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DOE Plans To Offer Funding Opportunities For Hydro R&D

August 23, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
August 23, 2022

The Department of Energy (DOE) recently issued a Notice of Intent (NOI) for three funding opportunities totaling $28 million to support research, development, and deployment of hydropower, including pumped storage hydropower.

DOE intends to issue funding opportunities aimed at supporting the testing of innovative technologies, development approaches, or construction techniques to reduce time, cost, or risks associated with hydropower and pumped storage hydropower development; conduct studies to further the development and deployment of a permitted pumped storage hydropower project; and seek stakeholder insights to inform hydropower research.

The DOE said the activities should support new hydropower technology deployment, continued pumped storage hydropower project development, and efforts to better understand challenges facing the industry to help achieve the nation’s clean energy goals.

The three proposed funding opportunities are:

The NOI doesn’t specify when the Funding Opportunity Announcements are likely to be released or when applications are due.

Hydropower currently accounts for 31.5 percent of U.S. renewable electricity generation, about 6.3 percent of total electricity generation, and 93 percent of utility scale energy storage comes from pumped storage hydropower, according to the DOE.

U.S. hydropower capacity could expand by nearly 50 percent by 2050, according to the DOE’s Hydropower Vision report.

Florida Public Power Utility OUC Helps To Promote Ocean Conservation And Marine Life

August 23, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 23, 2022

Nearly 400 tons of concrete will find a new purpose in helping to revitalize marine ecosystems off the coast of eastern Florida after public power utility Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) recently donated the material to the Starship II artificial reef project in partnership with the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) Florida, Building Conservation Trust (BCT), Shell Inc. and Volusia County, Fla.

OUC on Aug. 21 transported the concrete from its Indian River Plant in Brevard County to Volusia County via barge.  It was subsequently deployed alongside 25 tons of granite donated by Shell at Volusia County’s newly permitted reef site, located about 2.75 miles offshore of Lighthouse Point Park in Ponce Inlet. Together, the materials were sunk to create a new habitat and refuge for marine life.

Concrete for the reef came from the site of OUC’s St. Cloud Operations & Maintenance Center, which is currently under construction.

This is the second reef created with concrete from the construction site. In 2019, 400,000 pounds of concrete were repurposed as ballast in the sinking of a cargo ship off the coast of Fort Pierce, OUC’s first partnership in an artificial reef project.

In March 2022, OUC donated 50,000 pounds of precast underground utility junction boxes to St. Cloud Fire Rescue to be used in confined-spaces training.

In a few months, the reef will create a live-bottom habitat that will attract and sustain a wide variety of fish, shrimp and crab species for decades, OUC said.

APPA Urges Adoption Of More Narrowly Tailored Approach To Promoting Joint Transmission Ownership

August 23, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 23, 2022

While it is gratified that a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) includes an effort to promote joint transmission ownership arrangements, the American Public Power Association (APPA) wants FERC to adopt a more narrowly tailored conditional right of first refusal (ROFR) focused on promoting joint ownership opportunities for public power utilities and other load-serving entities (LSEs).

APPA made this and a series of other suggestions in Aug. 17 comments filed in response to the NOPR, which the Commission issued in April 2022.

BACKGROUND

The proposed reforms outlined by FERC in the NOPR are intended to remedy deficiencies in the Commission’s existing regional transmission planning and cost allocation requirements to ensure that Commission-jurisdictional rates remain just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory or preferential (Docket No. RM21-17).

The NOPR, which was issued pursuant to Section 206 of the Federal Power Act, builds on FERC Order Nos. 888, 890, and 1000, in which the Commission incrementally developed the requirements that govern regional transmission planning and cost allocation processes to ensure that Commission-jurisdictional rates remain just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory or preferential.

Of particular importance to many public power utilities, the NOPR seeks to promote joint ownership of transmission facilities by proposing to modify FERC Order No. 1000 to permit incumbent transmission owners to exercise a federal right of first refusal to build new transmission facilities selected in a regional transmission plan for purposes of cost allocation, conditioned on the incumbent transmission provider establishing joint ownership of those facilities.  Order No. 1000 directed public utility transmission providers to eliminate such ROFR provisions from FERC tariffs.

