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November 14, 2024

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Wind, Solar Opponents Defeat Four Proposals In Rural Michigan County

Montcalm County in rural north-central Michigan, a hotbed of anti-renewable energy activity since 2021, saw voters in four townships reject referendums that would have established guidelines for wind or solar projects.

Voters in three of the townships — Douglass, Maple Valley and Winfield — also recalled seven officials considered supporters of wind power. Three were the townships’ top officials: Supervisor Terry Anderson in Douglass Township, Supervisor John Schwandt in Maple Valley and Supervisor Phyllis Larson in Winfield.

Voters also rejected a proposal to regulate residential and commercial solar energy projects in Belvidere Township. Belvidere Township does have a wind regulation ordinance on the books that was approved earlier this year by the council.

With all four proposals defeated, wind or solar energy projects in those townships cannot go forward. Local governments’ zoning commissions must reconsider how to handle any potential projects that may come before them.

Facebook Group MTCABW (Montcalm County Citizens United) Content.jpgA group called Montcalm County Citizens United has led the fight against wind power in the rural county. | Montcalm County Citizens United

Disputes over renewable energy projects — to date, mostly wind farm projects — are not uncommon in Michigan. But in the past two years Montcalm County has been a center of local opposition, led by a group called Montcalm County Citizens United, which distributed lawn signs saying: “2 Tall, 2 Close, 2 Loud. Not In My Backyard.”

Apex Clean Energy has been working for four years to develop a wind farm in the county with up to 75 turbines (375 MW). The company has also added a solar energy component to the project.

Brian O’Shea, Apex’s director of public engagement, said the company was disappointed with some of the election results, charging voters had been misled by an “organized misinformation campaign.” But he said the company still planned to work with “with over 500 participating farmers and landowners to develop a responsible wind project in Montcalm County and help accelerate Michigan’s shift to clean energy.”

Michigan has at least 3,231 MW of wind power, 6.8% of its total generation, with 225 MW under construction, according to the Department of Energy.

Opponents of the Montcalm regulatory proposals overwhelmed supporters in all four townships. In Belvidere Township, with the solar proposal, the race was the closest with 600 against and 378 in favor. Douglass Township had votes on two proposals regulating wind farms, and both failed. The first proposal was defeated 812 to 297, while the second proposal went down 819 to 304.

The Maple Valley Township proposal failed 594 to 265. And the Winfield Township proposal failed 736 to 355.

Winfield Supervisor Larson lost her recall election by just 56 votes.  She said she was targeted because she had cast the deciding vote on the township’s wind ordinance.

Local media reported that the election results are leading some to call for the state — which has a goal of generating 60% of its power from renewables by 2030 — to take control of siting of energy projects.

“What happened in Montcalm is part of a larger chorus of [grassroots opposition] to these projects,” Ed Rivet, executive director of the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum, a nonprofit that advocates for clean energy, told Bridge Michigan. “I don’t see the trend (of local opposition) suddenly disappearing,” Rivet said. “The more that goes on, the more it will lead to a policy discussion.”

Charlotte Jameson, chief policy officer for the Michigan Environmental Council, told MLive there is a growing consensus that the state must become more involved: “The siting issue is definitely one where you have environmental groups, utilities and labor in agreement that there needs to be some kind of solution here.”

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NY Considers Role for New Nuclear Generation

Low-Cost Nuclear Power (Climate Action Council) Content.jpgLow-Cost Nuclear Power Reduces Electricity System Costs by $1.1B | Climate Action Council

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York could reduce its decarbonization costs by $1.1 billion, an 8% cut, if forecasts of lower cost advanced nuclear reactors are realized, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority told the Climate Action Council last week.

Carl Mas, director of NYSERDA’s Energy and Environmental Analysis Department, shared a sensitivity analysis during the Nov. 7 meeting that found that deploying 4 GW of small modular nuclear reactors in upstate zones A-F by 2050 could displace 12 GW of intermittent renewables and 5 GW of firm resources or battery storage under a low-cost nuclear scenario aided by new federal funding.

