Federal Briefs

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it wants Tennessee Valley Authority managers to outline how they would respond to safety concerns voiced by the operations staff at the Watts Bar nuclear generating station after inspectors found some employees “did not feel free to raise safety concerns.”

“It is extremely important that all nuclear plant employees feel free to raise safety issues with their managers and with the NRC without fear of retaliation,” NRC Region II Administrator Cathy Haney said in a statement.

Inspectors at Watts Bar, where the TVA is about to bring Unit 2 into commercial service, said “there were indications that license operators may have received undue influence and direction from TVA staff outside the control room.”

More: Chattanooga Times Free Press

Obama Administration Blocks Offshore Atlantic Drilling

Reversing its earlier position, the Obama administration is not going to allow drilling for oil and natural gas in the Atlantic Ocean off several southern states. The Department of the Interior had earlier defined a lease area on the continental shelf about 50 miles offshore, stretching from Virginia to Georgia.

While many governors of the impacted states supported drilling, environmentalists were opposed. More than 1 million comments flooded the Interior Department during the public comment session.

Jacqueline Savitz, vice president of advocacy group Oceana’s U.S. Oceans Executive Committee, said that “with this decision, coastal communities have won a ‘David vs. Goliath’ fight against the richest companies on the planet, and that is a cause for tremendous optimism for the well-being of future generations.”

More: NPR

Study Shows Solar to Cost Generators $2B

The rise of rooftop solar among residential customers will cost power generators $2 billion in revenue by 2019, according to a recent study by industry consultant ICF International.

ICF said that grid operators in the eastern U.S. plan on cutting the amount of electricity they purchase from conventional generators by about 1,400 MW beginning in 2019. A similar trend is happening in Germany, where E.ON SE and other companies are scrapping fossil-fueled plants and dropping plans for new ones in response to a renewable-energy building boom.

PJM and ISO-NE have included solar generation growth in their system estimates for 2019, the first year they have done so. The loss by traditional generators to solar is estimated to be about $716 million in 2019 in ISO-NE, $754 million in PJM and $523 million in NYISO.

More: Bloomberg Business

Mass. Officials Ask NRC for Local Voice in Pilgrim Decomm

senwilliamkeatingsourcegov — William Keating

The Massachusetts congressional delegation has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to provide an opportunity for state and local officials to comment on the decommissioning procedures at nuclear generating stations, especially Entergy’s Pilgrim station.

Entergy announced in the fall that it would be closing the plant by June 2019. Decommissioning plans need to be filed with and approved by the NRC. But the delegation, led by Rep. William Keating, said local officials should have a say in the plans.

“The decommissioning of a nuclear power plant has an enormous impact on the state and communities hosting the plant,” the elected officials wrote in a letter to NRC Chairman Stephen Burns.

More: Wicked Local

Obama Administration to Send Relief for Coal Areas

The federal government and the Appalachian Regional Commission announced they will spend $65.8 million in areas hit hardest by the decline of the coal industry.

The funds will be disbursed in grants of $500,000 to $1.5 million and are earmarked for creating jobs, workforce training and economic partnerships. About $45 million is expected to be handed out in fiscal year 2016.

The initiative is being funded by the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER), created by the Obama administration.

More: Pittsburgh Business Times

Feds to Boost Pipeline Safety in Wake of Accidents

The Department of Transportation is proposing regulations designed to further improve natural gas pipeline safety in the wake of a number of accidents, including a 2010 California explosion that killed eight and injured more than 50. The rules would increase the number of mandatory inspections for rural lines and for new lines in gas-drilling fields.

While the rules would also expand pressure testing requirements for older gas lines that had been exempt, the department stopped short of requiring automatic emergency cut-off valves. While such valves could prevent some catastrophic events, such as the San Bruno, Calif., break that destroyed 38 homes, the natural gas industry argued that it would be too expensive to outfit lines with such valves. The cost would be between $100,000 to $1 million per valve.

The rules would expand federal regulation to cover “gathering lines,” or lines that collect oil or gas from wells and delivers them to storage facilities or transmission systems. Nearly 70,000 miles of gathering lines are currently exempt from federal oversight.