In late 2021, APPA urged the Commission to promote joint transmission ownership through the transmission planning process. APPA’s comments came in response to an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANOPR) issued by FERC in July 2021 to reform its transmission planning, cost allocation, and generator interconnection rules.

APPA COMMENTS

In its comments, APPA said it generally believes that the reforms proposed in the NOPR have the potential to improve the regional transmission planning process. 

APPA noted that the NOPR proposes to permit — but not require — the exercise of federal ROFRs “for transmission facilities selected in a regional transmission plan for purposes of cost allocation, conditioned on the incumbent transmission provider with the federal right of first refusal for such regional transmission facilities establishing joint ownership of the transmission facilities.”

APPA “is encouraged that the NOPR includes proposals to promote joint ownership and APPA appreciates the Commission’s efforts in this regard.”

While APPA had not suggested such a conditional ROFR mechanism to promote joint ownership, APPA believes that the conditional ROFR approach, with modifications outlined in the comments, “could effectively achieve the benefits described by the Commission and help ensure planning rules that are just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory or preferential.”

The elimination of federal ROFRs in Order No. 1000 was intended to promote competition among transmission developers for new projects, and APPA agreed that such competition can be an effective way to restrain transmission costs.  APPA argued, however, that it would be reasonable for FERC to allow a conditional federal ROFR for jointly owned facilities, provided the ROFR is more narrowly tailored to promote joint ownership opportunities for LSEs, including public power utilities.

This revised approach “would be designed to encourage certain joint ownership opportunities that are likely to provide the practical, economic, and public policy benefits that the Commission outlines in the NOPR (as well as other benefits), while avoiding unreasonable and discriminatory outcomes that could flow from the conditional ROFR as described in the proposed rule,” APPA said.

APPA argued that the broad conditional ROFR proposed in the NOPR is unlikely to provide the benefits described by the Commission in proposing to allow ROFRs on a conditional basis.

Under the NOPR’s proposed conditional ROFR framework, the only specific parameters for qualifying joint ownership arrangements would be that:

The Commission makes clear that qualifying joint ownership arrangements could include other incumbent transmission providers, APPA pointed out.

But such a broad approach to qualifying joint ownership arrangements is unlikely to produce the full range of benefits that the Commission describes in the NOPR, it said.

The criteria for qualifying joint ownership arrangements “are so expansive that there is no way to reasonably conclude that they would meaningfully promote the identified benefits,” APPA said.

Moreover, it is also reasonable to expect that one outcome of the Commission’s proposal, if adopted, would be proposed joint ownership arrangements between large, incumbent utility transmission owners, APPA argued. “Such structures are not likely to result in key benefits that the Commission posits would make the conditional ROFR just and reasonable.”

To address concerns that the NOPR’s proposal would not produce the benefits envisioned by the Commission, or would even prove detrimental, the Commission should adopt a more narrowly focused conditional ROFR approach limited to LSEs in the incumbent public utility transmission owner’s footprint, APPA said. 

“Specifically, this approach would be implemented by requiring incumbent public utility transmission owners wishing to invoke the conditional ROFR to offer joint ownership on reasonable terms, at a load ratio share level, to all unaffiliated LSEs in the incumbent transmission owner’s footprint.”

Qualifying LSEs would be those that fit within the definition of load-serving entity in section 217(a)(2) of the Federal Power Act, including public power joint action agencies, which historically have often participated in jointly-owned projects for their public power utility owners.

APPA did not propose to limit this approach to any particular form of joint ownership structure, and existing inclusive transmission-only companies and shared-system arrangements that include qualifying LSEs should also be eligible.

“It is likely that most of the non-affiliated LSEs located in the footprints of incumbent public utility transmission owners will be not-for-profit public power utilities and electric cooperatives,” the trade group said.

Joint ownership of regional transmission facilities by public power LSEs would provide numerous benefits, APPA argued, “including, but not limited to, the benefits discussed in the NOPR.”  These benefits would support a focused conditional ROFR limited to LSEs in the incumbent transmission owner’s footprint, it said.

