Page 1483 – RTO Insider

February 2, 2016

Federal Briefs

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley last week asked the state’s top prosecutor to prepare a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy for failing to complete a plant that was designed to turn weapons-grade plutonium into fuel for nuclear generating stations.

Haley threatened last year to sue the department and hold it to a $1 million daily fine if it didn’t complete work at the Savannah River Site’s mixed-oxide project according to its contractual obligations. The MOX project is years behind schedule and billions over budget.

“The federal government has, once again, failed to keep its promise to the people of our state,” she wrote to Attorney General Alan Wilson. “South Carolina will not sit idly by while DOE continues — in violation of federal law — to ignore its commitment to the people of South Carolina.”

More: The Associated Press

FERC Denies Request to Stay Algonquin Expansion Project

FERC has rejected requests to reopen hearings on a plan to expand Spectra Energy’s Algonquin Pipeline project, saying its review of the environmental impacts was adequate. The decision means Spectra can go ahead with its plans to expand the line, which starts in New York state, crosses Connecticut and terminates in Massachusetts.

Several organizations had asked for either a stay or a rehearing, including the Allegheny Defense Project, Riverkeeper, individual landowners and several towns in Massachusetts and New York.

The expansion project will add 37.4 miles of pipeline and related compression facilities in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. A majority of the project, however, involves replacing existing pipeline in order to increase capacity to 342,000 dekatherms of gas a day.

More: Peekskill-Cortlandt Patch

Senate Dems Calling for EPA to Regulate Methane Leaks

Twenty-one U.S Senate Democrats are calling for EPA to step in and regulate methane leaks from oil and natural gas wells. The group is led by Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

They charge that EPA’s most recent rules don’t go far enough to control methane, as the new regulations do not apply to existing wells drilled before the rules’ passage.

“Moving forward with this rulemaking would sustain our international leadership on this issue and put forward a precedent that other countries can follow, much as they have done with our current methane commitment,” the group’s letter states.

More: The Hill

NGSA Weighs in with Complaint on FERC NOPR

The National Gas Supply Association said it has “numerous concerns” about a proposed FERC rule requiring RTOs to disclose more information about parties with which they do business. FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking calling for more information to prevent market manipulation.

The commission held a technical conference on the NOPR in December. In post-conference comments filed with FERC, the association outlined some of its concerns, even though the rule is aimed at RTOs and ISOs, rather than gas suppliers.

Although the proposed compliance obligations would not apply directly to the production, sale or transportation of natural gas, the association said the vague language in the proposed rule could make NGSA members “connected entities” for providing such services to ISO/RTO market participants, the association said. The group is concerned that suppliers might be forced to disclose commercially sensitive information.

More: Natural Gas Intelligence

DOE, NM Regulators Reach Settlement on Nuke Waste Incidents

The Department of Energy, the New Mexico Environment Department and a number of contractors have reached a settlement regarding incidents at a nuclear waste site and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The settlement provides for $74 million for environmental projects at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, as well as for Los Alamos and surrounding communities.

The projects include the construction of an offsite emergency operations center, replacement of drinking water lines at Los Alamos and a fund to pay for monitoring in the future. The settlement brings an end to struggles between federal authorities, state officials and contractors related to a series of nuclear waste mishandling and spillage events.

More: Department of Energy

DOE Announces $2.85 Million in Funding for Fed Renewables

The Department of Energy announced it will spend $2.85 million to expand solar and biomass generation at federal facilities. The money will go toward a variety of solar projects, including at some overseas diplomatic posts, as well as a 10-MW biomass generator at a Marine installation in Georgia.

“As the nation’s largest single user of energy, the federal government is leading by example and these projects will reduce carbon emissions, while strengthening America’s economic, energy and environmental security,” according to the department. “Currently, federal agencies are working toward a goal of achieving 30% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025.”

More: Department of Energy

February 2, 2016

MISO: 2015 Record Year for Unit Commitment Efficiency

By Amanda Durish Cook

MISO’s operators met their targets for minimizing online generation on 99.2% of the days in 2015, a record.

“This represents the best annual performance MISO has ever achieved on this metric,” said Vice President of Human Resources Greg Powell. “This also represents the best year that MISO’s ever had on unit commitment efficiency.”

