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Department of Energy Sets Goal To Cut Cost Of Grid-Scale, Long Duration Storage By 90%

July 14, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
July 14, 2021

U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm on July 14 announced the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s new goal to reduce the cost of grid-scale, long duration energy storage by 90% within the decade.

Long duration energy storage is defined as systems that can store energy for more than 10 hours at a time.

This marks the second target within DOE’s Energy Earthshot Initiative, which aims to accelerate breakthroughs of more abundant, affordable, and reliable clean energy solutions within the decade. Under the first Eearthshot Initiative, DOE launched an effort to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by 80% to $1 per kilogram in one decade.

The Long Duration Storage Shot will consider all types of technologies, whether electrochemical, mechanical, thermal, chemical carriers, or any combination that has the potential to meet the necessary duration and cost targets for grid flexibility.

Currently, pumped-storage hydropower is the largest source of long duration energy storage on the grid, and lithium ion is the primary source of new energy storage technology deployed on the grid in the United States, providing shorter duration storage capabilities, DOE noted.

DOE said it developed the Long Duration Storage Shot target through its Energy Storage Grand Challenge (ESGC) and stakeholder engagement activities and input from subject matter experts, and will continue concerted outreach to advance the Long Duration Storage Shot and ESGC’s aggressive goals and strategy.

ESGC and the Long Duration Shortage Shot are linked with integrated efforts across the Department’s Offices of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Electricity, Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, Science, Nuclear Energy, and Technology Transitions, as well as the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy.

Maine Governor Vetoes Bill That Would Create Consumer-Owned Utility

July 14, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
July 14, 2021

Maine Gov. Janet Mills on July 13 vetoed a bill that called for the creation of a consumer-owned utility in the state called Pine Tree Power.

The consumer-owned entity that would be created under the bill would take over the electric service now provided by investor-owned Central Maine Power (CMP) and Versant Power. CMP and Versant Power (formerly known as Emera Maine), are majority owned by Iberdrola of Spain and Emera of Canada, respectively.

The bill called for placing the question of consumer ownership of Maine’s grid on the ballot in November 2021.

Unless the Legislature is able to override the governor’s veto by two-thirds supermajorities in both the House and the Senate, the question of consumer ownership of Maine’s two investor-owned utilities, CMP and Versant, will not be on this year’s ballot.

The Legislature will reconvene on July 19 to vote on the veto, and on all other vetoes Mills has issued since July 1.

In her veto message, the governor said the performance of the state’s investor-owned utilities in recent years “has been abysmal,” citing “inexcusable billing errors, unacceptable delays in restoration of service, inexplicable confusion over the costs of connecting new solar projects to the grid, substantial rate increases, and now a draft audit report that questions Central Maine Power’s management structure.”

The Maine Public Utilities Commission on July 13 received the results of an independent audit of the management structure of CMP and its affiliated service companies, Avangrid Management Company and Avangrid Services Company. The Commission ordered the audit in January 2020 at the conclusion of an investigation into CMP’s rates.

Mills said that it “may well be that the time has come for the people of the State of Maine to retake control over the [utilities’] assets,” but she raised several outstanding concerns about the substance of the bill.

The Maine Legislature on June 30 voted in favor of the bill, casting a bipartisan 77-68 vote in the House to attach an amendment to the bill that they supported two weeks ago. The Maine Senate voted 18-15 to support the new package.

An amendment introduced June 30 revised the bill to require the Pine Tree Power Company to pay property taxes directly to Maine municipalities, while maintaining its nonprofit status. This replaced previous bill language requiring payments in lieu of taxes.

Maine Rep. Seth Berry, sponsor of L.D. 1708, said the amendment spoke directly to the top two concerns of Mills, and concerns voiced by some municipal leaders. “We are pleased that the revised language won back the support needed to send this to Governor Mills, and hope to win her support for our effort as well,” he said in a statement.

Berry discussed the legislation in a recent episode of the American Public Power Association’s Public Power Now podcast.