More: The Associated Press

States Again Asking SCOTUS To Overturn EPA’s MATS

Twenty states have joined in a brief that asks the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. The court has already found that the rules were improperly implemented but let them stand while it ordered the Obama administration to find a way to fix them.

States, led by Michigan, say EPA is illegally and prematurely enforcing the rules before a final decision has been made on them. “What happens when a federal agency promulgates a rule without first receiving authority from Congress?” the states ask in their brief.

Some coal-fired plants have already shut down in anticipation of being unable to meet the stringent standards.

More: The Hill

Poll Finds Americans Turning Against Nuclear Power

A Gallup survey released Friday shows that 54% of American’s dislike nuclear energy, the first time a majority has weighed in against atomic power. Anti-nuclear sentiment is up 11 points compared to last year, when 43% were opposed.

The Gallup poll has tracked American views on nuclear energy since 1994. The high point was in 2010, when 62% favored it.

More: The Hill

March 21, 2016

MISO Posts 2nd Revision of Duff-Coleman RFPs

By Amanda Durish Cook

MISO on Monday updated the competitive solicitation for the Duff-Coleman transmission project in response to stakeholder questions about the 345-kV line proposed for southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky.

The changes address the binding cost cap, revenue requirements, planning participation and respondent liability. MISO also added a requirement that bidding developers disclose their project-specific common stock costs and debt-to-equity ratios.

The update — the second since MISO released the RFP in January — comes as MISO fine-tunes Business Practice Manual 027, which outlines transmission developer qualifications and the selection process for competitive projects.

The 30-mile, single-circuit line would connect Vectren Energy’s Duff substation in Dubois County, Ind., with Big Rivers Electric’s Coleman substation in Hancock County, Ky., crossing mostly farmland and a portion of the Ohio River. MISO says the $67 million project will alleviate congestion and strengthen transmission capabilities near a MISO-PJM seam. RTO staff last week told the Planning Advisory Committee that stakeholders have needed clarification that the Rockport segment of the line is not included in the competitive solicitation.

Vectren and Public Service Enterprise Group were the first to step into the ring last week, announcing that they intend to jointly bid on the project.

“Vectren has a proven track record to successfully complete such large-scale transmission projects, having completed a nearly 65-mile 345 kV line in southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky four years ago,” Brad Ellsworth, president of Vectren South, said in a statement.

Bids on the project, MISO’s first competitive solicitation under FERC Order 1000, are due July 6. MISO hopes to announce the winner in late December and put the line in service by 2021. (See MISO Seeks Bids on Duff-Coleman Project.)

March 21, 2016

MISO Proposes Study to Measure Benefits of New North-South Tx

By Amanda Durish Cook

MISO planners are considering a study on the benefits of expanding flows on the constrained transmission interface linking the RTO’s North/Central and South regions, including the option of building its own additional transmission.

Dubbed the Footprint Diversity Study, the proposed initiative would look beyond just the impact of increased energy flows at the interface to examine the “widespread” economic factors related to expanding the North-South tie, such as system-wide capacity benefits, settlement cost savings and savings in adjusted production costs when flows exceed settlement limits.

“There’s going to be multi-value associated with such a line and it needs to be looked at from all aspects,” MISO Director of Policy Studies J.T. Smith said at a March 16 Planning Advisory Committee meeting.

Smith said the study would also consider the economic implications of the flow limits in the settlement agreement allowing MISO to use a portion of SPP’s system to facilitate transfers with Entergy’s former service territory. MISO estimates the system’s actual transfer capability is greater than current market flow limits, which restrict southbound flows across SPP’s network to 3,000 MW while capping northbound flows at 2,500 MW.

Depending on usage levels at the interface, use of SPP’s network can cost MISO up to $38 million per year, according to the RTO.

Smith said MISO would specifically examine the feasibility of building its own transmission to handle increased transfers between the sub-regions.

If the study is greenlit, MISO will rely on its 2017 Transmission Expansion Plan to inform any proposals to develop a new line. Smith also noted that future changes to MISO’s market efficiency project rules could influence a potential project.