Public power utilities have participated in jointly owned transmission arrangements for many years, APPA noted, “and these arrangements can provide practical, economic, and public policy benefits for all consumers in the region(s) where a regional transmission facility will be built. Indeed, the Commission has long recognized the benefits of joint ownership of transmission facilities between investor-owned utilities, public power (municipal and joint action agency) and electric cooperatives.”

Public power participation in joint ownership arrangements also provides economic benefits to the public power entities and their ratepayers that can, in turn, benefit the applicable region(s), it added.

Focusing the conditional ROFR on LSE joint ownership is consistent with the requirement in FPA section 217(b)(4) that the Commission exercise its authority “in a manner that facilitates the planning and expansion of transmission facilities to meet the reasonable needs of load-serving entities to satisfy the service obligations of load-serving entities,” APPA pointed out. “This approach provides the opportunities the Commission intends for joint ownership arrangements, but in a manner that will ensure the benefits of joint ownership are actually realized.”

The Commission should find that limiting the conditional ROFR to offering joint ownership opportunities to LSEs in the incumbent transmission owner’s footprint is just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory, APPA said.

APPA also weighed in on numerous other aspects of the NOPR including FERC’s proposal to require public utility transmission providers to implement a new long-term regional transmission planning process.  APPA agreed that such a long-term planning process may help identify cost-effective transmission solutions, but APPA urged the Commission to adopt a number of modifications and clarifications to the NOPR to ensure that any final rule is just and reasonable, not unduly discriminatory, and otherwise consistent with FERC’s statutory obligations.

New DOE Program Offers Cybersecurity Assistance To Public Power Utilities

August 21, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 21, 2022

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) recently launched the Rural and Municipal Utility Advanced Cybersecurity Grant and Technical Assistance Program.

The program will prioritize rural, municipal, and small investor-owned utilities that have limited cybersecurity resources, are critical to the reliability of the bulk-power system, and/or those that own defense critical electric infrastructure. 

CESER will develop the program in coordination with other government partners, leveraging the $250 million made available in Section 40124 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

On Aug. 18, CESER hosted the first in a series of listening sessions for eligible entities and other interested parties.

CESER will collect input from the listening sessions to create a comprehensive program plan that bolsters cybersecurity for eligible utilities based on the needs identified by session participants, DOE said.

A listening session scheduled for Sept. 29 will focus on the unique needs of electric municipal utilities and their key priorities.

Registration will open approximately two weeks before the listening session date. Additional details about this and other listening sessions are available here.

WAPA To Provide Hydropower To Kansas, Nebraska Municipalities

August 21, 2022

by APPA News
August 21, 2022

Eleven municipalities in Kansas and Nebraska and one military installation in Colorado have been approved to receive at-cost federal hydropower from Western Area Power Administration’s (WAPA) Loveland Area Projects starting Oct. 1, 2024.

 It is the largest addition of WAPA customers since the remarketing of Hoover Dam hydropower in 2017, WAPA said on Aug. 18.

Many of the new customers, like our current customers, are small rural entities. Having access to the affordable hydropower resource and transmission services can be a real benefit,” said WAPA Contracts and Energy Services Manager Parker Wicks.

The new customers join 124 existing entities who have renewed firm electric service contracts for Loveland Area Projects hydropower starting Oct. 1, 2024. Under those contracts, customers will receive allocations of energy from 20 federal Bureau of Reclamation hydroelectric facilities in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado for 30 years.

The new customers include nine Kansas municipalities, two Nebraska municipalities and a U.S. Space Force base:

Colorado

Buckley Space Force Base

Kansas

City of Alma

City of Blue Mound

City of Elwood

City of Luray

City of Montezuma

City of Morrill

City of Prescott

City of Robinson

City of Wathena

Nebraska

Village of Paxton

Village of Trenton

In total, the new customers will receive 11,302,438 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy in the summer season (April – September) and 9,106,151 kWh in the winter season (October – March). Each new customer will receive a proportional allocation based on their seasonal demand.

To begin receiving federal hydropower in October 2024, the new customers will need to sign a power contract by Dec. 31. Then, they will need to get transmission arrangements in place by summer 2024.

The opportunity to receive new allocations of hydropower arose from a scheduled resource pool under Loveland Area Projects’ current contract terms. The resource pool, which occurs every 10 years, withdraws up to 1% of the marketable hydropower resource from existing customers and makes it available to new customers through a public process.

