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New Report Sees Record Levels Of Wind and Solar Energy Additions In 2022

November 15, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 15, 2021

Record levels of wind and solar generation additions are expected to come online in 2022, according to a new report from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

“It’s going to be a record year for renewable energy development in the U.S. in 2022,” with 44 gigawatts (GW) of solar and 27 GW of wind power set to be installed alongside more than 8 GW of battery storage, said Richard Sansom, Head of Commodities Research at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The report said that the growth in wind, solar and storage will be facilitated by the creation of dedicated programs such as virtual power purchase agreements and green tariffs.

At the same time, early plant retirement costs due to the energy transition will present challenges for utilities and state regulators with 29 GW of coal retirements planned for 2020 through 2025.

The report also said that U.S. utility capital expenditures are expected to remain on the upswing, with investments in upgrading and modernizing the country’s aging energy and water infrastructure reaching $63 billion and utility renewables spending surpassing $14 billion in 2022.

The S&P Global Market Intelligence 2022 Electric, Natural Gas and Water Utilities Outlook Report is part of a “Big Picture Outlook” series published by the division’s research group that provides a look ahead of key strategic trends and opportunities.

APPA’s Ditto Appointed To Serve As A Member of Electrical Safety Group’s Board

November 15, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 15, 2021

The Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI) recently appointed Joy Ditto, President and CEO of the American Public Power Association (APPA), to serve as a member of its Board of Directors.

The directors comprising ESFI’s board are senior management representatives from a number of organizations dedicated to providing electrical safety information to the public, communities, and the workforce, ESFI noted.

ESFI is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting electrical safety at home and the workplace.

“The ubiquity and convenience of electric power is a modern marvel to be celebrated,” said Ditto. “And I am proud to represent the more than 2,000 public power utilities across this country that provide this essential service every day. But we must never forget that we are wielding a dangerous force that must be respected and used with care. This is why I care so much about the mission of ESFI and why I am honored to take on an enhanced role in its efforts to educate the public about electrical safety.”

The future programs created with APPA will allow ESFI to better serve public power utilities and their customers, ESFI noted.

ESFI’s goal is to create free-to-share materials that will help utility workers prevent electrical injuries while working around utility equipment, especially overhead power lines, and assist utilities in promoting safety to their customers while at home. As emerging technology evolves, future programs will be developed to address how customers can use technologies such as electric vehicles and solar panels safely, it said.

For a complete list of ESFI’s Board of Directors, visit esfi.org/board-of-directors.

Seattle City Light, National Labs Studying Hydrogen’s Potential As A Truck Fuel

November 15, 2021

by APPA News
November 15, 2021

Seattle City Light, in partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and Sandia National Laboratories, is embarking on studies to explore the potential of using hydrogen instead of fossil fuels for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.

The studies are being supported by awards totaling $2.12 million from the Department of Energy, and they are designed to help Seattle City Light and the Port of Seattle to meet their emission reduction goals. Partners in the studies also includes The Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA) and PACCAR/Kenworth.

The City of Seattle has set a goal of reducing total core greenhouse gas emissions 58 percent by 2030 and becoming carbon dioxide neutral by 2050.

One of the studies, Analytic Framework for Optimal Sizing of Hydrogen Fueling Stations for Heavy Duty Vehicles at Ports, will explore the potential of shifting from fossil fuel to clean hydrogen as fuel to power medium-and heavy-duty vehicles, including heavy equipment such as forklifts, drayage trucks and cranes.

The study will also look at the potential to scale up the technology if demand for hydrogen increases, including the potential to use the energy stored as hydrogen to power cruise or cargo ships while they’re being loaded and unloaded.

That study is funded with a $1.35 million award from the Department of Energy (DOE), and $150,000 from Seattle City Light.

The second study, Large-scale Hydrogen Storage – Risk Assessment, Seattle City Light and the Port of Seattle will assess the risks and benefits associated with scaling hydrogen produced using renewable resource to a level large enough to serve multiple maritime-related and utility uses.

At that scale, hydrogen could potentially be used for propulsion for tugboats, commercial fishing vessels and passenger ferries and to accommodate a significant portion of drayage trucks and cargo handling equipment serving the port. The research will also look at the requirements of using clean hydrogen as a fuel for larger ships.

The second study is being funded with a $770,000 award from the DOE, $185,000 from Seattle City Light, and $145,000 from the Port of Seattle.

