Responding to what they called “a time of significant dynamism,” the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday announced a new framework for “routine and robust communication” to manage the grid’s transition to clean energy sources.
In a memorandum of understanding, EPA and DOE identified the increasing frequency of severe weather, coupled with the adoption of renewable generation and energy storage resources, as drivers of “ongoing change” in the bulk power system. They said the changes are only likely to continue thanks to investments in decarbonization from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. (See EPA’s Becker Breaks Down $32B of Federal Funding for Decarbonization.)
“A reliable electric power system is essential to our national security, continued economic growth and the protection of public health. That’s why DOE and EPA are uniting our long-standing efforts to ensure a robust and resilient system,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a press release accompanying the MOU. He pledged to “support grid reliability and resiliency at every stage as [EPA] advances efforts to reduce pollution, protect public health, and deliver environmental and economic benefits for all.”
DOE and EPA identified their roles as helping to wrangle the “robust and multilayered system” — including stakeholders such as FERC, NERC, regional entities, state public utility commissions, utilities and public interest organizations — that maintain the reliability of the North American grid. The agencies said they intend to conduct “regular and effective communication and consultation” with stakeholders “within … statutory authorities and mandates.”
According to the MOU, both EPA and DOE have created internal bodies focused on electric reliability, with key staff designated as points of contact for routine interagency communication. The agencies are planning to meet at least twice a year to discuss their respective work on reliability, in addition to holding joint meetings as needed with NERC and other stakeholders to solicit input.
The agencies said their outreach efforts would revolve around five key areas:
Analysis, including “sharing information about modeling and analysis of electric power investments, operations,” and other topics, along with discussing additional data needed to evaluate risks;
Engagement with entities to identify current and emerging reliability risks, tools that may be useful in protecting reliability, and actions that might help maintain reliability;
Monitoring the BPS to identify any potential risks;
Short-term interventions within the agencies’ statutory mandates to address immediate reliability risks; and
Sharing information on implementation of policies and programs to protect reliability; investments in upgrades to generation, storage and distribution infrastructure; and policies that support reliability planning and infrastructure development.
NERC said in a statement that it “commends” the MOU and its goals of facilitating communication. The organization noted that its own reliability assessments have consistently shown increasing impacts from extreme weather and the changing generation mix, with most of the continent assessed at either high or elevated risk of energy shortfalls in the most recent Long-Term Reliability Assessment. (See NERC Warns of Ongoing Extreme Weather Risks.)
“We believe that the energy transition that is occurring can work reliably, but the pace of change needs to be managed, and we have stressed the critical need to evaluate the impacts of these polices on reliability,” NERC said. “NERC is encouraged by the MOU and looks forward to engaging with DOE, EPA and others in this important effort.”
HOUSTON — The energy transition and the march of new technology were key highlights of last week’s CERAWeek by S&P Global, which began 41 years ago with a focus on oil and gas.
The annual global energy conference attracted a record 7,200 executives, policy makers and others from 90 countries during what organizers called “the most innovative period in the history of energy.”
More than three dozen sessions were held on hydrogen energy alone. Members of the Biden administration were on hand to add context to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and explain its incentives for all parts of the industry.
“The energy industry continues to grapple with the twin challenges of meeting the world’s growing energy demand while reducing emissions and redesigning the world’s energy systems for a lower carbon future,” CERAWeek chair and co-founder Daniel Yergin said in a post-conference message.
Among the more than 1,000 speakers was John Podesta, President Biden’s senior adviser for clean energy innovation and implementation and chair of the National Climate Task Force.
“It’s no secret that the energy industry is changing. In these halls experts are showcasing innovative energy technologies, clean hydrogen stations, sustainable aviation fuels, direct air capture,” Podesta said. “Just a few years ago, many of these technologies were considered no more than a pipe dream. There are many reasons for this shift — economics, energy security amongst them.”
Podesta highlighted the economics of the climate crisis, saying extreme weather disasters last year cost the nation $165 billion in damage. The year before, it was $155 billion.
“Instead of paying to adapt to a problem of our own making, we could be solving that problem. We’ll do that by producing clean energy,” he said. “And thanks to President Biden there’s never been a better time to invest in clean energy in America.”
Under the bipartisan IRA, the Department of Energy has made billions of dollars available for demonstration projects and energy technologies, Podesta said. He said the Commerce Department, under the Chips and Science Act, is overseeing another $50 billion in investments to the domestic semiconductor industry, which is critical to the battery and solar industries.