The operators’ performance is penalized for Reliability Assessment Commitment (RAC) unit commitments and rewarded when online generation is minimized and sufficient to meet demand and constraints. Each day that MISO operators miss the goal costs market participants about $200,000 in uplift charges. Powell examined unit commitment efficiency and other annual metrics during a short-term incentive presentation at the Jan. 26 Human Resources Committee of the Board of Directors meeting. About 84% of short-term incentives were paid out, compared to 2014’s 69% and 2006’s all-time record of 87%.

miso

MISO gave staff excellent ratings for unit commitment, reliability and compliance performance and said all strategic goals were completed.

The lowest ratings were on metrics for cost efficiency improvement, the customer satisfaction survey and capital budget. The RTO also said the year’s customer satisfaction survey received a passing — “threshold-plus” — grade, with 81% of those surveyed providing an average rating of five or better from a seven-point scale.

MISO rated its market funding efficiency — a measure of shortfalls or surpluses in financial transmission rights funding — at 94.8%, earning it a threshold-plus grade.

Operations spending came in 1.2% over budget, earning an “excellent” rating.

In keeping with the reliability performance of the prior eight years, no severe failures or violations occurred in 2015.

“2015 was a pretty good year for MISO,” Powell summed up.

Board member Paul Feldman praised 2015’s operation, saying MISO resolved the year’s issues “quietly” and expeditiously.

MISO Director Judy Walsh said she would like the RTO to examine what drives incentive payout, as hitting the metrics is becoming “day-to-day” routine.

February 2, 2016

MISO Steering Committee Briefs

MISO and PJM will begin creating an alternative to their current pseudo-tie market rules during a Feb. 18 joint and common market meeting. The discussion will coincide with the retirement of MISO’s pseudo-tie task team in February.

In the 2016/17 planning year, PJM expects MISO to request 2,061 MW worth of new pseudo-ties. PJM has said it wants to address immediate concerns before June 1 and explore long-term alternatives to its current agreement with MISO sometime after. Among other changes, the RTOs want to develop an outage notification process, better firm flow entitlement considerations, accurate pricing based on unit location, calculations dealing with congestion and market-to-market settlements and improved LMP convergence. MISO and PJM staff met on Jan. 5 to review a preliminary operating guide.

Kent Feliks, American Electric Power’s manager of regulatory and RTO policy, asked if the proposed changes stemming from the meeting might affect pseudo-tie requests that are scheduled for March. Kim Sperry, MISO’s director of market engineering, said the Tariff changes resulting from the joint meeting might include an option for existing pseudo-ties to continue under current rules or adopt the new ones. MISO Senior Director of Regional Operations David Zwergel said the issue would be long-term with potential Tariff changes and “lots of discussion,” and he didn’t foresee instantaneous changes.

The RTOs’ meeting signals the end of MISO’s pseudo-tie task team, created last year. “We don’t plan on extending the task team. Its six-month life has run its course, and it’s served its duty,” Zwergel said, adding that remaining pseudo-tie issues could be assigned to the Planning Advisory Committee.

The Steering Committee unanimously passed a motion to assign two immediate pseudo-tie issues to the PAC: concern that the current transmission service request evaluation processes “do not appropriately capture pseudo-tie impacts to MISO’s transmission system” and whether pseudo-tied resources have an “obligation to inform the native balancing authority of the intent to suspend or retire.”

Stakeholder Redesign Continues with Training, Resource Adequacy Charter and Management Plan

Michelle Bloodworth, MISO’s executive director of external and stakeholder affairs, said stakeholder redesign training for chairs and vice chairs of committees and subcommittees should be completed by May.

Bloodworth called the redesign a “landmark decision,” saying it will reduce MISO’s stakeholder bodies by 29% and meetings by more than 20%.

She also said implementing the redesign shouldn’t interrupt other work in MISO’s entities. “Everyone is very cognizant that we don’t want to halt any work that’s moving through committees,” she said.

“I look forward to this time next year us taking a look back on [the progress of the stakeholder process],” MISO President and CEO John Bear said at an informational forum a day earlier.

miso

Now, MISO is focusing on the timely posting of agenda information ahead of meetings. Part of the stakeholder redesign stipulates the posting of meeting materials seven days in advance of parent entity meetings. Bloodworth said in 2015, materials were posted on-time about 65% of the time for the PAC, Market Subcommittee and Reliability Subcommittee. She suggested that MISO parent entities strive for a 75% goal of on-time material posting ahead of meetings in 2016.