The project partners are projecting a two-year timeframe to produce the final project recommendations.

“It is more important than ever for Seattle City Light to collaborate with our customers who want to confront the climate crisis by decarbonizing their operations,” Debra Smith, City Light’s general manager and CEO, said in a statement. “We are excited to partner with these agencies to implement a cleaner future for our customers at the port and our region as a whole.”

Several public power utilities across the country are exploring the emissions reduction potential of hydrogen fuel, including New York Power Authority, OUC in Florida, and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

In the Pacific Northwest, Douglas County Public Utility District is working under a $1.9 million grant to demonstrate the first hydrogen fueling station for fuel cell electric vehicles in Washington state. And the Eugene Water and Electric Board in Oregon is developing a renewable hydrogen production facility.

LIPA And PSEG Long Island Reach Agreement On New Reformed Contract

November 10, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 10, 2021

The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) on Nov. 9 announced a revised management services contract and settlement with PSEG Long Island that LIPA said includes reforms designed to drive performance and accountability, while providing an unprecedented level of oversight of PSEG Long Island’s operations.

The new contract, which meets all of the terms tentatively agreed to by the parties in June, “will support customers on Long Island and the Rockaways in receiving top-tier performance, reliability, and customer service,” LIPA said.

“Today’s announcement includes all of the reforms LIPA demanded after Tropical Storm Isaias to increase oversight and accountability and put our customers’ interests at the forefront of PSEG Long Island’s operations. This contract is the strongest in LIPA’s history and represents a real win for LIPA’s customers,” said LIPA CEO Tom Falcone.

The new reformed contract includes the following elements:

Top-tier Performance for Customers

 Unprecedented Oversight Protections for LIPA and DPS 

PSEG Long Island Forfeits $30 Million for Tropical Storm Isaias Failures

The settlement also resolves pending litigation related to PSEG Long Island’s management failures during Tropical Storm Isaias and includes $30 million in payments and credits towards the cost of upgrading the information technology and communication systems, reimbursements to customers for food and medicine spoilage, and contributions to Long Island-based charities. 

The LIPA Board of Trustees will accept virtual public comments on the revised contract and settlement at LIPA’s November 17 and December 15 Board meetings. LIPA has scheduled an additional public comment session for the evening of December 2. 

The LIPA Board is expected to consider the contract and settlement at LIPA’s December 15, 2021 Board meeting.

If approved, the reformed contract will subject to review and approval by the New York State Attorney General and Comptroller prior to the terms taking effect.

EPA Releases Proposed Rule That Would Limit Methane Emissions

November 10, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 10, 2021

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Nov. 2 released a proposed rule that would limit emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas, from facilities in the oil and gas sector. 

The proposed regulations would reach hundreds of thousands of new and, for the first time, existing facilities in the production, gathering, processing, and transmission and storage segments. 

The proposed rule is an exercise of the EPA’s authority under Section 111(b) of the Clean Air Act to establish New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for new and modified stationary sources of air pollutants and Emission Guidelines for existing sources under Section 111(d). 

The Biden administration is including the EPA proposal within a multi-agency plan to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas production on federal lands and waters; abandoned coal mines; landfills; and agriculture.

The EPA says it intends to issue a supplemental proposal next year that will include proposed regulatory text and potential further modifications based on public input. 

The proposal therefore seeks information on additional measures, including for abandoned and unplugged wells, flares, pipeline “pigging” operations, and tank truck loading operations. 

The EPA is also seeking ideas on how to empower communities neighboring oil and gas facilities to monitor and report large emission events.

Notably, this proposed rule reverses EPA’s prior interpretation of Section 111(d).  In the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, EPA argued that Section 111(d) provided the authority for EPA to establish nationwide carbon dioxide (CO2) rates for existing fossil fuel sources.

In the proposed rule, EPA instead adopts the position that Section 111(d) only authorizes EPA to develop regulatory guidelines in the form of the Best System of Emission Reduction (BSER) for states to follow in setting emissions standards for existing sources within each state. This precedent will be important as the agency moves forward on future new CO2 rules for fossil fuel-fired generation. 

The Biden administration released its multi-agency plan in connection with a “Global Methane Pledge” announced at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, in Scotland.

Over 100 signatory nations to the pledge have agreed to a collective goal of reducing methane emissions across all sectors by 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030.

The EPA projects that, by 2030, its proposed oil and gas sector rule would reduce methane emissions from covered facilities by 74 percent relative to their emissions in 2005. 