“We’re setting the rules of the road to grow the economy from the bottom up … that will make clean energy jobs, good paying union jobs,” Podesta said. “And then it’s all up to all of you to grab the baton and to run with it. You just have to walk around the [technology-focused] Agora [exhibit hall] to see what the possibilities might look like. Now you can grow your clean energy investments by taking advantage of these new laws and create good-paying jobs while you’re at it.”
Responding to a question about pushback from other countries over the U.S. government’s support of clean energy, Podesta said, “We want European industry to succeed, but nothing beats American leadership on climate, innovation, technological development. We’re proud of the accomplishment of this bill.”
Addressing Issues with China
Podesta and John Kerry, the administration’s special presidential envoy on climate, both addressed China’s role in the global energy industry during their separate conversations.
Podesta said the U.S. needs to ensure supply chains are secure and “in friendly hands” to avoid authoritarian regimes blackmailing the rest of the world.
“The only way to do that is to kind of disperse supply, secure supply, and do it with our friends and allies, and I think, quite frankly, they agree with that,” he said. “We want to try to find a path forward where, particularly on these supply chain questions, we have a collaborative relationship with our allies and partners. It’s just clear to say directly, that China has too much of a chokehold on critical minerals, on critical mineral processing, and clean technologies and solar machines. We let that go. That was a mistake. We need to get it back, and we’re seeing that happen.”
While describing U.S. efforts to build domestic manufacturing for clean energy technologies, Podesta said Chinese companies will need to participate. He conceded that the government will need to balance China’s involvement with concerns over reliability and energy security.
“The Chinese are going to be big players. They have a big domestic market. They’re already the leaders in electric vehicles,” Podesta said. “We’re aware of that, but we can’t be beholden to only Chinese supply for these critical materials, when they have indicated that they’re perfectly prepared to use their economic power when it serves their interests in a strategic way.”
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee and another CERAWeek participant, issued a statement in response.
“It is beyond irresponsible for someone speaking on behalf of the White House to not only condone but also advocate for sending American tax dollars to Chinese companies,” Manchin said. “We have a dire dependence problem, and comments like this make it clear that this administration doesn’t care about the energy security of this nation. I will do everything in my power to prevent this administration from welcoming China to take federal dollars with open arms.”
Kerry, a former secretary of state, senator and presidential candidate, pointed out that the U.S. and China are the world’s two largest economies and two largest emitters. He agreed that the relationship between the two superpowers is currently difficult, “certainly the most difficult we’ve seen, certainly in my lifetime,” but that China remains one of the largest investors in renewable energy.
Asked whether he sees a prospect for developing “something constructive,” Kerry responded, “I do. I absolutely do.”
“I’ve met with the Chinese many times over the last few years,” he said, pointing to joint agreements on accelerating the transition from coal and deforestation. (60% of the world’s illegal logging goes to China, Kerry said).
“You have these things that just get in the way in a very serious way,” Kerry said, listing a series of global issues. “I regret to say that in the last months, the intensity has ratcheted up. The Chinese helped us on a number of different, very sensitive issues. We cooperated on the Iran nuclear agreement; we cooperated on [the] Paris [climate treaty]. I do think we can surmount this, and we have to. The United States and China have to find a way to define the differences … so that we can avoid the roiling of the markets and begin to deal intelligently with the world’s greatest issues.”
Kerry Calls for One Direction
Former U.S. ambassador (Mexico and Ukraine) Carlos Pascual closed his discussion with Kerry by noting the latter had extended his commitment as envoy through the end of the year.
“I take that as a …” Pascual began.
“As a sign of insanity?” Kerry interjected.
“ … reflection of your passion and commitment, but also one of hope,” Pascual continued.
Kerry likened the challenges facing the industry to the Allies’ collaborative effort during World War II.
“There were certain things we needed to do to win the war,” he said, using as an example a Michigan automobile plant’s ability to produce a B-24 bomber every hour. The decisions were made at the top, Kerry said, but it was the “people at the mid-level of engagement who made their own decisions because they were given a responsibility to get something done” that made the difference.
“That’s what we need to do. Some of these things we need to be deploying faster, whether it’s solar panels or wind turbines, or whatever we need to organize ourselves,” he said. “If we can get people moving in the same direction, the same sense of purpose or with the same sense of urgency, I absolutely guarantee we can win this battle.
“But we can also lose it if we just continue business as usual and don’t do the organizing necessary and liberating the kind of ingenuity of those mid-level people.”
