ERCOT reported a 2.2% increase in energy usage within its region of Texas in 2015, fueled by a record-breaking summer that brought a new peak demand record approaching 70,000 MW.
The Texas grid operator released a report Jan. 15 that indicated the system consumed 347,522,945 MWh of electricity last year, nearly 7.5 million MWh more than in 2014.
According to ERCOT’s 2015 Demand and Energy Report, wind accounted for 11.7% of the grid’s energy consumption, surpassing nuclear (11.3%) as a generating source for the first time. In 2010, the nuclear and wind numbers stood at 13.1% and 7.8%, respectively.
Natural gas remains the primary fuel at 48.3% — a 17.5% increase over its 2014 share — with coal supplying 28.1%.
ERCOT’s system set a series of peak demand records in August during the region’s hottest summer since 2011. By summer’s end, the system had topped 67,000 MW of demand for the first time in four years, eventually setting a new peak demand of 69,877 MW and recording its five highest peak demands:
10: 69,877 MW
11: 69,775 MW
6: 68,979 MW
7: 68,731 MW
5: 68,683 MW
ERCOT also set new records for monthly energy use (36,975,136 MWh in July), July peak demand (67,650 MW) and weekend peak demand (66,587 MW on Aug. 8).
ERCOT manages about 90% of Texas’ electric load, representing 24 million customers. It estimates 1 MW serves about 200 homes during summer peak demand and about 500 homes during milder weather conditions.
State Auditor Tom Wagner says an energy efficiency project involving state buildings in the capital would cost taxpayers $8 million over 20 years but yield energy savings of only $2.7 million. “The possibility of the state breaking even on this agreement is looking bleak,” he said.
The project to upgrade the Legislative Mall buildings in Dover is part of a broader $67.4 million conservation effort undertaken by the Sustainable Energy Utility, a quasi-public agency established in 2007 to reduce energy consumption.
Tony DePrima, the SEU’s executive director, said the auditor’s report was unfounded. “These are fairly complex energy efficiency projects,” he said. “I don’t think they understand the protocols or standards being used, especially since they didn’t consult with any experts in the field of energy engineering.”
Activists Concerned Utilities Connecting Wind Tx Line to Coal Plants
Environmentalists are concerned that two proposed transmission lines that Northern Indiana Public Service Co. is touting to deliver wind power will actually be used to transmit excess electricity from coal-fired plants.
Kerwin Olson, executive director of Indianapolis’ Citizens Action Coalition, said the lines could connect to several coal-fired generators belonging to Duke Energy and American Electric Power. Duke Energy and AEP jointly own Pioneer Energy, which is a partner with NIPSCO on the 65-mile project.
“We have utility companies who are continuing to invest billions of dollars in aging coal plants that really should be retired and replaced with clean energy, so Indiana isn’t doing so well,” Olson said. “We seem to be doing everything in our power to maintain our addiction to coal.”
Rock Island Clean Line Process Request Turned Down Again
State regulators again turned down Clean Line Energy Partners’ request to consider the necessity of its transmission line proposal without requiring it to first acquire the rights of way for the power line. Clean Line said it may not proceed with the Rock Island Clean Line project if the Utilities Board continues to require full right-of-way approval before the project’s route or need are determined.
The IUB on Monday rejected Clean Line’s third request to separate the proceedings, saying both state law and board regulations call for a single proceeding to determine all those issues.
Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, in his first year leading the Republican-dominated chamber, said that making the state’s electricity markets more competitive is a priority in 2016.
Meekhof said lawmakers are considering whether to allow competitive bidding for new electric generation to reduce reliance on the state’s two dominant electric utilities, DTE Energy and Consumers Energy. He said the process could encourage independent power producers to propose alternatives to replace retiring coal generators.
“Some of the discussion around it is it can’t just be the big two,” he said. “There may be other people who have smaller generating things that might be able to add on at a relatively inexpensive cost and then generate more energy and incrementally bring up the amount of energy we need as the demand is there — as opposed to building [a] 500-, 600-, 700-MW plant one time.”
Consumers Extends Biomass Plant’s Power Purchase Agreement
Consumers Energy has extended a power purchase agreement with Hillman Power’s 20-MW wood-burning plant for another 17 months.
The agreement’s termination now coincides with the Public Service Commission’s timeframe to review federal laws that oversee contracts between regulated utilities and smaller, renewable electricity generators.
The power plant, which is owned by Fortistar, said the contract extension saved about 100 direct and indirect jobs. The power plant employs about 20 people and spends about $3.5 million a year to buy local wood.
The city of Scandia, population 3,936, is embracing a $12.5 million community solar garden that private investors are building on a former 59-acre gravel pit. Scandia Mayor Randall Simonson said he wants the facility to be a showcase for other communities.
“It shows people as soon as they cross the border into Scandia, ‘Hey, look at what they’ve got here,’” Simonson said.
SolarStone Partners is slated to begin construction of the 5-MW project this spring. Subscribers will receive credits to lower their Xcel Energy bills.
An administrative law judge has sanctioned most of the route on Minnesota Power’s proposed 220-mile Great Northern Transmission Line, which would import power from Manitoba Hydro.
Judge Ann O’Reilly concluded that the 500-kV line’s route largely satisfied permit criteria, except for a segment in Itasca County.
The Public Utilities Commission is expected to vote on the project in March. The U.S. Department of Energy would then decide whether to grant Minnesota Power a permit to build the line. Minnesota Power says the line will cost up to $710 million.