Under the redesign, MISO has already eliminated the Trading Hubs Task Force and created a Resource Adequacy Subcommittee (RASC) that will consolidate two working groups and a task force. (See MISO Redesign Proceeds with New Committee.)

The Steering Committee approved a draft charter and management plan for the newly formed RASC, set to replace the Supply Adequacy Working Group, Demand Response Working Group and the Electric and Natural Gas Coordination Task Force.

“The objective of the Resource Adequacy Subcommittee (RASC) is to provide input and policy guidance to MISO management and the Advisory Committee on all market and operational activities and processes that facilitate adequate planning resources within the MISO for the long-term planning horizon,” according to the subcommittee’s draft charter.

RASC meetings will be held on an as-needed basis and be open to all stakeholders. Bill SeDoris, director of MISO integration for Northern Indiana Public Service Co., said once the RASC has leadership, the charter and management plan will be “fine-tuned” to further refine RASC responsibilities, with a final plan and charter brought before the Advisory Committee on Feb. 24. The RASC will oversee MISO’s Loss of Load Expectation Working Group.

“This is just us getting the process moving,” said Steering Committee Chair Tia Elliott. “It’s a good place to start.”

SeDoris said some resource adequacy responsibilities outlined in the Market Subcommittee’s charter and management plan might have to be separated out for the RASC so the two subcommittees don’t replicate tasks. Despite the concern, Steering Committee members approved the MSC’s charter and management plan. Elliott said they could be revised later if necessary. The topic will be discussed at February’s Steering Committee meeting.

— Amanda Durish Cook

February 2, 2016

Study Contemplates New York REV’s Impact on System

By William Opalka

RENSSELAER, N.Y. — NYISO and the New York Public Service Commission have begun a joint study to determine how a changing generation resource mix will affect the bulk power system over the next 15 years.

The PSC outlined the study at the Wednesday meeting of the NYISO Management Committee.

The recently unveiled State Energy Plan, part of New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision initiative, set a goal of 50% renewable energy generation by 2030.

The PSC has started a proceeding to develop a clean energy mandate to reach the goal (15-E-0302). Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ordered rules completed by June. (See New York Would Require Nuclear Power Mandate, Subsidy.)

The study’s goals are to determine what mix of generation and distributed energy resources will be needed by 2030 to meet public policies, and what gas and electric transmission upgrades are needed to serve generation and maintain reliability.

“There are going to be significant renewable energy resources needed to comply with both the [federal] Clean Power Plan and the SEP,” said Leka Gjonaj, chief of the Bulk Electric System at the PSC.

Models would be run contemplating various scenarios for 2024 and 2030, extrapolating results from NYISO’s most recent transmission needs analysis. Sensitivities — such as the retirement of the Indian Point nuclear facility, high natural gas prices, high load levels and the reduction or loss of dual-fuel generation — will be included.

Another scenario contemplates compliance with the CPP under different schemes. The third is implementation of the SEP and REV.

The study would determine resource mixes under each scenario and the infrastructure needed to support them. Ratepayer impacts are outside of the scope of this study.

Some members of the committee questioned how the study can incorporate the clean energy standard when its rules have not been finalized.

The base case scenarios and sensitivity results of the study have deadlines that run from February to July, with a final report due Aug. 9.

The consultants in the study will be paid about $850,000, with about $550,000 coming from NYISO. The ISO will also be contributing about one full-time-equivalent employee on the project, although several staff members will participate.

Also participating are the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority, New York Department of Environmental Conservation, the Utility Intervention Unit of the Department of State and the New York Transmission Owners.

February 2, 2016

SPP Begins Promotional Campaign to Tout Transmission Value

By Tom Kleckner

OKLAHOMA CITY — SPP last week kicked off a yearlong campaign to promote the value that the RTO’s transmission infrastructure brings to end-use customers.

Mike Ross, SPP senior vice president of government affairs and public relations, briefed the Board of Directors and Members Committee last Tuesday on “The Value of Transmission” study and the RTO’s promotional plans, which include use of social media and bill inserts by member utilities.

The study looked at the value provided by 348 transmission upgrades during 2012-2014, involving almost $3.4 billion of capital investment. The upgrades resulted in more than $240 million in fuel-cost savings for SPP members during the first year of its Integrated Marketplace (March 2014-February 2015), according to the study.