Panel: IRA to Accelerate Transition
Speaking on a panel debating how best to accelerate the transition to net zero in the U.S., Joseph Majkut, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ energy security and climate change program, said the key is not to impose costs.
“We want to demonstrate that there are huge benefits that accompany energy transition for consumers who might be lowering prices, right?” he said. “We might be able to get costs down for workers for those in these new energy technologies. It’s manufacturing jobs to building a supply chain … by building, by demonstrating these benefits, you can build momentum behind energy transition, such that we can accelerate our efforts. Everybody in Washington if you kind of get them in a quiet enough room and away from a camera, they know that this is not going to help us meet our even near-term climate goals, definitely not our long-term climate goals. If we can demonstrate that energy transition will bring benefits, then the belief is that we can accelerate our efforts over time.”
Meghan Nutting, executive vice president of government and regulatory affairs for solar developer Sunnova, said the IRA’s investment in energy-transition technologies is the “most impactful” she’s seen in her 15 years in the industry.
“To say it’s a big deal is an understatement,” she said. “On the solar side, we have a 10-year runway for the 30% investment tax credit. That makes the investment tax credit even more valuable. We have $41 billion that will be invested in domestic manufacturing … so we don’t have to worry so much about trade conflicts and we can produce that capacity domestically and serve people locally.”
Majkut said that while the IRA is a substantial investment, it has “ruffled feathers in every cardinal direction.”
The IRA “carries with it a lot of attempts to capture those benefits here in the United States … and a focus on sort of an America-first climate policy,” he said. “The champions of this legislation have talked about jobs, jobs, jobs. They don’t as much talk about emissions, emissions, emissions, and that is going to provoke a competitive response not just from our allies, but from countries where we’re competing, like China.”
The rollout of renewable energy and transmission lines needs to greatly accelerate to meet climate goals, but “permitting reform” efforts should not trample important environmental protections, speakers said Tuesday on a World Resources Institute webinar.
The grassroots of the environmental community often focus on protecting one important piece of land from development, with Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) reminiscing that he got involved in activism initially to protect some beaches.
“The tools that exist in state and county and federal law, and rule and process and procedure, enable people to stop bad projects,” Schatz said. “The problem is that they are now being weaponized to stop the kind of planet-saving projects that we need.”
It is necessary to reduce the time it takes to build a new transmission line, but Schatz warned of the real possibility that nothing gets done this Congress.
“It is very unclear to me what the House is going to do, whether they’re serious about doing something on a bipartisan basis, or whether they just want to do something that’s sort of a messaging bill with a bunch of American Petroleum Institute talking points,” Schatz said.
Changing permitting laws will get some attention, but Schatz said that the effort could move forward outside of Congress at the administrative level and among state and local governments.
Schatz worked on the last Congress’ biggest attempt to make reforms in the area, a proposal backed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) that did not eliminate any bedrock environmental laws but required greater coordination among federal permitting agencies.
Another key to getting the work done on time involves early and effective outreach to impacted communities to address any concerns they have.
“To the extent that the whole conversation around climate action has been on K Street and Wall Street, that has to change; everybody has to benefit from that,” Schatz said. “So, what I hear from people who are in environmental justice communities is a little different from what I hear from environmental justice advocates on the Hill. The people in environmental justice communities want to participate in the clean energy revolution. The people who are on the Hill, I think, are a little bit more in an old-school mentality where stopping things is virtuous, no matter what you’re stopping.”
Maryland Public Service Commission Chairman Jason Stanek noted that permitting is a recent issue that was not debated much when he was a staffer on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee for Republicans. But just last week, that committee voted out 15 bills on permitting.
“Unfortunately, most of them were party-line votes,” Stanek said. “And as [Schatz] referenced, most of them are likely just messaging bills. We need to get serious about this conversation if we’re going to decarbonize; if we’re going to build the clean energy infrastructure that’s necessary to get us to where we’re going.”
“Permitting reform” has become shorthand for dismantling every kind of environmental protection related to building out the clean energy grid among many in Earthjustice President Abbie Dillen’s orbit.
“I think it behooves us to think about this framing in a big but much more discrete way, which is, how do we build out the clean energy that we need, as fast as we need to do and fairly?” Dillen said.
The issue goes beyond the federal government, with regional organizations, such as ISOs and RTOs, and states playing very important roles in building out the needed clean energy infrastructure, she noted. It would also help to give the federal government some more authority to be able to override some of the friction seen in the states and to give projects a one-stop shop for approval, Dillen said.
