It noted that bid cost recovery payments totaled $5 million over Feb. 20-23, when SoCal Citygate prices were “significantly high.”

“These events also highlight the need for the ISO to develop the capability to update gas prices used in the real-time market based on same-day gas market price information available each morning, as recommended by DMM” in its comments to FERC after CAISO filed to extend its Aliso provisions. The ISO has defended its use of the adders as a needed, if imperfect, tool. (See Gas Adders a Necessary Tool, CAISO Says.)

Less Negativity

Blanke also pointed to the price impact of the “duck curve,” which illustrates the precipitous drop in net load at midday as solar and wind resources displace higher-cost fossil fuel generation. “As we have throughout last year, you see lower prices in the middle of the day — in all markets — than we do in the traditional off-peak hours,” she said.

But declining hydro output helped reduce the frequency of negative prices in the market, as prices slipped below zero in about 2% of 15-minute market intervals and 4% of five-minute market intervals, compared with 10% and 13%, respectively, a year earlier.

natural gas prices hydropower caiso — Frequency of Negative 5-minute Prices | *CAISO Department of Market Monitoring*

“This is highly correlated with a reduction in self-scheduled hydro generation,” Blanke said.

The DMM report noted that a “reduction in self-scheduled generation would result in increased bidding flexibility and reduce the likelihood of negative prices.

The report again called out an issue the DMM has flagged for nearly two years: the continued funding shortfalls stemming from the ISO’s congestion revenue rights auctions. (See Report Shows Continued Losses in CAISO CRR Auctions.) The Monitor pointed out that first-quarter CRR auction revenues came up $43 million short of payments made to the non-load-serving entities that purchased the rights at auction, compared with a $12 million shortfall a year earlier. It was the second largest shortfall for any quarter since 2015.

“Losses in the first quarter represent 38 cents in auction revenues paid to transmission ratepayers for every dollar paid out to auctioned rights holders,” the report said. “Total ratepayer losses from the congestion revenue rights auction since the market began in 2009 surpassed $770 million.”

FERC earlier this month approved the first stage of the ISO’s CRR rule changes, which will limit allowable source and sink pairs for CRR transactions to those that align with typical supply delivery paths. The changes also require annual transmission outage reporting to more closely match day-ahead models. (See FERC OKs Tighter Rules for CAISO CRR Auction.) While the DMM expressed support for the ISO’s rule changes as “an incremental improvement,” the report said it “continues to recommend that the auction process be replaced by a market for financial hedges based on clearing bids from willing buyers and sellers.”

July 13, 2018

Senate Talks Gas Infrastructure amid Increasing Delays

By Michael Brooks

WASHINGTON — The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee returned Thursday to the issue of natural gas infrastructure permitting following reports of increasing delays at FERC.

natural gas ferc LNG — Moffat | © *RTO Insider*

Two former FERC chairmen, James Hoecker (1997-2001) and Joseph T. Kelliher (2005-2009), agreed with J. Curtis Moffatt, general counsel for Kinder Morgan, and James Murchie, CEO of investment advising firm Energy Income Partners, that failing to build adequate pipelines would lead to higher prices for consumers. They also said delays in state and federal approvals cause uncertainty and could discourage down investment.

While these sentiments aren’t new, they came on the heels of a report by Bloomberg on Wednesday that FERC has notified several developers of LNG export terminals that their applications could be delayed by 12 to 18 months as it struggles to deal with its backlog. The commission asked the developers to consider sending private contractors to help, according to Bloomberg’s sources.

In a series of tweets before the story broke, Commissioner Neil Chatterjee suggested better pay for staff and opening a regional office in Houston, “the center of the world” for natural gas.

FERC Chairman Kevin McIntyre told the committee at an oversight hearing last month that the commission has 14 pending LNG applications, up from four in 2007.

