The budget bill signed by President Obama on Friday — which appears to mark the beginning of the end for renewable energy subsidies — will accelerate the growth of solar power in the next several years, analysts say.
The bill extends the solar investment tax credit indefinitely, albeit at a reduced level after 2019.
The wind production tax credits were extended through 2019, also at reduced levels after 2016.
The Solar Energy Industries Association predicted U.S. solar power capacity will triple to 95 GW by 2022 as a result of the incentives — enough to supply 3.5% of the nation’s electricity, up from less than 1% in 2014. SEIA CEO Rhone Resch predicted solar jobs will grow from 200,000 to 340,000.
Greentech Media’s GTM Research is even more bullish, saying it expects solar capacity to quadruple to nearly 100 GW by 2021. The ITC extension will lead to $40 billion in incremental investment in solar between 2016-2020, it said.
“There’s no way to overstate this — the extension of the solar ITC is the most important policy development for U.S. solar in almost a decade,” said MJ Shiao, director of solar research for GTM Research.
By 2020, said Shayle Kann, senior vice president at GTM Research, “more solar will be installed each year than was added to the grid cumulatively through 2014.”
Wall Street agreed, with solar companies Enphase Energy, SunEdison and SolarCity each rising by 32% or more last week.
“With the extension of tax credits, solar becomes cost-effective for new customer demographics and in more states. Without it, it could take years for that to be true,” Shiao told RTO Insider. “With the ITC extension, the next five years will see 25 GW of solar that otherwise wouldn’t be installed.”
The bill extends the 30% solar investment tax credit through 2019, dropping gradually to 22% by 2021. The credit is eliminated for homeowners beginning in 2022 but continues indefinitely at 10% for commercial installations. Projects that come online by the end of 2023 will qualify for larger credits based on the year in which construction began.
Shiao said the extension provides a bridge to EPA’s Clean Power Plan, whose requirements don’t take effect until 2022. The CPP anticipates additional wind and solar energy making up for reduction in fossil fuel generation.
GTM Research said the extension will have the biggest impact on utility-scale solar, boosting deployments 73% through 2020 with utility-scale contracts dropping below $0.04/kWh.
Without the bill, the ITC would have dropped to 10% for non-residential and third-party-owned residential systems and zero for host-owned residential systems in 2017.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance said developers would have installed 11.9 GW of solar panels in the U.S. next year in a rush to beat the end of the ITC. With the extension, BNEF said, 2016 will likely see the addition of about 9.1 GW, a drop of almost one-quarter.
BNEF had predicted solar installations would drop by as much as 71% in 2017. It now predicts an increase of 5.5% over 2016.
IHS Technology said the U.S. solar installations would have dropped by 6.5 GW in 2017 from 2016 without the extension.
End Game for Wind?
The story is a bit different for the more mature and competitive wind industry.
The wind production tax credits were extended at 2.3 cents/kWh for 2015 and 2016, dropping by 20% in each of the following three years to 40% of the current level by 2019. Without additional congressional action, it would expire in January 2020.
The American Wind Energy Association said in a statement Friday that the bill ensures “stability for 73,000 American wind industry workers … and [wind] investors.”
AWEA said the PTC has helped more than quadruple U.S. wind power, with installed capacity rising from 16.7 GW at the beginning of 2008 to 69.5 GW by the third quarter of 2015. The organization credits the PTC with helping advance wind turbine technology, leading to a 66% drop in the cost of wind energy over the last six years.
Beth Soholt, executive director of the renewable energy advocacy group Wind on the Wires, issued a statement applauding Congress’ action.
“This extension gives these renewable energy industries the certainty they need to plan for the future and mitigates the boom-bust cycles that are so very detrimental,” Soholt said.
When renewable energy tax credits were allowed to briefly expire in 2013, wind farms saw a 92% drop in their installation and some 30,000 jobs were lost. After the PTC was renewed, the wind industry recovered all but 7,000 jobs by the end of 2014, according to AWEA data.
With the extension, according to BNEF, the U.S. will add 44 GW of wind capacity by the end of 2021, a 76% increase over the 25 GW it said would have been built without any subsidies.
Wall Street’s reaction to the PTC was more muted, with Vestas Wind Systems A/S, the world’s largest turbine maker, finishing last week up by more than 8%, albeit at a five-year high.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Outgoing PJM CEO Terry Boston presided over his final general session last week, tearing up as he recalled how power changed his family’s life growing up in rural Tennessee.
“On Sept. 9, 1939, electricity came to the Boston family farm. That meant things like the milk was in the fridge and not in the creek or the spring,” he said. “Nothing has improved our standard of living or our productivity more.”
“Power engineering is not rocket science. It’s much more important than that,” he said, drawing laughter from the audience.
Boston began his career in 1972 as a project engineer for the Tennessee Valley Authority, joining PJM as CEO in 2008. He will serve as CEO emeritus until the end of this month. Andy Ott, previously PJM’s executive vice president for markets, took on the job of president and CEO in October. (See Retiring PJM CEO Boston Lauded for Efficiency Improvements, Management Style.)
Boston was feted by PJM stakeholders, staff and members of the Board of Managers during a reception following the general session. (See related story, From Cold War to Black Sky: PJM General Session Fetes Boston, Discusses Emerging Threats.)
Katie Guerry of EnerNOC, the incoming chair of the Members Committee, and Susan Bruce of the PJM Industrial Customer Coalition presented Boston with a solar-powered globe of the world.
Boston also was presented with a letter from Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf lauding him for creating “the industry’s most successful model for an electricity market.” U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Rep. Ryan Costello (R-Pa.) also sent letters of commendation.
Board Chairman Howard Schneider lauded Boston for his intelligence, dedication and humility.