Stephanie Clifford, campaign manager for Our Power, a group that supports the creation of a consumer-owned utility in the state, previously said that if Mills vetoed the bill, “we will continue our campaign through a citizens’ initiative.”

She said that petition gathering on such a citizen-initiated referendum would begin this summer and would likely put the question on the ballot in November 2022, the same day that Mills and all legislators are up for re-election.

After the news broke that Mills had vetoed the bill, Our Power tweeted that “we’ll take the proposal to replace CMP/Versant with Maine’s own consumer-owned utility directly to the voters.”

APPA Seeks Nominations For Two Openings On Smart Energy Provider Review Panel

July 14, 2021

by APPA News
July 14, 2021

The American Public Power Association (APPA) is accepting nominations through Monday, August 9, 2021 for two open positions on the Smart Energy Provider (SEP) Program Review Panel. 

The SEP program is public power’s evaluation and review of leading practices for utilities based on four criteria: smart energy program planning, energy efficiency and distributed energy resources, environmental and sustainability programs, and customer communication and education.

The SEP Review Panel guides APPA staff in the implementation of the SEP program and provides expert peer review of public power utilities’ applications for SEP recognition.

Two seats are currently available for up to three consecutive two-year terms. Each member of the panel is expected to attend two meetings per year, one in the summer and one in the fall. There will be virtual attendance options for these meetings as well.

The nominated members are invited to shadow the SEP Business meeting on October 24, 2021. The first term of this position will officially begin after the 2021 Customer Connections Conference in October.

Nominations of APPA members with expertise in energy efficiency, distributed energy resources, load management, integrated resource planning, and demand-side management are encouraged. 

To nominate someone, click here to download the nomination form. The completed nomination form and any supplementary materials should be emailed to SEP@PublicPower.org.

Questions should be addressed to APPA SEP Staff at 202-467-2931 or email SEP@PublicPower.org.

More information on the SEP program is available on the SEP website

Real-Time Grid Assessment Is Adequate But Could Be Improved: FERC-NERC Report

July 13, 2021

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
July 13, 2021

Operators of the bulk power system are prepared to manage  assessment of real-time grid operating conditions, but they should develop alternative procedures in the event of data loss failures lasting more than two hours, according to a report issued last week by the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and its regional entities.

Real-time assessment requirements in NERC standards mandate that transmission operators and reliability coordinators perform an assessment at least once every 30 minutes to ensure prevention of instability, uncontrolled separation, or cascading outages that could adversely impact the reliability of the interconnection.  The report detailed these requirements and provided further recommendations for real-time assessments of grid operating conditions.

NERC developed the existing standard requirements in the wake of the 2011 Southwest blackout report to ensure that real‐time tools are adequate, operational, and used frequently enough to provide system operators with the situational awareness needed to identify and plan for contingencies and to reliably operate their systems.

Among the primary causes of the 2003 Northeast blackout was the failure to assess and understand the real-time risks to the grid. The current real-time assessment requirements are a direct result of that finding, NERC says.

The real-time assessment review was not a compliance activity. It included on-site discussions with representatives of nine participating reliability coordinators and transmission operators. The purpose of the review was to work with subject matter expert participants and technology leaders in a collegial environment. The underlying intent, according to the report, was that understanding operational challenges enhances regulatory oversight.

Among other findings, the report found that as the penetration of renewable generation and inverter-based resources increases, transmission system operators should be prepared to augment existing tools to facilitate reliable operation planning that includes renewable forecasting.

Among other recommendations, the report said reliability coordinators and transmission operators should:

The review team also found that all participants have processes for identifying problems with quality of individual real-time data points and have procedures for correcting the errors.

However, only a few of the participants have developed metrics to trend aggregate real-time data errors with thresholds identifying when errors are reaching levels that would impair the quality of the real-time assessment, the report found.

TVA to spend $1 billion building 1,500 MW of gas turbines

July 13, 2021

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
July 13, 2021

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) plans to invest $1 billion to build three new gas-fired combustion turbines totaling 1,500 megawatts (MW)

The planned gas turbines are being built at the site of shuttered coal plants in Tuscumbia, Alabama, and Paradise, Kentucky, and will replace combustion turbines scheduled for retirement.