But it could prove difficult to pass any good legislation this Congress so it is important to use existing tools such as the Department of Energy’s and FERC’s limited backstop siting authority for transmission, Dillen said.
While it recently got amended by last year’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, that authority has been around for 18 years, and it has not led to the siting of a single transmission line, said American Clean Power Association General Counsel Gene Grace.
“There’s something amiss kind of with respect to federal transmission siting authority, in contrast with natural gas pipelines. … For all interstate pipelines, you go directly to FERC, and you can get a permit, and it’s not surprising,” Grace said. “When you look over the last decade, about 10,000 miles of gas pipelines have been built per year, compared to 1,800 miles of transmission lines.”
Transmission lines that are in the national interest should be sited at a one-stop shop, and Grace argued that should be FERC.
Texas regulators last week approved a settlement that clears the way for Lubbock Power & Light to complete its migration from SPP to ERCOT and begin offering retail choice to its customers.
The Public Utility Commission on March 9 approved an agreement between the utility and Southwestern Public Service (SPS) over the termination of a power contract that was to end in 2044. As part of the settlement, LP&L agreed to pay $77.5 million for the contract’s early termination (53529).
Golden Spread Electric Cooperative threw a late wrench into the proceeding in December when it filed opposition to the allocation of the termination payment between transmission and production functions. The co-op, which is connected to the SPS system, said the commission did not need to approve the allocation to green light the utility’s integration into ERCOT and that the issue should be adjudicated by FERC instead.
“The allocation of that payment is kind of a poison pill on the rest of the agreement,” PUC Chair Peter Lake said, pointing to LP&L’s plans to give its customers access to retail choice.
Golden Spread counsel James Guy agreed that the settlement’s proposed allocation wasn’t necessary for LP&L’s move into ERCOT. After a sidebar discussion with the other parties, the cooperative agreed to drop its opposition at the PUC. However, it reserved the right to take up the issue at FERC.
“Given the timing constraints we have … it has really never been our intent to slow the move of a group of consumers that are willing to go to ERCOT,” Guy told the commission. “We don’t intend and promise to not collaterally attack the commission’s order or make any argument of a lack of evidence for the order or anything along those lines.”
“Welcome to ERCOT,” Commissioner Will McAdams told LP&L and Lubbock city representatives.
The settlement applies to a little more than 25% of LP&L’s load, or about 170 MW. The bulk of LP&L’s load, about 470 MW, was smoothly migrated from SPP to ERCOT in 2021, the largest single transfer of customers in the latter’s history. That culminated a six-year engineering and regulatory effort that began in 2015. (See Six Years in the Making: LP&L Migrates Load to ERCOT.)
The PUC’s enforcement staff has recommended an administrative penalty of $1.75 million for Texas-New Mexico Power Company (TNMP) over its violation of metering and billing practices.
In a report, the commission’s Division of Compliance and Enforcement said the utility violated accurate meter-reading rules because it failed to make necessary changes to its advanced metering system.
A staff investigation found the utility had three-years’ notice that the system’s communication backbone was going to be discontinued but did not make replacement plans until halfway through the timeframe. They also said TNMP could have developed a back-up mitigation plan in case its vendor was unable to provide more than 170,000 new meters in time to avoid the “foreseeable” communications failures.
The results were prolonged, inaccurate estimates of power consumption for thousands of the utility’s customers.
TNMP has until March 28 to either accept the penalty or request a hearing. The recommended penalty will go into effect without a timely response.
NYISO on Tuesday formally announced that the 2023 Class Year (CY23) study was launched with between 80 and 90 projects participating.
Class Year studies assess whether a new resource entering the New York grid would have an impact on reliability and identifies any transmission upgrades necessary to maintain reliability. CY23 officially started on Feb. 13, 30 days after the completion of the CY21. (See “Class Year Updates,” NYISO TPAS Briefs: Jan. 19, 2023.)
The abundance of projects joining CY23 is emblematic of a problem concerning NYISO’s interconnection study processes, which have undergone an unprecedented increase in the volume and complexity of projects since the passage of New York’s aggressive clean energy transition roadmap, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
However, previous delays and the increase in projects requesting interconnection did force some projects to obtain waivers from FERC granting them more time to have their studies approved before being able to participate in CY23. (See “FERC Interconnection Waivers,” NYISO Operating Committee Briefs: Feb. 13, 2023.)