The low-cost scenario assumes 2030 capital costs of about $6,000/kW (2020 $) versus more than $9,000/kW under the high-cost scenario based on recent nuclear projects.

Proponents of advanced nuclear designs — such as the NuScale small modular reactor recently certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission — cite their passive safety features and potential economies of scale compared with traditional custom designs that have been prone to cost overruns. In addition to producing zero-emission electricity, such designs could be used in industrial process heat and hydrogen production.

New York’s four current reactors — Nine Mile Point units 1 and 2, James A. FitzPatrick and R. E. Ginna — total 3,358 MW of capacity and produced about one-quarter of the state’s in-state generation in 2021. Each of the plants has received license extensions from the NRC allowing them to run for a 60-year lifespan.

Prior analysis found the state’s electric system costs would increase by $9 billion on a net present value basis if the plants shut down after only 40 years. Their current license terms expire between 2029 and 2046.  

Installed Nuclear Capacity (Climate Action Council-2022 Gold Book) Content.jpgCurrent installed nuclear capacity & contribution in New York State | Climate Action Council / 2022 Go

Adding 4 GW of new nuclear capacity would more than double nuclear’s share of energy production from the current 31 terawatt hours. No new nuclear would be added under the high-cost scenario.

In both scenarios, Mas said, “a majority of the energy and installed capacity is from wind and solar in 2050.”

Nuclear’s competitiveness would be dependent on new lower-cost designs — aided by more than $2 billion in funding from the CHIPS and Science Act — and tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act. The two bills represent a “significant ramp up” in federal investment in the technology, Mas said. (See A Nuclear Renaissance in the Making?)

Mas said transmission costs and a lack of operational flexibility could limit nuclear’s future role. “We could hypothesize that with more flexible new reactor designs, we might see nuclear playing a larger role,” he added. “If more transmission gets built for the whole system than what we modeled, you could see more energy flowing from upstate to downstate, and that could put a put additional economic value on upstate nuclear.”

The scenario assumes the technologies would not come online until at least 2040. The findings “reinforce the benefits of a more flexible policy framework that can adapt over time,” Mas said.

Low-Cost vs High-Cost Nuclear Scenarios (Climate Action Council) Content.jpgLow-Cost Nuclear Scenarios Adds 4GW by 2050 | Climate Action Council

 

“We’re looking at least a decade for when these types of projects can get up and going,” he added. “Frankly, we just don’t know yet … since some of these new modules are only now being authorized.”

Bob Howarth, a professor at Cornell University, questioned the assumption that New York’s nuclear fleet possessed a 90% capacity accreditation factor (CAF), saying that Europe’s fleet average is “closer to 72 or 74% CAF.”

Mas responded that market signals under deregulation had led to a “substantial uptick in the utilization and CAFs of the nuclear fleet.”

Gavin Donohue, CEO of the Independent Power Producers of New York, commended the presentation, saying it highlighted how the state needs to be flexible and “keep the door open” to new technologies.

Paul Shepson, dean at Stony Brook University, asked whether nuclear waste disposal was incorporated into the cost estimates.

Mas responded that “there is an end-of-life assumption in terms of cost” and that, in the absence of national plan to manage spent fuel, the waste will be stored “in-place” at reactor sites.

Next Steps

Sarah Osgood, executive director of the CAC, said that remaining redlines of the council’s scoping plan will be circulated for consideration throughout the month ahead of a planned vote on the document on Dec. 19.

Climate Protesters 2022-11-07 (RTO Insider LLC) Alt FI.jpgClimate protesters attending climate action council meets in Albany, N.Y. | © RTO Insider LLC

 

NYSERDA CEO Doreen Harris, the CAC’s co-chair, said the remaining meetings would be extended to four hours to accommodate the longer discussions that are expected as the council completes work on the plan.

The meeting on Dec. 5 would be used to reach final resolutions on outstanding items before the Dec. 19 vote.