Boston and his wife, Brenda, will be splitting their time in retirement between Hawaii and their custom-designed solar-powered home in Tennessee.
“The whole PJM community is in the public service business,” Boston said. “It’s been the love of my life to work here.”
The PJM Board of Managers last week approved construction of seven transmission projects proposed in response to FERC Order 1000 competitive solicitations. The projects have an estimated cost of $490 million.
One, to address reliability violations in the AEP transmission zone, was selected from among 91 proposals received in response to the competitive window PJM opened in June to fix reliability, thermal and voltage violations. The board had approved 19 other projects from that group in October.
The board also approved six projects from among 23 proposals submitted under a second competitive window, which opened in August to address potential violations not included in the first solicitation.
With the addition of the projects to the Regional Transmission Expansion Plan, PJM has authorized $28.27 billion in additions and upgrades to resolve reliability violations and reduce congestion since 2000.
“Through the competitive windows, we are seeing more alternatives than we would have otherwise,” Mike Kormos, executive vice president for operations, said in a statement. “In some cases, as in this last review, we are seeing alternative solutions that address the problem at a lesser cost than originally estimated.”
FERC last week proposed reducing the amount of ownership information that companies must provide to obtain market-based rate authority.
The commission allows companies to sell power at market-based rates if they and their affiliates lack, or have adequately mitigated, horizontal and vertical market power. Current rules require applicants to describe the activities of all upstream owners, often requiring sellers to submit multiple amendments to their filings.
The commission’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would require applicants to provide ownership information only for affiliates necessary for the commission’s market power analysis (RM16-3).
Sellers would be required to identify and describe two categories of affiliates:
“Ultimate affiliate owner(s),” defined as the furthest upstream affiliate owner(s) in the ownership chain; and
Affiliate owners with franchised service areas or market-based rate authority, or that directly own or control generation; transmission; intrastate natural gas transportation, storage or distribution facilities; physical coal supply sources; or access to transportation of coal supplies.
The NOPR also would clarify the types of ownership changes that must be reported to the commission.
The commission said the changes would be less burdensome for filers and more useful to FERC’s assessments.
Comments will be due 60 days from publication in the Federal Register.
WILMINGTON, Del. — When Terry Boston began working for the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1972, its bunkered control room was believed to be one of the targets near the top of the Soviet Union’s nuclear hit list.
Last week, when the retired PJM CEO said his goodbyes at a General Session on “Resiliency and Security,” the concern was not the Cold War but “black sky” risks and the need for “critical low-density engineering assets” to recover from them.
Three speakers talked about their work protecting the grid from natural and manmade threats.
Jeff Dagle spoke about the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s work using parallel processing to aid modeling of extreme events. The technology can help system operators comply with a new NERC standard requiring them to ensure that “multiple outages” don’t cause system instability.
“When you try to model these extreme events, you’re going deeper than traditional N-1 [contingencies]. You’re doing N-K type of analysis,” said Dagle, the lab’s chief electrical engineer for electricity infrastructure resilience. “So there’s many more thousands of possible events you want to simulate and try to understand. Unless you throw that on a parallel computer, you’re going to be there for a while waiting for an answer.”
The lab’s work with PJM to apply Bayesian model aggregation — the combination of multiple prediction models — to reduce forecasting errors in network interchange schedules won an R&D magazine award. “This has the potential to save big money” — tens of millions, Dagle said.
David Andrejcak said FERC has become “much more agile” since it formed the Office of Energy Infrastructure Security following the 2013 sniper attack on Pacific Gas & Electric’s Metcalf substation.
Andrejcak is deputy director of the office, which combines the agency’s expertise in electric, natural gas and oil infrastructure. The office identifies threats and examines infrastructure for potential weaknesses but has no enforcement role, unlike the Office of Electric Reliability, which oversees the development of mandatory reliability and security standards.
“By addressing these with the private sector owners, we find that we’re getting a whole lot more success,” he said. “We’re not involved in the standards process. We’re the collaborative branch of FERC.”
Andrejcak noted a Department of Homeland Security analysis that found that almost one-third of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure in 2014 involved the energy industry. “We’re a big target. No doubt about it,” he said.
The session’s keynote speaker was Jonathon Monken, vice president of U.S. operations for the Electric Infrastructure Security Council. The non-governmental organization worries about “black sky” hazards such as cyberattacks or electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) capable of generating a “widespread, long duration” outage that could result in mass migration.
Monken said broadcaster Ted Koppel’s book, “Lights Out,” which highlighted threats that could knock out the Eastern Interconnection for weeks or months, was useful in publicizing the need for preparations, such as assembling critical low-density engineering assets — engineers with expertise in electrical relays.
“We have not yet experienced a power outage that … [results in a] widespread long duration outage. We’re talking about months in terms of the outage. We’re talking about tens of millions [of people] in terms of the footprint.
“We don’t have the capacity to evacuate New York City much less the Eastern Interconnection,” Monken continued. “There’s a wide deficit in terms of the capability required to respond and recover from something of that magnitude and duration.
“I’d rather have an EMP event than just about any of the other ‘black sky’ hazards that include things like earthquakes and cyber[attacks],” he added. “Cyber is difficult because it’s very unpredictable and it’s very deliberate, whereas EMP is a statistical event — it won’t necessarily hit everything everywhere. You’ll have sporadic outages based on percentages.
“Cyber is very deliberate. They’ll only hit where it hurts the most.”
WILMINGTON, Del. — PJM will ask FERC to act within the next couple of months on its Capacity Performance compliance filings and any related outstanding hearing requests, Stu Bresler, senior vice president for markets, told the Markets and Reliability Committee on Thursday.
