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October 16, 2017

Counterflow: More Smoking Guns for the Clunkers

Counterflow

By Steve Huntoon

FERC REV Steve Huntoon National Grid — Huntoon

My last couple columns have explored the Department of Energy’s “Cash for Clunkers” proposal. The first column discussed how it will cost tens of billions of dollars and subsidize less reliable generating resources to suppress more reliable resources.^[1] The second column showed that the proposal is the direct result of meetings between President Trump and Robert Murray, coal mine owner and major fundraiser for the president’s campaign,^[2] not some deliberative process involving well-informed, well-intentioned people.

Robert Murray’s Confirmation

A shout-out to Murray for providing a smoking gun one day after my last column ran, confirming that the DOE proposal is all about selling more of his coal to FirstEnergy power plants, one way or another.^[3]

1 in 5,000, and Then Some

Some folks may still think that the situation can’t possibly be that outrageous. The DOE proposal can’t be that devoid of merit.

Wrong.

The smoking gun below is from ReliabilityFirst, the regional reliability organization responsible for reliability in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states (the states that are the focus of the DOE proposal).^[4]

energy department nopr grid resiliency — | *ReliabilityFirst*

Please bear with me in explaining this graphic. It’s displaying the winter. The leftmost column is showing generating resources. The next column is showing possible reduction in those resources due to resource outages, based on the last five winters (including the polar vortex). The percentages on the left are the chance of cumulative outages exceeding the associated outage quantity.^[5]

The biggest cumulative reduction in resources has a 0.2% chance of occurring. That is one in 500.

OK, now skip the 50/50 Demand column and look at the 90/10 Demand column. That reflects a one-in-10 chance of the coldest weather.

Please note that resources at a one-in-500 worst case (the second column) are still much more than the peak demand in the one-in-10 worst case (the last column).

In other words, combined there is much less than a one-in-5,000 (500 x 10) chance of peak demand exceeding resources in the winter.

And there’s more!

What if that less-than-one-in-5,000 situation were to occur? Fuel supply interruption is unlikely to be a major factor.^[6] And RTOs like PJM have tools to avoid customer impact, such as public appeals for conservation and voltage reductions.^[7] And any resource-demand shortage would last only hours, not weeks or of course months.^[8]

The DOE proposal is much ado about nothing.

The Worm Will Turn

Here’s the third smoking gun. If FERC goes forward with subsidizing certain resources for an insignificant quality like fuel supply on site, it should recognize really important qualities like environmental/public health damage.^[9] In the case of coal, the National Research Council of the National Academies estimates that coal generation causes pollution damage averaging $32/MWh.^[10]

This means coal resources should pay $32/MWh for their generation, to be subtracted from whatever revenues they otherwise would receive. The payments should be distributed to those hurt by coal generation.

This administration won’t do that, but no administration is forever. Once the precedent is set for FERC to put its thumbs on the scales, coal better hope that the worm never turns.

https://rtoinsider.com/ferc-baseload-power-energy-department-doe-76332/ ↑
https://rtoinsider.com/murray-energy-department-of-energy-76903/ ↑
Murray said he had pressed Trump and Energy Secretary Rick Perry to have the secretary order financial support for at-risk coal plants using DOE emergency authority, but department and White House lawyers ruled that out. “They didn’t want to declare the emergency,” he said. “It was a low point because we worked hard at it and knew it was needed.“They’re doing it in a different way,” Murray said. “Now we have another approach that’s in use to get to the same point.” https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/10/11/stories/1060063287 ↑
https://www.rfirst.org/reliability/Documents/2016-17%20RF%20Assessment-Winter%20Resource.pdf ↑
ReliabilityFirst says, “To the left side of the range of random outages are probability percentages related to the amount of random outages that equal or exceed the amount of outages shown above that line on the outage bar.” ↑
“Between 2012 and 2016, there were roughly 3.4 billion customer-hours impacted by major electricity disruptions. Of that, 2,382 hours, or 0.00007% of the total, was due to fuel supply problems.” http://rhg.com/notes/the-real-electricity-reliability-crisis. ↑
Described in excruciating detail in PJM’s Manual 13, http://pjm.com/-/media/documents/manuals/m13.ashx. ↑
In the polar vortex, the generation emergencies in PJM aggregated 20 hours. http://pjm.com/-/media/committees-groups/committees/elc/postings/performance-assessment-hours-2011-2014-xls.ashx?la=en. ↑
An elaborate and persuasive discussion of this proposition is provided by Professors Meredith Fowlie and Maximilian Auffhammer: https://theconversation.com/why-rick-perrys-proposed-subsidies-for-coal-fail-economics-101-83339. ↑
https://www.nap.edu/catalog/12794/hidden-costs-of-energy-unpriced-consequences-of-energy-production-and (page 92, converting from kilowatt-hours to megawatt-hours). Damage from natural gas pollution is $1.60/MWh (page 118). Damage from nuclear pollution is small (page 150). These figures do not include greenhouse gases. ↑

October 16, 2017

Project Execution the Focus for Meeting NY Renewable Goals

By Michael Kuser

ALBANY, N.Y. — Now that New York has done most of the hard policymaking, it’s time to focus on building individual renewable energy projects, speakers said Thursday at the Alliance for Clean Energy New York’s 11th Fall Conference.

NYISO NYSERDA clean energy — ACE New York Director Anne Reynolds | © *RTO Insider*

“It is a great time to be a New Yorker advocating for clean energy policies in New York, but all these great, strong leading policies have not put us on an easy glide path to 50%” renewable energy, ACE NY Director Anne Reynolds said.

With a tradition of home rule and spirited opposition to large-scale projects, New York is a tough place for building, she said. Thus, ACE NY needs to focus on getting projects built, Reynolds said.

“Without this new focus, and without individual projects succeeding, our collective progress will be on paper only,” she said.