Registration is open for the next Climate Justice Working Group meeting on Nov. 16.

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Nevada Panel Recommends Road Usage Charge for ZEVs

A Nevada advisory panel is recommending the state adopt a mileage-based road usage charge for zero-emission vehicles, creating a new transportation funding source to help replace declining gas tax revenue.

Under the panel’s recommendations, the per-mile road usage charge would initially apply to zero-emission vehicles but be extended to all new vehicles by 2035, replacing the state fuel tax.

And as a shorter-term measure, the panel said, the state should charge a special fee for registering electric vehicles until the road usage charge is in place.

The Nevada Sustainable Transportation Funding Advisory Working Group approved the recommendations during a virtual meeting on Wednesday. The group’s recommendations will be included in a report to the state legislature ahead of the 2023 session.

Assembly Bill 413 of 2021 directed the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) to convene an advisory working group to study and make recommendations on sustainable funding options for the state’s transportation needs. The 29-member group started meeting in July 2021. (See. Nev. Looks to Other States for Ways to Replace Gas Tax Revenues.)

As cars become more fuel-efficient and more drivers switch to electric vehicles, the state is worried about the impact on gas tax revenue. Since 2010, fuel tax deposited in the State Highway Fund has dropped from 1.27 cents per vehicle mile driven to 1.03 cents per mile, according to a draft version of the working group’s report.

“Like all states, Nevada is heavily dependent on fuel taxes to generate funding for highways, bridges, local roadways, and activities related to maintaining and operating these facilities,” the draft report said.

Much of Nevada’s gas tax goes into the State Highway Fund, which is used to pay for highway construction, maintenance and repair. The NDOT-managed road system will need about $17 billion over the next 10 years, but funding from state and federal sources for that period is estimated at $11 billion, leaving a $6 billion gap.

Fixed or Mileage-based Fees

The working group recommended that the road usage charge give electric vehicle drivers an option to pay either a fixed annual fee, allowing unlimited mileage, or a charge based on actual miles traveled.

That’s similar to the system used in Utah, where owners of electric or hybrid cars pay an alternative-fuel vehicle fee on top of the regular annual registration fee. But EV owners can choose to pay per mile instead of the alternative fuel vehicle fee. The per mile fee is capped at the amount of the alternative-fuel vehicle fee.

This year, Utah’s flat registration fee for an electric vehicle is $123 and the charge per mile is 1.52 cents.

In addition to the road usage charge, the working group is recommending other ways to boost revenue for transportation projects. Those include increasing vehicle registration fees; indexing fuel taxes to keep up with construction cost increases; and allowing counties to adjust their portion of the gas tax for inflation.

The working group considered several other revenue-raising measures but decided to not recommend them for further analysis at this time. Those included an EV battery tax, a tire tax and a parcel delivery fee.

Other State Programs

Oregon rolled out the nation’s first road usage charge program in 2013, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Participants in the voluntary program, called OReGO, may drive gas-powered or electric vehicles. The per-mile charge is 1.9 cents. Drivers of gas-powered vehicles who participate in the program receive a credit for gas tax when they pay at the pump. EV drivers are eligible for reduced registration fees.

In 2020, Virginia started imposing an annual highway use fee on EVs, alternative fuel vehicles and vehicles with a fuel economy of 25 miles per gallon or more. In July, Virginia gave drivers who pay the annual highway fee another option: participating in the mileage-based Mileage Choice Program. Participants install a device in their cars to track mileage.

At the federal level, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021 established two new grant programs for exploring road usage charges as a replacement for the gas tax, NCSL said.

The Strategic Innovation for Revenue Collection program will support pilot projects proposed by states, metropolitan planning organizations or local governments. With $15 million set aside for each of five fiscal years, the program will focus on road usage charge issues such as data privacy, administrative costs, implementation and equity.

The IIJA will also establish a pilot program for a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee, which could potentially be used to bolster the federal Highway Trust Fund.