The analysis also quantified benefits “associated with reliability and resource adequacy, generation capacity cost savings, reduced transmission losses, increased wheeling revenues and public policy benefits associated with optimal wind development.”

SPP expects the benefits to exceed a net present value of $16.6 billion over the next 40 years, a benefit-to-cost ratio of 3.5. (The $3.4 billion investment has a 40-year NPV of less than $5 billion.)

“We’ve done something we don’t believe has been done before,” Ross told the board and members. “We’ve taken transmission lines put in service between 2012 and 2014, looked at the production costs, compared that to what the production costs would have been without those lines and presented it in a way the general public can understand.”

Conservative Estimate

Ross said SPP’s estimate is a conservative one, noting that much of the new transmission went into service during the fourth quarter of 2014, meaning the study only captured three months of benefits.

The yearlong transmission study includes an endorsement from the economic-regulatory consulting firm, The Brattle Group, which performed an independent assessment of the RTO’s work. Brattle consultants called the report a “path-breaking effort” and suggested the 3.5 benefit-to-cost ratio “is likely understated.”

SPP said previous studies projected the expected future value of transmission construction based on “latest available forecast data,” but the new analysis used “actual historical operating data” to document transmission value realized during the Integrated Marketplace’s first year.

“Transmission … is an enabling resource that paves the way for numerous benefits to our stakeholders and their customers,” SPP CEO Nick Brown said in a statement.

SPP members welcomed the study. They have been asking for a quantitative assessment of the RTO’s value to the region for years to support their rate cases. “The cost of all this transmission is immediate,” said Dave Osburn, the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority’s general manager. “You see the costs on your bills right away, but the benefits take years to accrue and you sometimes don’t see it. This is a step in the right direction.”

Ross said staff has produced videos, bill-insert templates and a four-page brochure, to which he hopes members will apply their own logos. He also asked members to share success stories, photos and videos.

“We want to partner with members over the course of this year, and we need to do so in the most cost-effective manner possible,” Ross said. “You asked us to tell this story, but we can’t do it alone. I implore you, I beg you, I ask you, share our social media tweets and posts.”

February 2, 2016June 17, 2024

SPP Adds Ex-MISO CEO, NERC Trustee to Board

By Tom Kleckner

OKLAHOMA CITY — SPP last week added two additional members with high-level industry expertise to its Board of Directors with the election of former MISO CEO T. Graham Edwards and former NERC trustee Bruce Scherr.

SPP CEO Nick Brown told members last Tuesday the board’s expansion was necessary for succession purposes. The board now consists of Brown and eight independent directors.

FERC approved SPP’s request to add up to three more independent board members in August (ER15-1924).

Working with the Russell Reynolds Associates executive search firm, SPP’s Corporate Governance Committee whittled 25 initial applicants to eight before selecting Edwards and Scherr as finalists. Their appointments became effective immediately, and the two new directors joined the board for last week’s January meeting.

Kelly Harrison, Westar Energy’s vice president of transmission, expressed disappointment with the selections, saying it is “painfully obvious we’re not making progress on diversity.” The nine-person board now includes seven white men and two African Americans, Phyllis Bernard and Josh Martin.

SPP board Chair Jim Eckelberger responded by noting the eight finalists included one minority and one woman.

“We think we chose the best two of the eight we interviewed,” Eckelberger said. “Most members of the committee would agree we picked the best two.”

Brown welcomed Graham and Bruce in a statement, referencing their broad industry experience with grid operators, compliance and critical infrastructure protection.

Edwards, 62, was CEO of North Carolina-based ElectriCities from 2009 until his retirement in November. He served on MISO’s board from 2001 to 2009, the last three years as CEO.

Edwards was CEO and board chair for Santee Cooper in South Carolina, and one of the founders of The Energy Authority, a wholesale energy and marketing company. He served on the Western Electricity Coordinating Council’s board. He currently serves on the board of directors for Peak Reliability, which is responsible for reliability coordination for the Western Interconnection.

Edwards holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Francis Marion University in Florence, S.C., and an MBA from The Citadel.

Scherr, 67, is the board chair and CEO emeritus of Informa Economics, a research and consulting firm specializing in agriculture and commodities. He has been with the company since 1987.