“PJM recognizes there is a fair amount of uncertainty among our asset owners and operators as to what will occur come June 1 and beyond,” he said. “The purpose of requesting FERC action is to achieve as much certainty as possible ahead of summer 2016.”
Staff expects to make the filing before Christmas.
Load Forecast to Include Distributed Solar
With eight objections and five abstentions, the committee approved manual changes that allow PJM to consider distributed solar generation in its load forecast.
“The reason PJM sees this as important is that this behind-the-meter generation of solar is by far the quickest growing component,” said PJM’s Tom Falin. “It’s really taken off the past three to four years … exponentially. We believe it’s important to recognize this phenomenon now in the forecast.”
In the near term, the model will affect only a few hundred megawatts, he said.
Steve Herling, PJM vice president for planning, said staff wants to act now so it is not caught flat-footed when solar’s growth increases.
“We don’t want to see the phenomenon like we did with energy efficiency variables, which we talked about for a couple of years and by the time we implemented a change it was a pretty substantial change,” he said. “We want to get it into the forecast so we can tweak it as it grows.”
PJM agreed to review the process in a year to see how accurate it is and if any changes need to be made. The revisions will be made to Manual 19: Load Forecasting and Analysis. (See “Distributed Solar to be Included in Load Forecast” in PJM Planning Committee and TEAC Briefs.)
In a related matter, the committee approved manual revisions that aim to prevent energy efficiency resources from being counted both as capacity and load reduction in the new forecast model. The changes will be incorporated in Manual 18: PJM Capacity Market and Manual 18B: Energy Efficiency Measurement & Verification.
The motion passed with 12 no votes and one abstention. Members had delayed the vote until after an additional education session regarding the proposed addback. (See “Members Ask for More Time to Consider EE Resource Manual Changes” in PJM Markets and Reliability Committee Briefs.)
Ways to Mitigate Risk in CP Market to be Studied
A controversial problem statement proposing to study ways capacity suppliers could minimize underperformance penalties by netting them against overperforming units was approved with 80% of a sector-weighted vote.
Those who supported the measure said it was needed to level the playing field between small and large companies and to encourage financial investment.
Opponents said it was a solution without a problem and threatened to unwind a core aspect of the Capacity Performance model.
Bob O’Connell, who brought the problem statement forward on behalf of PPGI Fund A/B Development, responded to consumer advocates who asked what the problem was by saying, “Investors are looking at the market and deciding whether to invest in the energy market or Hollywood films. If investors see too much risk in the market, they may wait several years to bring a project forward.”
Market Monitor Joe Bowring opposed the problem statement.
“This seems to me … an attempt to unwind some critical parts of Capacity Performance,” he said.
Lisa Moerner, of Dominion Energy Marketing, said the concept does not undermine the Capacity Performance construct.
“We plan to do everything we can to perform during an emergency event under CP,” she said. Such risk-mitigating opportunities just give generators more options to do so, she said.
“We’d much rather overperform than pay penalties,” she said. “If we can provide megawatt-hours rather than pay a penalty, how is that a bad thing?”
Jason Barker of Exelon said that while that company’s general policy is to endorse problem statements and let discussion take place, it would be voting against the problem statement.
“This is really an attempt to rewrite Capacity Performance before the ink is even dry and before we’ve had a day of performance under this plan,” he said.
“If you follow the problem statement through to conclusion, it would provide incentives for market participants to underinvest in generation assets, threatening reliability, and enable those market participants to go into a secondary market and find replacement capacity at lower cost than the established non-performance penalty.
“The level of investment and the level of risk should be reflected in capacity market offers.”
Committee Approves Manual Changes
Members endorsed the following manual changes:
Manual 10: Pre-Scheduling Operations. The changes define a generator planned outage and restrict scheduling planned outages during peak maintenance season; define generator maintenance outage; define unplanned outage and clarify notification requirements; and correct the definition of non-synchronized reserve.
Manual 11: Energy & Ancillary Services Market and Manual 28: Operating Agreement Accounting. Changes reflect Tariff revisions approved by FERC regarding the energy market offer cap that went into effect Monday (ER16-76). Cost-based offers for incremental energy are capped at $2,000/MWh and allowed to set prices. Costs above that cap will be recovered through an after-the-fact review and make-whole payments. Market-based offers for individual units are allowed to rise with their cost-based offers. (See PJM Members OK $2,000/MWh Energy Market Offer Cap.) There was one abstention and one objection to this issue.
Manual 14D: Generator Operational Requirements. Revisions reflect the annual review of the manual as well as revisions to the reactive testing process. Revises and renames the wind farm communication model, making it applicable to all jointly owned resources to avoid confusion among control room operators. Adds definitions of generator planned, maintenance and forced outages. There was one “no” vote on this issue.
Manual 39: Nuclear Plant Interface Coordination. Updates are the result of a three-year review and include safe shutdown loading requirements developed by the nuclear generation owners’ user group.
EPA has overruled New York officials and ordered an additional air quality review for a dormant coal-fired power plant in the Finger Lakes region whose owners want to convert it to biomass and natural gas.
Owners of the Greenidge Generation Plant on Tuesday wrote to the New York Public Service Commission to say the EPA Region 2 administrator rejected the state’s finding that the change from coal to either biomass or natural gas is not a “major modification.”
Greenridge Plant (Source: DOE)
“The primary basis for EPA’s objection is that, if reactivated, Greenidge will be subject to the Clean Air Act’s … permit program as a new source,” EPA wrote on Dec. 7.
The 106-MW plant on Seneca Lake has been dormant for nearly four years. The owners are seeking to revive it and add a new supply line for natural gas. (See Finger Lakes Plant Seeks Gas Line for Repowering.)
The New York Department of Environmental Conservation had issued a draft permit that EPA said was incomplete.