EPA further estimates that the proposed rule would reduce a total of 41 million tons of methane emissions by 2035, the equivalent of 920 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.  This amount exceeds the total carbon dioxide emitted from all U.S. passenger cars and commercial aircraft in 2019.

The EPA is seeking comment on the proposal. Comments will be due 60 days after publication of the proposal in the Federal Register. The EPA also will hold a public hearing 15 days after publication.

In 2016, the Obama Administration EPA promulgated an NSPS rule addressing methane emissions from new, modified, and reconstructed facilities in the oil and gas sector. 

In 2020, EPA rescinded the 2016 NSPS regulations, replacing them with a non-methane program that had the effect of foreclosing future methane limits for existing facilities. 

In 2021, Congress passed a Congressional Review Act resolution disapproving the rescission, thereby reinstating the 2016 methane NSPS for new facilities and reopening the door to eventual regulation of existing facilities.

 

SRP Adds Another Tool In Efforts To Manage Its Water Supplies

November 10, 2021

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
November 10, 2021

Salt River Project (SRP) has teamed up with OpenET in its latest step in managing the forest resources that impact the watershed serving its utility water customers.

In October SRP formed a partnership with OpenET, a public-private partnership led by the Environmental Defense Fund, NASA, Desert Research Institute, and HabitatSeven.

OpenET provides an online platform that uses satellites to assess the evapotranspiration (ET) that occurs when water returns to the atmosphere through evaporation and transpiration, the water vapor given up by plants.

Having data available on how much evaporation is occurring gives SRP a greater understanding of the water budget and of how much water is turning into vapor and being transferred out of its system, Elvy Barton, forest management principal at SRP, said.

Evapotranspiration is an important consideration for SRP since the Arizona public power utility’s territory is largely a desert. When water remains in SRP’s territory it makes the landscape more resilient to droughts and wildfires. SRP operates seven reservoirs and dams that delivers water to 2 million customers.

There is also a correlation between evapotranspiration and unhealthy forests. Much of SRP’s water supply comes from 8.3 million acres of land in northern and central Arizona that is heavily forested. A lot of those forests are unhealthy, populated by either too many or stunted trees, making the forest vulnerable to wildfires, Barton said.

SRP first began to realize the scope of the problem in 2002, after the Rodeo-Chediski Fire burned a large swath of east-central Arizona. It was the worst fire in Arizona’s recorded history until the Wallow Fire surpassed it, burning over half a million acres in 2011.

In the wake of a wildfire, the land cannot absorb as much rainfall, creating the potential for dangerous floods and mudslides that can add silt and debris to streams and reservoirs that can impair water quality and add to water management costs.

SRP has been involved in forest restoration efforts for about a decade but stepped up its efforts in the past few years because of the growth of mega fires, which consume over 100,000 acres.

In 2019, SRP updated its sustainability goals to include forest restoration and adding a goal of partnering on thinning 50,000 acres of forest per year and 500,000 acres by 2035.

SRP is also working on the Cragin Watershed Protection Project, which allows the U.S. Forest Service to move forward with prescribed burns and forest thinning across the watershed. SRP is also participating in the Healthy Forest Initiative that allows its residential customers to invest $3 a month towards strategic forest thinning projects.

SRP has also invested in projects such as a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) research efforts in partnership with Northern Arizona University that provides real-time visual watershed condition and forest data. It is like a census for trees that can focus on individual trees and help identify the best candidates for thinning, Barton said.

SRP has now added OpenET to its toolbox. The utility plans to use the OpenET data to help understand three things: how evapotranspiration is affected by wildfires, how prescribed controlled burns affect evapotranspiration, and what effect forest thinning has on evapotranspiration.

“Having a healthy watershed benefits everyone,” Barton said, adding, “being proactive is far less costly than being reactive.”

Citizen Potawatomi Nation Electrical Director Reflects on Heritage, Community Growth

November 9, 2021

This story, to help commemorate National Native American Heritage Month, is courtesy of Justin David Whitecotton, Electrical Director, Citizen Potawatomi Nation (CPN) – Oklahoma.

I grew up in Shawnee, OK, the oldest child of David and Margie Whitecotton.  I began working with my father and uncle’s electrical business, Cotton Electric, when I was 10.  I enjoyed getting to work with my family and learning the ins and outs of the electrical trade.  As a young man I continued to hone my craft working in the electrical industry in Seattle, WA, the Tulsa metro area, then finally returning to Shawnee where I currently serve as Electrical director for CPN. 