A deal to keep an underground coal mine running includes a confidential secret side agreement between the owner and an environmental group that had argued state officials failed to properly examine the long-term groundwater impacts of expanding the mine.
The Board of Environmental Review on Jan. 12 approved the agreement between Signal Peak Energy, the Montana Environmental Information Center and the state Department of Environmental Quality. The deal gives the DEQ six months to revise its environmental analysis to correct problems the board found when the agency previously approved the expansion of Bull Mountain Mine.
The agreement includes a paragraph that says the Montana Environmental Information Center and Signal Peak reached a separate, confidential agreement that includes other “material terms.” Neither the mine owner nor the environmental group said they could discuss the terms of their truce.
Site Evaluation Committee Hearings on Northern Pass Begin
The Site Evaluation Committee held its first county hearing on the controversial Northern Pass transmission line project. The session was held in Franklin, whose mayor has enthusiastically embraced the $1.6 billion project that would deliver Canadian hydropower to New England.
A crowd of 250 people heard project representatives say Northern Pass is the best alternative to bring energy into New England. They said a substation in Franklin would pay about $7 million annually in property taxes. The money would be used to improve city services, Mayor Ken Merrifield said.
Several in the audience wore orange “Trees Not Towers” shirts in opposition to the project and applauded questioners who said the visual impact of the project could not be justified.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed creating a $19 million fund to help local communities cope with the loss of property taxes after the closure of the coal-fired Huntley power plant. Cuomo has pledged the closure all coal generation in the state by 2020.
The Town of Tonawanda and Ken-Ton School District will lose $5 million in annual revenue after the plant closes in March. “Based on what I’ve heard and what I’ve read, it looks like we’re going to be eligible for that pot of money and we’re going to be aggressively seeking it,” Town Supervisor Joseph H. Emminger said.
The Just Transition Coalition, composed of the Clean Air Coalition, labor unions and teachers associations, has been lobbying to secure money to make up the expected loss of revenue for the town on the Niagara River, north of Buffalo.
Commissioner Withdraws from Dakota Access Pipeline Process
Christmann
One of three members of the Public Service Commission has recused himself from voting on a proposed pipeline that would transport crude oil from the state’s Bakken Formation to out-of-state markets.
Commissioner Randy Christmann said that the Dakota Access Pipeline’s revised proposed route would cut across the property of his mother-in-law, who is currently negotiating an easement. The remaining two members of the commission are expected to vote on the matter Jan. 20.
The 1,134-mile pipeline would deliver 450,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the state to Patoka, Ill. Dakota Access has negotiated voluntary easements for 95% of its state route.
Duke Customers Entitled to Payout Under Class Action Suit
About a million customers of Duke Energy in the state have until April 13 to file a claim to be included in an $81 million class-action settlement, which resolved claims that the utility illegally paid rebates to large commercial and industrial customers at the expense of smaller customers.
Plaintiffs in the federal case alleged that Duke paid rebates from 2005 to 2008 to large customers including General Electric, Procter & Gamble and AK Steel in violation of antitrust laws. Duke, while denying wrongdoing, agreed to settle the suit.
Under the settlement, residential customers could receive from $40 to $400 each, while commercial customers could be entitled to as much as $6,000. About $8 million of the settlement will be set aside to improve energy efficiency programs. A federal judge in Columbus is expected to give final approval in April.
Regulators Order Wastewater Injection Reduction in Wake of Earthquakes
The Corporation Commission has ordered the operators of 27 wastewater disposal wells to reduce wastewater injections after a swarm of earthquakes unsettled residents northwest of Oklahoma City.
The order comes about a week after a series of earthquakes jarred the Fairview region. None of the recent temblors caused damage or injuries, but commission members are listening to experts who have drawn a connection between wastewater injections and the increase in the seismic activity.
The Oklahoma Geological Survey has said it is “very likely” the quakes are being triggered by the injection of wastewater produced from oil and gas wells, which has increased dramatically in volume because of the growth of shale drilling.
Asst. AG Criticizes PSO’s Smart Meter Opt-Out Plan
The attorney general’s office has taken issue with a plan by Public Service Company of Oklahoma to charge customers who decline to allow a smart meter to be installed.
Assistant Attorney General Dara Derryberry criticized an administrative law judge’s report favoring the opt-out charges. PSO wants to charge a one-time fee of $183 and a monthly charge of $28 to customers who opt out of its smart meter program. The utility says that it will need to manually read the meters of customers who decline the wireless devices.
Derryberry said the proposed fees were excessive when compared to opt-out fees in 11 other states and in a recent proposal by Oklahoma Gas and Electric. Derryberry said the Corporation Commission should defer a decision on opt-out fees until PSO finishes installing the devices in September.
PUC Plans Hearing to Study Alternative Ratemaking Methods
The Public Utility Commission will hold a hearing March 3 focused on alternative ratemaking methods for the state’s natural gas and electric utilities.
The hearing is part of the commission’s effort to promote energy efficiency and conservation programs.
Forum topics will include revenue decoupling and whether such rate mechanisms are fair to consumers.
State regulators have rebuffed an attempt by the Conservation Law Foundation to stall Invenergy’s application for its 1,000-MW Clear River Energy Center because of the proposed gas-fired power plant’s climate impacts.