She also spoke of the Trump administration’s efforts to reverse its predecessor’s responses to climate change.

“It’s been a year in which I’ve been glad to focus on advocacy in Albany rather than in Washington, D.C.,” Reynolds said. “It’s also been a year when I’ve been happy to be living in Upstate New York, as we watched with hopes and prayers as Americans in Houston and Florida and Puerto Rico and in the Virgin Islands had a front row seat to a changed and changing climate — a dangerous and deadly front row seat.”

Ambitious Goals

“New York really has set forth an extraordinarily ambitious agenda for climate policy and clean energy in the state,” said Alicia Barton, CEO of the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority, who spoke of the state’s “extraordinarily ambitious” clean energy goals: 50% renewable energy by 2030, while reducing buildings’ energy and electricity consumption by 23% from 2012 levels. It also has committed to build 2,400 MW of offshore wind in the same time frame. (See New York Seeks to Lead US in Offshore Wind.)

Meeting its goals will require scaling energy efficiency to deliver outcomes at a lower cost, she said. That’s why NYSERDA is making new investments in energy efficiency that are premised on different models than used before under the $10 billion, five-year Clean Energy Fund.

“For example, we’re working to launch later this fall a program that we’re very excited about called Retrofit New York, which is a $40 million initiative to enable new models to deliver deep energy retrofits in the multifamily housing space, which is an incredibly important segment of the building stock for New York,” Barton said. “Retrofit New York is based on a model that’s been deployed successfully in a number of European markets, and it’s totally new to the U.S. So again, we are asking for partnership from industry, from players in the design of energy-efficiency delivery and project finance.”

NYSERDA is also looking at a pilot around pay-for-performance in energy efficiency, but that’s in the “fairly early stages of conception,” Barton said.

Largest Procurement in the U.S.?

Government procurement is creating the demand that will allow renewable projects to get financed and built, said Joe Martens, director of the New York Offshore Wind Alliance and former commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

“In New York, a developer’s current opportunities for long-term contracts arise from NYSERDA and the New York Power Authority and, to a lesser extent, the Long Island Power Authority,” Martens said. “As you know, there are many open solicitations from both NYPA and NYSERDA for an unprecedented 2.5 million MWh. This procurement, the very first under the Clean Energy Standard policy, is the largest single procurement that New York has ever conducted and, as far as I know, the largest in the United States.” (See NY Clean Energy Commitment Spurs Procurement.)

Rich Allen, NYPA’s vice president for project and business development, said he was excited to tell the conference about the agency’s procurement until he realized that — with a request for proposals open and client confidentially applying — he was not free to discuss many of the details. The authority was pleased to receive more than 100 proposals offering all the technologies sought, Allen said.

“Our procurement goal when we pulled together this RFP was to hit three bullet areas: The Clean Energy Standard; we also wanted to meet our customers’ renewable goals; and we’re also seeking lower-cost renewable energy,” Allen said. “The CES will require about 29 TWh of renewable energy statewide by 2030. NYPA’s share is about 4 TWh, 1 TWh of which it is seeking in the current RFP.”

All NYPA projects — either wind, solar, hydro or biomass — will be required to be in service by 2022, with a minimum size of 10 to 20 MW, depending on the technology.

The most innovative aspect of the RFP is NYPA’s use of a prepaid power purchase agreement, in which the agency would serve as matchmakers between generators and loads. NYPA can only procure as much renewable energy as its customers express an interest in.

Retirement Issues

Doreen Harris, NYSERDA director for large-scale renewables, said that one new aspect of the CES procurement is the setting of minimum quantity requirements. “So for this year, our minimum procurement target is about 1.3 TWh, and should in November we not obtain that quantity, we would issue a second solicitation in 2017,” Harris said. “And this will continue … and will set the stage for what will be a really significant pipeline of projects both under development and in construction in the state.”

On Oct. 2, NYSERDA requested that the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management consider areas the state felt were best suited for offshore wind development. The selection process “really is the balance of all the uses of the ocean, including fishing, environmental questions and concerns, as well as cables and pipelines,” she said.

Asa Hopkins of Synapse Energy Economics addressed the fact that some older renewable generators won’t qualify for long-term contracts under Tier II rules. To be eligible, run-of-river hydroelectric facilities of 5 MW or less, wind turbines and direct combustion biomass facilities must have entered commercial operation and had their output included in the state’s baseline of renewable resources by Jan. 1, 2003. Under CES guidelines, they also must demonstrate that the renewable energy attributes of these resources are at financial risk.

clean energy nyserda nyiso offshore wind — Hopkins | © *RTO Insider*

“The existing independent New York resources are about 20% of the baseline or about 13% of the resources needed to get to the 2030 goal,” Hopkins said.

If these resources were lost, either by shutting down or by selling their environmental attributes and their energy to other jurisdictions, that could be a significant challenge for New York, he said.

“Opportunities for these resources to export their attributes are increasing,” Hopkins said. “Low market prices increase the risk of retirement. Just to reiterate, New York can only claim those resources for its goals if those attributes actually stay in New York. … Our estimate is that replacing these resources, if they are lost, with Tier I resources would cost New York ratepayers $1.1 billion, and our analysis indicates that there are other policy options that would retain some or all of these resources in New York for less than that.”

On an energy basis, these resources “are 47% hydro, 39% wind and the rest landfill gas, biomass and a little bit of solar,” Hopkins said. He added that in 2014, New York resources used for renewable portfolio standard compliance in Massachusetts were about 1 TWh, with about one-tenth of that amount used in Connecticut.

“These are fungible resources and they could be attracted back to New York depending on New York’s policy,” Hopkins said.

Efficiency Puzzle

New York’s position as a leader in energy efficiency is falling, said Karl Rábago, director of the Pace Energy and Climate Center. Lime Energy CEO Adam Procell said the reason is that “30% of those electrons, or kilowatt-hours, are wasted in our buildings.”