“We also need to consider that the rules that exist today may not be the rules that exist tomorrow,” he said.

Consultant Roberto Paliza of Indianapolis said he was concerned that MTEP 17 would come too late to address increasing North-South tie flows. MISO shouldn’t assume SPP will provide the same amount of capacity after 2021, when the settlement agreement expires, he added.

“I wonder whether there’s going to be enough time to build the transmission to handle the capacity contract path,” Paliza said. “I wonder if we need to do something sooner than doing something at the overlay transmission stage of the MTEP 17.”

Paliza said he views the SPP-MISO settlement as a temporary fix for a problem that requires a long-term solution.

Minnesota Public Utilities Commission staff member Hwikwon Ham said he “didn’t necessarily disapprove of [the potential North-South] project” but noted it would involve a hefty price and wanted to know if MISO had explored possible cost allocations.

Smith said it was too early to identify such allocations, but that the issue would be taken up with the Regional Expansion Criteria and Benefits Task Force if a project is identified.

Smith did not provide a deadline for getting stakeholder approval for the study or a possible start date.

March 21, 2016

FERC Approves PNM Tx Rate Settlement

FERC last week approved an uncontested settlement agreement granting Public Service Company of New Mexico a 10% base return on equity on its transmission operations.

The settlement on PNM’s cost-of-service transmission formula rate was signed by Navopache Electric Cooperative, El Paso Electric, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and the Western Area Power Administration (ER13-685, ER13-687, ER13-690).

PNM filed the settlement agreement in March 2015.

– Tom Kleckner

March 21, 2016

FERC Denies Rehearing Request in LIPA Dispute

By William Opalka

FERC on Thursday denied a rehearing request from the Long Island Power Authority in a dispute with a power plant developer over interconnection requirements (EL15-84).

Caithness Facility, FERC Denied LIPA's Interconnection request — Caithness Long Island II *Source: Caithness Long Island*

The owner of Long Island’s transmission system had requested rehearing of a September 2015 order that granted Caithness Long Island II’s challenge to interconnection requirements that it said would cost “hundreds of millions” in unjust system upgrade costs. (See FERC Sides with Developer in NYISO Dispute.)

The developer of the 750-MW combined cycle plant in Brookhaven filed a complaint last July claiming that NYISO’s application of the Long Island local reliability interface transfer capability test, known as the Long Island Guideline, violates its Tariff and FERC Order 2003. Caithness said its energy resource interconnection request obligated it to meet only NYISO’s Minimum Interconnection Standard, which does not permit a deliverability test.

LIPA argued that the commission’s order erred by not directing NYISO to include the Long Island Guideline in its 2015 Class Year Deliverability Test. LIPA said that Caithness has told the ISO that it intends to seek interconnection as a capacity resource but that without transmission upgrades, the new plant could threaten the deliverability of generation east of Holbrook, N.Y.

“We find that LIPA’s request for rehearing is beyond the scope of the issues raised in Caithness’ complaint,” FERC wrote.

“The changes LIPA seeks are neither necessary to grant proper relief on Caithness’ complaint, nor supported by LIPA’s effort to establish — through a few sentences in its comments rather than a properly filed complaint — that NYISO’s existing tariff is unjust and unreasonable without LIPA’s requested revisions.”

March 21, 2016

FERC OKs LGE, Kentucky Utilities Filing on Regional Cost Recovery

FERC last week accepted a compliance filing from Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities (KU) committing them to hold joint meetings with neighboring transmission owners on regional transmission projects.

Under the revised formula rate protocols approved by FERC, when the companies are recovering the costs of a regional or interregional project, they “will endeavor to hold a joint meeting with other transmission owners who have been allocated costs for the same project” to explain how the TOs are recovering the costs (ER 14-2866-003, ER14-2866-04).

FERC had rejected a compliance filing in October, saying that it didn’t meet the directives of a March 2015 order requiring LG&E/KU to hold the joint meetings. The commission said the previous filing appeared to limit coordination to only other transmission owners that are members of the Southeast Regional Transmission Planning project.