From a young age, I spent time every summer with my grandparents Janet and Bill Whitecotton.  I loved hearing my grandma share about her childhood and experiences growing up in the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.  She would share stories about her family and heritage and the struggles she had growing up in a predominantly white school.  My grandma always taught me to be proud of my Indian heritage and to honor my ancestors.  Growing up in Shawnee, some of my favorite memories include attending the annual Citizen Potawatomi Nation festival.  It was an opportunity to highlight and celebrate our culture and to spend time with all our tribal family. I always loved history and spent a great deal of time learning about the history of our world and country.  Although our people have experienced great loss and hardship, the bravery and leadership of our elders as well as the unity of our tribal families, allow us to grow and prosper. 

Since working for CPN, I have been most proud of all the support we provide not only for our CPN citizens, but also to all our surrounding communities.  We have built facilities that allow safe places for all our community citizens to enjoy.  We have provided our citizens opportunities to easily receive COVID vaccines, we install generators and power restoration during storms and are always willing to be on site and ready to help whenever there are any issues. 

“Public Power.”

As an electrician I see this and immediately think of all the work we have been doing through the years working with neighboring cities and the [Grand River Dam Authority] to create an electrical grid that will support not just our citizens, but the entire state.  We believe in efficiency, and in my time with the tribe have found ways to utilize clean energy.  We will always need electricity and understand, we must continue to seek out renewable sources to protect our earth.  Our continued partnerships with other electrical utilities will not only be good for our citizens, but ultimately our environment. 

My advice for young people is to get educated. Whether it’s at a university, vocational school or job training, learning a trade can provide a fulfilling career.

Citizen Potawatomi Nation: Our Heritage, Our Future

The story of the Potawatomi stretches back to times lost to history, beginning on the East Coast of what is now North America. By the time Europeans arrived, the Great Migration of prophecy was complete and the tribes were living around the Great Lakes, with a social structure that included a strong communal lifestyle.

Early European contact brought fur trade and a short-lived time of prosperity for the Potawatomi people. The first account of the Potawatomi people was by Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer traveling the Great Lakes in 1615.

Years of warfare between colonizers further escalated tensions between the tribes of the Great Lakes, their Indian neighbors and settlers, because European colonial forces pressured native communities to choose sides. The Potawatomi were signatories to more treaties with the United States than any other tribe. Despite signing more than 40 treaties during this time, the period between 1700 and 1900 was a time of conflict and removal for the Potawatomi people. Between war and forced removal these years were a dark time for Potawatomi people and culture.

The scattered Potawatomi settlements were consolidated onto one reservation in northeast Kansas as a result of an 1846 treaty. From 1847 to 1861 the Potawatomi in Kansas managed to survive as a people, but they did not thrive. Tribal members largely adapted to a sedentary lifestyle, but they did not assimilate to the degree desired by the federal government.

On Nov. 15, 1861, eight designated “chiefs” and more than 70 other members of the Potawatomi Nation met with federal agents to sign a treaty that would forever alter their community’s relationship with other Potawatomi and the U.S. government. The 1861 treaty initiated the process for acquiring fee-simple land allotments and U.S. citizenship for almost two-thirds of its members. This group, which became known as the Citizen Potawatomi, was among the first tribes to enter into a treaty agreement that included both conditions.

The provisions for the Citizen Potawatomi’s move to Indian Territory were stipulated in a treaty signed on February 27, 1867. In 1869, a party of Citizen Potawatomi traveled to Indian Territory and selected a tract of land that became the site of the Citizen Potawatomi reservation. They chose a section of land that encompassed 576,000 acres between the north and south forks of the Canadian River. The land lay just west of the Seminole reservation and had an eastern boundary at the Indian Meridian. The earliest families to make the journey to their new reserve arrived in Indian Territory in 1872.

On August 16, 2007, the voters of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation overwhelmingly ratified a new constitution, expanding legislative representation to its approximately 20,000 members outside Oklahoma, where 10,000 Citizen Potawatomi live. Since then, CPN’s Nation operates the business of the tribal government on through a clear division of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

APPA Awarded Grant From OSHA For Fall Prevention Awareness Training

November 9, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 9, 2021

The American Public Power Association (APPA) was recently awarded a grant of $160,000 from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Susan Harwood Training Grant Program. 