McIntyre said the commission has hired private contractors to supplement its workforce and is seeking to hire additional engineers, while also considering reallocating other staff and hiring additional contractors. It also is seeking to improve coordination with the Department of Energy and the Department of Transportation and seeking internal efficiencies.

The panelists at Thursday’s hearing made no mention of commission staffing as a problem. Rather, they mostly offered suggestions for how the commission could more efficiently process pipeline applications.

Kelliher, executive vice president for federal regulatory affairs for NextEra Energy, said FERC could be more transparent in its certificate orders about how it weighs the benefits and adverse impacts of projects. “There is a need to clarify whether and how environmental impacts should be weighed in this balancing, and whether the commission’s environmental review is under the auspices of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 or part of the broader public interest determination in the Natural Gas Act,” he said.

Kelliher said the pre-filing process that formerly took six to eight months now takes up to 12, while the certificate process that used to take nine to 11 months now takes two years or longer. “One factor that has contributed to the length of the certificate process is delays in approvals from other federal agencies,” he said. “If these delays are driven by resource limits at these agencies, the cost incurred by these agencies could be reimbursed by pipeline developers in a manner consistent with how the costs of other federal agencies in the hydropower licensing and relicensing process are recovered from hydropower licensees.”

The witnesses, along with several senators, noted that one of the major factors leading to delays is local opposition from environmentalists and landowners.

Murchie said the challenge for regulators was “getting people to understand that, while their land is being taken [under eminent domain], it’s being taken for a greater good, just like it is with a highway.”

FERC is already considering many of the issues discussed at the hearing as it reviews its 1999 policy statement on gas pipeline approvals. (See FERC Outlines Gas Pipeline Rule Review.)

Fears of FERC Deadlock

Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Thursday’s hearing was prompted by questions on gas and electric transmission infrastructure remaining following last month’s FERC oversight hearing. The Department of Energy’s efforts to provide financial support to coal and nuclear plants took up most of that discussion. (See FERC: No Emergency on Grid.)

It was not, she said, in reaction to the coming departure of Robert Powelson after only a year on the commission. (See Powelson Leaving FERC to Head Water Lobby.)

“We had all five commissioners here; it was good to see them,” Murkowski said in her opening remarks. “I don’t know, maybe we jinxed the whole thing.”

Murkowski asked Hoecker and Kelliher later in the hearing what they thought the committee should be looking for in Powelson’s replacement.

“I have long advocated that the members of the commission should include some seasoned economists [and] industry engineers, not just lawyers, as much as I love lawyers,” replied Hoecker, executive director and counsel to the trade group WIRES.

“I think they need someone who is comfortable with criticism,” Kelliher said. He also said they should be willing to work with their colleagues, “but only up to a point. It’s not supposed to be 5-0 on everything. It’s OK to dissent.”

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Murkowski said she has not yet spoken to the Trump administration regarding a nominee, but that she hoped it would make the commission a priority. “You know, we worked very aggressively last year to get the FERC filled up,” she said, “and we’ll just do it again.”

July 13, 2018

FERC Seeks Details on Proposed MISO Retirement Rules

By Amanda Durish Cook

FERC has questions on MISO’s plan to transform its retirement notification process into a catch-all three-year suspension period.

The commission on Wednesday issued a deficiency letter ordering MISO to provide more specifics and an explanation of how it currently plans for suspension and retirements within 30 days (ER18-1636).

MISO this spring proposed that generation owners planning to retire or suspend their units submit a catch-all suspension notice that would have the RTO terminate their interconnection rights after three years of inactivity. (See “Matching Modeling with Proposed Retirement Process,” MISO Planning Subcommittee Briefs: June 12, 2018.)

miso attachment y retirements — | *MISO*

The commission wants to know how MISO’s open-ended suspension plan may affect its process for designating system support resources — those scheduled for retirement that the RTO needs to keep operating for reliability. It asked MISO whether it would model units in the catch-all as three-year suspensions or permanent retirements.