Scherr served on NERC’s board of trustees from 2002 to 2015 and was also a member of the Global Strategy Institute Advisory Council of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He sits on the boards of E. Ritter & Co., Santa Energy Co. and J. D. Heiskell & Co.

Scherr holds a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University, and a master’s degree and doctorate from Purdue University, all in agricultural economics.

February 2, 2016

FERC Upholds Constitution Pipeline OK

By William Opalka

FERC set back efforts to stop a natural gas pipeline in New York on Thursday when it refused to rehear its December 2014 approval of the project. (CP13-499)

In a separate ruling Friday, the commission allowed limited tree cutting along the Pennsylvania section of the pipeline route.

FERC dismissed a challenge by project opponent Stop the Pipeline to thwart the Constitution Pipeline project and a related compression station in Wright, N.Y. The project is designed to transport shale gas from the Marcellus region of Pennsylvania, connecting with existing pipelines that serve eastern New York and New England.

“In the 2014 order, the commission found that the benefits the Constitution Pipeline and Wright interconnection projects will provide to the market outweigh any adverse effects on existing shippers, on other pipelines and their captive customers, and on landowners and surrounding communities,” FERC wrote.

FERC had agreed to reconsider the ruling almost a year ago. In the intervening months, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals denied a March 2015 petition by STP to force timely action by FERC. (See Constitution Pipeline Opponents Asks Appeals Court to Force FERC Action.)

The commission rejected complaints that the project failed to demonstrate a public benefit, that there was a lack of opportunities for public input and that the final environmental impact statement was incomplete.

Much of the opposition to the pipeline is now centered on FERC’s approval of the project without a completed permit by state environmental officials under Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act.

FERC said the lack of a permit is not an “absolute bar” from development activities and that its conditional approval of the project does not allow activities that impair waterways.

At a joint legislative budget hearing at the New York State Capitol in Albany on Thursday, Department of Environmental Conservation Acting Commissioner Basil Seggos noted Constitution is a significant project with a large number of stream crossings. “I’m not going to pressure my department to move more quickly than they believe is warranted,” he said.

Also, on Friday, the commission granted partial permission to Constitution to proceed with limited tree felling in Pennsylvania only, in a letter from FERC’s Division of Gas – Environment and Engineering. About 25 miles of the 124-mile route is within Pennsylvania, but FERC delayed similar operations in New York. (See New York AG: No Tree Cutting for Pipeline Without Water Quality Permits.)

The letter notes that permission from landowners in Pennsylvania has been granted but does not address the controversy in New York, nor does it explain the prohibition there.

“This letter does not authorize tree felling in New York nor does it authorize the workspace variances in Constitution’s May 19, 2015, and Jan. 8, 2016, requests in New York at this time,” it states. The variances were requested to avoid wetlands or improve work site access.

February 2, 2016

MISO’s December Energy Prices Hit 7-Year Low

December marked a return to energy prices not seen since 2009, MISO officials reported during Tuesday’s Markets Committee of the Board of Directors meeting. December’s average day-ahead and real-time energy prices were the lowest since MISO implemented the ancillary services market in January 2009.

“December was a relatively mild month,” said David Patton, MISO’s Independent Market Monitor. “The most notable thing that happened this month is the continued low gas prices… In addition to gas prices dropping, oil has continued to drop.”

Patton said languishing prices were driven by low loads, low natural gas prices, strong wind output and the return of nearly 15 GW of generation from the fall outage season.

December’s average real-time energy price was $21.23/MWh, representing a 31% drop when compared to December 2014. Load averaged 72.6 GW, which was lower than last December’s average of 76.6 GW. On Dec. 17, load peaked at 87.1 GW, down from last December’s peak of 93.1 GW.

Wind power alone produced 4,133 GWh, almost double the 2,461 GWh needed to satisfy combined state renewable portfolio standards.

Todd Ramey, vice president for system operations and market services, said temperatures in the footprint were 5 to 8 degrees above normal during December. He said unusually high temperatures complicated day-ahead forecasting and led to a mid-term load forecast that exceeded the 2% error threshold for eight days during the month.

The low energy prices caused capacity factors of coal-fired resources to drop to 45%, down from December 2014’s 60%. Patton said the reduced utilization could accelerate coal retirements. “We’re seeing some pretty significant changes in terms of types of dispatches,” Patton said.