“We strongly disagree with the EPA’s decision given that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation conducted a thorough and complete review before issuing this draft permit, concluding that Greenidge clearly meets all the federal and state standards for resuming full operation,” Greenidge spokesman Michael McKeon said in a statement. “We are currently analyzing the EPA’s response to determine how best to restart the facility as soon as possible.”
He said the company has 90 days to respond to EPA.
The state awarded Greenidge $2 million on Dec. 11 to renovate the plant in Dresden to allow it to burn 100% natural gas. McKeon said the plant would lose that grant — part of a five-year, $500 million Upstate Revitalization Initiative for the Finger Lakes region — if the delay lasts as long as a year.
The Associated Press published its findings of a yearlong investigation into the security of the U.S. power grid, and its conclusions are not heartening: About a dozen times in the last decade, foreign hackers have gained enough access to operational networks and power plants to allow them to control the flow of power over the grid.
The AP conducted more than 120 interviews with industry experts and government officials, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity. These sources said hackers from Iran, China and Russia have penetrated the grid and remain “stowed away” where they can strike at will. “If the geopolitical situation changes and Iran wants to target these facilities, if they have this kind of information it will make it a lot easier,” said Robert M. Lee, a former U.S. Air Force cyberwarfare operations officer.
In its report, the news service delved into one such attack on Calpine in August 2013, where hackers gained access to passwords and diagrams of multiple power plants. The AP’s sources pointed to aging network infrastructure — such as computers running on Windows 95 and boot up on floppy disks — used to manage substations and power plants that are simply unable to respond or even detect intrusions.
States, Others File Amicus Briefs in Review of CPV Contracts
More than a dozen states, associations and others filed amicus briefs with the Supreme Court last week in two federal-state jurisdictional cases pitting New Jersey and Maryland regulators against FERC.
The court said in October that it would review lower court rulings throwing out state-issued contracts Competitive Power Ventures won to build a 660-MW combined-cycle plant in Maryland and a 663-MW plant in Woodbridge, N.J. (See SCOTUS Agrees to Hear Md., NJ-FERC Subsidy Case.)
The main parties filed their briefs in early December. Last week, the court received friend of the court briefs from others including the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, the American Public Power Association, NRG Energy and officials from more than a dozen states.
House Republicans are questioning the legality of EPA’s use of social media in its climate rule campaign. While not citing any specific alleged abuses, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said that last week’s Government Accountability Office report accusing EPA of violating the law when promoting its water rule calls into question “the use of social media to promote other rulemaking activity.”
“For example, EPA undertook an extensive social media messaging campaign in support of its Clean Power Plan, authoring blog posts and posting messages on Facebook and Twitter,” Upton said in a letter to EPA.
An EPA spokeswoman said the use of social media was aimed at educating the public, not influencing policy. “EPA stands by its outreach efforts on the Clean Power Plan,” she said.
More than Half of New Capacity was Renewable in 2014
Electricity derived from renewable sources made up more than half of the country’s new energy capacity installations in 2014, according to a report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Solar grew the fastest, increasing by more than 54% and adding 5.5 GW.
Renewable power made up 15.5% of total installed capacity and 13.5% of total generation.
The beneficial use of post-combustion coal products — more commonly known as ash — surged in 2014, mostly because of the clarification of federal regulations governing its use.
The American Coal Association said 62.4 million tons of ash, or 48% of all ash produced in 2014, were beneficially used in various applications, such as fill. That is up 21% from 51.4 million tons used in 2013.
EPA signaled in 2014 that it was rethinking coal ash’s “hazardous material” designation, spurring increased use, the association said. The agency finalized disposal regulations in December 2014 and it was designated non-hazardous. Figures for 2015 are not yet available.
Senate Confirms Cherry Murray as DOE Sciences Director
Murray
The Senate has confirmed Cherry Murray, the former dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, as the Energy Department’s new director of the Office of Science. She’ll oversee research in fusion energy, high-energy physics and nuclear physics, among other areas.
“Dr. Murray will be an outstanding director of the Office of Science, drawing upon her experience in academia as professor and dean of one of country’s leading universities of engineering and applied sciences,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said. The Office of Science also oversees the department’s 17 national laboratories.
In addition to her academic positions at Harvard, Murray has served as associate director and deputy director at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, held positions at Bell Laboratories, and most recently served on the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. She received her bachelor’s and doctorate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Global coal demand stalled for the first time since the 1990s because of increased renewable energy production, more stringent environmental regulations and a decline in industrial use, according to the International Energy Agency.
The agency said that China’s declining appetite for coal caused much of the stall. Although the country continues to build coal-burning power plants, it is also increasing its use of hydro, wind and solar power.
The IEA said it predicts that coal will provide a significant but shrinking share of the world’s generation, from the current 41% to 37% by 2020.
Akron Company Gets $1.3 Million from DOE for Clean Steam Plant
Ohio company Echogen Power Systems is getting a $1.3 million Energy Department grant to develop a cleaner coal-burning power plant. The government’s Supercritical Transformational Electric Power program is providing it with funding to explore the use of supercritical carbon dioxide, or carbon dioxide at high temperature and pressure.
Echogen, which operates out of a former steel company building in downtown Akron, is using supercritical carbon dioxide technology to boost waste-heat capturing systems in industrial applications. It will use the money to develop a 10-MW demonstration plant to employ supercritical carbon dioxide in a coal-burning system. It says using supercritical carbon dioxide will require less fuel and produce fewer emissions.
Construction of the plant is scheduled to start in 2019, according to Echogen.
FTC to Review Energy Transfer, Williams Cos. Merger
The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing the proposed merger of Energy Transfer Equity with The Williams Companies. The $37.7 billion merger would create the third largest energy franchise in North America.