The commission also clarified its October directive, acknowledging that it had inadvertently omitted the word “regional” in one sentence.

In a separate ruling last week, FERC closed a proceeding between Kentucky Utilities and Benham Power Board, accepting their agreement to terminate their contract as of June 1, 2015 (ER12-1574).

— Suzanne Herel

March 21, 2016

FERC Issues Reliability Orders on Relays, Small Generators

By Rich Heidorn Jr.

FERC last week gave final approval to a NERC reliability standard on protective relays and a preliminary endorsement to rules that would ensure small generators are able to stay connected to the grid during abnormal frequency and voltage events.

NERC standard PRC-026-1 is intended to ensure the use of protective relay systems that can differentiate between faults and stable power swings. The standard applies to all planning coordinators and to generation and transmission owners that use certain load-responsive protective relays (RM15-8).

FERC ordered NERC to develop the standard in 2010, citing findings that the cascading 2003 Northeast blackout was accelerated by relays that tripped facilities because they could not differentiate between dynamic, but stable, power swings and actual faults.

The order told NERC to consider requiring the retirement of such relays. But NERC declined to include a prohibition, saying such a rule “may have unintended negative outcomes for bulk power system reliability.”

“It is generally preferable to emphasize dependability over security when it is not possible to ensure both for all possible system conditions,” NERC said.

FERC agreed with NERC’s argument, saying that two existing reliability standards require covered entities to develop corrective action plans to address relays not covered by the new standard.

Small Generators

The commission also issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would revise the pro forma small generator interconnection agreement (SGIA) to require generators smaller than 20 MW to “ride through” abnormal frequency and voltage events and not disconnect (RM16-8).

FERC said its action was warranted by the increase in grid-connected solar PV generation and generator interconnection requests driven by state renewable portfolio standards.

“The commission already requires generators interconnecting under the large generator interconnection agreement to have this capability, and it would be unduly discriminatory not to also impose these requirements on small generating facilities,” the commission said.

The commission cited NERC reports warning that the increasing penetration of distributed energy resources could harm reliability without corrective action. Without the new rule, FERC said, “small generating facilities, in the aggregate or in significant combination, could exacerbate an initial disturbance by tripping offline instead of riding through a disturbance.”

It said small generators now have more ability to ride through disturbances because of smart inverters and a new standard from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) that allows wider trip settings.

The commission said it was not seeking to adopt specific frequency and voltage ride through parameters. “Instead, we propose to allow for the development of appropriate system-specific standards, which we expect will be based on work by recognized standards setting bodies, such as IEEE.”

FERC also said the NOPR is not intended to interfere with state interconnection procedures and would apply only to interconnections made subject to a jurisdictional open access transmission tariff (OATT).

The new rule would apply to any new small generating facility that executes an SGIA after the effective date of the rule. Comments on the rule change will be due 60 days after publication of the NOPR in the Federal Register.

March 21, 2016

State Briefs

GSA: Reject Exelon Path to Merger

The General Services Administration, Pepco Holdings Inc.’s biggest customer in the district, joined the chorus opposing Exelon’s revised merger proposal last week while the two companies continued their advertising campaign seeking approval.

In a filing Thursday, the GSA urged the Public Service Commission to reject the companies’ March 7 petition proposing three potential paths to approving the deal, saying none complies with the PSC’s requirement that all settling parties agree. Also making a filing was the Water and Sewer Authority, which told the PSC it would accept only the original settlement agreed to by Mayor Muriel Bowser. The Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition reiterated its opposition to the deal, as did DC Solar United Neighborhoods. WGL Energy said it would support the terms proposed by Commissioner Joanne Doddy Fort or Exelon’s proposal to redirect $20 million earmarked for smart grid and environmental programs in the Bowser settlement to rate relief.

Exelon has asked the commission to act by April 7.

More: Exelon-Pepco Doubtful as DC Officials Reject Alternatives

INDIANA

IPL Gets less than Half Of Requested Rate Increase

The Utility Regulatory Commission approved a rate increase that will give Indianapolis Power & Light about $30 million in annual revenue, less than half of the $68 million the company requested.