Entities eligible to apply for new hydropower allocations must be a municipality, rural electric cooperative, irrigation district, public utility district, Native American Tribe or federal or state agency in the designated project area that does not currently receive a federal hydropower allocation. With the exception of Tribes, all entities must also be able to receive the power from WAPA through the power grid.

The next Loveland Area Projects resource pool is scheduled for 2034. The application process would begin 2-3 years before then and would be advertised in the Federal Register.

To learn more about this resource pool, visit the Loveland Area Projects 2025 Resource Pool webpage

DOE Report Provides Guidance On Energy Storage System Evaluations

August 21, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
August 21, 2022

A new report from the Department of Energy (DOE) provides guidance on how best to evaluate the potential of energy storage systems based on specific use-cases.

The report, Energy Storage Valuation: A Review of Use Cases and Modeling Tools, draws from publicly available tools developed by the DOE and frames their functions and capabilities in the context of three use-case “families.”

The three use-case families of the DOE’s Energy Storage Grand Challenge are:

The DOE report provides a methodology for stakeholders to determine which DOE modeling tool is best suited to value an energy storage system for a specific use-case.

“In addition to the need for cost and performance improvements for storage technologies, there is a need for robust valuation methods to enable effective policy, investment, business models, and resource planning,” the report’s authors wrote.

With respect to that goal, the report identified the high-level objectives for the report:

Argonne Lab Researchers Hope AI Can Lower Nuclear Plant Operating Costs

August 18, 2022

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
August 18, 2022

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are midway through a $1 million, three-year project to explore how artificial intelligence could lower the operating costs of nuclear power.

The premise of Argonne’s project to develop smart, computerized systems for nuclear plants is that their costs will have to come down if they are to play a role in the U.S. clean energy economy by providing large amounts of clean electricity.

Nuclear plants are expensive, in part, because they demand constant monitoring and maintenance to ensure consistent power flow and safety, according to the Argonne researchers. The expense of running nuclear plants has made it difficult for them to stay open, they said.

“Operation and maintenance costs are quite relevant for nuclear units, which currently require large site crews and extensive upkeep,” Roberto Ponciroli, a principal nuclear engineer at Argonne, said in a statement. “We think that autonomous operation can help to improve their profitability and also benefit the deployment of advanced reactor concepts.”

The project, funded by the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy’s Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies program, aims to create a computer architecture that could detect problems early and recommend appropriate actions to human operators.

“In a world where decisions are made according to data, it’s important to know that you can trust your data,” Ponciroli said. “Sensors, like any other component, can degrade. Knowing that your sensors are functioning is crucial.”

A typical nuclear plant has hundreds of sensors. The job of inspecting each sensor — and the performance of system components such as valves, pumps, heat exchangers — currently rests with staff who walk the plant floor. Instead, Argonne is exploring the potential for algorithms that could verify data by learning how a normal sensor functions and looking for anomalies. Once a sensor’s data is validated, an artificial intelligence system would then interpret signals from the sensor and recommend specific actions.

The technology could save the nuclear industry more than $500 million a year, Ponciroli and his colleagues estimate.

An artificial intelligence method called reinforcement learning replicates judgments humans make all the time by teaching the system to make decisions by evaluating potential outcomes.

At a nuclear plant, computers could detect problems and flag them to plant operators as early as possible, helping optimize controls and also avert more expensive repairs, as well as cutting back on maintenance on equipment that doesn’t need it, the Argonne researchers said.

In partnership with industry partners Argonne engineers have built a computer simulation, or “digital twin,” of an advanced nuclear reactor that can also be adapted to existing nuclear plants.

The Argonne team is validating its artificial intelligence concept on the simulated reactor and has completed systems to control and diagnose its virtual parts. The remainder of the project will focus on the system’s decision-making ability — what it does with the diagnostic data.

“The lower-level tasks that people do now can be handed off to algorithms,” Richard Vilim, an Argonne senior nuclear engineer, said in a statement. “We’re trying to elevate humans to a higher degree of situational awareness so that they are observers making decisions.”