Energy Transfer and Williams confirmed that FTC would review the proposed combination of the two pipeline giants. The deal also needs FERC approval, which would have to rule that the merger would be in the public interest.
The FTC review will determine if any antitrust issues would arise with such a merger. One legal expert, Franklin G. Snyder of Texas A&M School of Law, said he believes there will be few roadblocks. “Reports so far suggest that the antitrust problems will not be too serious and that it would likely get FTC approval, but the FTC will certainly be looking very closely,” he said.
FERC to Consider Columbia’s $1 Billion Modernization Program
Columbia Transmission, operator of a network of natural gas pipelines serving the Northeast and the Appalachian shale region, has filed a $1 billion modernization program with FERC.
Columbia said it will replace more than 130 miles of pipe, update its preventative maintenance program and add nearly 80,000 horsepower of compression to its standby fleet of compressors to increase reliability in times of high demand and cold temperatures. The proposed modernization program will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 20,000 tons a year, according to the company.
The company has asked FERC to approve the customer agreement surrounding the modernization program by the end of March.
The Siting Council last week issued a 16-page draft fact-finding report on the 63.3-MW fuel cell power plant Beacon Falls Energy Park. The council is expected to rule early next year on whether the plant can be built on a former sand and gravel pit.
If approved, construction of the plant would start next May, said William Corvo, president of CT Energy & Technology, a Middletown company that will own the facility once it is completed. The first phase could be done by July 2017, with completion by the end of 2019.
The plant will use 11.1 million cubic feet of natural gas a day for fuel and 300,000 gallons of water per day for fuel processing, according to the report. Fuel Cell Energy, of Danbury, will manufacture the 21 fuel cells in the project, making it the world’s largest fuel cell plant.
Bloom Energy Subsidy to be Carved out on Delmarva Bills
Delmarva Power and Light customers will begin seeing how much of their monthly bill goes to subsidize Bloom Energy under an order approved this month by the Public Service Commission.
In 2011, Delaware enlisted the California fuel cell manufacturer to build a factory in Newark by offering it $16.5 million in state funds and a 21-year subsidy from Delmarva, which buys energy from the fuel cells to meet its renewable power goals.
Bloom promised to hire 900 workers by 2017. By Sept. 30, it had employed 224. Bloom might have to return some of the $12 million it has received from the state for job creation if it doesn’t meet its workforce goal.
Commission Halts Peoples Gas Pipeline Replacement Program
The Commerce Commission has suspended an $800 million plan to replace 250 miles of Peoples Gas mains over the next three years.
WEC Energy Group purchased the parent of Peoples Gas in June, promising to spend $250 million annually on the pipeline replacement program. Attorney General Lisa Madigan, among others, has expressed fears about how the infrastructure program will impact rates of Chicago customers.
A new pipeline replacement plan is expected to be approved by the ICC by the end of 2016. In the meantime, the company will decide how much gas main work it will perform.
Residents turned up last week to protest NIPSCO’s proposed electric rate increase at a Utility Regulatory Commission regional hearing.
Hearing attendees said the utility’s proposed increase in its flat monthly customer charge from $11 to $20 would punish low- and fixed-income ratepayers. Laura Arnold, president of the Indiana Distributed Energy Alliance, said it is unclear how the utility justified the $9 increase in the fixed monthly charge.
The rate increase would generate $126.6 million in added revenue for the utility. NIPSCO’s last rate increase was in 2011. Public hearings will continue into February, when the IURC will hold an evidentiary session.
Commission Takes Steps to Clean Power Plan Compliance
The Corporation Commission has taken a first step toward figuring out how the state will comply with EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which forces states to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.
The state has joined several dozen others in a suit to block the regulations, but it also has taken steps toward complying with it. The legislature passed a law last session requiring the KCC to provide information about each utility’s options to comply with the rules, the cost of those options and how they would affect reliability. The three KCC commissioners approved opening a general investigation docket on Dec. 3 and instructed staff to contract with a consultant to examine the options.
The process will involve a public educational session on Jan. 12 with staff from the commission, the Department of Health and Environment and the Attorney General’s office. The commission also plans other hearings and a public comment period.
Gov. Sam Brownback and other state and county leaders recently inaugurated the Buckeye Wind Energy Center, a 200-MW project northwest of Hays. The 25,000-acre wind farm, owned and operated by Invenergy, includes 112 GE 1.7X100 turbines.
During the next 20 years, Invenergy expects to pay out $30 million to the landowners for leases and $17 million to Ellis County in lieu of taxes, said Kelly Meyer, Invenergy vice president of development.
A state senator wants to impose an annual $100 tax on owners of electric cars to substitute for fuel taxes to fund road maintenance and repairs.
“If you’re using our highways, if you’re using our roads out there, you ought to help pay for them,” Sen. Joe Bowen, a Republican, said during a December committee hearing.
The Transportation Cabinet expects fuel tax collections to decline $100.4 million next year as conventional vehicles become more efficient and more electric vehicles take to the road. The National Conference of State Legislatures says that 10 states currently assess a special fee on electric car owners.
Stuart Ungar, president of EVolve KY, a group of electric car enthusiasts, said the tax would discourage electric car ownership.
South Portland officials have rejected two proposals from developers seeking to build solar power farms on city properties, including a former landfill.
One of the proposals came from Ameresco, and the other came from ReVision Energy and Energy Systems Group. City officials said neither bid offered an appealing power purchase agreement nor addressed the city’s desire to install solar arrays on nine municipal buildings.
The Public Service Commission granted a $238 million rate increase to DTE Energy that would raise the average monthly residential bill by $8.22.