CLF had argued the application was incomplete because it failed to fully outline the projected climate effects of the plant under the Resilient Rhode Island Act, a 2014 law that calls for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The Energy Facility Siting Board agreed on the importance of the act, but it ruled that more information on emissions could be submitted later.
Invenergy estimates the new plant would reduce emissions across New England by about 1% because the power plant would displace older fossil fuel-fired power generators.
Environmental Agency Plans CPP Extension Request with EPA
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is taking a two-pronged approach as it prepares to respond to EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which seeks to reduce carbon emissions from power plants.
The DENR is participating in a lawsuit with 24 states opposing the CPP. At the same time, it plans to develop a state compliance proposal, should the lawsuit fail. The department will seek public input in the coming months, request a two-year extension from EPA by the Sept. 6 deadline and then finalize a state CPP for submittal to EPA by Sept. 6, 2018.
PUC Urged to Reject Oncor Sale on Ratepayer Concerns
The chief executive of Oncor told state regulators last week that the plan to sell the company out of bankruptcy to Dallas billionaire Ray L. Hunt is not in the public interest.
Oncor CEO Bob Shapard’s testimony adds to a chorus of concerns raised by consumer advocates who asked the Public Utility Commission to reject the sale, arguing it will enrich Hunt and his group of private investors at the expense of ratepayers.
The sale of Oncor, the transmission arm of Energy Future Holdings, is the linchpin in the parent company’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy proceedings and reduce $42 billion in debt. The sale to Hunt Consolidated needs the blessing of utility commissioners, who are not expected to decide before March.
State Board Approves Dominion Coal Ash Drainage Plan
The state Water Control Board has approved a plan allowing Dominion Virginia Power to start draining its coal ash ponds into the James and Potomac rivers, overriding vocal opposition from citizen and environmental groups.
Dominion, in its application, said its plans to drain the coal ash ponds at the Bremo Power Station on the James River and the Possum Point Power Station on the Potomac River met all state and federal laws, including a rule last year setting new discharge limits on power plants. “This approach complies with all current federal and state regulations, including the newly promulgated EPA rule,” said Cathy Taylor, Dominion’s director of electric environmental services.
The James River Association and the Southern Environmental Law Center had filed opposition to the plans. The water board’s final hearing was attended by more than 100 opponents.
The State Assembly last week voted to lift a moratorium on developing nuclear generation, sending the bill to the State Senate for consideration. The Republican-backed bill would lift a state law blocking new nuclear generation without the formation of a national repository for nuclear waste.
The measure also does away with a requirement that any new nuclear plant would not burden ratepayers. Democrats in the Republican-controlled Assembly voted against the measure.
The state is home to a single nuclear generating station, Point Beach, owned and operated by NextEra Energy Resources. The Kewaunee Power Station, another nuclear station in the state, was retired by Dominion Resources in 2013.
The Organization of MISO States board approved its 2016 Strategic Initiative on Thursday, calling for the RTO to focus on issues including resource adequacy, capacity, demand response and cost allocations under the settlement of the SPP transmission dispute.
Talberg (Source: Michigan PSC)
“There were several different focus areas,” said OMS President Sally Talberg, of the Michigan Public Service Commission.
At the request of Minnesota Public Utilities Commissioner Nancy Lange, the strategy document was amended to include mention of MISO’s stakeholder redesign.
The board also discussed MISO’s queue reform. (See MISO Unveils Queue Reform Transition as Wind Advocates Seek Delay.) Lange said MISO contacted Minnesota officials to solicit feedback on the changes. Minnesota has “bumped up against queue restraints in the past,” Lange said, adding that the reform will be a welcome change.
Comments on MISO’s queue reform filing are due to FERC on Jan. 28. OMS Executive Director Tanya Paslawski said the group is determining if and what’s appropriate to file.
Members also discussed FERC’s Dec. 31 ruling ordering MISO to change the way it conducts capacity auctions. (See FERC Orders MISO to Change Auction Rules.) Several regulators said they’d like to see changes to the auction rules.
“We don’t have the jurisdictional authority to say, ‘MISO you must do this.’ That’s up to FERC, but at the end of the day, MISO knows that as a state, we’re very discontented right now,” Illinois Commerce Commissioner Sherina Maye Edwards said. “We can address these Zone 4 issues without negatively impacting other states.”
Talberg said Michigan is also following the capacity auction issue closely. “We’re a kind of a fish-out-of-water state in that we are a hybrid state,” she said. Michigan caps retail choice at 10% of each utility’s retail sales.
PJM will implement a new process for ensuring compliance with training and certification requirements effective Feb. 1.
The Operating Committee unanimously approved changes to Manual 40 to enable the new process, which stems from an August problem statement to improve compliance by generation dispatchers, demand response providers and energy storage device operators. (See “PJM Moves to Tighten Training, Certification Requirements” in PJM Operating Committee Briefs.)
The process requires that operators or dispatchers that are not in compliance be removed from their shifts.
PJM will calculate compliance scores based on a count of operators and months out of compliance. A score of 5 will trigger a violation notice from PJM’s legal department, which will be sent to the company’s Members Committee representative as well as its compliance contact. (A company with one operator out of compliance for two months and a second operator in violation for three months would score a 5.)
Companies that fail to correct scores of 5 or higher within 30 days could be reported to FERC as a violation of the PJM Operating Agreement and Tariff.
“By putting in a requirement to remove a noncompliant operator from their shift, that essentially puts the company back in compliance,” said PJM’s Glen Boyle. “That’s what we would hope would come out of this. We don’t want to go the FERC route.”