Procell recommended New York regulators avoid being like Florida. “In Florida they love to trumpet their 10-cent energy rate,” he said. “They’ve kept the rates very low; that’s what regulators do in Florida. But when you’re paying 10 cents/kWh to run electricity through 20-year-old equipment and fluorescent lighting fixtures that we took out in Mass. 15 years ago, that’s a very expensive energy bill. Customers care about their bills, not their rates.”

It’s not a good idea to force yourself into playing catch-up on ambitious clean energy goals, said Steve Wemple, director of Consolidated Edison’s Utility of the Future Team.

Con Ed has four different incentives or earnings adjustment mechanisms under the state’s Reforming the Energy Vision. Some are tied specifically to megawatt-hour reductions, as well as peak megawatts, the traditional programmatic incentives for utilities. The company has two new outcome-based incentives that measure the energy intensity of customers and the adoption of distributed energy resources. Con Ed is also developing a carbon intensity metric that it hopes to use as an incentive mechanism in 2019.

To elicit behavioral change, the company is changing its approach to the market. “We used to have rebate forms, but now it’s point-of-sale,” Wemple said. “We’re trying to work upstream to make sure vendors are stocking the more efficient appliances and making it easier for customers to realize those incentives.”

Con Ed is also trying to work through the school system. “Getting school kids to guilt their parents is a very effective tool, and it will pay off down the road,” Wemple said. “Hopefully those students will stay in New York state, and we won’t have the leakage into Massachusetts.”

Procell had the last word: “If New York backslides from 2018 to 2020, we won’t make it to our 2030 goals.”

October 16, 2017

FERC Rejects SPP’s Request to Remove Day-Ahead Must-Offer

By Tom Kleckner

FERC on Friday rejected SPP’s request to remove its day-ahead must-offer requirement, saying the RTO had not provided “sufficient support” for its proposed Tariff revisions (ER17-2312).

“SPP’s proposal removes the only direct penalty, beyond referrals to the commission’s Office of Enforcement, for physical withholding and associated manipulative behavior in SPP’s day-ahead market,” the commission said. It also pointed out the RTO didn’t suggest additional protections going forward.

SPP FERC day-ahead energy market must-offer obligation — | *SPP*

“Removing the limited day-ahead must-offer requirement in its entirety would make monitoring and capturing potential physical withholding in the day-ahead market even more important,” FERC said.

MMU, Golden Spread Raise Concerns

SPP’s Market Monitoring Unit and member Golden Spread Electric Cooperative both supported the proposal, though not without reservations.

The MMU raised concerns about the potential for physical withholding without the requirement and requested the removal on an interim basis for 18 months — allowing the Monitor and SPP to determine whether it does result in increased withholding.

The MMU recommended in its 2014 State of the Market report that SPP remove the limited day-ahead must-offer requirement, establish a phased penalty structure for physical withholding, update the defined thresholds for physical withholding and revise the generator capability thresholds. However, those proposals failed to pass the stakeholder process.

Golden Spread’s issues were with the day-ahead market’s competitive operation without a must-offer requirement. The co-op said it is “unsound” to rely only on the expectation that the withholding rules will catch improper behavior. The co-op also argued the Tariff should be clear on what constitutes physical withholding, so market participants aren’t subject to an “information gap.”

Without access to the shift factors and other information SPP collects, market participants have no warning on the impact of their offers, forcing them to make guesses regarding resource demand and market clearing prices, Golden Spread said.

It also said that without the must-offer requirement, market participants may offer into the day-ahead market to avoid failing ambiguous physical withholding tests, rather than basing their decisions on economics.

‘Anectodal’ Evidence

FERC said SPP referred to “anecdotal” evidence that there is little reason to fear physical withholding but did not “provide further support for this assertion.”

The commission said that while SPP assured it that there is ample resource participation in its day-ahead market, “sufficient resource participation is not a safeguard against physical withholding and associated market manipulation.” FERC said a generating resource could hold local market power because of a transmission constraint, despite a large market-wide surplus.

“The must-offer requirement is the physical withholding analog to the market power mitigation rules to address economic withholding,” the commission said.

SPP filed the request in August, saying the must-offer requirement was no longer needed and that its reliability needs are met “at all times” by the full must-offer requirements for its reliability unit commitment processes and real-time market. The RTO said the MMU’s eye on physical withholding in the day-ahead market has a “more significant impact on market participant behavior” and, based on three years of observational data, “robust” participation in the day-ahead market resulted in capacity offered in the day-ahead market “consistently exceeding” reported load by about 50%.

SPP’s request was the result of a directive from FERC when it conditionally accepted the RTO’s Integrated Marketplace in 2012. The commission asked SPP to revise its Tariff to create a process in which it or the MMU would:

Verify that market participants had not exceeded a predetermined acceptable load forecasting error; and
Establish noncompliance penalties if market participants’ estimations exceeded the acceptable range of load forecasting error.

October 13, 2017

Policy Biggest Obstacle for Storage, Panel Says

By Jason Fordney

SAN DIEGO — The electricity sector continues to identify possible applications for energy storage while costs for the technology steadily decline, but the lack of cohesive federal, state and local policy remains the chief obstacle to integration, a panel of experts said Wednesday.

“The technology piece has caught up. What we cannot afford to do is let the policy drag it down,” Kiran Kumaraswamy of AES Energy Storage said during a panel discussion at the Infocast Transmission Summit West. Industry and policymakers can develop a framework for adopting storage once they determine the magnitude and type of need for the technology, he said.

energy storage Infocast Transmission Summit West — Left to right: Energy Storage panel moderator Luke Martin of ScottMadden, Dagenais, Kumaraswamy, Noh | © *RTO Insider*

Storage has not traditionally been seen as a workable solution to solving locational reliability needs on the transmission grid, and there are questions as to whether it should be regulated as a generation or transmission/distribution asset. The U.S., especially CAISO, is in a leadership position as far as deploying storage, “but the rest of the world is catching up,” Kumaraswamy said.