The increase will help the utility finance the purchase of two natural gas-fired electric plants to replace two coal-fired plants DTE plans to close in 2016. The total rate increase for residential customers is 5.3%, while commercial customers will pay 3.4% more. Industrial customers will receive a 2.4% decrease.
PSC Chairman John Quackenbush said customers will benefit from a more reliable system and a cleaner environment.
The state’s farming community is still blocking Clean Line Energy’s $2.2 billion Grain Belt Express transmission line, which has been approved in three other states.
In July, the Public Service Commission said the project wasn’t necessary and denied Clean Line Energy’s application. The commission reportedly took into account the farmers’ concerns about crops and pastures and difficulties steering farming equipment around towers. The 780-mile HVDC line has won approval from Kansas, Indiana and Illinois, although opponents in Illinois are planning to appeal the approval process.
Clean Line says the transmission line would deliver renewable, low-cost energy to 200,000 homes in Missouri alone and help the state comply with the federal Clean Power Plan.
MC Power Companies has proposed building a 3.3-MW community solar farm in the city of Independence, which would be the largest in the Kansas City area.
Independence Power & Light would buy the energy from MC Power at a fixed price for 25 years. IPL would have the option to buy the farm after seven years. MC Power has a long-term lease for the land, said Loren Williamson, the company’s senior vice president of project development.
The City Council heard details about the proposed project Dec. 14. The ordinance for the power purchase agreement is scheduled for a vote Monday. It would bring IPL’s renewable energy production to about 13.5%, a step closer to the council’s goal of 15% by 2021.
Talen’s Share of Power Plant Drops 87% in Market Value
The market value of Talen Energy’s stake in a coal plant has declined 87% over the past two years, according to figures provided to the Great Falls Tribune by state revenue officials.
The Colstrip Steam Electric Station, partially owned by Talen Energy, has fared poorly as a merchant generator competing with cheap natural gas, according to officials. “The prospects for coal versus natural gas have deteriorated,” said Julien Dumoulin-Smith, a power sector analyst from UBS Securities.
In 2013, Talen’s stake in the Colstrip station was valued at $400 million. Today, that share is valued at $45.5 million. About three-quarters of residents in Rosebud County, where Colstrip is located, get their electricity from the plant. Diminishing revenue from the plant has prompted the county to raise taxes.
The Board of Public Utilities last week approved plans by South Jersey Gas to build a 22-mile natural gas line through the Pine Barrens without any further review. The decision came after the staff of the Pinelands Commission approved the project without putting it to the commission’s board.
The BPU’s decision raised howls of protests from environmental groups. The Pinelands Preservation Alliance called the decision “deplorable” and said it was a case of “politics and money triumphing over pinelands preservation and the public interest.” New Jersey Sierra Club Executive Director Jeff Tittel vowed his organization would appeal.
One BPU member recused himself and another was not present for the 3-0 vote. The pipeline is designed to deliver natural gas to the B.L. England generating station in Cape May County. The plant currently burns coal and fuel oil, but would be converted to gas if the pipeline is completed.
Lawmakers Deliver Votes to Cut Emissions, Rejoin RGGI
Christie
The state legislature voted on two measures to cut carbon emissions in the state, handing Gov. Chris Christie an unmistakable message that it doesn’t agree with his stance on global warming.
The Senate cleared a bill that calls for more renewable energy generation, while the General Assembly passed a resolution that calls for the state to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Both votes were largely along party lines, with all Republicans in the Assembly voting against them.
Christie said RGGI was ineffective and represented a tax on utility customers.
Assembly to BPU: Rethink Fishermen’s Energy Project
The state legislature continued its renewable push by passing a bill that requires the Board of Public Utilities to reconsider the Fishermen’s Energy offshore wind project, regardless of its cost.
The bill would require the board to exempt the three-turbine project from a cost-benefit analysis. The vote is seen as another swipe at Gov. Chris Christie’s administration, which supported an offshore wind energy development act five years ago but whose support for renewable energy has waned since.
“The failure of the Christie administration to adopt rules for offshore wind or hold up projects like Fishermen’s Energy has cost New Jersey jobs and economic investments,” said New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel.
Legislators Reintroduce Bipartisan Solar Tax Credit Bill
Barnes
Two state legislators — a Senate Democrat and a House Republican — are teaming up again to push a solar energy bill that last year passed the Legislature with strong bipartisan support, only to be pocket vetoed by Gov. Susana Martinez.
Sen. Mimi Stewart and Rep. Sarah Maestas Barnes have pre-filed bills that would extend the current state solar tax credits. The 10% credit for a solar installation is set to expire at the end of 2016. These bills would extend the credit through 2024.
Although the legislation passed last year, Stewart said in an interview that she is afraid the bill could have a harder time getting out of the Senate Finance Committee. That is because falling oil prices mean less tax revenue for the state.
The Public Regulation Commission last week adopted a plan to shutter part of the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station, bringing to a close years of wrangling over the best way to curb pollution while limiting the effects on utility bills and the region’s economy.
The 4-1 vote came as environmentalists, consumer advocates, state lawmakers and lawyers for the utility that runs the San Juan plant packed a PRC hearing in Santa Fe.
Under the plan, Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) will be allowed to absorb excess capacity from the utilities that are divesting ownership shares in the plant. Most environmentalists and clean energy advocates had previously opposed that, but PNM agreed to a new review by regulators in 2018 to determine whether more or all of the plant should be shut down after 2022.
The solar industry on Long Island is turning its attention from residential installations to commercial systems. One of the island’s largest commercial rooftop installations was unveiled at the Clare Rose beverage distribution facility in Yaphank, a $3.5 million project that will supply more than 90% of the company’s electricity and pay for itself in less than five years. The federal tax credit for that project will exceed $1 million.
