EPA Proposes to Strengthen, Update Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for Coal-Fired Plants
April 11, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 11, 2023
The Environmental Protection Agency on April 5 proposed to strengthen and update the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for coal-fired power plants.
The agency released the pre-publication version of a proposed rule entitled “National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Coal- and Oil-Fired Electric Utility Steam Generating Units Review of the Residual Risk and Technology Review.”
There will be a 60-day public comment period starting from the date the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register.
EPA, earlier in 2023, reinstated the appropriate and necessary finding under the Clean Air Act Section 112. That rulemaking process restored the legal underpinning for the agency’s MATS of hazardous air pollutant emissions from coal-fired plants, finding that it remains appropriate and necessary to regulate HAP emissions from electric generating units after considering cost.
With the new proposed rule, the agency would require that applicable facilities comply with the following changes within three years after the effective date of a final rule:
- Reduce the emissions standard for filterable particulate matter from 0.03 lb/MMBtu (pounds per million British thermal units) to 0.01 lb/MMBtu;
- Require that owners and operators of existing coal-fired plants only use continuous emission monitoring system to demonstrate compliance with the fPM standards; and
- Lower the mercury emissions standard for plants that burn low rank virgin coal from 4 lb/TBtu (pounds per trillion British thermal units) to 1.2 lb/TBtu, the same standard for plants that do not burn low rank virgin coal.
EPA also proposes to eliminate the alternative definition of startup. EPA proposes to no longer define startup period as lasting four hours after a unit starts to generate electricity. This provision would go into effect 180 days after the effective date of a final rule.
However, EPA is not proposing any changes to the current hydrogen chloride limits for coal-fired units. The agency has also not proposed any new standards that would apply to oil-fired units or integrated gasification combined cycle units.
According to EPA, 91 percent of the existing coal-fired power plants already meet the newly proposed fPM emissions standard. The agency does not expect the remaining units to have to incur significant costs to meet the new standard.
The agency is soliciting comments on the possibility of introducing an even lower fPM emissions standard at 0.006 lb/MMBtu.
EPA estimates that the cost of compliance for the entire industry will range from $33 million to $38 million on an annualized basis. On the other hand, the proposed rule is expected to yield $300 million to $350 million in annualized value net benefits, which includes $170 million to $220 million in health benefits and $170 million in climate benefits. EPA projects that retail electricity prices would increase by an average of less than 0.1 percent in 2028, 2030, and 2035.
These proposed amendments result from the EPA’s review of the May 22, 2020, residual risk and technology review (RTR) of MATS. EPA is only proposing changes to the MATS standards based on the technology review provisions of the Clean Air Act. The agency is not proposing any changes to the emissions standards as part of the residual risk review.
EPA is planning to host a virtual public hearing and registration details will be made available on its website.
Jacksonville, Florida, City Council Resolution Critical of Legislation Aimed at Public Power
April 10, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 10, 2023
The City Council of Jacksonville, Fla., recently passed a resolution critical of legislation that would limit the ability of public power electric utilities to transfer revenues to cities’ general funds.
At issue are two bills, HB 1331 and SB 1380. The Florida Legislature’s current session began on March 7. Both bills as amended the afternoon of March 21 would take effect July 1, 2024, if signed into law by Florida’s governor.
On March 21, the Florida Municipal Electric Association said the legislation would substantially limit the ability of public power electric utilities to transfer revenues to cities’ general funds, which will inordinately affect rural, often economically distressed, communities that have a weaker tax base.
“Municipal utilities have constitutional authority to transfer revenue generated from assets owned and operated by the local government to the general government budget. These dollars are often used to provide residents with critical life and safety services, including police and fire departments,” said Amy Zubaly, Executive Director of FMEA.
Jacksonville City Council Resolution
A resolution passed by the Jacksonville City Council in late March notes that Jacksonville’s public power utility JEA makes an annual contribution to city’s general fund in support of general governmental functions and operations of the consolidated City of Jacksonville.
Those include public safety and emergency services, parks and recreation programming and services, library services, local services and programs designed to mitigate costs and utility disruptions to customers who are neighbors in Jacksonville, and other operational services and expenses that may be paid using general fund dollars.
The JEA contribution to the city’s general fund for fiscal year 2022-2023 totaled $122,424,496 and supported a multitude of programs and services, the resolution said.