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FERC: Vistra Can Skip MISO IC Rules for Storage Projects

FERC last week approved Vistra Corp.’s request to bypass MISO’s generator interconnection procedures to quickly add battery storage projects at two retiring fossil fuel plants (ER22-2632).

Vistra was seeking a waiver of MISO’s replacement generator rules so it could add 37-MW battery storage projects to partially replace output at two power plants in Illinois: its Joppa Power Plant, owned by the company’s Electric Energy Inc. subsidiary, and the Edwards Power Plant.

Ordinarily under its replacement generation rules, MISO requires the same generation owner to assume ownership of existing interconnection rights for a new facility. In its Nov. 8 order, FERC permitted Vistra to circumvent that requirement and allowed two subsidiaries — Joppa BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems) and Edwards BESS — to assume the existing rights without entering the RTO’s interconnection queue.

Vistra explained that the storage ownership should remain separate because the projects’ investors did not bargain for liability of retiring fossil fuel generation. FERC agreed and said Vistra requested the one-time waiver in good faith.

“We find that Vistra’s request does not raise queue-jumping concerns because the necessary transfers do not involve unaffiliated entities outside of the interconnection queue, and Vistra pledges that Joppa BESS and Edwards BESS will maintain ownership until the energy storage facilities reach commercial operation, consistent with the transferability restriction,” the commission said.

Joppa, with six coal units totaling 948 MW of capacity and five gas units with 239 MW of capacity, closed in September. The 560-MW coal-fired Edwards facility is slated to idle Jan. 1. Both plants are closing to settle complaints of excessive pollution brought forward by environmental organizations.

Vistra is developing the storage projects under Illinois’ Coal-to-Solar Energy Storage Grant Program, part of the state’s Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. The company will receive $81 million over 10 years to build the two facilities, which are supposed to enter commercial operation no later than June 1, 2025, in order to stay grant-eligible.

Vistra said if it had been forced to enter the projects into MISO’s generator interconnection queue, it would miss the grant deadline. It currently takes about three years for a generator to complete the queue, though MISO is working to minimize the wait.

In a concurrence, FERC Commissioner Allison Clements said the “effect of granting this waiver is that a brownfield site of existing generation on the transmission system can be expeditiously re-used.”

Clements called for a re-examination of RTO rules that restrict a generation owner’s ability to hand over their interconnection rights to unaffiliated entities. She said the waiver “highlights the increasingly strained reasoning underpinning the transferability restrictions in MISO’s and other transmission providers’ generator replacement rules.”

“No part of those rules is more in need of reconsideration than these transferability restrictions, which, at best, appear to impede beneficial commercial transactions and, at worst, may unduly discriminate against non-incumbent generation owners,” Clements wrote.

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Ann Arbor Voters Overwhelmingly Pass Climate Change Tax

Voters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a tax increase to fund efforts to reduce the city’s carbon footprint, voting more than two to one for a 1-mill hike in property taxes for the next 20 years.

The tax will add $153 annually for an average property with a taxable value of $153,000 (half of the average fair market value of $306,000). In 2021, Ann Arbor property owners paid 50 mills.

Mayor Christopher Taylor, who was re-elected on Tuesday, said he was “incredibly excited about what we can accomplish” with the funding and “proud” that the city became the sixth locality in the U.S. to adopt a tax to fight climate change. (See Ann Arbor Mayor Confident Voters Will Pass Climate Tax.)

The tax proposal, which will raise about $7 million in its first year, passed on a vote of 37,451 to 15,244.   The proposal won a majority of votes in every one of Ann Arbor’s 53 precincts.

Taylor, who introduced the ordinance to the city council in 2021, said city voters “understand that climate change is real and that everyone has to take action” to combat its effects.

The city has a goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2030.

Missy Stults, the city’s sustainability director, said there was a lot of work to do to “achieve this audacious and scientifically accomplishable goal.” She said she would begin working on funding proposals and present them for the city council to consider in the 2023 budget.