“There’s a flurry of activity right now” in the commercial sector, said David Schieren, chief executive of EmPower Solar in Island Park, one of Long Island’s largest installers. EmPower expects to see a 10% shift toward the commercial sector next year, to 40% of its overall business.
In recent years, fewer commercial customers have installed solar. The number of rebated commercial systems is down for the past three years, to just 59 as of the end of November, compared to a high of 235 in 2011. The total number of megawatts on the commercial side is increasing, however, from 4.1 MW in 2013 to 6.1 MW thus far in 2015, according to PSEG Long Island, the local utility.
The New York Power Authority has approved a deal to give cheap electricity to an aluminum smelter that had announced a plant closure. The deal will allow the Alcoa plant in Massena to stay open and save 600 jobs.
The price of power for the plant will be cut and future changes will be tied to the price of aluminum. Authority CFO Robert Laurie said the rate cut, which runs through March 2019, would cost the authority about $12 million annually in lost revenue. Laurie said the authority would likely not find another customer for as much power as the Alcoa plant consumes, which would have to be dumped onto the wholesale power market with “uncertain effects” if the plant closed.
Laurie said Alcoa will pay $12.25/MWh, the lowest electricity price of any NYPA commercial customer, and warned that other customers may approach the authority “to request similar treatment.”
Ohio University’s on-campus power plant burned its last ton of coal on Thanksgiving Day and is now heating its buildings with natural gas, a switch that was completed six weeks ahead of schedule. The university had set Dec. 31 as the deadline to switching fuels, but work on the changeover was completed early.
The university will be installing two permanent natural gas-fired boilers, a project due to be completed by September 2017. The plant’s two coal-fired boilers and the obsolete smokestack will be removed.
The university is now getting about 20% of its overall power from the temporary gas boilers, and is purchasing another 50% on the open market from renewable sources.
The Public Utility Commission named Commissioner Andrew G. Place as vice chairman, replacing John F. Coleman Jr., who will remain on the commission until his term expires in 2017. Place was nominated to the commission by Gov. Tom Wolf earlier this year, and confirmed by the Senate in September.
He came to the commission after serving as director for energy and environmental policy at EQT Corp. Place worked to form the Center for Sustainable Shale Development and held several positions at the state Department of Environmental Protection.
A newly announced EPA haze rule could cost the Coleto Creek coal-fired power plant near Victoria more than $100 million.
The federal agency announced Dec. 9 its haze regulations for the state, which require it to reduce pollutants that impair visibility in national parks and wilderness areas. Coleto Creek and six other coal-fired power plants in the state will need to make expensive upgrades or retrofits under the new rule to cut sulfur dioxide emissions.
Coleto Creek, which is owned by GDF Suez Energy Resources North America, has five years to comply with the new rule.
El Paso Electric’s proposed rate increase should be reduced almost $48 million, or 67% less than the utility has sought, the City of El Paso said in documents filed with the Public Utility Commission.
The city is asking the PUC to reduce the utility’s rate request from $71.5 million to $23.5 million, which would result in an overall rate increase of 5.5%, compared to the utility’s proposed 16.6% increase.
The city also is asking the PUC to reject the utility’s proposal to establish a special rate class for residential customers with rooftop solar systems, which would increase those customers’ rates more than regular residential customers.
Carbon Capture Project Gets Important Land Agreement
Odessa Development Corp. voted to extend the land agreement with Summit Power Group, allowing the company to build a $2.5 billion power plant that captures and stores carbon on a 600-acre site.
Summit officials signed contracts Dec. 7 with the primary companies that will construct the Texas Clean Energy Project, which will sell power, CO2, urea and sulfuric acid. Summit still must raise funding to build the plant, and it is targeting financial closing in spring 2016.
Before the extension becomes final, Summit must also gain the approval of Grow Odessa, the non-profit organization that initially acquired the proposed Summit site. The Odessa City Council has already approved the extension.
Green Mountain Power says it will build a manure digester in St. Albans that will turn cow dung from three farms into electricity and reduce phosphorous pollution into Lake Champlain.
The $8 million project, which will generate enough electricity from methane gas to power about 700 homes, will help meet about one-third of EPA’s target for reducing farm phosphorous runoff into St. Albans Bay.
EPA this summer set new pollution reduction goals for the state’s side of the lake. The digester process will remove much of the phosphorous from the manure. The fibrous byproduct from the process will be turned into animal bedding.
A bill that would authorize new construction of nuclear reactors in the state was introduced Dec. 14 in both houses of the Legislature. Supporters say zero-emissions nuclear energy sources are needed under the Clean Power Plan, while critics of the legislation say building nuclear plants is an expensive way to comply with the federal carbon-reduction mandate.
WEC Energy Group said new sources of power wouldn’t be needed for at least 10 years, given the company’s recent completion of new plants. Republican State Rep. Kevin Peterson said during a legislative hearing that his bill “simply reopens the door to technology that has advanced well beyond what it was when our state closed that door 30-plus years ago.”
During Gov. Scott Walker’s 2010 campaign, he promised to end the state’s more than 30-year moratorium on erecting nuclear plants. Currently, 13% of the state’s electricity supply comes from nuclear sources.
WASHINGTON — With low oil and gas prices crimping the petroleum industry’s budgets, two major energy lobbying groups are combining forces. The American Petroleum Institute and America’s Natural Gas Alliance will begin 2016 as a single organization under the API banner.
The move appears to be driven by a desire by members of ANGA — a smaller, newer organization — to trim costs. Seven of the 17 members listed on ANGA’s website are also API members.
API, founded about 85 years ago, has more than 625 members, including refiners, suppliers and pipeline operators. In 2013, according to its IRS filings, it had a staff of about 300 and a $49 million payroll, one-fifth of its $238 million budget.