IPL said it is still calculating how the decision will shake out on rates for different customer classes. The final rates must be submitted and approved by the IURC.

The commission also closed an investigation into IPL’s underground transmission and distribution network. A series of underground explosions spurred the investigation. The commission ruled that the company’s network is “basically sound at this time.”

More: Inside Indiana Business

IOWA

Regulator Admits Withholding Funding From Center ‘Not Brightest Decision’

Utilities Board Chairwoman Geri Huser said her choice to hold up funding to an energy research center last year was not “the brightest decision” but said she only did it to gain time to gather more information about the project.

Huser said she didn’t think withholding the $4.4 million from the Iowa Energy Center at Iowa State University was illegal, just ill-advised. When criticism of her decision arose, the board released the funding.

She told the state Senate Commerce Committee last week that she was unaware that the center, which promotes renewable energy, might have to close down without the funding.

More: KCCI; The Gazette

KANSAS

KCC Delays Decision on Westar Rate Increase Request

The Corporation Commission has delayed a decision on Westar Energy’s request to raise its transmission delivery charge, which allows recovery of the costs of providing transmission. The proposal will add about $4/month to the average residential bill on April 1.

The commission also said staff is currently conducting an independent investigation of the proposal and intends to file a report and recommendation by May 30. If staff demonstrates that all or part of Westar’s request is excessive, the commission said, it may then order Westar to refund its customers.

The annual rate review is receiving additional attention this year because the allocation of costs among different classes of customers has changed, a Westar spokesperson said.

More: The Topeka Capital-Journal

KENTUCKY

PSC: No Jurisdiction in Duke’s Piedmont Purchase

The Public Service Commission has concluded it does not have the authority under state law to approve or deny Duke Energy’s proposed $4.9 billion purchase of Piedmont Natural Gas.

Duke asked for the declaratory ruling in order to reaffirm that no state approval or hearing was needed to complete the Piedmont acquisition. In February, Duke said the purchase would not change its basic corporate structure or how it handles its electricity and natural gas operations.

More: Charlotte Business Journal

MAINE

Republicans now Want Net Metering Before PUC

Republican legislative leaders now want the Public Utilities Commission to decide the fate of net metering, not the state Legislature.

Rep. Nathan Wadsworth, the ranking House Republican on a committee considering a solar bill, released a statement calling for the PUC to “stay the course on net metering, protect existing solar customers, installers and the 400 jobs tied to the solar industry.”

House Republican Leader Ken Fredette told the Portland Press Herald that a “bill this complex” should have been considered earlier in the session and may not achieve its goals of preserving solar jobs.

Advocates say the proposed law could create 800 or so new jobs over five years. The bill aims to grow solar capacity in the state from about 18 MW to 250 MW in five years, or 2% of the state’s power needs.

More: Portland Press Herald

MARYLAND

Controversial New Incinerator Loses Permit for South Baltimore

A permit allowing a controversial waste incinerator to be built in South Baltimore has been declared invalid because construction activity has stopped, developer Energy Answers International was told last week.

The Department of the Environment said the permit expired because there had been no construction activity at the Fairfield site since October 2013. Energy Answers, a New York company that secured the permit in 2010, planned to build a $1 billion power plant that would have burned a fuel derived from solid waste.

The Environmental Integrity Project, an environmental advocacy group, had alerted state and federal environmental regulators last month that it intended to file a lawsuit demanding enforcement of the permit’s terms, which prohibit a pause in construction for 18 months or more.

More: The Baltimore Sun

MINNESOTA

Gov. Dayton Vows to Veto Attempts to Slow CPP Work

MinnGovMarkDaytonSourceGov — Mark Dayton

Gov. Mark Dayton told a group of students that he would press forward on plans to comply with the federal Clean Power Plan, notwithstanding calls from some legislators to bring efforts to a halt. He said he would veto any attempt to block compliance.

“I’d like to see Minnesota’s dependence on coal eliminated, and I won’t even set a date because I want it as soon as possible,” Dayton said. He noted that the state still gets 44% of its electricity from coal-fired plants, so he said efforts should concentrate on encouraging the development of renewable sources.