In an episode last month of NYISO’s podcast, “Power Trends,” Zach Smith, vice president of system and resource planning, extolled the ISO’s interconnection process, saying the study’s “core objective is about the reliability of the grid” and ensuring new resources entering the grid will not “degrade the performance of system so that we can keep the lights on and keep the quality of service for all customers in New York.”
Smith acknowledged that NYISO’s studies have become more complex and challenging, both because of the volume of proposals and that many resources rely on new technologies, creating a backlog of nearly 500 projects.
NYISO “recognized that the interconnection process must continue to evolve,” saying in a white paper that the “influx of new projects in the interconnection queue means that additional reforms are needed.”
In an email to RTO Insider, Smith said, “We’re extremely pleased to have launched another Class Year study process.”
“We understand how important the process is to supporting state policy goals and keeping the electric system reliable through the grid in transition.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) has nominated a member of his staff and an NRG Energy executive to replace two sitting commissioners on the state’s Board of Public Utilities as the agency implements his reshaping of the state’s energy sector.
Christine Guhl Sadovy, Murphy’s cabinet secretary who has a history of working in clean energy, will replace Murphy appointee Robert Gordon, whose term expires Mar. 15, 2023.
Commissioner Bob Gordon | NJ BPU
Marian Abdou, managing senior counsel at NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG), will replace Dianne Solomon, who was nominated by Republican Gov. Chris Christie in 2013 and whose term expires in October 2024. Abdou has also worked at Direct Energy and Hess Corp.
The nominations require approval by the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee, which has yet to set a date to consider them, and the full Senate.
The changes come as the BPU works to implement some of Murphy’s most high-profile policies, among them aggressive efforts to create a state offshore wind industry, reduce transportation emissions through a dramatic expansion of electric vehicle use, and transition buildings away from natural gas heating and hot water appliances and towards electrification. The BPU is also faced with engineering an upgrade to the state grid necessitated by increased amounts of variable renewable generation.
The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on why the two existing commissioners were not reappointed. Members of the five-member board of commissioners serve six-year terms, with a salary of $175,000 and cannot hold another job. No more than three commissioners with the same party affiliation can serve on the board.
Closing Coal Plants
Sadovy joined the Murphy administration at the BPU, where she rose to the position of chief of staff to President Joseph L. Fiordaliso, according to her biography on the state website. She helped “spearhead” Murphy’s clean energy agenda, working on the governor’s 2019 Master Plan, the implementation of the 2018 Clean Energy Act and the development of the state’s EV incentive plan, according to the website.
She previously had spent five years advocating for clean energy policies at the New Jersey branch of the Sierra Club, where she worked on the Beyond Coal campaign, which seeks to close all the coal-fired plants in the U.S. Subsequent to that, Guhl Sadovy was political director for Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey and worked to help the election of pro-women’s health candidates, according to the site.
Abdou joined NRG in 2016 and has worked on a variety of commercial issues affecting the company’s generation assets and provided legal support to both the development and energy services groups, according to Murphy’s office. The company generates electricity and provides energy solutions and natural gas to millions of customers, according to the company website. NRG operates 10 natural gas plants, a nuclear plant, a solar plant and four coal plants, according to the site.
Abdou received her law degree and a Master of Business Administration degree from Rutgers University; she has worked at Day Pitney, Thacher Proffitt & Wood and ArentFox Schiff.
Advancing Clean Energy
Gordon, a Democrat who served 10 years as a state senator, is known as a policy wonk who on appointment to the board immersed himself in the details of energy issues; he is also known as someone who spoke his mind on occasion.
In one of his most notable comments, Gordon expressed frustration at the size of the subsidies awarded to PSEG’s three South New Jersey nuclear plants, in April 2021, saying he had hoped the company would agree to an award that was smaller than the maximum allowed under the law. “That never happened,” Gordon said at the time, but he nevertheless voted for the award. (See NJ Nukes Awarded $300 Million in ZECs.)
Commissioner Dianne Solomon | NJ BPU
One environmental advocate said Gordon may have spoken too frankly at some point, prompting his removal.
Gordon said it had been “a great privilege to advance Governor Murphy’s groundbreaking policies in clean energy.
“I look forward to continuing to shape policy in my next chapter,” said Gordon, who is also a trustee on the board of New Jersey Transit, the state mass transit agency. “I remain very interested in clean energy and hope to continue my involvement in the field.”
Solomon, a Republican who is serving her second term on the BPU board, is a former BPU president and member of the governor’s cabinet under Christie. She has on occasion bucked the board, questioning the pace of the state’s push into clean energy. On Feb. 17, she voted against awarding an easement needed to advance the state’s first offshore wind project, saying she did not believe the board had investigated the matter thoroughly enough. (See NJ BPU Grants Second Easement for OSW Project.)