— Amanda Durish Cook

February 2, 2016

MISO Plans Expansion of Carmel HQ

By Amanda Durish Cook

CARMEL, Ind. — MISO revealed Thursday that it plans to increase its employee headcount and invest $30 million to update its Carmel, Ind., headquarters. The grid operator said it’s in need of an expansion because it has outgrown the 133,409-square-foot facility that has served as its headquarters for more than a decade.

Over the next four years, MISO said it could add more than 80 employees to its workforce. The RTO hopes to gradually open 84 new positions by 2020 in order to qualify for $1.6 million in conditional tax credits and up to $100,000 in training grants offered by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. Final approval on both the employee additions and building expansion rests with MISO’s Board of Directors.

MISO spokesperson Andy Shonert said MISO’s investment plans are based on projections that are subject to performance-based checks. He noted that “future investment and headcount decisions are approved by the Board of Directors during the annual budget process.”

“The investment numbers cited encompass a number of priorities that MISO has worked on with stakeholders, including reconfiguring our Carmel location to better support our workforce, meeting critical technology needs and lease payments for our office building,” Shonert said, adding, “MISO always seeks to ensure we are good stewards of our members’ resources.”

A large portion of the expansion investment will go toward updating MISO’s facilities and IT and computer networking systems.

If the employee goal is reached, the city of Carmel said it would consider additional incentives, although the “city rarely offers additional benefits,” according to the Indianapolis Business Journal.

MISO’s decision followed deliberations that began last fall on whether to expand or move into new headquarters.

“Indiana has been our home since we first started, and we are proud to continue that investment,” MISO CEO John Bear said in a press release issued by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. “Fulfilling our mission of ensuring reliable operation of the electric grid requires the best and the brightest. This commitment to our Carmel facility will ensure that we have the people and technology to continue that mission in a way that provides value to our region.”

Of MISO’s 940 employees nationwide, more than 700 work in Indiana.

“We congratulate MISO on its big news today and we celebrate the fact that they chose to expand here in Carmel,” said Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard. “MISO has been a part of Carmel’s corporate family of 100-plus headquarters since the late 1990s and we look forward to watching their continued growth.”

In the meantime, and as part of the improvements, MISO is undergoing an audio-visual overhaul at its Carmel location. MISO Conference Services Manager Mike Barber said the top priority is to “enhance the stakeholder experience” of meetings. Barber said MISO is installing state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment that will include allowing telecommuting stakeholders a presentation view of meetings.

The audio-visual improvements will extend to MISO’s Eagan, Minn., location as well. Barber said construction at the Eagan facilities will begin on March 28 and last until May, while improvements to the Carmel facility began in late January and will last until April 11. Until then, meetings will be conducted offsite via telephone or at MISO’s Little Rock and Metairie, La., locations.

During a Tuesday meeting of the Markets Committee of the Board of Directors, Wisconsin Public Service’s Chris Plante asked if stakeholders will be required to use different software to view presentations online after the upgrade. Barber said that was something he couldn’t answer until pilot testing the new equipment.

At the MISO Steering Committee on Jan. 27, MISO Stakeholder Relations Specialist Alison Lane said a new conference call operator is coming on board in March. With the change, there will be no limit to how many callers can call into MISO meetings; currently the number is capped at about 150 callers. “That is all being folded into our AV update, which is slowly underway,” Lane said.

Lane said Board of Directors meetings and Advisory Committee meetings will continue to be operator-assisted, while all other meetings will not require an operator, “unless an issue arises.”

February 2, 2016

Company Briefs

Dominion Resources announced Monday that it is buying the Utah-based natural gas distributor Questar for $4.4 billion in cash in a deal aimed at expanding its gas business into the West.

Dominion said it expects to complete the acquisition by the end of the year. The company also said it would be assuming Questar’s approximately $1.31 billion in long- and short-term debt.

Like Duke Energy, which announced in October it would purchase Piedmont Natural Gas, Dominion expects the value of natural gas to increase as more and more states switch to the fuel for electric generation in order to meet state and federal emissions mandates.

It is Dominion’s latest big natural gas play. The company is one of the majority owners of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, a $5 billion, 550-mile pipeline that would bring natural gas from the shale fields in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to markets and terminals in Virginia and North Carolina. It also has invested $3.8 billion to convert its liquefied natural gas import terminal at Cove Point, Md., on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay into an export facility.