The governor received applause from the audience for these statements. But he also said fossil fuels will continue to have a place in the state’s energy portfolio, much to the displeasure of the students listening. “You know, there’s no free lunch on energy,” he said. “Until we create the kind of world that you envision, and more power to you, we’re going to be using fossil fuels, we’re going to be using oil.”

More: MPR News

MISSISSIPPI

Mississippi Power’s Kemper Project ‘Fleeced’ the Public, Suit Charges

A customer lawsuit accuses Mississippi Power of “fleecing the public” to build the problematic Kemper County coal gasification power plant.

Seafood processing firm Biloxi Freezing & Processing, Island View Casino and Gulfport resident John Carolton Dean allege that Mississippi Power has tried to dodge liability for “fraud and mismanagement.”

The Kemper County plant was intended to be among the first coal-fired facilities to employ state-of-the-art carbon capture technology. Cost overruns have tripled the initial project budget to $6.5 billion and put the plant two years behind schedule. The Public Service Commission recently ordered the utility to issue credits to its 186,000 customers related to the plant’s costs.

More: Energy Manager Today

MISSOURI

New Bill Would Allow Annual Utility Increases

A state Senate bill would allow utilities to raise rates annually without going through a protracted rate hearing with the Public Service Commission.

The proposal would allow utilities to submit expenses for the previous year and get immediate reimbursement through rate approval if the expenses were deemed “prudent.”

Opponents of the measure say it strips too much power from the commission. “There’s nothing in this bill to keep rates from going up every year,” said James Owen, acting public counsel. The bill caps annual rate increase to 2% for the first two years and no more than 4.75% for any single subsequent year.

More: The Kansas City Star

MONTANA

Environmental Groups File Lawsuit Against PRB Energy Development

Environmental groups have filed suit in U.S. District Court in Great Falls, alleging that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s plans to allow extensive fossil-fuel extraction in the Powder River Basin are illegal.

The lawsuit says the agency’s plans to allow the extraction of oil, gas and coal would make climate change worse and go against efforts to protect the greater sage-grouse species of bird. The lawsuit is backed by the Western Organization of Resource Councils, the Sierra Club and other groups.

More: Billings Gazette

NEW MEXICO

PRC Judge Sides with Environmentalists in PNM Case

A Public Regulation Commission hearing officer sided with an environmentalist group that wants the state’s largest utility to publicly disclose its fuel-supply contract with Navajo Mine Coal Co. for the Four Corners Power Plant.

The issue arose last year when Public Service Company of New Mexico filed for a $123.5 million rate increase, which would boost residential rates by 15.8%. Western Resource Advocates argued that information affecting rates should be open to the public.

PNM has the right to appeal the hearing officer’s order to the five-member commission.

More: Santa Fe New Mexican

NEW YORK

PSC Approves Smart Meters For ComEd in NYC, Westchester

The Public Service Commission approved Consolidated Edison’s plan to spend $1.5 billion over five years to install 4.8 million smart meters in New York City and Westchester County.

Con Ed estimates a net benefit of more than $1 billion from the wireless meters, which it says will also give it the ability to better manage outages and service connections during storms.

The utility will install 3.6 million electric smart meters and 1.2 million gas smart meters starting in 2017.

More: New York Public Service Commission; POLITICO New York

NORTH CAROLINA

Governor Abruptly Disbands Coal Ash Management Committee

Gov. Pat McCrory’s office has disbanded the state Coal Ash Management Commission after the state Supreme Court ruled in January that the commission’s appointments were unconstitutional.

The nine-member commission was created to oversee the closure of Duke Energy’s 32 ash ponds in the state following a catastrophic spill of ash-laden water into the Dan River. McCrory, a former Duke Energy executive, last year challenged appointments to the commission.

The commission’s executive director, Natalie Birdwell, resigned after sending an email to legislative leaders on Monday saying she “had just been informed by the governor’s office that the commission was no longer a legal entity.” Days later the commission’s website went dark. The state Department of Environmental Quality said it is fully prepared to implement all ash remediation efforts.