Storage can also defer transmission investment, and “the ISO has been very progressive in considering non-wires alternatives,” he said.

CAISO recently launched a yearslong effort to develop a load-shifting product for energy storage, the third phase of its Energy Storage and Distributed Energy Resources (ESDER) initiative. (See CAISO Load-Shifting Product to Target Energy Storage.)

Even in situations in which conventional generation would be much cheaper, California regulatory policy and public opinion are driving storage applications. After CAISO recently performed a study finding that the $299 million proposed Puente Power Project is the cheapest alternative to energy storage and distributed energy solutions costing up to $1.2 billion, the California Energy Commission still indicated that it might not approve the plant. (See CEC Members Recommend No-Go for Puente Plant.)

There is “a very good working relationship between renewables and energy storage,” according to Tom Dagenais of Duke-American Transmission Co., a joint venture between Duke Energy and American Transmission Co. created to develop new transmission projects — such as the Zephyr line to carry wind energy from Wyoming to California, and the San Luis transmission project in California’s Central Valley.

Dagenais cautioned that integrating energy storage is a challenge, and that the decisions being made today as the technology enters the market will set the tone for how it is perceived in the future.

“If we screw this up, there is going to be a lot of fingers pointed and a lot of questions,” he said.

FERC last November issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would require each RTO and ISO to recognize the physical and operational characteristics of storage, and accommodate storage and aggregated distributed resources in organized markets. (See FERC Rule Would Boost Energy Storage, DER.)

energy storage — Harding Street Energy Storage | *AES*

But the agency lost its quorum shortly after the proposed rule was issued, and it is unclear whether the new commission will act on it. It is also unknown how FERC will view storage as the commission becomes embroiled in controversy over Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s new proposed rule designed to bolster coal-fired generation.

Idaho Public Commissioner Kristine Raper asked the panel how a state like hers, which is long on capacity and has an abundance of hydroelectric generation, could take advantage of energy storage.

Jin Noh of the California Energy Storage Alliance noted that California has sufficient capacity but is still pursuing energy storage. “It is a question of what type of capacity,” Noh said. “There is a major need for flexibility capacity and opportunities to save ratepayer money.”

Dagenais said: “Idaho is in a pretty unique situation,” adding that many other states have a rapidly changing resource mix. He said that storage is still something worth looking into to cut costs and reduce use of lower-efficiency generation units at peak times.

October 13, 2017

MISO Gets FERC OK to Alter Reserve Requirement Modeling

By Amanda Durish Cook

FERC on Wednesday granted MISO a six-month reprieve from a Tariff provision requiring it to include minimum zonal reserve requirements in its modeling of broader system reserve requirements.

The RTO currently calculates minimum reserve requirements using offline studies conducted three days in advance of a day-ahead market run, but it has said that study results aren’t always accurate because actual operating conditions, including transmission constraints, can deviate from original study assumptions.

MISO reserve requirements modeling — MISO’s minimum reserve requirements will be taken up in the Market Subcommittee (pictured) | © *RTO Insider*

A case in point: In early April, scarcity pricing was triggered in MISO because an offline study predicted an 84-MW minimum contingency reserve for Zone 6 covering Indiana and a slice of Kentucky, but it failed to account for actual transmission and generation outages modeled in the day-ahead process. Generation and transmission outages in MISO caused an outflow of energy from Zone 6, creating scarcity conditions for reserves and sending prices as high as $1,100/MWh.

In mid-July, MISO said it was evaluating changing the algorithm behind its minimum reserve requirement to reflect energy flow constraints. (See MISO Ponders Reserve Scheduling Fix.)

In its filing, the RTO told FERC it needed a waiver of “inflexible” offline studies while it holds stakeholder meetings exploring an additional modeling step to account for constraints and prepares a Tariff filing. It also noted that it could decide to permanently remove offline studies from the process.

MISO filed for the waiver last month, and the commission acted quickly given that the RTO has entered its shoulder season typified by planned outages (ER17-2466).

“MISO requests expeditious action on this waiver request because the conditions that could potentially lead offline studies to set minimum reserve requirements have previously occurred in the months of October and November,” FERC said.

The waiver remains in effect until April 12, 2018.

FERC allowed the waiver on the grounds that it will remedy current reserve price distortions through “ineffective constraint relief when minimum reserve requirements do not properly reflect real-time non-deliverability of reserves” and “protect the markets from price signals that do not properly reflect or resolve real-time reserve deliverability issues.”

October 13, 2017

UPDATED: Perry Defends Call for Coal, Nuclear Supports

By Michael Brooks and Rich Heidorn Jr.

WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Thursday defended his call for price supports for struggling coal and nuclear plants, telling the House Energy Subcommittee “these resources must be revived, not reviled.”

FERC NOPR nuclear coal Rick Perry — Perry | © *RTO Insider*

Perry also pushed back on criticism that his Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which called for “full recovery” of the plants’ costs, would undermine competitive markets.

Republicans largely expressed support for the rule. But Perry did little to counter allegations that his action was motivated by President Trump’s campaign promises to help the coal industry — repeatedly sidestepping Democrats’ questions about the costs of his proposal and the evidence supporting the need for 90 days of on-site fuel. He also contradicted himself on whether the NOPR was a command to FERC or an invitation to “start a conversation.”

“The base reason that we asked for this … is that, for years, this has been kicked down the road,” Perry said of the NOPR, published in the Federal Register on Tuesday.