The changes will go before the Markets and Reliability Committee on Jan. 28.
PJM Met ACE, Load Forecast Error Goals in 2015
PJM achieved a perfect dispatch score of 86.64% in 2015, beating its goal of 86.62%, officials told OC members.
Perfect dispatch, designed to measure how well PJM commits combustion turbines, is the hypothetical least production cost commitment and dispatch — what PJM would spend if it knew and could control all system conditions (load forecast, unit availability, unit performance, interchange and transmission outages) in advance.
The score is calculated by dividing the optimal CT production cost by the actual real-time CT production cost. The average RTO load forecast error for December was 2.31%, and it remained below the 3% goal throughout the year, said Chantal Hendrzak, executive director of operations support.
There were, however, five days that exceeded the average — two when the weather was warmer than expected, one when temperatures were colder and two days around the holidays, including Dec. 26.
“We always have some trouble with the holidays — what day of the week it is, what the weather is and what history we have,” she said.
PJM’s balance authority area control error (ACE) performance exceeded the accuracy goal of 99% for each month in 2015.
The average forced outage rate for the year was 4.65% (8,484 MW). The average total outage rate was 15.99% (29,186 MW).
All Hot, Cold Weather Action Items Closed out
PJM has completed all 115 hot and cold weather action items, Director of Operations Planning Dave Souder told the OC.
Since the last update in June, PJM closed out three cold weather action items related to Capacity Performance, regulation market rules and gas infrastructure future adequacy.
On the hot weather side, it completed issues involving synchronized reserves, cascading outage analysis procedure, facility limits, the emergency procedure tool and system modeling.
PJM’s Dave Schweizer reported that mild weather in December limited generator cold weather testing, so the exercise was continued into January.
PJM Strategy Would Guide Expansion of PMUs
(Click to zoom)
PJM is developing an RTO-wide strategy for the placement of phasor measurement units (PMU) as their deployment expands on the grid. The strategy aims to address monitoring gaps and provide redundancy.
PJM, which has about 386 PMUs located at 123 transmission substations, is targeting additional installations at 60 substations.
In July 2013, members approved Tariff revisions requiring the installation of PMUs at new generation units of 100 MW and larger. The first generator PMU installation is expected early this year.
The Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative has announced the appointment of Tim Ponseti as chairman of the executive committee for 2016 and Mike Kormos as vice chairman.
Ponseti is vice president of transmission operations and power supply for the Tennessee Valley Authority. Kormos is executive vice president and chief operations officer for PJM. Ponseti takes the place of Steve Whitley, former president and CEO of NYISO.
The EIPC was formed by Eastern Interconnection planning authorities to perform interconnection-wide transmission analysis.
The Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday affirmed an earlier decision that rejected the City of Boulder’s application to municipalize Xcel Energy facilities that exclusively serve customers outside city limits, saying the commissioners won’t force the utility to share facilities with the city.
The commission in November partially dismissed an application from Boulder to acquire facilities to create a city-owned utility, including substations and distribution infrastructure outside the city’s boundary. But the commission also will allow Boulder to engage in discovery and permit it to amend its original application after it learns more about Xcel’s system.
City engineers anticipate receiving data needed from Xcel in order to formulate an interconnection plan that works for Boulder customers and those who will remain with Xcel. Boulder is targeting a December 2017 start date for a city-owned utility.
NIPSCO Directed to Resubmit Energy Efficiency Plan
Consumer advocates responded positively to the Utility Regulatory Commission’s order requiring Northern Indiana Public Service Co. to resubmit its overall energy efficiency plan after deciding the utility’s filing did not include adequate goals. The commission ordered the resubmittal by 2017.
The commission’s order was viewed as the first test of Gov. Mike Pence’s 2015 energy efficiency law, which replaced a more aggressive statewide energy efficiency program that the General Assembly killed in 2014. The state law does not place a time limit on surcharges that utilities can impose to recover revenue lost due to greater efficiency efforts, but the commission’s order on NIPSCO imposed a four-year cap on cost recovery.
“This is a big win for ratepayers,” Kerwin Olson, executive director at Citizens Action Coalition, told The Times of Northwest Indiana. “We will see a continuation of efficiency programs from NIPSCO but also caps on how much NIPSCO can collect from ratepayers.”
Low power prices are forcing two biomass plants to suspend operations in March, raising concerns in the state’s logging industry.
The Professional Logging Contractors of Maine on Thursday said the move will affect up to 2,500 jobs. The two plants buy wood waste from logging operations.
Covanta Holding Corp., the plants’ operator, said this has happened before and operations have resumed when the economy has improved. The Covanta plants are two of six biomass plants in the state. Biomass accounts for 60% of the state’s renewable energy portfolio and 27% of its electricity generation, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Local officials in Huron County have approved construction of Consumers Energy’s proposed $9 million natural gas compressor station, which the utility says would improve reliability of its gas distribution system.
The County Planning Commission approved site plans for the 1,900-square-foot compressor building, which will be situated on three acres in the town of Sebewaing. Consumers, which supplies gas and electricity service across most of the state, said the compressor station is expected to only run about two weeks per year, as needed.
The Federal Communications Commission has reached a $540,000 settlement with Cumulus Media, the former owner of a radio station that in 2011 broadcast 178 ads supporting the Northern Pass transmission project without identifying the ad’s sponsor — Northern Pass Transmission.