Of the projected $7 million raised by the new tax, $2 million is anticipated to go for renewable energy projects; $1 million will go for expanded composting; $1 million to develop more cycling and walking projects and $1 million will go for electrification projects, including building electric vehicle chargers. About $700,000 will focus on projects assisting low-income residents, with another $500,000 going to cut down on energy waste and another $500,000 for neighborhood resilience projects, including tree planting and developing rain gardens.

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NiSource Selling Minority Interest in NIPSCO

NiSource said last week that it intends to sell up to a nearly 20% stake in its Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) subsidiary to cover the costs of grid modernization and its push to net-zero emissions.

During NiSource’s annual investor day at the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 7, CEO Lloyd Yates said the company is willing to part with a 19.9% interest in NIPSCO. That will foot the bill for a 2040 net-zero emissions goal and approximately $15 billion in grid and gas infrastructure modernization and clean energy investments over the next five years.

NiSource plans to open the sale in the first quarter next year.  

Yates said NiSource will “remain committed” to its NIPSCO operations, but it needs to improve a balance sheet that has been “constrained” for 20 years, forcing the company to issue equity. With a minority sale, Yates said NiSource wouldn’t have to issue equities through 2025.

“Our industry is going through massive change as technologies evolve and as customer expectations evolve, so we’ve refreshed our mission, vision and values,” Yates said. “We’ll need to drive supportive regulatory and legislative policies, favorable stakeholder environments and advances in technologies that are not currently economical to achieve, but we are optimistic.”

Yates said NiSource’s reworked business strategy should “drive a compelling total shareholder return of 9 to 11% annually.” He initiated a strategic business review of the utility when he became CEO in February.

NiSource’s new direction is “well positioned to drive long-term value for all stakeholders,” Yates said. He said the review identified about $30 billion worth of total long-term investment opportunities over the next decade.

“We have a long runway of investment opportunities and the ability to grow over a long-term horizon,” he said. “While the energy transition presents great opportunities, there’s a threat to those who don’t continue to move forward in a way that creates value. The actions we are taking help insulate NiSource from these threats.”   

Shawn Anderson, senior vice president of strategy and chief risk officer, said a minority interest sale is NiSource’s best path forward.

“There’s a good precedent in the industry of this type of transaction being completed successfully. And it’s a very efficient means of financing our business,” he said.

Anderson also said affordability will be a focus during NiSource’s energy transition. He said through 2027, the company anticipates “low, single digit” increases in customer bills caused by energy efficiency measures, a disciplined operations and maintenance plan, commodity prices leveling off and an expanded customer base.

NiSource’s extensive natural gas infrastructure is “a critical component” to accelerated decarbonization, Anderson said. It will provide reliable baseload generation and be ideally situated for conversion to renewable natural gas or green hydrogen, he said

NiSource plans to retire its coal generation units by the end of 2030 and thereafter draw on a 51% mix of renewables and 35% natural gas generation. Energy efficiency, demand response and capacity purchases will make up the remainder.

By the end of 2025, NiSource expects to have spent $2.2 billion on renewable generation.

“We’re making the fastest transition away from coal. Seventy-four percent coal to zero in a single decade. A 90% reduction in emissions by 2030, including the 58% reduction we’ve already achieved. And now a goal of net zero by 2040,” Anderson said.

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MISO Proposing 2nd SSR Agreement for Retiring Coal Unit

MISO appears likely to use a system support resource (SSR) designation to keep a Wisconsin coal plant operating past its planned suspension date unless stakeholders come up with a viable alternative.

During a West Technical Study Task Force teleconference Friday, MISO’s Huaitao Zhang said staff uncovered unresolved thermal overloading and steady state voltage issues on 12 constraints if Manitowoc Public Utilities’ Lakefront 9 unit is allowed to begin its suspension as planned on Feb. 1, 2023. The 63-MW coal-fired unit began commercial operations in 2006.