The proposal would require FERC-jurisdictional RTOs and ISOs with capacity markets and day-ahead and real-time energy markets to ensure full cost recovery for any generation that is capable of providing “essential energy and ancillary services” and has a 90-day fuel supply on site “enabling it to operate during an emergency, extreme weather conditions, or a natural or man-made disaster.” Units subject to cost-of-service rate regulation would be excluded.

Essential services include voltage support, frequency services, operating reserves and reactive power. Just and reasonable rates for such generators would cover “its fully allocated costs and a fair return on equity,” including operating and fuel expenses and the costs of capital and debt, the NOPR said.

FERC NOPR Rick Perry — The House Energy Subcommittee | © *RTO Insider*

Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), ranking member of the subcommittee, asked how Perry reached the conclusions in the NOPR, given that FERC and NERC have said that the grid is reliable. In an apparent reference to the NOPR, FERC Commissioner Robert Powelson promised in an Oct. 4 speech “not to destroy” the markets, leading Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur to tweet, “Great message!”

“I respect the FERC members’ views,” Perry said. “I think their picture is one that is a snapshot in time. … What I think one of my roles is is to think outside of the box.”

The grid is normally resilient during “blue sky” days, he said, and his support for an “all of the above” generation mix was proven during his time overseeing wind growth as governor of Texas. “But the wind does not always blow. The sun doesn’t always shine. The gas pipelines — they can’t guarantee every day that that supply is going to be there.”

“It seems to me what you’re saying is, ‘Well my gut feeling has more of a priority … rather than what these experts have said,’” Rush responded.

While no Republican on the subcommittee criticized the proposal — and many offered their support and praise for Perry — party leadership did not tip its hand.

“While I reserve judgment on the policy solutions, the fact that the secretary stepped in to this complicated debate reflects the current need to have a broader conversation about the functioning of the nation’s electricity markets,” subcommittee Chair Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said in his opening statement.

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chair of the full Energy and Commerce Committee, made no mention of the NOPR in his opening remarks, instead focusing on the Department of Energy’s budget.

Countering Subsidies

Perry said he was attempting to counter subsidies that have benefited renewables at the expense of coal and nuclear. “There is no such thing as a free market in the energy industry,” he said multiple times. “Government’s picking winners and losers every day by regulations … and I’m at least honest enough to say it.” He pointed to state utility commissions, policies such as renewable portfolio standards, and Texas’ own Competitive Retail Energy Zones as evidence.

Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) pushed back on this, pointing to the retail choice offered in his state and the uncoupling of generators from utilities.

“Gene, you know me, I’m all about that competition,” Perry said. “That’s what we did … we deregulated that market and that competition came. But the idea is, we had an administration before that had their thumb on the scale. I think you’ll agree, [former President Barack Obama] liked green energy, and that’s where the subsidization came.”

Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) pointed out that the production and investment tax credits for solar and wind resources, respectively, were passed by a Republican-controlled Congress.

Not Supported by DOE Study

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), ranking member of the full committee, said the NOPR was not supported by the grid study the department released in August. He asked Perry what analyses the department or its national labs had done to support the proposal.

[metaslider id=”102432″]

Perry did not respond to the question, instead challenging Pallone’s premise. The grid study, he said, didn’t address “with specificity the events I’m concerned about,” he said, citing the 2014 polar vortex. In fact, the report had about 17 references to “extreme weather” or the polar vortex. (See Perry Grid Study Seeks to Aid Coal, Nuclear Generation.)

Perry also sparred with Rep. Michael Doyle (D-Pa.), who said the committee had held eight hearings on markets and reliability. “We’ve actually been having the conversation you claimed to be starting,” he said.

“This has been discussed for a long time, as you rightfully said,” Perry conceded. But he said it was now time for action.

“Our RTO made that adjustment” after the polar vortex, Doyle said, referring to PJM’s Capacity Performance rules, which increased the penalties and bonuses for capacity resources during grid emergencies. “We feel pretty confident with our capacity in Pennsylvania.”

“‘Pretty confident’ is not going to get it [done],” Perry shot back.

Tonko asked if Perry considered consumer costs in developing the NOPR.

“What’s the cost of freedom?” Perry responded. “What does it cost to build a system that keeps America free? I’m not sure I want to put that straight out onto the free market.”

Directive or Conversation?

Perry said the NOPR was intended to “kick-start a national discussion about resiliency and about the reliability of the grid.” Noting the vociferous opposition his proposal provoked, he chuckled, “And best I can tell, we were pretty successful in doing that. … We’re having this conversation now that we really haven’t had in this country.” (See Consumer Advocates Slam Perry NOPR, RTOs, FERC.)

FERC NOPR nuclear Rick Perry — Perry before the House Energy Subcommittee | © *RTO Insider*

Indeed, at least 50 companies, regulatory agencies and trade groups have intervened or made comments in the docket FERC opened to respond to the NOPR (RM18-1).

Doyle pressed Perry on discrepancies between the NOPR, which repeatedly says FERC “must” act, and the secretary’s repeated references to starting a “conversation.”

“Is it a directive to FERC to do this or a conversation?” Doyle asked.

“Both,” Perry said.

“So, it’s a directive then?” Doyle asked.

“My words are what my words are. I don’t back off from them,” Perry said.

“It can’t be both,” Doyle protested. “So, which one is it?”

“Well actually it is both. It can be both. We can have a conversation and I think [FERC] must move. I think they must act. We’ve kicked this can down the road as long as we need to.”

Perry seemed to acknowledge multiple times that FERC would not be obligated to follow such a directive. Legal experts have said that Perry has no power to make FERC, an independent agency, provide the relief he is seeking. (See FERC’s Independence to be Tested by DOE NOPR.)

Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.), who said he was “100% behind” the NOPR, asked if “FERC were to follow through with your missive, don’t you think we’d have a better outcome” than what happened during the polar vortex?