She also has expressed concern about the cost of some of the governor’s renewable energy policies, especially the offshore wind projects. In August, she voted against the board accepting a report providing an estimate of the cost of implementing Murphy’s Energy Masterplan. She contended that it ignored key costs in implementing the plan and said “no one should contemplate using this study to inform policy decisions.”
Murphy nominated former Assemblywoman Maria Rodriguez-Gregg, to replace Solomon in April 2022, but later withdrew the nomination.
WALTHAM, Mass. — Maria Robinson, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office, gave an update last week on the work her team has been doing since the office’s launch last year.
Speaking at the Northeast Energy and Commerce Association’s Renewable Energy Conference, held March 9 at the Waltham Woods Conference Center, Robinson painted a picture of a department that’s hard at work looking for the country’s biggest grid challenges and ways to solve them.
The office is working to allocate a great deal of funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, according to Robinson.
“We’re seeing so much funding flowing to areas that are in desperate need of economic recovery and ensuring that they are being … rebuilt at least back to 21st century standards,” she said.
The office is also getting down to business on transmission permitting, and she noted that the Northeast has plenty of practice at dealing with the complexities and politics.
“Here in New England we have experience with individual communities interacting with transmission lines a little differently than others might,” she said.
But she also gave a shoutout to the region’s collaborative memorandum of understanding on offshore wind. (See New England States Group Up To Push For Federal Transmission Funding.) The states are looking to win federal funding from the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program.
“That’s the type of exciting innovative project that we’re thrilled to see applying,” Robinson said.
Robinson gave one other key update last week, on the process of preparing to work on projects in National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETC). She said the triennial state-of-the-grid study is a precursor to the NIETC work. The draft version of the study is out for comment now and will be finalized by November.
“At that point in time, our hope is to be able to start opening up for potential applications for those corridors,” Robinson said. “We’ve already heard a lot of interest from private developers, who are more than ready to start that application process.”
State of Renewables in the Northeast
Another panel at the conference discussed the opportunities and challenges for different types of renewables in the Northeast.
Every panelist agreed that there is a lot of promise for nearly every clean technology in the region.
“The signs are great. There’s a lot of activity from a jobs perspective. I would characterize it as an exciting time to be in solar,” said Mark Sylvia, chief of staff at BlueWave Solar. “When you think about the Northeast and what’s been accomplished over a very short time, we have a really good story to tell.”
Amit Barnir, vice president of U.S. network infrastructure for storage developer Zenobe, agreed.
“The Northeast is interesting because we’re finding market-based solutions for energy storage,” he said.
And in offshore wind, Northeastern projects have been setting the bar in what is largely a “homegrown industry,” said Katie Theoharides, head of U.S. offshore in the Eastern U.S. for RWE renewables.
“We also have a workforce which is building up and ready to go, and the federal government has come in line and set bold targets as well as releasing historic lease areas in rapid succession,” she said.
The workforce development piece is key to the success of offshore wind, said Nickie Collard-Andrade, a senior workforce development coordinator at Avangrid.
“Even in the short time I’ve been involved, things have changed dramatically, specifically in workforce development. When I started, it was hard to get people to buy in that it was really happening. The dynamic has changed, and there are more individuals contacting us,” she said.
But there are headwinds for each segment of the Northeast’s clean energy industry too. Most of them have to do with interconnection, the grid and regulation.
“The general approach in the Northeast has started with utilizing existing rules, both wholesale interconnection tariffs and retail tariffs,” Barnir said. “The challenge that we have run into is that energy storage is not just generation; it’s load as well. The rules that are in place kind of only look at it in one direction.”
“Chief among the challenges we face is the grid and the interconnection process. There’s a misalignment between these very aggressive goals governors have set in their states and where we are in upgrading the grid,” he said.
For wind, political and personal views of the technology are an obstacle.
“There are a lot of fears about new technology. How do we make it something that’s approachable and highlights the benefits?” Theoharides said.
She suggested building more political support by bringing oil and gas resources from the Gulf Coast to bear on the Northeast’s offshore wind efforts.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) on Monday announced it had signed memorandums of understanding with Tompkins and Orange counties to study the feasibility of developing renewable energy projects in underutilized landfills.
The installation of large-scale renewable projects has seen community pushback, but the prospect of siting them in an area devoid of people is an opportunity for New York to make progress on its energy and climate goals.