The resolution states that the City Council strongly opposes and urges the Florida Legislature to defeat passage of House Bill 1331 and Senate Bill 1380 “which would, together or individually, provide for a not-to-exceed cap on the transfers of municipal 30 electric, natural gas, water, or wastewater revenues to a municipal general fund to finance general government functions.”
This action “would only serve to further hamstring a local government’s ability to effectively utilize its financial resources to provide the programs and services it deems most appropriate to meet the needs of its community,” the resolution states.
“Our community-owned system works well, with a local board appointed by City Council and the mayor. Our board does a great job for all of our customers throughout Northeast Florida, ensuring that we have reasonable rates now and lasting solutions for the future,” JEA said in an April 5 statement to Public Power Current in response to the resolution.
“We really appreciate the Jacksonville City Council and our local legislators who are pushing back on this legislation,” the utility said.
Several other cities in Florida have also passed resolutions in opposition to the legislation.
Western Area Power Administration Desert Southwest Region Joins Western Energy Imbalance Market
April 10, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 10, 2023
The Western Area Power Administration Desert Southwest region, Texas investor-owned utility El Paso Electric and AVANGRID on April 5 formally began participating in the California Independent System Operator’s Western Energy Imbalance Market.
WEIM now represents nearly 80% of the demand for electricity in the Western interconnection.
Click here for additional details on other WEIM members, which include a number of public power entities.
As the WEIM has continued to grow, CAISO has been moving toward the launch of the Extended Day-Ahead Market, an initiative that was jointly approved in February by the ISO Board of Governors and the WEIM Governing Body.
When it goes live, the EDAM will offer WEIM partners the opportunity to participate in the day-ahead market, where the majority of energy transactions occur and even greater benefits are expected.
New Report Says U.S. is on Track to Close Half of Coal-Fired Capacity by 2026
April 10, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 10, 2023
In 2026, half of the coal-fired generation capacity in the U.S. will have closed since it peaked in 2011, according to a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
This is now the earliest date for this milestone since IEEFA began closely tracking coal-plant retirements, and it has moved up despite high prices for natural gas and construction delays for renewables largely caused by pandemic-induced supply disruptions.
By another measure — actual electricity generation — the U.S. has cut coal use even faster, producing less than 50% of coal’s 2011 power level in both 2020 and 2022.
Based on current announcements from utilities, coal capacity will fall to 159 gigawatts by the end of 2026, down from 318 GW in 2011, IEEFA said.
With more than 80 GW of power plants set to stop using coal between 2023 and the end of 2030 — a figure that includes mostly closures, with a limited number of conversions from coal to gas — total coal-fired capacity will fall to just 116 GW by 2030.
“And actual coal use is likely to continue falling even faster, as aging units face higher operation and maintenance costs, and utilities increasingly favor the responsiveness of gas generation and battery storage to complement the variable output from solar and wind, both of which continue to be built at a rapid clip,” it said.
By the end of this decade, more than 200 GW of the 318 GW of peak coal-fired power will have been retired, based on current announcements. By then, coal consumption by the power sector could fall to just half of this year’s expected level, to about 200 million tons, IEEFA estimates.
Click here for the report.
House Members Urge DOE to Withdraw Conservation Standards Rule for Distribution Transformers
April 10, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 10, 2023
More than 60 House members on April 3 urged Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to withdraw the Department of Energy’s proposed rule to increase conservation standards for distribution transformers.
In December, DOE announced it was proposing new energy efficiency standards for distribution transformers.
Since 2021, electric utilities have been communicating their troubles with procurement of distribution transformers to DOE, the letter noted.
“The lead time for procurement of a distribution transformer can take 16 months or longer. This lead time is a significant problem for electric utilities seeking to bolster the reliability and resilience of the grid and other critical infrastructure, particularly against severe storms and other hazardous weather events,” the House members said in the letter.
“Furthermore, prolonged lead times and the lack of availability have made it difficult for utilities to provide transformers to homebuilders, city planners, and economic developers to get power to end users in new development areas,” the lawmakers said.
“There is no statutory requirement for DOE to issue an increase in efficiency standard. Despite this fact, DOE continues to push forward with a rulemaking that will only increase the energy efficiency of distribution transformers by a fraction of a percentage point,” they went on to say.
“The electric power industry is in no position to undertake this level of regulatory overhaul. Outputs fell far below the needs of the market before the proposed rule was noticed.”