More: Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

GPI Names Bilek to Govt. Affairs and Communications

Amanda Bilek, who has held various positions at the Great Plains Institute since 2008, will become the director of government affairs and communications for the energy think tank.

“I look forward to the challenge of ensuring that our government affairs and communications efforts enhance the impact of our programs,” she said.

“Amanda’s extensive legislative and policy experience coupled with her management and communications skills make her a perfect fit for this new role,” said GPI President Rolf Nordstrom.

More: Great Plains Institute

Invenergy Cuts Deal to Sell Wind Energy to Google

Invenergy announced it has signed a deal with Google to provide the Internet giant with 225 MW of wind energy. Craig Gordon, Invenergy’s vice president of sales and marketing, said the power will be generated at the company’s proposed wind facility near Lubbock, Texas, and will be transmitted through SPP to Google’s energy-hungry data centers.

“They are always looking to partner up with folks like us to green up their energy supply,” Gordon said. “Their needs are growing by leaps and bounds every year, and as a result their energy needs are growing by leaps and bounds every year.” A price was not disclosed.

The agreement is part of a plan Google announced in December to partner with six companies in the U.S., Sweden and Chile to obtain 842 MW of clean energy.

More: Chicago Tribune

Duke Starts Coal Ash Removal from Riverbend Steam Station

Riverbend Steam Station (Source: Duke Energy)

Duke Energy began loading coal ash from its retired Riverbend Steam Station in Gaston County, N.C., using a rail spur it had built for the purpose. The company said each train can carry as much coal ash as 420 dump trucks, alleviating some of the community’s traffic concerns.

Riverbend, on the Catawba River, was retired in 2013, but the coal ash dump there is one of four high-priority sites that have to be cleaned up by 2019. Duke says it will clean up all its coal ash sites by 2029.

More: WSOC TV

Montana Co-ops May Be Facing $5B Bill to Comply with CPP

Montana’s electric cooperatives will likely share in a $5 billion bill to comply with the federal Clean Power Plan, officials said recently.

The $5 billion is what Basin Electric Power Cooperative, an SPP member, estimates it will need to cut greenhouse gases from its coal-fired power plants while also adding wind farms and gas-fired generators as replacement energy sources.

More: Billings Gazette

Basin Electric Growth Rate Projected to Drop to 1.4% Annually

Basin Electric Power Cooperative forecasts new load will increase 1,350 MW over the next 20 years, 739 MW lower than its forecast last year.

The forecast projects a 1.4% annual growth rate across Basin’s membership, down from the previous year’s estimate of 2.5 to 2.9% annually. The cancelled Keystone XL pipeline and oil price fluctuations account for much of the difference.

The load forecast show Basin Electric’s service area growing at twice the rate of the rest of the U.S., even with oil prices at 12-year lows.

More: Basin Electric Power Cooperative

PNM Opens 3rd Solar Facility This Year, Adding 9.5 MW

Public Service Company of New Mexico opened a 9.5-MW solar facility south of Santa Fe, its 15th in the state.

The 40,000-panel solar center is part of the utility’s much debated and critiqued energy portfolio, 15% of which is required by the state to be derived from renewable sources.

In December, the state Public Regulation Commission approved PNM’s plan to close two of four coal-burning units at the aging San Juan Generating Station and replace that power with energy from nuclear and natural gas plants, additional coal power and some solar energy.

More: The Santa Fe New Mexican

Nonprofit Says PNM Broke Law with 64-MW Palo Verde Purchase

An advocacy group is fighting a requested rate increase by Public Service Company of New Mexico, which it says quietly purchased a 64-MW share of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona for $163.3 million without getting prior approval from state regulators. PNM previously had leased the capacity from the nuclear plant.

The nonprofit New Energy Economy filed a motion Jan. 20 with the state Public Regulation Commission, along with Bernalillo County, to dismiss a third of the utility’s requested $123.5 million rate hike that would cover the $40 million cost of operating Palo Verde’s Unit 2 for a year, including taxes, maintenance and fuel.

The advocacy group, which has been at odds with PNM for years, said that the utility should have submitted its proposed purchase first to the state commission. PNM said it filed the request in March with FERC, and no public comments were submitted.

More: The Santa Fe New Mexican

Austin Energy Proposes Rate Cut for Most Businesses

Austin Energy has proposed cutting rates for most business customers to reduce revenue by $17.5 million a year.