“The town of Dryden is looking forward to participating in the review of this project,” town Supervisor Jason Leifer said in a statement. “Using brownfields for this purpose is preferable to using farmland.”
Both the 112-acre Caswell Road landfill in Tompkins County and the 420-acre Orange County landfill have been closed for several decades. NYSERDA said their transformation into potential renewable energy sites represents progress under the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act and the agency’s Build-Ready Program.
EPA has been encouraging the development of landfill solar and/or storage projects across the U.S. via its RE-Powering Initiative, which it estimates has grown by 80% the past five years. A 2021 report from RMI found that the more than 10,000 closed and inactive landfills around the country could host an estimated 63 GW of solar capacity, but only 500 MW had been installed.
Houston recently proposed a plan to change its Sunnyside landfill into a 70-MW solar panel farm, while the Hickory Ridge landfill in Georgia has been covered with a geomembrane anchoring system that has transformed the site into one the state’s largest solar generators. New Jersey recently opened a 25.6-MW solar farm in the Combe Fill North landfill, which hosts 56,000 solar panels on a brownfield site that had been closed since 1978.
NYSERDA CEO Doreen Harris said in a statement that “these agreements with Tompkins County and Orange County will help us to better understand the viability of these landfills for potentially hosting a large-scale solar project.”
Shawna Black, chairwoman of the Tompkins County Legislature, said that “the potential to generate solar energy from the Caswell Road site is huge,” while Orange County Executive Stefan M. Neuhaus said the “project will help further the county’s energy-efficiency initiatives.”
Anne Reynolds, executive director of Alliance for Clean Energy New York, said “repurposing industrialized lands for the production of pollution-free power is good policy, and we applaud this collaboration with Tompkins and Orange counties.”
Jean Hamerman, executive director of the Center for Land Recycling, said “closed landfills represent an ideal opportunity to reduce our fossil fuel dependence through solar development.”
In an email to NetZero Insider, a NYSERDA spokesperson said that the agency is “evaluating both sites for solar PV coupled with battery energy storage systems” and that, through the Build-Ready Program, it will “pursue site control and preconstruction development activities prior to competitively auctioning the developed sites.”
“Future announcements will be made as the Build-Ready Program continues to de-risk the projects and move them towards a competitive auction to private-sector developers to construct and operate,” the spokesperson said.
Ørsted and Eversource are proposing an 884-MW wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island.
Monday was the deadline to respond to the state’s 2022 request for proposals, which seeks to add 600 to 1,000 MW of offshore wind to the state’s grid.
PPL (NYSE:PPL) subsidiary Rhode Island Energy, which is running the offshore wind solicitation and will buy the power that it generates, told NetZero Insider Monday it would not immediately be releasing details of this solicitation.
But Ørsted and Eversource announced their proposal shortly after the noon deadline: Revolution Wind 2, an 884-MW project that would provide a $2 billion boost to Rhode Island’s green and blue economies, plus direct and indirect benefits in port infrastructure, job creation, environmental justice and workforce development in historically marginalized communities.
The two companies are partners on the 704-MW Revolution Wind 1, which would send electricity to Connecticut and Rhode Island. They also are collaborating on Sunrise Wind 1 and South Fork Wind and have proposed Sunrise Wind 2, all of which would feed New York’s electric grid.
Ørsted is the largest offshore wind developer in the world. Its portfolio includes Block Island Wind Farm off the Rhode Island coast, a five-turbine, 30-MW project that was the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States. The company also is pursuing projects in New Jersey and Maryland.
Eversource, the largest energy provider in New England, is looking to sell its offshore wind interests but has said the process is taking longer than first expected.
Ørsted and Eversource said in a news release Monday that if their proposal was accepted, it would provide $35 million to a planned regional offshore wind hub at Quonset Point; result in local construction of two new crew transfer vessels in addition to the five already being built; and result in creation of a Rhode Island engineering center that would employ 75 engineers and serve as a U.S. hub for Ørsted.
Rhode Island’s second offshore wind solicitation opened Oct. 14, a result of clean energy legislation signed by Gov. Dan McKee in July 2022. McKee indicated then that the additional offshore wind power — combined with Block Island Wind Farm and the 400 MW of Revolution Wind 1 — could meet half of the state’s projected 2030 electricity needs.
It is an important part of the state’s strategy to use 100% renewable energy by 2033 and achieve net zero status by 2050.