OSHA awards grants to nonprofit organizations on a competitive basis through its Susan Harwood Training Grant Program.

Grants are awarded to provide training and education programs for employers and workers on the recognition, avoidance, and prevention of safety and health hazards in their workplaces and to inform workers of their rights and employers of their responsibilities under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. 

APPA intends to use the grant award to develop training materials to create two-hour fall prevention awareness training for organizations that train public power utility lineworkers and lineworkers themselves.

APPA noted that public power lineworkers have one of the most dangerous jobs in America and are susceptible to falls that can result in serious and catastrophic injuries.  

The APPA fall prevention awareness training for public power utility workers will serve to protect its members from the inherent risks related to falls from elevated surfaces and/or equipment. 

The training and associated materials will be provided in both English and Spanish.  Program funding will be for a 12-month period, ending on September 30, 2022. 

Public power utilities that are interested in receiving training, or would like to participate as a trainer, should send an email to: safety@publicpower.org.

Seattle City Light To Work On Project Focused On Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings

November 9, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 9, 2021

Washington State public power utility Seattle City Light will work with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the utility’s affordable housing provider partner, Community Roots Housing, to transform multifamily buildings in multifamily disadvantaged communities into grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) with funding provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Background

In October 2021, the DOE awarded $61 million from its Connected Communities funding opportunity announcement for 10 projects that will demonstrate how energy efficient and grid-interactive technologies can transform homes and workplaces into connected communities.

DOE notes that America’s 129 million buildings use 40% of the nation’s energy and 75% of its electricity, which contributes to 35% of the nation’s annual carbon emissions.

As renewable power joins the grid at a record pace and buildings become more energy efficient, those emissions fall, but the variability of renewable power requires grid operators to employ new approaches to manage balancing electricity demand with variable renewable supply, DOE said.

It said that connected communities of grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) integrate with distributed energy resources and leverage the greatest advancements in digital communications and building science by using smart controls, sensors, and analytics to “talk” to the grid, one another, and almost everything else that plugs into them.

Through advanced analytics, the comfort and needs of building occupants can be optimized while supporting grid needs so the amount of energy buildings require during the costliest periods of peak energy demand is reduced. This lowers utility bills and reduces grid system costs, DOE said.

Seattle City Light Will Work With EPRI, Affordable Housing Partner

Seattle City Light will be working with EPRI and its affordable housing provider partner, Community Roots Housing, to select buildings for the Connected Community demonstration. 

A variety of filters will be used in the selection process including building type, ownership, occupancy, housing-provider priorities, local grid and service characteristics, and others, noted Nathan MacDonald, senior public relations specialist at the Washington State public power utility.

“Internally we will be working with our Utility Technology, IT/OT, operations and planning staff to select an appropriate platform to use for DER interconnection and to determine use cases that we want to test.  We will also be coordinating with our program delivery staff for customer outreach and to provide incentives for eligible efficiency upgrades.” 

The first demonstration building will be operational by 2023, the second year of the grant. Performance data will be gathered and used in an energy model to determine the grid impact/benefit if the retrofit package were to be scaled across Seattle City Light’s service area. Based on these results, additional buildings will be selected for retrofit and final measurements and data will be collected to determine impact on the grid as well as the customer. “We will use the information collected and the evaluation results to develop future customer-facing utility programs as well as design of workforce development training, customer education and tech transfer,” MacDonald said.

“This will be a very holistic effort involving virtually all parts of the utility,” he said.

Next Steps

“Our very first next steps are to coordinate with EPRI and Community Roots Housing, the affordable housing provider associated with this proposal, to jointly determine the most appropriate buildings for the demonstration, both in terms of benefits to the occupants, the building owner and to the utility,” MacDonald noted. “The next level of benefit would be the learnings we can obtain for the buildings and selected technologies.”

Seattle City Light is also organizing internally to build a robust team to support this project in all the aspects, including customer support, cybersecurity, operations, planning, program design, data science and more. “A solid, engaged team is necessary for successfully completing this project and so far, everyone is excited to be part of this effort,” he noted.

The DOE grant has a five-year timeline, so the work will be completed by then. “However, we expect the first demonstration building to be operational by 2023, and further retrofits by 2025.”

In the early stages of the pandemic, Seattle City Light worked with Pacific Northwest National Labs and “embarked on an exercise we termed ‘Utility Next’ to develop 30% concept proposals in a wide range of topic areas to prepare for Federal and State stimulus money that could potentially be released to aid in economic recovery from the pandemic,” MacDonald noted. 