The grid operator will collect stakeholders’ input on alternative mitigation plans to the SSR agreement through Nov. 18. However, it says alternative solutions are scarce because there are too few resources nearby to employ generation redispatch, no new generation projects in the works, no contracted demand side management programs in the area, and zero available transmission reconfiguration options.

“Lakefront 9 will need to be designated as an SSR unless feasible alternatives are identified and can be implemented prior to the planned suspension date,” Zhang said.

Staff noted that some transmission projects on the horizon will improve system performance enough to terminate the SSR. The earliest is expected to be in service by early April 2023, not soon enough to avoid an SSR.

Clean Grid Alliance’s Natalie McIntire asked whether MISO studied using synchronous condensers as a potential interim solution or considered converting the plant itself into a synchronous condenser. Zhang said MISO hadn’t contemplated that.

Stakeholders on the teleconference did not offer any other alternatives.

The RTO uses SSR agreements as a last-resort measure to keep generators online past their retirement dates and sustain system reliability.

Zhang told McIntire that MISO’s proposal to require retiring or suspending generation to give a year’s notice instead of the currently required six months will allow staff to solicit solutions earlier in the process, giving them more time to identify feasible alternatives. (See MISO Stays Course on Sharpening Generation Retirement Studies.)

A Lakefront 9 SSR designation will be MISO’s second within a year. It received FERC permission last month to establish a yearlong SSR agreement for Ameren Missouri’s 1.2-GW Rush Island coal plant. (See FERC: Rush Island Plant’s Extension Essential to MISO Reliability.)

Since its inception, MISO has approved about 200 retirement notices and issued a dozen SSR agreements.

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MISO Members Want to Revive Stakeholder Governance Group

MISO members have proposed that the grid operator resurrect the Stakeholder Governance Working Group (SGWG) that formerly managed its Stakeholder Governance Guide.  

The group was disbanded seven years ago following a restructuring of the stakeholder committees. (See MISO Stakeholders OK Redesign, Begin Implementation.)

Ameren’s Ray McCausland, the Reliability Subcommittee’s chair, proposed reviving the small stakeholder working group next year during a Steering Committee teleconference Thursday. He said he would like to put the governance guide’s control “back in the hands of the stakeholders.”

The SGWG serves as an outlet to discuss changes to the guide, provides governance training and offers an open forum for stakeholders to discuss governance concerns. The guide defines stakeholder committee elections, meeting structure and expected conduct, voting procedures, agenda management and the creation of new stakeholder groups.

McCausland said the group’s reinstatement w have stakeholders and the Advisory Committee’s member representatives exercising more control over guide changes. Currently, edits to the guide are routed only through the Advisory Committee.

McCausland said the Stakeholder Governance Guide used to be a more “dynamic” document that changed more often on stakeholders’ input. “That’s not necessarily the case anymore,” he said.

McCausland suggested that the group meet twice per year to review the governing document and discuss changes.

The Steering Committee plans to vote on restarting the group during its February meeting.

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Regulatory Commission Roundup: La.’s Boissiere Faces Runoff vs Climate Activist

Regulatory commissions in nine Southern and Midwest states faced voters Tuesday, with incumbents winning reelection in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Montana and the Dakotas and losing or trailing in Arizona and Nebraska.

Louisiana

Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Mike Francis (R) bested a three-person field with 59% of the vote in his southwest Louisiana district, but incumbent Lambert Boissiere III is headed for a runoff against an environmental advocate, having failed to gain 50% of the vote in his District 3 election.

Boissiere, who has served on the PSC since 2005, took 43% of the vote in a five-person race, falling short of an outright win in the jungle primary. Davante Lewis secured 18% of the vote to advance to the Dec. 10 runoff against Boissiere.

Keep the Lights On, a super PAC aligned with the Environmental Defense Fund, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking Boissiere in the primary, NOLA.com said. Buoyed by donations from Entergy and others in the industry he regulates, Boissiere outspent Lewis, who is backed by the progressive group Voters Organized to Educate.