More: The News & Observer

OHIO

PUCO Asked to Stay AEP Request for PPA

The Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, the Appalachian Peace and Justice Network and the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association Energy Group on Monday asked the Public Utilities Commission to stay AEP Ohio’s request for a power purchase agreement pending a FERC decision on the matter.

“To protect 1.3 million Ohio consumers from paying non-refundable rates for a power purchase agreement, these proceedings should be stayed while the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission considers a complaint that would require a review of the PPA between affiliated companies,” the groups said in the filing.

The parties pointed to an incident in 2014 in which AEP was allowed to keep $463 million of state residents’ money after the state Supreme Court overturned a PUCO decision approving an unlawful fee collected from consumers while an appeal was pending.

The filing comes as PUCO is reportedly close to ruling on the PPAs. A decision could come by the end of the month, the Associated Press reported Monday.

More: The Associated Press

Oregon Clean Energy Files To Boost Plant by 161 MW

Oregon Clean Energy, which is developing a combined cycle gas-fired power plant in northern Ohio, asked the Public Utilities Commission to increase the capacity from 799 MW to 960 MW.

The original capacity was set after consultation with PJM to take into account the available transmission capacity in the region. But a subsequent study showed that the grid could handle the increased capacity.

The plant is already under construction. It was not immediately apparent how the requested capacity increase would be obtained.

More: The Blade

TEXAS

Fitch Likes LP&L’s ERCOT Move, Assigns Bonds A+ Rating

Fitch Ratings has assigned an A+ rating for bonds issued by the City of Lubbock on behalf of its municipally owned electric utility system, Lubbock Power & Light.

Fitch based part of its rating on LP&L’s plan to transition about 70% of its load into the ERCOT market in 2019 and secure medium-term power supply contracts to meet its power needs. A smaller portion of the utility’s system, largely consisting of assets it acquired in 2010 from Southwestern Public Service, will be isolated from the portion connected with ERCOT and will remain connected to SPP.

Fitch said it views the plan as reasonable, given the utility’s other options were more expensive and included building significant additional generation. Fitch cautioned, however, that the power-supply transition involves changes in the utility’s business strategy, requires significant capital investment and has a relatively short implementation timeframe.

More: Fitch Ratings

VIRGINIA

State, Dominion and Microsoft Partnering on 20-MW Solar Plant

The state has agreed to buy power generated by Dominion Virginia Power’s 20-MW Remington solar project, and Microsoft will buy and retire the project’s renewable energy credits.

The agreement helps both the state and Microsoft attain renewable energy goals and provides a steady customer for Dominion. Gov. Terry McAuliffe has announced a goal of getting at least 8% of the energy needed for state facilities from renewable energy in the next three years.

More: The Daily Progress

March 21, 2016May 5, 2024

FERC Rejects Tenaska Complaint on Synch Reserves; Upholds $1.9 Million Refund

By Suzanne Herel

FERC last week rejected a complaint by Tenaska that PJM inappropriately disqualified the company’s combustion turbines as Tier 1 synchronized reserves (EL16-9).

Tenaska had sought to force PJM to restore $1.9 million the RTO deducted from the company for Tier 1 payments between October 2013 and July 2014.

Tenaska alleged that PJM did not have authority to deselect classes of generating sources, such as CTs, from providing Tier 1 synchronized reserves. The complaint said PJM violated its Tariff, the filed rate doctrine and the rule against retroactive ratemaking.

FERC backed PJM’s position that its Tariff gives it discretion to deselect resources from Tier 1 reserves, which can be provided by partially loaded generators able to provide energy within 10 minutes.

It said the RTO made its decision in real-time and not retroactively and that it had experienced performance issues with CTs as a class. The billing adjustments were consistent with the Tariff, PJM said, and exercised because of an error made by PJM Market Settlements.

NRG Energy filed comments in support of Tenaska’s complaint, while the Independent Market Monitor filed in support of PJM.

“We find that PJM reasonably interpreted [its Tariff] as vesting PJM with broad discretion to decide whether a generating resource is capable to reliably provide Tier 1 Synchronized Reserve,” the commission wrote.