FERC also asked how MISO currently plans for uncertainty in its suspension and retirement process. In a second filing June 21, MISO told FERC that “the future status of a suspended generator is usually unknown, and the requirement to specify an end-date when the return to service is actually uncertain can lead to false assumptions and unreasonable assurance regarding future developments.”

“For planning purposes, what assumptions are made about a generator’s future status under the current suspension provisions, and how will those assumptions change given this proposal?” FERC asked. The commission also asked MISO to explain how generators’ information on their future status may be unreliable and told MISO to provide it with five years of data on the outcomes of generators that entered suspension. FERC also ordered MISO to explain the difference between how it currently treats suspensions versus retirements in transmission planning.

Earlier this year, Economic Studies Senior Engineer Tim Kopp said less than a third of generators return to service after submitting Attachment Y notices to MISO, and that treating all suspending generation as if it will never return would make for better modeling in transmission planning.

FERC also asked if MISO intends to keep its current 26-week minimum notice requirement for Attachment Y filings.

July 12, 2018

UPDATED: Montana Avista Sale OK Includes Colstrip Protections

By Tom Kleckner

The Montana Public Service Commission’s final order approving Hydro One’s acquisition of Avista includes several conditions designed to prevent the early closure of the troubled Colstrip power plant.

Most notably, the order released late Tuesday points to pledges by corporate executives that the sale would not shorten the coal-fired plant’s operational life. The commission approved the sale by a 4-1 vote on June 12.

Avista owns 15% of Colstrip Units 3 and 4, which were built in the mid-1980s and have a combined net generating capacity of 1,480 MW. Low natural gas prices and regional opposition to coal resources have bedeviled the Colstrip plant in recent years. The plant’s operator, Pennsylvania-based Talen Energy, has been exposed to low power prices on the open market as a merchant generator.

montana hydro one colstrip avista — | *Montana Public Service Commission*

Hydro One’s $5.3 billion acquisition would result in Spokane, Wash.-based Avista becoming a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of the Canadian power firm.

The sale, however, could be in jeopardy. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who took office June 29, had campaigned on replacing Hydro One CEO Mayo Schmidt and the company’s board of directors. On Wednesday Schmidt retired and the board resigned under an agreement with the province of Ontario, which owns 47% of Hydro One.

Avista said Wednesday it was surprised by the moves, but didn’t say how they might affect the sale.

On Thursday, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, which has yet to approve a settlement agreement filed in March that insulates Avista from Hydro One financial risk, said it wants Avista to address how the management changes will affect the merger.

Avista, an electric and gas utility with customers in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, has only 32 retail electric customers in Montana, most of whom are affiliated with the company.

“As a result, a traditional examination of this sale and transfer is not appropriate,” the commission said. “Instead the commission examines this transaction under the public interest standard focusing on the potential impacts on electric generation as a whole in Montana.”

Under settlements in their Washington and Idaho merger dockets, Avista and Hydro One proposed a 2027 depreciation end date for Units 3 and 4, although the units’ expected 50-year lifespans would run through 2034 and 2036, respectively.

The PSC noted that accelerated depreciation is a strategy sometimes used to “facilitate premature retirement of disfavored utility generation assets” and said the practice “potentially creates regulatory and operational risks for the other Colstrip owners, as each has diverging economic incentives to operate their respective share of the assets.”

The other owners of Units 3 and 4 are Talen, Puget Sound Energy, PacifiCorp, Portland General Electric and NorthWestern Energy.

The commission said it approved the transaction because it had been assured “that the accelerated depreciation adopted in other jurisdictions will not result in an early or different retirement date for Colstrip Units 3 and 4.” It noted that the applicants committed that the units’ depreciation “will not deviate from the existing scheduled as currently approved.”

The PSC declined to endorse any depreciation schedule for the units, saying the issue would be addressed, if necessary, in future rate cases or other contested case proceedings before the commission. It asked Hydro One and Avista to provide the commissioners with their integrated resource plans for their Montana generating resources “when those plans became available.”