Austin Energy officials publicly released their suggested rates Jan. 25 in what is shaping up to be a contentious discussion about reallocating costs among different customer classes.

The utility, which has 448,000 customers, says that residential customers as a whole are paying $53 million less than it costs to serve them, while businesses collectively are paying about $62 million more. Its new rates require City Council approval.

More: Austin American-Statesman

Akron Delves into Battery Storage with Solar Project

Smart battery builder Design Flux Technologies, a University of Akron spinoff, is building a battery-management system for a rooftop solar array being built in Akron, Ohio.

The facility will be built by Prism Solar Technology of Highland, N.Y., and will be affixed to the roof of the former B.F. Goodrich Tire plant, a 19th century building that now houses the Akron Global Business Accelerator, a business development organization. Design Flux Technologies is a resident company of the Akron Global Business Accelerator.

The city of Akron’s $173,000 investment in the solar panels and storage equipment is expected to be recovered within five years, with power cost savings estimated between $30,000 and $40,000 annually.

More: Crain’s Cleveland Business

WEC Energy to Replace Retiring CEO with Current President

WEC Energy Group announced last week that current president Allen Leverett will succeed Gale Klappa as chief executive on May 1.

Klappa, 65, is retiring and will serve as nonexecutive chairman. Leverett, 49, was recruited to WEC by Klappa in 2003 after the two worked together at Georgia Power in Atlanta.

The incoming CEO said his priorities will include the continued transition of the Integrys merger, working on upgrades as needed to WEC’s natural gas distribution infrastructure and compliance with Wisconsin’s Clean Power Plan strategy.

More: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Exelon Appoints Gioia to Board of Directors

Nancy Gioia, retired director of global connectivity, electrical and user experience for Ford Motor Co., has been appointed to Exelon’s board of directors, effective Feb. 1.

Gioia, 55, will serve on the generation oversight and finance and risk committees.

In more than 30 years at Ford, Gioia led global electrification efforts, working closely with the Edison Electric Institute and the Department of Energy.

More: Exelon

PECO: Smart Ideas Program Increasing Energy Efficiency

PECO Energy customers have received more than $500 million in energy savings, incentives and rebates in the past seven years using the Smart Ideas program, the Philadelphia utility says.

The program provides 15 ways to help residential and business customers save energy and money.

Smart Ideas is part of the company’s effort to increase energy efficiency and demand response capability under the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s Act 129, which requires electric utilities to increasingly reduce their customers’ energy usage through 2021.

More: PECO

FirstEnergy: Lake Shore Power Plant to be Demolished

FirstEnergy engineers say the architecturally significant, defunct Lake Shore power plant in Cleveland is too degraded to restore and will be demolished.

The coal-fired plant, which first generated power in 1911, sits on 57 acres overlooking Lake Erie.

FirstEnergy hopes to begin the $15 million demolition in late spring or early summer, and then offer the cleared site for sale. But the utility can’t proceed with demolition until the city’s Downtown/Flats Design Review Committee issues a permit.

More: The Plain Dealer

$1B Privately Funded Plant will Power 1M Ill. Homes

Competitive Power Ventures plans to open a 1,100-MW combined cycle generating facility in the Three Rivers area of Grundy County, Ill.

The $1 billion CPV Three Rivers Energy Center will consist of two General Electric turbines and one steam turbine. It will be fueled by an existing 36-inch natural gas pipeline on the 80-acre site. The site is near Exelon’s Dresden Generating Station in Goose Lake Township.

Construction is expected to start in 2018, with the facility in operation by 2021.

More: Morris Herald-News

Entergy Names 30-Year Industry Vet to Lead its Nuclear Operations

Chris Bakken will become Entergy’s executive vice president and chief nuclear officer, effective April 6. Bakken replaces Jeff Forbes, who announced his retirement last year, and will report to Leo Denault, Entergy’s chairman and chief executive.

Bakken will be responsible for oversight of New Orleans-based Entergy’s 10 nuclear units at eight sites, which have nearly 10,000 MW of capacity. He will also be responsible for the company’s management services to the Cooper Nuclear Station for the Nebraska Public Power District.

Bakken’s career began in 1982 as a test engineer at Duquesne Light in Pittsburgh. He was most recently executive director for EDF Energy’s nuclear new build group and has also worked for American Electric Power, Public Service Enterprise Group and British Energy.

More: Entergy