FERC said Tenaska’s interpretation of the Tariff would require PJM to procure 4,000 MW to 9,000 MW of Tier 1 reserves, compared to the RTO’s requirement of 2,100 MW.

March 21, 2016

FERC: Cheap Gas Drove down Electricity Prices in 2015

By Michael Brooks

WASHINGTON — On-peak day-ahead electricity prices in the U.S. were down 27 to 35% in 2015 compared to 2014 largely because of cheap natural gas, FERC staff said in its State of the Markets presentation Thursday. LMPs in New York hit a 15-year low.

Gas prices fell sharply, selling as low as $1/MMBtu, as supply and storage surged to record levels last year, as they did in 2014, while demand only grew slightly. Natural gas production increased to 72.6 Bcf/d from an average of 68.4 Bcf/d in 2014. Storage reached a record high of 4 Tcf in November, almost 11% more than 2014’s high. (See FERC: 2014 a Record-Breaking Year for Natural Gas.)

The increase in supply has led to the addition of 51 Bcf/d in new pipelines in the last five years, with an additional 49 Bcf/d planned or proposed to come online by 2018. Demand for gas, however, grew only 1.3% last year as a result of a mild winter.

As a result of the low prices, gas-fired generation surpassed coal-fired on a monthly basis for the first time in April 2015, and beat coal in six of 11 months through November, according to the Energy Information Administration. Each provided about one-third of all electricity generation.

EIA predicted last week that natural gas will provide 33% of generation in 2016 while coal’s share falls to 32%. PJM’s Independent Market Monitor similarly predicted that gas would surpass coal for the RTO in its 2015 State of the Market report. (See Bowring Urges Return to ‘Fundamentals’.)

FERC staff said they expect the trend of lower gas prices to continue into 2016 but that production has likely plateaued and will decline in the long run, as the low prices begin to push higher-cost producers out of the market.

About one-sixth of U.S. natural gas is a byproduct of oil production, which suffered as prices fell 66% between June 2014 and December 2015. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the oil and gas industry shed about 17,000 jobs last year, while the U.S. oil rig count dropped by 61%.

“Long-term demand growth for U.S. natural gas will likely come from increased gas-fired electric generation, particularly in the Southeast, growing industrial demand, LNG exports and pipeline exports to Mexico,” staff said.

The price of LNG, which was exported for the first time from Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass terminal on the Texas-Louisiana border to Mexico last month, is indexed to oil in most long-term contracts.

LMPs down, Capacity Prices up

The fall in electricity prices was in sharp contrast to 2014, when prices rose across the country, in part due to the severe winter in the Northeast and Midwest.

While LMPs fell, capacity prices rose in PJM and ISO-NE, as the lower gas prices drove out coal-fired and nuclear generators and forced other nuclear plants to rely on capacity auctions for revenue. FERC noted that the clearing price for the Rest of RTO zone in PJM has risen 152.6% since 2013 and more than 200% in ISO-NE for the same period.

“These lower LMPs and higher capacity prices in PJM have resulted in the ‘all-in’ costs of energy, capacity, transmission and ancillary services to increase by 5% between 2013 and 2015,” FERC staff said.

“As the markets are calling for new resources, we’re seeing significant increases in the capacity markets, really stress testing the markets, and … I think ancillary services are going to get a lot more important in the future [to] balance all the interruptible resources,” Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur said.

Electricity demand fell by 1.1% in 2015 as a result of low economic growth and increased efficiency in appliances. Electricity use fell in the industrial sector, while residential and commercial customers showed little or no growth.

DER and Renewable Growth Continues

While the net generation of power plants nationwide has increased 1.2% since 2011, the total electricity sold back by net metering customers has increased by nearly 500%, FERC staff said. Demand response revenues, meanwhile, have also increased through the capacity markets in PJM and ISO-NE for the past three years, a trend FERC expects to continue as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision on Order 745, upholding FERC’s jurisdiction over DR.

Wind continues to be the dominant renewable energy resource in the U.S., rising to 4.6% of total generation. While solar rose to only 1% of total generation in the country, it makes up 13% of installed capacity in California, home to half of the country’s utility-scale solar.