NEW ORLEANS — MISO will commence its long-term Clean Power Plan analysis in July regardless of the existing Supreme Court stay, Clair Moeller, executive vice president of transmission and technology, told the Board of Directors last week. Moeller said the RTO would provide individual state data to officials in all states, including those having placed a “hard stop” on CPP preparations.
FERC Chairman Norman Bay, who attended the board meeting, said he hoped MISO states challenging the CPP and halting compliance work had a “Plan B.” He also thanked the RTO for its “uniquely constructive and pragmatic voice” in supporting the measure.
“We know we’re on a glide path already with low-cost wind turbines, lower-cost solar panels and greater efficiency,” board member Tom Rainwater said. He asked how the economics of renewable penetration would play out even if the CPP is struck down.
Moeller called that one of the more complicated questions MISO would seek to answer through remaining modeling, saying the RTO’s “job is to plan into an uncertain future.”
Bay said that if analysts are correct in predicting a 50% decline in the cost of storage by 2020, storage technology could be a “game changer” for renewable penetration.
“Everyone knows the cost of energy storage will decline,” Bay said. “It’s a question of how much and when. … This is an area where I expect FERC to do more work and work to remove barriers to entry.”
MISO YTD Financials 1% Over Budget
MISO’s year-to-date February financials came in $400,000 — or 1.1% — over the RTO’s $36 million budget for the period.
Most of the overage — $300,000 in additional costs for “compliance and process-improvement activities” is a permanent variance, said Vice President of Finance Jo Biggers, who said MISO was seeking to trim other spending to make up for the shortfall.
“We’re still forecasting to be on budget by the end of the year,” Biggers said.
Board member Paul Bonavia noted that the board had “only just finalized the budget, and we already have a permanent variance.”
“We’re going to figure out a way to cover it by reducing costs somewhere else,” MISO CEO John Bear told the board.
The overrun occurred despite MISO spending only $6 million of its forecasted $7.1 million capital budget, mostly because of project delays. Biggers said capital spending is expected to fall in line by the end of March when projects catch up to their timelines.
MISO Adds Transmission Developers, Industrial Customer Group to Membership
MISO’s board unanimously approved membership applications for three non-transmission owning entities, including:
- Cobra Industrial Services, a Houston-based transmission developer;
- Transmission developer PPL TransLink, a unit of Pennsylvania-based PPL; and
- Louisiana Energy Users Group, an association of 23 industrial customers.
— Amanda Durish Cook
Among the report’s highlights: More than 4,200 MW of the region’s conventional nuclear, coal- and oil-fired generating capacity has retired recently or is scheduled to retire soon; about a third of the 13,000 MW of proposed generation projects are wind resources; and pipeline constraints and few delivery points for LNG will continue to pose challenges for fuel supply.
If Dominion Energy’s three-reactor Millstone Power Station were to close, more than 1,000 jobs would be lost and carbon emissions in New England would increase by 27%, officials told a legislative panel.
Commonwealth Edison will begin using data collected by smart meters to calculate greenhouse-gas reductions that can be linked to initiatives to reduce peak demand.
State regulators on March 21 agreed to postpone until this week whether to reconsider their rejection of international investors’ $4.9 billion bid for Cleco. The Public Service Commission is considering whether to change last month’s order that nixed the acquisition of the utility.
State officials, concerned about the possibility of leaks from pipelines that run under Lake Michigan, have asked Enbridge to provide specific condition information on Line 5, a pair of pipelines that cross the Straits of Mackinac.
A state district judge has struck down a water-discharge permit for a southeastern coal mine, saying officials failed to fully consider the effects of pollutants on several nearby creeks.
After 61 years of providing electricity to the Tennessee Valley, the Colbert Fossil Plant has been disconnected from the grid.
Environmental groups want the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to revoke licenses for two new reactors at the South Texas Project, claiming the project is controlled by a foreign owner in violation of the Atomic Energy Act.
Critics of the state’s process for selecting sites for renewable energy projects are opposing proposed legislation designed to give regional planning commissions greater say in where solar and wind power projects are located.
Electricity rates in the state are among the highest in the Midwest, but residents pay less than customers in surrounding states because they use less power on than average, according to a recent study by the Public Service Commission.
Duke has contracted with Carbon Cycle Energy, which will build and own a plant that will generate enough electricity from chicken and swine waste to power about 10,000 homes a year.
Black Hills Energy has started construction on a 144-mile, $54 million transmission line that will run from northeast Wyoming to Rapid City, S.D.
The operator of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a $5 billion pipeline that will deliver natural gas from Appalachian shale fields to Virginia and North Carolina, has sold 96% of the future pipeline’s capacity and surveyed 90% of the 550-mile route, according to an update from the company.
Lincoln Electric System, the Nebraska public utility serving the state capital region, approved a six-year $453 million capital budget to replace and upgrade infrastructure.
Two Hutchinson, Kan., residents were arrested in separate incidents for threatening Westar Energy employees who swapped out their old electric meters.
Duke Energy Renewables has purchased a proposed 20-MW solar project in California from EDF Renewable Energy. The project, to be built in San Bernardino County near Barstow, will be called the Longboat Solar Power Project.
Dynegy’s coal-fired Wood River plant in Illinois will be shuttered in June after a MISO study concluded it was no longer needed to ensure reliability in the region.
Power DC, a coalition formed against the deal, said, “We are profoundly disappointed and saddened that the D.C. Public Service Commission has ignored the clear opposition to the proposed Exelon-Pepco merger voiced by the district’s elected officials, community and business leaders, and residents.
“The acquisition represents a rare opportunity to invest in an extensive, competitively positioned, growing network of regulated natural gas pipeline and storage assets in the Marcellus and Utica shale gas regions,” TransCanada CEO Russ Girling said. Columbia Pipeline has 15,000 miles of pipelines, as well as underground storage and processing facilities.
Two energy companies from opposite ends of the spectrum — coal producer Peabody Energy and alternative energy developer SunEdison — are reporting financial woes.
Energy storage company Alevo is locating an 8-MW battery storage system in a retired oil-fired generator building in Lewes, Del. The grid-linked system, which is capable of delivering 4 MWh, will be the largest of its kind in the state.
Louisiana utility Cleco would give a credit of $370 for the average residential and small-business customer, amounting to a free month of electricity this summer, under a proposal to sell the company for $4.9 billion to a consortium of foreign investors. Cleco President Darren J. Olagues said the credit would be paid within 30 days of the closing of the sale.
Sharyland Utilities has filed a request with the Public Utility Commission of Texas for a $77.4 million transmission line upgrade in the Texas Panhandle to accommodate the growth of wind energy in the region.
Nebraska’s largest solar array is now in business following a March 14 ribbon cutting near Callaway in Custer County. Innovative Solar developed the 600-kW project.