Texas

Republican Wayne Christian cruised to reelection for a second six-year term on Texas’ Railroad Commission, defeating Democratic challenger Luke Warford. With 88% of the vote counted Wednesday morning, Christian had a lead of 55% to Warford’s 40%.

Christian currently serves as the chair of the RRC, the state agency that regulates the state’s massive oil and gas industry. He has said his top three priorities for his next term are to increase domestic production of oil and natural gas, fight what he calls “the Biden administration’s overreach” and secure U.S. energy independence.

The RRC and its history of lax oversight found itself the subject of legislative oversight in the aftermath of the February 2021 winter storm, when freezing temperatures cut into the state’s natural gas production. Warford sought to link the power grid’s failure to Christian’s leadership of the commission.

The agency recently enacted new rules to prevent natural gas producers from having power cut off during weather emergencies, which helped contribute to fuel shortages at power plants during the storm.

The GOP swept the statewide ballot, as it has since 1994. Dawn Buckingham (R) will become the first woman elected as land commissioner, beating back a challenge by Democratic conservationist Jay Kleberg, whose family owns the storied King Ranch. Kleberg said that accepting the reality of climate change would allow him to use the agency’s assets to respond to hurricanes and other natural disasters, food, energy and wildlife diversity problems.

Oklahoma

Republican Kim David was elected to replace term-limited Dana Murphy on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. She outpolled Warigia Margaret Bowman (D), who teaches energy law at the University of Tulsa, by a 63%-30% margin.

A real estate agent and property manager, David was term-limited as a state senator.

Murphy, a familiar presence on SPP’s Regional State Committee, fell victim to a state constitutional amendment in 2020 that limited commission members to two terms. Murphy was first elected in 2010. She ran for lieutenant governor in 2018.

Arizona

Republican candidates Kevin Thompson and Nick Myers have taken a slim lead in the race for two seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission. With about 66% of the ballots counted as of early Wednesday morning, Thompson and Myers have 26% and 25.9% of the vote, respectively. Sandra Kennedy (D), the only incumbent on the ballot, trails with 24.9%.

If Thompson and Myers hold on to their leads, it would increase the ACC’s Republican majority to 4-1, leaving Anna Tovar as the lone Democrat. She is up for re-election in 2024. A $460 million rate case from Arizona Public Service awaits the new commission.

Montana

Incumbent Randy Pinocci (R) won a second four-year term to the state’s Public Service Commission. He won 97% of the vote in an uncontested race, having beaten a Republican challenger during the primary. Pinocci will be unable to run again for eight years, under Montana state rules.

Ann Bukacek (Bukacek campaign) Content.jpgMontana PSC candidate Ann Bukacek | Bukacek campaign

Ann Bukacek (R) is leading the race to replace PSC vice chair Brad Johnson, who is term-limited. Bukacek leads Democrat John Repke, 55%-45%, with 26 of 102 precincts reporting full results.

Bukacek, a doctor, campaigned on preserving and expanding hydroelectric and coal-fired power, using the slogan “Let’s keep the lights on.”

North Dakota

North Dakota voters re-elected Public Service Commission Chair Julie Fedorchak (R) to another six-year term.

Fedorchak, past president of the Organization of MISO States, defeated Melanie Moniz (D) with 71% of the vote.

Sheri Haugen-Hoffart (R) won a special election to serve the remaining four years of a six-year term after being appointed to the PSC earlier.

She took 70% of the vote against Democratic challenger Trygve Hammer.

South Dakota

South Dakota Public Utilities Commission Chair Chris Nelson (R) was re-elected to a third three-year term, defeating challenger Jeff Barth (D), a 16-year member of the Minnehaha County Commission. Nelson, a two-time secretary of state before winning election to the PUC in 2010, won with 69% of the vote in the two-man race.

Nebraska

In Nebraska, Eric Kamler (R) and Kevin Stocker (R) won uncontested district seats for six-year terms on the Public Service Commission. Kamler defeated incumbent Rod Johnson and Stocker unseated vice chair Mary Ridder during the Republican primary in May. Kamler won 57% of the vote while Stocker took 43% in a three-way race.