These topics ranged from EV charging to large scale solar, mobile power and fleet and building electrification.  Non-wires solutions and grid-interactive buildings was one of the topics included in this exercise and provided a solid base and head when the DOE Connected Communities grant was announced.  

“We were able to build on the work and thought process accomplished during the Utility Next program to start developing proposals for the grant application. Even prior to this Utility Next effort City Light has been interested in and worked with regional leaders to explore load-flexibility and grid-interactivity to most efficiently utilize grid assets as buildings and transportation are electrified,” MacDonald said.

Seattle City Light participated as an active stakeholder and partner in five separate proposals that were submitted for the DOE Connected Communities grant. “All the proposals were great projects and we would have been happy for any of them to win. That said, we are delighted to be working with EPRI on this proposal that prioritizes benefiting low-income housing and reducing the energy burden for disadvantaged populations, while also helping the utility explore non-wires solutions that can keep the cost of power low for all of our customers.”

Details on the other connected communities projects that received DOE funding are available here.

Fayetteville PWC Completes $94 Million Bond Issuance, Secures Historic Low Interest Rate

November 9, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 9, 2021

The Fayetteville Public Works Commission (PWC) in North Carolina has issued $94.79 million of revenue bonds at an interest rate of 2.278%, the lowest rate ever achieved by PWC outside of state lending. 

Citigroup Global Markets Inc. was the successful purchaser of the bond series and the PWC funding closed on November 4, 2021, PWC reported on Nov. 5. 

PWC issued its Series 2021 Bonds to fund improvements to its electric, water and wastewater utilities, including $22 million to fund continued work to retrofit utilities in the City of Fayetteville’s Phase V annexation area.

“The low cost of borrowing helps PWC maintain highly-reliable utility services and demonstrates the strength of Fayetteville’s utility system and its management,” said PWC CEO and General Manager Elaina Ball in a statement. “When we can fund continued system improvements through low-cost borrowing, it ensures we can continue to provide reliable utility services while also managing our customers’ costs.“

The bonds represent PWC’s continued investment in its electric, water and wastewater systems to support growth, reliability, water quality and compliance, Ball noted. “The investment continues to address PWC’s multi-year plan of rehabilitation and replacement of aging infrastructure to ensure safe and reliable services for our 118,000 customers,” she said.

Overall, $90 million of the bond funding is dedicated to PWC’s water and wastewater system. 

PWC will use $48 million to replace, upgrade and rehabilitate system mains, manholes and lift stations throughout its more than 2,500 miles of water and sanitary sewer system.  

Over $10 million will fund back up generation at PWC’s water and wastewater treatment facilities for storm readiness. Backup generators have been critical when hurricanes caused extended power outages and flooding. PWC’s Rockfish Water Reclamation facility will receive $8.2 million to fund plant improvements and expansion plans in support of community growth, it noted.

The PWC Electric system will use over $7 million of the bond funds to replace one of PWC’s 30 electric substations and fund the expansion of PWC’s battery storage system at its community solar farm by 1.5 megawatts. 

“PWC received favorable bond ratings by all three rating agencies which underpins our credit-worthiness and keeps our cost of capital low,” said Ball.   

“Utilities required a substantial amount of capital to keep up with growth, replace aging infrastructure and maintain the reliability of their systems. Having such a low cost of borrowing is a key benefit of being a publicly owned utility and helps manage bill affordability for our community,” she noted.

Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) and Fitch Rating agencies all affirmed PWC’s AA stable financial ratings during the bond issuance process. 

Moody’s assigned PWC an Aa2 rating in a statement that noted PWC’s financial position will remain sound given its long-standing history of conservative budgetary practices and asset management.

Fitch Ratings assigned and affirmed PWC’s “AA” rating based on PWC’s very strong financial performance characterized by very low leverage, strong operating cash flow and healthy liquidity.

S&P assigned PWC its “AA” long-term rating stating key factors supporting the ratings include PWC’s deep and diverse service area, credit supportive policies and robust financial metrics. 

S&P said PWC has “a very strong operational and management assessment, highlighted by an experienced a sophisticated management team engaged in credit-supportive planning and in adopting a robust set of financial policies and reserves. “

PWC noted that the bond issuance process required significant resources working collaboratively over a well-designed and managed schedule spanning four months.