FCC says its settlement is the largest ever involving a single station for violating sponsor identification laws. “Radio and television stations that are paid to air any announcements or other content are required to clearly disclose the payer’s identity,” FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said.
The Northern Pass is a proposed 192-mile transmission line that would deliver 1,090 MW of Canadian hydropower to New England. About 60 miles of the line would be buried to reduce its visual impact.
Bills Filed in Legislature Against Northeast Energy Direct
At least 10 bills have been filed in the state legislature to impede Kinder Morgan’s proposal to build its Northeast Energy Direct gas pipeline across the state’s southern tier.
One bill would prohibit charging residents for the construction of high-pressure gas pipelines, taking direct aim at the Public Utilities Commission, whose staff said it would be legal for utilities to recover their costs from electricity customers. Several bills, anticipating that FERC will approve the project, would allow property owners to require the pipeline company to purchase their entire property, not just a pipeline easement. Another bill would require pipeline companies to pay 300% of fair market value.
Other bills would give a community the right to regulate noise levels for compressor stations, require a royalty on income from gas exported to another country paid to landowners along the pipeline route and mandate owners of gas transmission pipelines to maintain insurance against damages.
The state has the highest potential to develop offshore wind energy of any Northeastern state, according to a report by the Environment New Jersey Research Policy Center.
The study was released as the Legislature prepares to vote on an experimental wind farm off the coast of Atlantic City.
The environmental group, which supports the project, says the ability to generate as much as 1,700 MW in wind power could be realized within five years if the state moves quickly.
PSEG Long Island will roll out a scaled-back smart meter plan aimed mostly at large commercial and solar customers after its initial plan to install 180,000 devices was shelved last year by state regulators.
PSEG’s plan, part of a broader grid-modernizing initiative called Utility 2.0, calls for building a wireless communication system to collect the smart meter data. PSEG also will deploy smart meters for all new solar energy installations for net metering and for some residential customers who have hard-to-reach meters. The cost for the project, expected to be completed by year-end, is $3.9 million.
The utility already has more than 7,000 smart meters deployed around Long Island after several separate smart grid pilot programs.
Modifications to its 350-MW gas-fired power plant will reduce CO2 emissions by 4,000 tons/year, Caithness Long Island Energy says.
The company received a $163,000 grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to pay for the upgrades, which were completed in December. The grant is part of a statewide plan to reduce emissions from traditional plants.
Caithness says the more technically advanced turbine components improve efficiency. The plant has a $1.7 billion, 20-year contract to supply the Long Island Power Authority.
Natural gas production from the Marcellus and Utica shales in the state was stagnant last year, as falling prices led companies to defer expansion, demand slumped and a shortage of pipelines remained.
The demand for gas surged in recent years as generators switched from coal-fired plants to comply with tighter air quality standards, but that activity is expected to slow until 2020.
Meanwhile, consumer growth has remained sluggish amid milder-than-usual temperatures.
Local regulators have once again approved the route of the Keystone XL pipeline through the state, but they made its endorsement conditional on eventual approval of the project by the Obama administration.
The Public Utilities Commission approved the pipeline in 2010, but it had to undergo a review again because the state-imposed four-year statute of limitations had expired.
TransCanada’s project is currently stalled after being rejected by President Obama. The proposed pipeline would run from Canada through parts of Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska and then interconnect through existing pipelines to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
Protested Gas Pipeline Closer to Approval with FERC Move
A coalition of state ranchers, environmentalists and disgruntled landowners has suffered a major setback in its battle to block a proposed pipeline that would carry natural gas beneath 143 miles of largely untouched Big Bend land.
FERC staff offered a key endorsement of a stretch of the Trans-Pecos Pipeline, writing that it “would not constitute a major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment” in a draft environmental assessment issued Jan. 4.
The partnership between Energy Transfer Partners and Mexico’s Carso Energy could deliver as much as 1.4 billion cubic feet of gas each day to Mexico, where officials have recently opened up the energy sector to private companies. Supporters say the pipeline will generate construction jobs in the state and local tax revenue. Gas imports could also allow Mexico’s border cities to retire dirtier power plants that burn coal, wood and oil.
The state leads the nation in wind energy production but ranks 10th in solar production as of September 2015. The state doesn’t match the incentives of some states and has an abundant supply of other cheap energy, including natural gas.
But prices for solar panels have fallen more than 80% since 2009, and the outlook for solar generation is picking up in the state because there’s plenty of sun, a growing population, a huge electric load and a hyper-competitive electricity market.
Last year, solar installations in ERCOT grew almost 50%. This year, solar generation could jump six-fold, according to ERCOT projections, which are based on developer agreements to connect with the grid.
State lawmakers are scheduled to vote this week on a bill that would lift the moratorium on construction of new nuclear generating stations. Current law blocks new plants unless a national repository for spent fuel is developed. Current state law also prohibits construction of nuclear plants if costs would burden ratepayers.
The bill’s Republican sponsors say nuclear energy is a possible way to meet new federal emissions standards.
Former FERC member Phil Moeller has signed on with the Edison Electric Institute as senior vice president of energy delivery and chief customer solutions officer, the organization announced after its winter meeting.
“I look forward to welcoming Phil to the EEI team,” said Nick Akins, EEI chairman and CEO of American Electric Power. “Phil’s diverse talents and considerable expertise in regulatory and legislative affairs will be incredibly valuable for the industry during a time of considerable change.”