Alabama

In Alabama, incumbent Public Service Commissioner Jeffrey Oden (R) beat Libertarian Ron Bishop 84% to 14%, while Republican Chris Beeker (R) defeated Libertarian Laura Lane by a similar margin.

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ERO Backs Latest FERC Cyber Incentives Proposal

NERC and the regional entities this week expressed support for FERC’s proposal to incentivize utilities for voluntary cybersecurity investments, while urging to commission to ensure that its final plan “build upon and complement the cybersecurity standards [already] in place” (RM22-19).

The ERO’s comments came Monday in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that the commission issued in September. FERC suggested a 200-basis-point incentive for expenses and capital investments that “materially improve” a utility’s cybersecurity posture and are not already required by NERC’s Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards or local, state or federal law. (See FERC Reluctantly Proposes Cybersecurity Incentives.) Expenses for participating in cybersecurity threat information-sharing programs would also be covered.

In their response, NERC and the REs did not “take a position on the necessity, amount, duration or type” of incentives that FERC might adopt to encourage cybersecurity investments. However, they praised the commission for “considering a variety of methods to encourage entities to … invest in cybersecurity,” noting that the security threat landscape continues to be “both unprecedented and ruthless.”

Among the list of pre-qualified expenditures that are eligible for incentives is the cost of participation in the Department of Energy’s Cybersecurity Risk Information Sharing Program (CRISP), through which the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center provides participants with information on emerging threat actors and attack vectors. The ERO said it was “pleased” at this inclusion, which could encourage stakeholders to participate in CRISP and thereby enhance its information-sharing capabilities.

In this vein, NERC and the REs suggested that the commission consider expanding the prequalified list further to include an operational technology (OT) visibility program begun by the E-ISAC in 2021. The ERO did not name the program, but it might refer to cybersecurity firm Dragos’ Neighborhood Keeper threat intelligence system, which provides data on threat analytics and indicators of compromise based on information gathered through a network of sensors in utilities’ industrial control systems and OT environments. (See E-ISAC Joins Dragos for Data Sharing Initiative.)

In their comments on this program, NERC and the REs focused on the cost of installing new sensors, pointing out their usefulness to understanding the threat landscape. They suggested that FERC add the costs of new sensors to the incentive plan, in light of the potential benefit of assisting small and medium-sized entities to join the program and increase visibility across the industry.

Suggestions for Improvement

The ERO did suggest there was room for refinement in the language regarding the relationship of NERC’s CIP standards to the cybersecurity investments that would qualify for FERC’s incentives. Specifically, NERC and the REs took issue with the commission’s mention of excluding technology- or threat information-sharing programs that are “already mandated by the [CIP] standards.”

The problem with this, according to the ERO, is that it misunderstands the nature of NERC’s reliability standards, which are designed to be technology neutral.

“CIP requirements do not prescribe a particular technological method, tool or approach to comply,” NERC and the REs said in their response. “The CIP … standards generally provide flexibility in how registered entities identify, categorize, protect and monitor applicable [bulk electric system] cyber systems; there is no one ‘mandated’ technology for compliance with CIP reliability standards. As such, an entity could use any number of approaches to comply with a particular requirement.”

The ERO observed that entities often use “multiple approaches and tools to comply with a single standard.” As a result, it may be hard for FERC and regulated utilities to determine whether a particular investment is “mandated” by the CIP standards and therefore eligible for incentives. To avoid confusion, respondents said FERC’s final rule should make clear whether its incentives are available for investments that “help an entity demonstrate compliance with” CIP standards, even if they are not explicitly mandated.

In addition, NERC and the REs reminded the commission that the CIP standards, like all NERC reliability standards, are subject to ongoing revision as the industry evolves, a process that includes input from industry stakeholders. They urged FERC to ensure that participants are not “discouraged from making necessary revisions to the … standards due to possibly losing the incentive prior to the expiration of the full term of the investments’ eligibility.”