A new efficiency regulation “that completely overhauls the manufacturing process will further exacerbate the significant delays in delivering distribution transformers. Until the industry receives the regulatory certainty it needs, the production backlog will only worsen,” the lawmakers said in urging Granholm to immediately withdraw the proposed rule.
Proposed Efficiency Standards for Distribution Transformers Would Worsen Shortages: APPA
The efficiency standards for distribution transformers proposed by DOE would worsen current distribution transformer supply shortages and, to the extent that they are even feasible, would impose significant costs on consumers, the American Public Power Association said.
The electric industry is currently experiencing a critical shortage of distribution transformers, “and the efficiency standards included in the NOPR would likely exacerbate a supply shortfall that has already reached crisis levels, threatening electric reliability, economic development, and the ongoing transition to lower-emitting generating resources,” APPA argued in its March 27 comments to DOE regarding the NOPR.
FEMA Approves First Phase of Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority Microgrid Project
April 10, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 10, 2023
The Federal Emergency Management Agency on March 29 approved the first phase of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s project to design a new solar-powered microgrid system for the island municipalities of Vieques and Culebra, located east of the main island.
The total cost of the project is nearly $97 million across two phases and will be fully funded by FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
The microgrid, which will be able to function independently from the main grid, includes a 12.5-megawatt solar-based system for Vieques and another 3-megawatt system for Culebra. The grids aim to increase power generation capabilities and leverage renewable energy through solar panels, making the project more sustainable, FEMA said.
The first phase of this project, which accounts for over $10.2 million of the total project cost, will consist of architectural and engineering design services, a geotechnical study and an electrical load assessment, among other preconstruction activities.
FEMA’s HMGP program provides funding to state, local, tribal and territorial governments so they can develop hazard mitigation plans and rebuild in a way that reduces, or mitigates, future disaster losses in their communities. Funds for projects under this program are obligated in phases as preliminary steps are completed that may lead to the approval of additional funding obligations.
Puerto Rico has access to roughly $4 billion in HMGP funding, the maximum allocated by Congress. To date, FEMA has allocated nearly $3 billion under this program in addition to over $29 billion under its Public Assistance program to help the island rebuild after Hurricane María.
CPS Energy President and CEO Rudy Garza Raises Supply Chain Concerns Tied to DERs
April 9, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 9, 2023
The growth in the development of technologies such as solar farms or battery storage will face some limitations due to supply chain constraints, Rudy Garza, President and CEO of San Antonio, Texas-based public power utility CPS Energy said on March 31.
He made his comments during a recent U.S. Energy Association briefing related to challenges facing distributed energy resources and virtual power plants.
“Whether it’s solar farms or battery storage or whatever the case might be, I think the growth in the development of these technologies will absolutely face some limitations from a supply chain standpoint because I don’t think our supply chain issues will go away for the next probably two to three years,” he said.
Garza noted that CPS Energy has been “talking about virtual power plants through our Save for Tomorrow energy plan, which is our energy efficiency and conservation program, for ten years.”
He noted that while VPP has become “a trendy topic across the country,” it is something “we’ve been involved in for quite some time now.”
Virtual power plants, generally considered a connected aggregation of distributed energy resource technologies, offer deeper integration of renewables and demand flexibility, the Department of Energy notes on its website.
“We know that we’ve got three hundred megawatts – give or take – of distributed energy resources in San Antonio right now. We know individually that they’re placed in locations where they’re not going to cause issues on our distribution grid,” Garza said. “But if that became three thousand megawatts, obviously we’d be in a much different situation.”
He noted that “we’re actually working with some technology partners to figure out how to model the distribution planning work that we have to do to really create that future energy bank that will exist as market signals are being sent, as rates are developed that monetize distributed resources in a way that looks like a central station.”
Garza added that “our operations centers will look much different because we’ll need screens that will show us where the solar is, where the batteries are, where the demand response is.”
In January, the Board of Trustees for CPS Energy voted to approve a generation planning portfolio that includes a blend of gas, solar, wind and energy storage.
Public Power Utilities Recognized by APPA for Reliability Efforts with Certificates of Excellence
April 5, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 5, 2023
The American Public Power Association has honored 219 public power utilities with a “Certificate of Excellence in Reliability” for reliable performance in 2022.
Utilities that are subscribers to APPA’s eReliability Tracker service are eligible to earn these certificates. To earn a certificate, a utility’s 2022 System Average Interruption Duration Index must fall in the top quartile of all utilities’ SAIDI numbers averaged from the past five years based on Energy Information Administration Form 861 survey data.