The commission also reserved the right to incorporate any increased commitments made in other jurisdictions into its own approval.

Along with the states in which Avista operates, the companies must gain regulatory approval of their merger from several federal agencies.

Colstrip’s other two units, owned by Talen and Puget Sound, are scheduled to be shut down by 2022 under the terms of a 2016 agreement with environmental groups. The units were built in the 1970s and can produce 614 MW of energy. (See Puget Sound Energy, Talen Agree to Close Colstrip Units.)

July 12, 2018

Appellate Court Rejects Challenge to FERC Funding

By Rich Heidorn Jr.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected environmentalists’ claim that FERC is incented to award pipeline certificates because it collects its operating expenses from regulated parties.

Upholding a lower court ruling, the D.C. Circuit also rejected the Delaware Riverkeeper Network’s challenge to FERC’s use of tolling orders to meet its statutory deadlines for acting on rehearing applications (17-5084).

pipeline certificates due process FERC — | *PennEast Pipeline*

The case arose from PennEast Pipeline’s 2015 application with the commission to build a 114-mile natural gas pipeline through Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Riverkeeper, which works to protect the Delaware River and its tributaries, intervened in opposition.

In 2016, while FERC was still reviewing the application, the group filed a complaint in U.S. District Court alleging that the commission’s funding structure creates structural bias in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Riverkeeper also said the commission’s use of tolling orders to satisfy its 30-day deadline for acting on rehearing applications violates its members’ due process rights.

FERC’s Funding Mechanism

Although it receives an annual Congressional appropriation, FERC is required to recover its costs from regulated industries. Riverkeeper said the structure creates improper incentives for FERC to approve more pipelines so that it could seek larger appropriations from Congress.

The district court dismissed the case for failure to state a claim, agreeing with FERC and PennEast that Riverkeeper had failed to identify any liberty or property interest protected by the Due Process Clause.

The D.C. Circuit agreed, citing the Supreme Court’s 1928 Dugan v. Ohio ruling, which concerned a mayor who served a judicial function as one of five members of a city commission. Although the mayor’s salary came from the same general fund in which fines were deposited, the court said the salary was “not dependent on whether [the mayor] convicts in any case or not.”

As in Dugan, the appellate court ruled, “the adjudicator does not control the funds collected,” because FERC’s fees and charges are “‘credited to the general fund of the Treasury,’ not placed into its own coffers. Moreover, the commission’s budget, like the mayor’s salary in Dugan, is fixed by a distinct legislative body.”

“Regardless of how many pipelines FERC may approve, it ‘shall’ charge, for each year, a total amount ‘equal to all of the costs incurred by the commission in that fiscal year,’” the court said.

Due Process Standing

The Due Process Clause forbids the federal government from depriving a person of “life, liberty or property without due process of law.”

Riverkeeper based its due process claim on the 1971 Environmental Rights Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution, which guarantees its citizens “a right to clean air, pure water and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.”

But the court said the amendment “protects not private property rights, but public goods,” and therefore is “too vague and indeterminate to create a federally cognizable property interest.”

In addition, the court said, “the rights created by the amendment bind only state and local government, not the federal government. … For all of these reasons, we conclude that the Environmental Rights Amendment does not create federally protected liberty or property interests, much less ones that FERC could infringe.”

Tolling Orders

The court also rejected Riverkeeper’s challenges to the commission’s use of tolling orders, which grant rehearing for the limited purpose of giving the commission more time to consider such challenges. Riverkeeper complained that the process frustrates judicial review in violation of the Due Process Clause because FERC routinely allows construction to proceed while the rehearings are pending.

“Regardless of whether any protected liberty or property interests are implicated, the commission is not a structurally biased adjudicator, and its use of tolling orders is not facially unconstitutional,” the court said. “We have long held that FERC’s use of tolling orders is permissible under the Natural Gas Act, which requires only that the commission ‘act upon’ a rehearing request within 30 days, not that it finally dispose of it.”