“Well I do, but I mean, that’s why we’re having this conversation here,” Perry answered, saying he wanted to hear from both sides of the issue.

Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) also said the NOPR conflicted with the findings of the grid study and said it would cost consumers and businesses billions. “There is just no rational basis for this new FERC rule that you’re trying to move through as quickly as possible,” she said.

“If the request … the NOPR to FERC is what you say it is, [FERC] won’t go forward with it,” Perry responded.

When asked by Doyle if he had considered any better alternatives to the NOPR, Perry answered, “I don’t have any idea whether there are any better options. That’s one of the reasons we wanted to have this conversation is to bring those up and discuss them.

“I’m not saying that my letter to FERC is the be-all-end-all, but it’s obviously been very successful in getting the conversation going.”

October 13, 2017

DOE ‘Resiliency’ Must Respect Planning, Research, MISO Says

By Amanda Durish Cook

CARMEL, Ind. — MISO will make two points in its comments to FERC in response to Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s proposal to allow “resilient” resources with a 90-day on-site supply of fuel to fully recover their costs. (See Perry Orders FERC Rescue of Nukes, Coal.)

The first point, according to Executive Director of Strategy Shawn McFarlane: The commission’s response to the Department of Energy’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking should respect MISO’s existing reliability process that incorporates state rules.

The second: Any monetary value placed on resiliency must be supported by research.

“MISO and MISO states have a well-established process to address reliability and resource needs … and any approach needs to respect those regional processes, and even those regional differences,” McFarlane said at an Oct. 11 Resource Adequacy Subcommittee meeting.

He also noted that “MISO supports a thorough and complete process” for detailing reliability and resiliency attributes, and will urge a well-researched approach.

MISO FERC DOE resiliency — McFarlane | © *RTO Insider*

McFarlane said the 21-day public comment period didn’t provide enough time to collect stakeholder comments and summarize them in MISO’s comments, and he urged stakeholders to make individual filings.

MISO Executive Director of System Operations Renuka Chatterjee echoed McFarlane’s comments a day later at an Oct. 12 Market Subcommittee meeting.

“MISO and the states have well-established processes and initiatives in place to protect reliability,” she said.

MISO will seek a thorough FERC process and sufficient time for the RTO to review any final rule “so we can judge the applicability while respecting regional differences,” Chatterjee said.

“How about the 15-day implementation period?” joked Kevin Murray, attorney for the Coalition of Midwest Transmission Customers, referring to the NOPR provision requiring RTOs to make a compliance filing within 15 days of a proposed rule becoming final (RM18-1).

“I don’t know that 15 days would be sufficient, but all jokes aside, MISO will probably ask for more time to review and assess. Stakeholders that think the 15 days is too short should comment,” Chatterjee said.

MISO Independent Market Monitor David Patton confirmed that he would file comments.

“We’re going to file comments that stress the importance of being careful and reasonable when picking policies,” Patton said. “I don’t know that we understand what [resiliency] is unless it’s related to reliability.”

Patton said he could see the need for resiliency in planning for future contingencies but didn’t know if the concept should be monetized.

“Treating it as a separate idea and pursing it outside the market process is very harmful,” Patton said.

October 13, 2017March 20, 2024

Texas PUC OKs Settlement in Oncor-Sharyland Asset Swap

By Tom Kleckner

The Public Utility of Commission on Wednesday approved a settlement in Oncor’s proposed swap of more than $400 million in assets with Sharyland Utilities, paving the way for the two parties to complete the transaction (Docket 47469).

The exchange will result in Oncor acquiring 54,000 retail distribution customers and assets from Sharyland, in exchange for 258 miles of Oncor transmission lines in West and Central Texas. The PUC’s approval would also dismiss Sharyland’s current rate case, providing “significant rate relief to our customers,” according to the utility’s CEO, David Campbell.

In 2015 the commission opened an inquiry into Sharyland’s rates, which spiked following the utility’s 2010 acquisition of a bundled package of financially troubled electric cooperatives. Sharyland is owned by the Hunt family of Dallas, which failed in a 2016 bid to buy Oncor.

“The Hunt organization and Sharyland took a lot of arrows from customers and others, for problems that really weren’t of their making,” Commissioner Ken Anderson said. “They were faced with an intractable problem. … This will solve that problem. Oncor didn’t have to do this. It couldn’t have happened but for the agreement of everybody.”

The agreement also avoids an expected rate increase for Sharyland’s retail customers in South Texas.

“Ultimately, the proposed transaction seeks to resolve the rate disparity that currently exists between Sharyland’s high retail electric delivery rates and those of Oncor” and other ERCOT transmission and distribution utilities, the order said.

The commission approved Sharyland’s request to recover up to $17 million in transition costs for the proposed transaction, although it directed the utility to use its “best efforts” to sell any assets not being exchanged and to minimize employee-related transition costs.

The PUC also approved the incorporation of Sharyland’s energy efficiency cost recovery factor (EECRF) and transmission cost recovery factor (TCRF) regulatory assets or liabilities into Oncor’s EECRF and TCRF.

Oncor plans to make its 2018 EECRF effective March 1, 2018, and will include a refund of $6,097,744 for its over-recovered 2016 energy efficiency costs. The transaction, expected to close before March 1, will result in a credit of $243,199 for Sharyland’s over-recovered 2016 energy efficiency costs. That total will be combined with Oncor’s EECRF and be refunded to the appropriate Oncor rate classes.

Oncor is already the largest utility in Texas, with 3.4 million wholesale and retail customers.

The commission’s approval led to a round of back-patting among the parties and commission staff.

“It’s been a long process, with a lot of tricky issues we didn’t anticipate,” said Vinson & Elkins’ Matt Henry, Oncor’s legal counsel. “Staff worked hard to help us fight through the things. Working with Sharyland and their team, there was never a point we didn’t find an obstacle we couldn’t work through.”