ANGA, founded in 2009, has a staff of about 22 representing 17 dozen independent natural gas exploration and production companies. It reported $7.2 million in payroll in its $67 million budget for 2013.
Ominously, ANGA’s biggest source of income, program service revenue — dues — dropped by more than a quarter in 2013, from $76.7 million in 2012 to $56.5 million in 2013. API’s program service revenue dropped from $225 million to $210 million over the same period.
ANGA ran an operating deficit of more than $10 million in 2013, following a shortfall of $7 million in 2012 — this after running a surplus of $53 million as recently as 2010.
Data for 2014 is not yet available.
Jack Gerard (Source: API)
“As a single organization, the combined skills and capabilities bring an enhanced advocacy strength to natural gas market development,” API CEO Jack Gerard, who will remain in his position, said in a statement. “The combined association’s expanded membership will provide additional lift to API’s ongoing efforts on important public policy issues.”
ANGA president Marty Durbin will lead a new group at API that will handle the gas lobby’s interests. ANGA members not already affiliated with API will become full members.
The organizations did not return requests for comment on whether the merger would result in layoffs. In an email to “colleagues” Tuesday, Durbin named four ANGA staffers he said would be joining him in the transition, promising they would provide “a continued high level of engagement and expertise.”
Gerard earned $14.1 million in 2013. Durbin earned $767,000 after becoming CEO in May of that year.
According to The Hill, API spent $9 million lobbying Congress last year — more than any other energy trade group — while ANGA spent $1.4 million.
Congress’ approval last week of a repeal of the decades-long ban on crude oil exports gave API a rare chance to celebrate lately. It said the legislation “will help bring U.S. energy policy into the 21st century.”
House Republicans are questioning the legality of EPA’s use of social media in its climate rule campaign. While not citing any specific alleged abuses, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said that last week’s Government Accountability Office report accusing EPA of violating the law when promoting its water rule calls into question “the use of social media to promote other rulemaking activity.”
Electricity derived from renewable sources made up more than half of the country’s new energy capacity installations in 2014, according to a 
The beneficial use of post-combustion coal products — more commonly known as ash — surged in 2014, mostly because of the clarification of federal regulations governing its use.
Global coal demand stalled for the first time since the 1990s because of increased renewable energy production, more stringent environmental regulations and a decline in industrial use, according to the International Energy Agency.
Ohio company Echogen Power Systems is getting a $1.3 million Energy Department grant to develop a cleaner coal-burning power plant. The government’s Supercritical Transformational Electric Power program is providing it with funding to explore the use of supercritical carbon dioxide, or carbon dioxide at high temperature and pressure.
The Siting Council last week issued a 16-page draft fact-finding report on the 63.3-MW fuel cell power plant Beacon Falls Energy Park. The council is expected to rule early next year on whether the plant can be built on a former sand and gravel pit.
Delmarva Power and Light customers will begin seeing how much of their monthly bill goes to subsidize Bloom Energy under an order approved this month by the Public Service Commission.
The Commerce Commission has suspended an $800 million plan to replace 250 miles of Peoples Gas mains over the next three years.
Residents turned up last week to protest NIPSCO’s proposed electric rate increase at a Utility Regulatory Commission regional hearing.
The Corporation Commission has taken a first step toward figuring out how the state will comply with EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which forces states to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.
Gov. Sam Brownback and other state and county leaders recently inaugurated the Buckeye Wind Energy Center, a 200-MW project northwest of Hays. The 25,000-acre wind farm, owned and operated by Invenergy, includes 112 GE 1.7X100 turbines.
South Portland officials have rejected two proposals from developers seeking to build solar power farms on city properties, including a former landfill.
The Public Service Commission granted a $238 million rate increase to DTE Energy that would raise the average monthly residential bill by $8.22.
The state’s farming community is still blocking Clean Line Energy’s $2.2 billion Grain Belt Express transmission line, which has been approved in three other states.
The market value of Talen Energy’s stake in a coal plant has declined 87% over the past two years, according to figures provided to the Great Falls Tribune by state revenue officials.
The Board of Public Utilities last week approved plans by South Jersey Gas to build a 22-mile natural gas line through the Pine Barrens without any further review. The decision came after the staff of the Pinelands Commission approved the project without putting it to the commission’s board.
The state legislature continued its renewable push by passing a bill that requires the Board of Public Utilities to reconsider the Fishermen’s Energy offshore wind project, regardless of its cost.
The Public Regulation Commission last week adopted a plan to shutter part of the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station, bringing to a close years of wrangling over the best way to curb pollution while limiting the effects on utility bills and the region’s economy.
The solar industry on Long Island is turning its attention from residential installations to commercial systems. One of the island’s largest commercial rooftop installations was unveiled at the Clare Rose beverage distribution facility in Yaphank, a $3.5 million project that will supply more than 90% of the company’s electricity and pay for itself in less than five years. The federal tax credit for that project will exceed $1 million.
Ohio University’s on-campus power plant burned its last ton of coal on Thanksgiving Day and is now heating its buildings with natural gas, a switch that was completed six weeks ahead of schedule. The university had set Dec. 31 as the deadline to switching fuels, but work on the changeover was completed early.
A newly announced EPA haze rule could cost the Coleto Creek coal-fired power plant near Victoria more than $100 million.
El Paso Electric’s proposed rate increase should be reduced almost $48 million, or 67% less than the utility has sought, the City of El Paso said in documents filed with the Public Utility Commission.
Odessa Development Corp. voted to extend the land agreement with Summit Power Group, allowing the company to build a $2.5 billion power plant that captures and stores carbon on a 600-acre site.
Green Mountain Power says it will build a manure digester in St. Albans that will turn cow dung from three farms into electricity and reduce phosphorous pollution into Lake Champlain.