Moeller will direct EEI’s energy delivery, retail energy services and state regulatory outreach activities. He left FERC last fall after two terms.
TransCanada Sues US for $15 Billion over Keystone XL
TransCanada, the developer of the Keystone XL pipeline project, has sued the U.S. for failing to issue crucial permits to allow the project to proceed. The company is seeking $15 billion in damages, saying the State Department’s denial of the permit for the $8 billion pipeline was “arbitrary and unjustified.”
TransCanada is suing under terms of the North American Free Trade Act in U.S. District Court in Texas, saying the Obama administration’s denial “exceeded his power under the U.S. Constitution.”
“In its decision, the U.S. State Department acknowledged the denial was not based on the merits of the project,” TransCanada said in the statement. “Rather, it was a symbolic gesture based on speculation about the perceptions of the international community regarding the administration’s leadership on climate change and the president’s assertion of unprecedented, independent powers.”
FERC on Friday approved Columbia Gas Transmission’s proposed $45 million Utica Access Project in West Virginia, designed to bring Appalachian shale gas to market. The project, which includes 5 miles of new pipeline and modifications to existing compression facilities, would supply up to 205 million cubic feet of gas per day to the Appalachia Pool.
The project is expected to be completed this year.
Columbia also filed an application with FERC for its WB Express project, which calls for construction of two new compressor stations, about 26 miles of pipeline replacement located along existing corridors and approximately 3 miles of new pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia. That system would deliver 1.3 billion cubic feet a day of shale gas to Mid-Atlantic and Gulf markets.
FERC Extends Comment Period for Northeast Energy Direct
FERC extended the public comment period for the Northeast Energy Direct pipeline until Jan. 15 after what it described as errors in its online comment system in late December and the first few days of January.
Kinder Morgan’s plan is to build a $5 billion, 415-mile pipeline to carry shale gas from Pennsylvania through New York to New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The comment period was set to end Jan. 6, but the errors kept some parties from filing comments.
DOE Selects Team to Explore Borehole Disposal Method
The Energy Department has appointed a team to research the feasibility of drilling deep holes into a crystalline rock structure in North Dakota as a possible method of storing nuclear waste. A team from the Battelle Memorial Institute will drill a test hole in the formation near Rugby, N.D., as part of the project.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said there could be several uses for such deep drilling, including waste disposal or geothermal energy development. It’s not a new idea. More than 40 years ago, the government examined the possibility of drilling into granite formations to store weapons production nuclear waste, but no active project came of that.
The department said it would commit $35 million to the Rugby project over the next five years.
EPA Chief Says Office Will Push to Maintain Climate Gains
McCarthy
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said last week that the coming year will see ambitious moves by the Obama administration to maintain and build on gains it has made fighting greenhouse gas pollution.
“We’re not just going to stay with what we’ve already done,” she said in a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations. She said the administration will continue to press for additional gains, in part by assisting other countries.
“Countries want to do it, but many of them don’t have the capacity at this point,” McCarthy said. “A lot of what the EPA is doing is sharing expertise — on how to do the work and also on the benefits it brings, so it’s not seen as a chore but as an opportunity.”
House Republicans Seek to Block EPA Clean Water Rule
House Republicans are set to consider a bill that would block the EPA Clean Water Rule, arguing the rule gives the government too much control over uses of the nation’s waterways.
The House Rules Committee is planning to take up a Congressional Review Act of the rule this week. It is a step before the rule goes before the House for a final vote. The Senate in November passed a CRA resolution.
“My legislation is the necessary next step in pushing back against this blatant power grab by the EPA,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the resolution’s sponsor, said in November. If the House passes the resolution, President Obama likely would veto it.
Its patience strained, FERC has ordered ISO-NE to develop rules for sloped demand curves in constrained areas in time for the 11th Forward Capacity Auction in 2017.
The commission ruled Dec. 28 that the ISO-NE Tariff is unjust and unreasonable because it uses vertical demand curves in constrained zones, “which does not sufficiently address concerns such as price volatility and a susceptibility to the exercise of market power.”
The commission opened a Section 206 proceeding (EL16-15) requiring the RTO to file Tariff revisions by March 31 and implement new rules for FCA 11 (delivery year 2020/21).
But it tired of the delays after the RTO said last May that it would be unable to institute sloped zonal curves for FCA 10. “Now, nearly a year after that [January 2015 deadline] … ISO-NE still has not filed with the commission to incorporate the use of sloped demand curves for the constrained zones,” the commission said.
“The continued delay creates uncertainty for market participants and the continued use of vertical demand curves in constrained zones results in less efficient markets and affects confidence in market outcomes. Accordingly, the general challenges cited by ISO-NE do not justify further delay.”
When vertical demand curves are used, FERC said, even small changes in supply can cause price volatility because a fixed amount of capacity must be procured. “In addition, because a small decrease in supply can lead to a significantly higher price, sellers may have an incentive to withhold certain resources,” it said.
FERC’s previous orders directed the RTO to eliminate the need for administrative pricing in zones that are short of generation resources or suffer from transmission constraints.
The problem of administrative pricing is acute in the Southeast Massachusetts/Rhode Island zone. In FCA 9, inadequate resources were offered in that zone, which forced administrative prices at $17.73/kW-month for 353 MW of new resources and $11.08/kW-month for 6,888 MW of existing resources. The other zones with adequate resources cleared at $9.55/kW-month.