“Matt is probably just happy he finally has a change-in-control agreement,” said PUC Executive Director Brian Lloyd.

Schedules Set in LP&L, Sempra-Oncor Cases

The commissioners set tentative hearing dates in a pair of upcoming high-profile cases that will keep them busy well into 2018.

During an Oct. 9 prehearing conference, parties in Lubbock Power & Light’s plan to migrate part of its load from SPP into ERCOT agreed to Jan. 17-18, 2018, hearing dates (Docket 47576).

Lubbock on Sept. 1 filed its formal application to integrate 470 MW of its load with ERCOT by June 2021. That load is currently served through a wholesale contract with SPP member Southwestern Public Service; the contract expires May 31, 2021.

Another prehearing conference is scheduled Monday for Sempra Energy’s attempted acquisition of Oncor (Docket 47675). The PUC has blocked off Feb. 21-23 for a hearing on the merits.

October 13, 2017

Vistra Energy to Close 2 More Coal Plants

By Tom Kleckner

Vistra Energy announced Friday it will close two additional coal-fired plants, taking another 2,300 MW of capacity offline and slashing its coal portfolio by more than half.

The retirements of Big Brown, north of Houston, and Sandow, northeast of Austin, will leave Vistra’s Luminant generating subsidiary with just two operational coal plants rated at a combined 3,850 MW. Vistra announced Oct. 6 it would be retiring its three-unit, 1,800-MW Monticello plant in East Texas. (See First Shoe to Drop? Vistra to Retire 3 Texas Coal Units.)

ERCOT BGE Vistra Energy closed loop interface — Big Brown | *Vistra Energy*

CEO Curt Morgan again blamed the “economically challenged” environment the plants face in the ERCOT market. The company said sustained low wholesale power prices, an oversupply of renewable generation and low natural gas prices contributed to the decision.

“Though the long-term economic viability of these plants has been in question for some time, our yearlong analysis indicates this announcement is now necessary,” Morgan said.

ERCOT’s most recent Capacity, Demand and Reserves report indicated the ISO had an 18.9% reserve margin for next summer, with margins remaining above 18% the following three years. A revised CDR report will be released in December.

“The market will tighten from a reserve margin perspective, but it remains to be seen if on-peak forwards will rise in response,” Kevin Vo, a research analyst with Tudor, Pickering, Holt, & Co., told RTO Insider. “We don’t believe off-peak pricing would be affected due to the large amount of wind generation.”

The Vistra retirements include the 600-MW Sandow Unit 5, which went online in 2009 and has a 75% capacity factor. Only Luminant’s twin-unit Oak Grove plant, which began operations in 2010, is newer.

Sandow was built to serve a nearby Alcoa smelter, which was closed in 2008. Shortly before making its announcement, Vistra agreed to an early settlement that terminates a long-standing power and mining agreement with the aluminum company.

A Luminant spokesperson said once the contract was terminated, it became clear the Sandow units were not economical in the ERCOT market.

“The contract has helped shield Sandow from significant exposure to the downturn in the wholesale power market,” the company said in a press release.

“Sandow’s retirement was a surprise but highlights that it is hard for any coal plant to make money in Texas right now,” Ko said. “If you are a coal plant generator, you’re waiting to see if prices will respond. If prices don’t rise meaningfully or any price increase isn’t sustained, we would not be surprised if there are further coal plant retirement announcements.”

The Three Oaks mine, which supports the plant, will also be closed.

Luminant has filed a 90-day notice of suspension of operations with ERCOT. The plant will cease operating Jan. 11 if the ISO’s reliability review shows the units are not needed.

Big Brown is the oldest coal plant in Luminant’s fleet, with its two units having begun operations in 1971 and 1972. The units are together capable of generating 1,150 MW and have a combined capacity factor of 59%. Both units burn lignite supplemented by Powder River Basin coal. The nearby Turlington mine that supplies the plant was already scheduled to wind down operations by the end of this year.

Vistra said it would explore a sales process for the site during ERCOT’s notification period. The company filed a 120-day suspension noticed with the ISO to allow for a “more complete sales process.” With ERCOT’s approval, the plant will cease operations on Feb. 12 if it has not been sold.

Luminant said about 650 employees will be affected by the plant and mine closures.

The company’s 2,250-MW Martin Lake plant in East Texas is now the fleet’s oldest, its three units having gone into service in 1977, 1978 and 1979. Luminant also has 7,500 MW of natural gas capacity and 2,300 MW of nuclear capacity.

October 13, 2017

FERC Chair Praises Perry’s ‘Bold Leadership’ on NOPR

By Rich Heidorn Jr. and Michael Brooks

WASHINGTON — FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee praised Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s “bold leadership” in calling for price supports for coal and nuclear plants but promised the commission’s response will be “fuel-neutral” and will not undermine wholesale markets.

FERC Neil Chatterjee Rick Perry — Chatterjee | © *RTO Insider*

“I think the bold directive [Perry] took has initiated this conversation, and it’s something that we are going to look at very seriously, and I’m confident we’ll find a positive resolution to,” Chatterjee said in a nearly hour-long press conference at FERC headquarters Friday. “I’m sympathetic to some of the things that Secretary Perry has raised. This idea that there are perhaps attributes that certain generating sources have that have value [and] that are not appropriately being captured by our existing market structure, we need to look at that carefully…

“I also believe strongly in markets. We’ve invested nearly two decades and billions upon billions of dollars into our existing market structure, and I don’t want to do anything to disrupt that market structure,” he continued. “Accurately valuing resilience is not a zero-sum game. Compensating baseload generation does not equate to destruction of the markets. On the contrary, I think it’s a step toward accurately pricing contributions of all market participants.”

Chatterjee said the commission must act within 60 days in response to the Department of Energy’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which was published in the Federal Register on Tuesday.