Rhode Island Energy’s current timeline for the 2022 solicitation calls for review of bids with the state Office of Energy Resources on March 20; conditional selection of bidder(s) for negotiation of contracts on June 21; and submission of contracts for Public Utilities Commission approval on Nov. 13.
Details of New York’s third round of offshore wind proposals suggest a potentially significant role for General Electric (NYSE:GE) in the supply chain that the state hopes to host for the new industry.
New York aims to have at least 9 MW of offshore wind in service by 2035, and there is talk of kicking the goal significantly higher.
Along with clean energy, officials want the derive an economic boost and social change from the projects; this latest offshore wind solicitation stipulated that proposals detail the efforts developers would take to encourage formation of ecosystems to build wind power components and grow a workforce.
After the solicitation closed, GE said that if enough orders arose, it would build two factories — one for turbine nacelles, and one for blades — in an area of upstate New York that is shaping up as a potential center of manufacturing and fabrication for offshore projects.
Competitor Siemens Gamesa said it would build a turbine nacelle factory nearby, again conditioned on it receiving orders for its products for use in New York waters.
Vestas is also in the mix, potentially building a blade factory in the same area as other proposed facilities. All would sit on the Hudson River, more than 100 miles from the ocean but easily accessible with barges or even deep-draft vessels.
Extensive documentation posted recently by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority shows that all six developers submitting proposals in the 2022 OSW solicitation would rely on GE as potential suppliers. The thousands of pages of information are redacted to varying degrees.
Attentive Energy One, a joint venture of TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE) and Rise Light & Power, would be a 1,404-MW wind farm with 1,310 MW of net delivery to the point of interconnection. The proposal emphasizes two priorities for New York — environmental justice and just transition — by highlighting its plan to land power cables at an aging fossil-fired power plant in New York City. The proposal states that current workers at the plant would keep their jobs, fewer nearby residents would develop asthma, and there would be little opposition to landing the power lines there. The total economic benefit to the state is pegged at $25.6 billion over 25 years.
Sunrise Wind 2 would be a joint venture of Orsted and Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES), which opted to keep such details as nameplate capacity secret in the public version of their 1,381-page proposal. But the unredacted passages emphasize their experience alone — Orsted as the largest OSW developer in the world, Eversource as the largest energy provider in New England — and together, including ongoing construction of South Fork Wind and development of Sunrise Wind 1, both off the New York coast. It is not clear if they mention that Eversource is actively attempting to sell its stake in the partnership, or that Orsted expects a significant cost impairment on Sunrise 1, because of escalating costs.
Beacon Wind 2 would be developed by Equinor (NYSE:EQNR) and bp (NYSE:BP), which already are developing Empire Wind and Beacon Wind 1. Few details are offered publicly about Beacon Wind 2, except that they would partner with GE on nacelle and blade manufacture, and with another firm on manufacture of high-voltage underwater cable, also in New York. In a January news release, the partners said Beacon 2 would generate 1.36 GW of electricity and more than $11 billion in economic activity.
Community Offshore Wind, proposed by RWE and National Grid Ventures, could be built in 1.3- or 2.6-GW configurations with a variety of price points. They propose collaboration with GE in the Albany area and creation of an offshore steel hub at a site along the Hudson between the Atlantic Ocean and Albany. The two tout their $1 billion-plus investment to date in clean energy in New York, including RWE’s onshore wind farms upstate. They note RWE’s status as the No. 2 offshore wind developer in the world, and the century-plus history in New York of some of National Grid’s operating companies.
Leading Light Wind is proposed by Invenergy as lead developer and energyRe as co-developer. In what is perhaps the least redacted of the proposals, they offer 1.32- and 2.1-GW proposals, with an optional energy storage component. They highlight their status as the only American-led project in the New York Bight; as developer of Clean Path NY, the HVDC line that is an important part of the state’s energy transition strategy; and Invenergy’s track record of over 890 MW of solar, wind and storage in the state. They say the project would provide up to $13.3 billion in economic benefits for the state and include a stakeholder outreach process guided by “humility, creativity and connectivity.”
Excelsior Wind, Liberty Wind North and Liberty Wind South are proposed by Vineyard Offshore. Its proposal is perhaps the most redacted of the six developers’ material, with minimal information made public. Vineyard would partner with GE on blades and nacelles for the projects and with some other entity on cable manufacturing. A January news release by Vineyard said the plan would produce 2.6 GW of electricity and more than $15 billion in economic benefits. Vineyard is a partner in the Vineyard Wind 1 project being built off Massachusetts.