The commission’s latest order also dismissed as moot a June 2015 motion by the New England Power Generators Association that sought to impose a sloped demand curve for FCA 10. (See NEPGA: Order Sloped Demand Curve in FCA 10.)
“NEPGA will have the opportunity to raise concerns when ISO-NE submits its zonal sloped demand curves proposal,” the commission said.
Nearing the end of the first year of market-to-market (M2M) operations, SPP and MISO are negotiating a set of “guiding principles” to improve the process and reduce congestion costs along their seams.
The M2M process was instituted last March to improve price convergence on flowgates along the seams. Under M2M situations, SPP and MISO compensate each other for re-dispatching generation that lessens congestion in a way that reduces overall costs.
“We’re not comfortable [M2M] has worked the way it should in all cases, and we think there’s room for improvement,” David Kelley, SPP’s director of interregional relations, told SPP’s Seams Steering Committee on Jan. 6, repeating a point he has made several times in recent months. “We’ve tentatively agreed upon certain things we believe can improve the process.”
The seven principles include excluding reciprocal coordinated flowgates from the M2M process based on a threshold test for generators that affect it; recalculating firm-flow entitlements (FFE) due to changes in facility ratings; capping FFEs to the system operating limits for M2M flowgates; and switching between market flow and total flow control modes during M2M events.
Kelley said SPP and MISO have been discussing the principles and negotiating on how best to make improvements for several months. Staff from the two RTOs met Friday to share feedback from their respective stakeholders on the guiding principles.
Work in Process
Two of the principles describe in what circumstances the RTOs would switch to market flow or total flow control mode. Kelley told the committee the RTOs are already using a market flow control mode, in which they only manage the transmission in their own markets, during M2M events on certain flowgates as a temporary solution. He said switching total flow control to the non-monitoring RTO — managing all of the transmission on that line or flowgate — will require software changes and revisions to their joint operating agreement. Capping FFEs would also require software updates and JOA revisions.
While the payment amounts between the two have decreased in recent months, abnormalities continue to crop up along the seams. (See M2M Process Shows Continued Improvement.) In November, a temporary flowgate in Minnesota recorded 139 hours in M2M, resulting in a $1.075 million payment from SPP to MISO.
“The principles don’t resolve all the issues in [M2M],” Kelley said, “but from SPP’s perspective, we think these are good improvements to make. We should move forward with them so we don’t see situations like the [Minnesota] transformer, where the process isn’t working.”
Committee Chair Paul Malone, of the Nebraska Public Power District, asked whether the RTOs would have been better off using transmission-loading relief procedures, such as cutting non-firm transmission during periods of congestion. Kelley responded they would have been “in some cases.”
‘Trigger’ Sought
Marguerite Wagner, director of RTO policy for ITC Holdings, called for a triggering mechanism that would send recurring congestion points into the transmission-planning process. “Whether it’s ‘X’ amount of dollars or frequency,” she said, “something to throw it over into the planning process.”
“I absolutely agree,” Kelley said. “I think you will see some activity around that this year.”
SPP and MISO will continue to hold JOA stakeholder meetings to discuss seams issues, but the frequency has been reduced from quarterly to biannual.
FERC said the Tariff revisions did not go into enough detail about joint studies. The group decided to wait for FERC orders on regional and interregional cost allocations, expected in the spring, rather than rewrite the compliance filing.
New Members
The committee welcomed seven new members during its first meeting of the year: Wagner, Jim Jacoby (American Electric Power); Katy Onnen (Kansas City Power & Light); Jason Atwood (Northeast Texas Electric Cooperative); Steve Sanders (Western Area Power Administration-UGPR); Ray Bergmeier (Sunflower Electric Power Corporation); and Jordan Schmick (Xcel Energy).
With the additions, the committee is now composed of seven transmission-owning members and six transmission-using members, covering New Mexico up to Montana.
Ironically, AEP’s Richard Ross, who resigned from the committee last year, served as Jacoby’s proxy during its first meeting of the year. “I know, I know,” he said with a sigh during the roll call.
FERC said Friday it would not take up a renewable energy developer’s complaint about Connecticut’s procurement practices, clearing the company to return to court (EL16-11).
Allco Renewable Energy had asked FERC to begin an enforcement action under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, saying it had been excluded by the state’s improper selection of a too-large, out-of-state wind project.
Allco filed the FERC complaint in November after its federal court suit against the state was dismissed because the company had not exhausted its administrative remedies. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority last month asked FERC to dismiss the complaint. (See Connecticut Seeks Dismissal of PURPA Complaint.)
“Our decision not to initiate an enforcement action means that Allco may themselves bring an enforcement action against the Connecticut commission and DEEP in the appropriate court,” FERC wrote.
FERC said Friday it would not take up a renewable energy developer’s complaint about Connecticut’s procurement practices, clearing the company to return to court (EL16-11).
Allco Renewable Energy had asked FERC to begin an enforcement action under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, saying it had been excluded by the state’s improper selection of a too-large, out-of-state wind project.
Allco filed the FERC complaint in November after its federal court suit against the state was dismissed because the company had not exhausted its administrative remedies. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority last month asked FERC to dismiss the complaint. (See Connecticut Seeks Dismissal of PURPA Complaint.)
“Our decision not to initiate an enforcement action means that Allco may themselves bring an enforcement action against the Connecticut commission and DEEP in the appropriate court,” FERC wrote.