FERC’s Options

The NOPR would require FERC-jurisdictional RTOs and ISOs with capacity markets and day-ahead and real-time energy markets to ensure full cost recovery for any generation that can provide “essential energy and ancillary services” and has a 90-day fuel supply on site. Units subject to cost-of-service rate regulation would be excluded. Just and reasonable rates for such generators would cover “its fully allocated costs and a fair return on equity,” including operating and fuel expenses and the costs of capital and debt, the NOPR said.

Chatterjee outlined FERC’s options for responding: “We could do an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; we could do a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking superseding the DOE NOPR; we could issue a final rule; we could do an extension of the comment period and solicitation of further comments; we can convene technical conferences; we can do a notice of inquiry; we could initiate Federal Power Act Section 206 review proceedings.”

Asked whether the commission could take an up-or-down vote on the proposal within 60 days, Chatterjee responded, “It could be. We’re going to carefully look at it.”

Chatterjee said that while he would prefer to delay major actions until the commission is fully staffed with the addition of nominees Kevin McIntyre and Richard Glick, he wouldn’t hold up action pending their arrival. The two are awaiting a Senate floor vote after clearing the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Sept. 19.

“These challenges are too important to wait,” Chatterjee said, noting that the commission is planning a “big announcement” on hydropower licensing policy at its next open meeting Oct. 19.

He also defended the commission’s refusal to extend the comment period on the NOPR (RM18-1). The commission set an Oct. 23 deadline on comments, with reply comments due Nov. 7. “It’s not a new issue,” he said. “We have ample time to receive comments.”

Kentucky Native on Coal’s Role

Chatterjee defended comments he made in a podcast in August, which some FERC watchers interpreted as signaling a break from the commission’s traditional “fuel-neutral” policies.

After praising “baseload” coal and nuclear generation for their value to “resilience and reliability,” Chatterjee noted that coal provided more than 80% of the electricity in his home state of Kentucky last year. “As a nation, we need to ensure that coal, along with gas and renewables, continue to be part of our diverse fuel mix,” he said then.

“I wasn’t saying that FERC was not fuel-neutral,” he said Friday. “To be clear, whatever solution that we pursue here will be fuel-neutral as well. I agree with Commissioner [Cheryl] LaFleur’s assessment that we don’t start with a resource and work backwards. We come up with policies that will be applied in a fuel-neutral way.”

But he said he agreed with lawmakers who want to preserve “fuel diversity,” suggesting coal could act as a hedge against “unintended consequences” from technological changes on the grid.

He cited the switch of the Big Sandy generator in Kentucky from coal to natural gas. Much of the plant’s load was from the energy-intensive coal mines in the region.

“So, when the power plant shut down, the coal mines that fed that plant shut down with it. … Now the operators of the gas plant find themselves in a situation where they’ve got to come to the state for a massive rate increase to account for … lost load,” he said. “So that’s a perfect example of an unintended consequence that occurs when you have these technological shifts. And I just think we need to be very thoughtful and careful in assessing what the long-term future of our grid looks like when these types of unintended consequences can occur.”

Chatterjee declined to offer an opinion on whether a 90-day fuel supply is a valid way to measure reliability. The NOPR said such supplies enable a plant “to operate during an emergency, extreme weather conditions, or a natural or man-made disaster.”

“I just think we have to go through our process, take in people’s comments. Look at the rationale to see how it would impact them,” Chatterjee said. “I’m not prepared at this stage of our process — not having all that complete information submitted — [to say] how we will address that.”

The commission also will consider data cited by members of the House Energy Subcommittee during a Thursday hearing with Perry indicating that most outages result from problems on the distribution system rather than from insufficient generation, the chairman said. (See Perry Defends Call for Coal, Nuclear Supports.)

“Staff put out an … extensive list of questions to facilitate this kind of dialogue and commenting. I fully expect comments in line with what you’re laying out will come in.”

Mum on White House Input on Staff

Chatterjee declined to answer concerns among some FERC watchers that his appointments of General Counsel James Danly and Chief of Staff Anthony Pugliese were directed by the Trump administration.

The commission has traditionally been independent and rarely decides issues on party lines. But some observers said the appointments suggested that could change because the two key positions were filled before the arrival of McIntyre, who was tapped by President Trump to lead the agency. New chairmen typically select their own general counsel and staff chiefs.

Danly, an Iraq War veteran, joined the commission from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Pugliese, who formerly lobbied on solar, oil and natural gas issues in Pennsylvania, came to FERC after serving as the White House’s eyes and ears at the Department of Transportation. Politico described Pugliese in May as one of Trump’s “White House-installed chaperones,” saying he clashed with Secretary Elaine Chao.

perry ferc chatterjee resilience — Anthony Pugliese (rear) monitors Chatterjee’s press conference as reporters take notes © *RTO Insider*

“Day to day, Pugliese and his counterparts inform Cabinet officials of priorities the White House wants them to keep on their radar,” The Washington Post reported in March. “They oversee the arrival of new political appointees and coordinate with the West Wing on the agency’s direction.”

At his press conference — which Pugliese and Danly attended — Chatterjee praised the two as “very talented people.” The two sat in the rear of the room, behind reporters and facing Chatterjee — Pugliese frequently shaking his head no or yes in response to the questions and answers.

“Mr. Pugliese has extensive experience in infrastructure and public policy, and I’ve been thoroughly impressed in the manner in which he has comported himself in his time here at the agency,” Chatterjee said.

He also praised Danly’s “astonishing resume,” calling him “one of the most talented brightest, capable energy lawyers in the country.”

Were they suggested to Chatterjee by White House officials?

“They were suggested to me by a number of people,” Chatterjee responded. “They have sterling reputations, and people who I respect and trust recommended them to me.”

Including the White House?

“I’m not going to speak [about] who recommended them,” Chatterjee said.