SMUD Unveils New Managed Electric Vehicle Charging Pilot With Automakers

August 18, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 18, 2022

California public power utility SMUD on Aug. 15 announced a new managed electric vehicle (EV) charging pilot with BMW of North America, Ford and General Motors, which SMUD said will help EV customers align their charging needs to the time of day when it is most affordable.

Building on earlier EV incentives, SMUD is now working with the three automakers to test how it can help Sacramento-area customers charge their electric vehicles at times of day that promote optimal energy load management. The pilot program supports SMUD’s goal to eliminate carbon emissions from the power supply by 2030 and accelerates the use of renewable energy for more sustainable communities, the utility said.

Customers have already begun receiving communication from SMUD about the pilot and its potential financial, sustainability and grid-supporting benefits.

As part of the agreement, SMUD and participating automakers will allow for secure remote home charging management by conveniently integrating on-board communications and smart phone apps.

Automakers will create customized charge requests for EV owners to provide an ideal charging schedule which can help ensure that a customer’s vehicle is ready when they need it and is charging at optimal times, SMUD said.

Customers with EVs from participating automakers will receive incentives for enrolling, and quarterly incentives for participating in the pilot program.

The pilot program is one of several initiatives that SMUD is working on as part of its sustainability vision to support Sacramento’s goal of getting 75,000 zero emission vehicles on the road by 2025. Smart charging efforts will be an essential element of the state’s executive order to end sales of internal combustion passenger vehicles by 2035, it said.

Colorado Springs Utilities Becomes Active Participant In SPP Energy Imbalance Service Market

August 18, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 18, 2022

Public power utility Colorado Springs Utilities became an active participant in Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) Western Energy Imbalance Service (WEIS) market at midnight on Aug. 1, which took place after more than a year of preparation.

Colorado Springs Utilities joins eight other western utilities already participating in the market, with three others scheduled to join in April 2023: Xcel Energy-Colorado, Platte River Power Authority and Black Hills Colorado Electric LLC.

“Participation in the Western Energy Imbalance Service Market is a significant step in our pursuit of clean energy goals and sends a strong signal that we’re doing everything possible to secure a reliable electric grid and reduce energy-related costs for our customers,” said Colorado Springs Utilities CEO Aram Benyamin in a statement.

Colorado Springs Utilities is also part of an SPP-coordinated effort by several utilities to evaluate membership in the SPP regional transmission organization (RTO).

While SPP administers the WEIS market on a contract basis to nonmembers, it provides RTO members a suite of services including market administration, transmission planning, reliability coordination and more.

A 2021 SPP-Brattle study estimated the WEIS participants’ move to RTO membership would produce $49 million in benefits and those would grow with additional western members. The western utilities’ evaluation of membership is expected to conclude later this year, with the terms and start dates of interested parties’ membership agreements to be announced then.

SPP is also working with numerous interested parties to develop a service offering called Markets, which it said is “a bundle of services that could centralize day-ahead and real-time unit commitment and dispatch, provide hurdle-free transmission service across its footprint and pave the way for the reliable integration of a rapidly growing fleet of renewable generation.”

For utilities that see value in these services but are not ready to pursue full membership in a RTO at this time, Markets+ provides a voluntary, incremental opportunity to realize significant benefits, SPP said.

SPP is finalizing a proposed market design for this service and will publish it for interested parties’ consideration in fall 2022.

APPA Releases Guide For Public Power Utilities Interested In Community Solar

August 17, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 17, 2022

The American Public Power Association (APPA) recently released the Municipal Utility Community Solar Workbook, a free how-to guide for utilities interested in exploring community solar.

The workbook is a culmination of expert advice, resources, and best practices from the Municipal Utility Community Solar Working Group, the Department of Energy (DOE), and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

From identifying community interest to selecting an appropriate site, determining budgeting and pricing models, working with vendors, and enrolling customers in the program, this guidebook walks utilities through the processes, materials, and considerations for exploring community solar projects from a public power perspective.

Utilities can also review the additional considerations necessary for establishing community solar programs that reach or support customers with low to moderate incomes and prioritize equity.

The guide is available for download here.

DOE and APPA will be hosting a release webinar for the workbook on September 1 at 2:00 PM EDST. Register for the webinar at this link.