MISO opened the floor on Friday to transmission developers’ bids for the congestion-relieving Duff-Rockport-Coleman 345-kV project in Southern Indiana and Kentucky. Developers have until July 6 to submit bids on the four-year construction project, and developer selection is planned to begin thereafter.
The call for proposals marks MISO’s first-ever competitively bid transmission expansion project under FERC Order 1000.
Forty-eight transmission developers are certified to submit bids. Non-qualified developers can submit applications for certification through Feb. 8.
6-Month Review
MISO has allowed for a roughly six-month review of developers’ proposals and plans to announce its choice before Dec. 30. The estimated in-service date is Jan. 1, 2021.
“Through extensive work with stakeholders to develop the competitive transmission process, MISO is ready to engage in a fair process to select a developer for Duff-Coleman,” Priti Patel, regional executive for MISO North, said in a statement. She said the proposals will be judged “in terms of certainty, specificity, risk mitigation and cost.”
The project has been designated by MISO as a market efficiency project. MISO’s Board of Directors approved it, along with more than 350 other transmission projects, as part of the 2015 Transmission Expansion Plan in December.
“This project completely mitigates the congestion on the MISO system around the Newtonville and Coleman areas and strengthens the 345-kV backbone in the region,” MISO wrote in its MTEP15 report. “In addition, the project fully addresses long-standing reliability issues around PJM’s Rockport station and obviates the need for the Rockport special protect scheme and operation guide that protects the stability of the grid.”
ERCOT’s system set a series of peak demand records in August during the region’s hottest summer since 2011. By summer’s end, the system had topped 67,000 MW of demand for the first time in four years, eventually setting a new peak demand of 69,877 MW and recording its five highest peak demands:
State regulators again turned down Clean Line Energy Partners’ request to consider the necessity of its transmission line proposal without requiring it to first acquire the rights of way for the power line. Clean Line said it may not proceed with the Rock Island Clean Line project if the Utilities Board continues to require full right-of-way approval before the project’s route or need are determined.
Consumers Energy has extended a power purchase agreement with Hillman Power’s 20-MW wood-burning plant for another 17 months.
The city of Scandia, population 3,936, is embracing a $12.5 million community solar garden that private investors are building on a former 59-acre gravel pit. Scandia Mayor Randall Simonson said he wants the facility to be a showcase for other communities.
A deal to keep an underground coal mine running includes a confidential secret side agreement between the owner and an environmental group that had argued state officials failed to properly examine the long-term groundwater impacts of expanding the mine.
A new 10-MW hydroelectric power plant is being proposed for Lock C1 on the Champlain Canal in Waterford, north of Albany.
About a million customers of Duke Energy in the state have until April 13 to file a claim to be included in an $81 million class-action settlement, which resolved claims that the utility illegally paid rebates to large commercial and industrial customers at the expense of smaller customers.
The Corporation Commission has ordered the operators of 27 wastewater disposal wells to reduce wastewater injections after a swarm of earthquakes unsettled residents northwest of Oklahoma City.
State regulators have rebuffed an attempt by the Conservation Law Foundation to stall Invenergy’s application for its 1,000-MW Clear River Energy Center because of the proposed gas-fired power plant’s climate impacts.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is taking a two-pronged approach as it prepares to respond to EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which seeks to reduce carbon emissions from power plants.
The Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative has announced the appointment of Tim Ponseti as chairman of the executive committee for 2016 and Mike Kormos as vice chairman.
Consumer advocates responded positively to the Utility Regulatory Commission’s order requiring Northern Indiana Public Service Co. to resubmit its overall energy efficiency plan after deciding the utility’s filing did not include adequate goals. The commission ordered the resubmittal by 2017.
Low power prices are forcing two biomass plants to suspend operations in March, raising concerns in the state’s logging industry.
The Federal Communications Commission has reached a $540,000 settlement with Cumulus Media, the former owner of a radio station that in 2011 broadcast 178 ads supporting the Northern Pass transmission project without identifying the ad’s sponsor — Northern Pass Transmission.
PSEG Long Island will roll out a scaled-back smart meter plan aimed mostly at large commercial and solar customers after its initial plan to install 180,000 devices was shelved last year by state regulators.
Modifications to its 350-MW gas-fired power plant will reduce CO2 emissions by 4,000 tons/year, Caithness Long Island Energy says.
A coalition of state ranchers, environmentalists and disgruntled landowners has suffered a major setback in its battle to block a proposed pipeline that would carry natural gas beneath 143 miles of largely untouched Big Bend land.
TransCanada, the developer of the Keystone XL pipeline project, has sued the U.S. for failing to issue crucial permits to allow the project to proceed. The company is seeking $15 billion in damages, saying the State Department’s denial of the permit for the $8 billion pipeline was “arbitrary and unjustified.”
FERC on Friday approved Columbia Gas Transmission’s proposed $45 million Utica Access Project in West Virginia, designed to bring Appalachian shale gas to market. The project, which includes 5 miles of new pipeline and modifications to existing compression facilities, would supply up to 205 million cubic feet of gas per day to the Appalachia Pool.
FERC extended the public comment period for the Northeast Energy Direct pipeline until Jan. 15 after what it described as errors in its online comment system in late December and the first few days of January.
The Energy Department has appointed a team to research the feasibility of drilling deep holes into a crystalline rock structure in North Dakota as a possible method of storing nuclear waste. A team from the Battelle Memorial Institute will drill a test hole in the formation near Rugby, N.D., as part of the project.