The certificates recognize utilities that have provided exceptionally reliable service and power to their communities.
“It’s encouraging to see year after year that public power’s track record for providing highly reliable service is backed up by data,” said APPA Director of Research and Development Paul Zummo. “These utilities are the best of the best when it comes to keeping the lights on. And these communities should be proud of their local power providers and appreciate the hard work that goes into earning this recognition.”
When looking at eReliability Tracker subscribers’ 2022 outage data, 91% of utilities that verified their 2022 outage data had a 2022 SAIDI that was below the average national SAIDI for 2017-2021 (according to EIA data). The data also includes investor-owned utilities and rural electric cooperatives.
This demonstrates that most public power utilities are above average in reliability when compared to all U.S. providers.
The list of winners is available at PublicPower.org.
Advanced Nuclear Reactors Could Add Jobs to Regions with Coal Retirements
April 5, 2023
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
April 5, 2023
Advanced nuclear technology, particularly small modular reactors, could bring a net increase in local jobs to communities hard hit by the retirement of coal plants, according to a report from the Bipartisan Policy Center.
According to the report, Can Advanced Nuclear Repower Coal Country?, the coal power plant industry lost 12 percent of its workforce between 2019 and 2022, and another one quarter of the nation’s coal plants are scheduled to retire by 2029. The report also noted that 77 percent of coal plant jobs are transferable to nuclear plants with no new workforce licensing requirements.
The report estimated there could be a net increase of more than 650 jobs in regions where small modular reactions replace retired coal plants. In addition, workers at nuclear plants earn higher wages compared with workers at coal plants, which could provide a boost to local tax revenues.
The report’s authors highlight that several recent developments lend support to a coal-to-nuclear transition, specifically the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s issuance of a final rule certifying NuScale Power’s small modular reactor design.
In addition, they noted the Inflation Reduction Act includes tax credits that make advanced nuclear projects and new energy investment in coal communities more attractive to investors, and the Fission for the Future Act, included in the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, authorizes $800 million to support coal-to-nuclear projects. And some states have overturned bans on new nuclear projects, including Montana, West Virginia, and Connecticut.
By design small modular reactors have many characteristics that make them well suited to replace coal plants, for instance, their modular design allows for flexible electrical output and gives them the ability to match the output of a retiring coal plant, the report’s authors said.
Using a retired coal site for an advanced nuclear plant also has cost advantages, the report said. Small modular reactors can reuse coal plant transmission infrastructure, reducing construction cost and avoiding some permitting challenges. A retired coal plant’s electrical equipment and steam-cycle components, as well as its transmission and administrative buildings, can be repurposed, cutting construction cost by 17 to 35 percent, the report said.
There are, however, challenges that would have to be overcome to accomplish a nuclear-to-coal transition, the report’s authors said. For instance, coal plant retirement and small modular reactor operation dates would have to be aligned for a smooth workforce transition and to prevent existing transmission and water infrastructure from being utilized by another project.
Cleveland Public Power Collaborating with Port of Cleveland on Modernization Project
April 5, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 5, 2023
Cleveland Public Power plans to collaborate with the Cleveland-Cuyahoga Port Authority on the port’s electrification and warehouse modernization project.
As the international gateway for cargo entering and exiting the region via maritime transport, the Port of Cleveland handles a diverse mix of cargo primarily imported from Europe. The cargo includes specialty breakbulk cargo, such as steel coil, tin plate, and various steel shapes/plate and other specialty cargo.
Modernization of this 67-year-old facility will bring the terminal’s Warehouse A to a state of good repair, continue the implementation of the Port Authority’s Stormwater Master Plan to improve the quality of stormwater discharging into Lake Erie, and make necessary electrification investments to prepare the Terminal for its next 50 years of operation, the public power utility said.
This is a multi-phase project and CPP “will play an integral role in making necessary power upgrades to electrical feeds coming into the Terminal and establish Warehouse A as the Port’s electrical distribution hub,” the utility said.
This hub will allow the Port to provide new electrical service to the locomotive storage area in Warehouse A and the newly constructed maintenance facility.
A critical sub-element of this project is to coordinate with CPP on the future power requirements of the Port Authority’s General Cargo Terminal, which projections indicate will substantially increase as portions of the Terminal’s operations are electrified.