The new plants will bring in about 185 jobs at each location to prepare each site and construct the units, TVA said.

“As we continue to evolve our generation portfolio, natural gas is the right choice at this time because it provides the flexibility and reliability we need to add more solar energy,” Jacinda Woodward, senior vice president of power operations at TVA, said in a statement.

“It’s important to remember that solar power is an intermittent generation source — natural gas delivers reliable electricity even when the sun doesn’t shine,” Woodward said. She added that TVA will continue to consider natural gas an option for replacement generation as it studies the closing of its remaining coal fleet while adding about 10,000 MW of new solar power by 2035.

“Natural gas helps us achieve a 70% reduction in emissions by 2030, 80% by 2035 and we believe it is possible, with new technologies, to achieve net-zero by 2050,” Woodward said.

The plants scheduled for retirement are at TVA’s Allen Reservation on the Mississippi River, five miles southwest of Memphis, Tenn., and at the utility’s Johnsonville Reservation in Tennessee. The plants have a combined capacity of 1,400 MW and have “received little recent investment, are 40 or more years old and require replacement to ensure reliability,” according to TVA.

“Current and retired coal plant sites are prime locations for new gas generation because the electrical infrastructure is already in place,” Woodward said.

The new gas plants will require upgrades of the existing natural gas supplies, as well as connections to TVA’s existing transmission lines, including upgrades to those lines.

While the environmental assessment for the proposed plants was under review and open for comment, TVA noted that the most frequently mentioned comments related to climate impacts, environmental justice, analysis of alternatives, and cumulative impacts.

In its environmental assessment, TVA concluded that the proposed plants would not be “a major federal action significantly affecting the environment and issued a finding of no significant impact.”

TVA currently operates 108 natural gas and fuel oil-fired generators totaling more than 12,000 MW at 17 sites, nine in Tennessee, five in Mississippi, one in Alabama, and two in Kentucky.

NYPA To Participate In New York’s Exploration of Green Hydrogen

July 13, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
July 13, 2021

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on July 8 said that New York plans to explore the potential role of green hydrogen as part of the state’s decarbonization strategy.

To support this effort to study green hydrogen and its possible applications, the state is collaborating with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), joining two hydrogen-focused organizations to inform state decision-making and making $12.5 million in funding available for long duration energy storage technologies and demonstration projects that may include green hydrogen.

Additionally, the New York Power Authority, collaborating with the Electric Power Research Institute, General Electric and hydrogen supplier Airgas, will undertake an industry-leading green hydrogen demonstration project at NYPA’s natural gas plant on Long Island to evaluate the resource’s potential role in displacing fossil fuels from power generation.

At the close of this short-term project, peer-reviewed results will be shared with the industry and public so that key learnings can inform decarbonization efforts. The announcement supports Cuomo’s goal to reduce emissions 85 percent by 2050, as outlined in the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

Green hydrogen — hydrogen produced using renewable energy — has the potential to decarbonize challenging sectors of the economy, Cuomo’s office noted.

As part of the state’s efforts to assess green hydrogen’s potential role in economy-wide decarbonization efforts, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is leading a stakeholder engagement effort to gain and share knowledge and understanding of the support this resource could provide for meeting the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goals across multiple sectors. The stakeholder engagement began in December 2020 at a deep decarbonization workshop co-hosted by NYSERDA and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. 

A more comprehensive and ongoing approach will begin with an additional workshop and listening session being planned for this fall. The session will be used to help NYSERDA understand how to expand stakeholder engagement to ensure that additional assessment of the pathways, opportunities, and challenges of generating and utilizing green hydrogen across all sectors includes consideration of all stakeholder perspectives, including environmental justice organizations and communities. 

The state’s approach to understanding and exploring the potential role green hydrogen can play in achieving the Climate Act goals include:

New York Hydrogen Strategy Study

NYSERDA will launch a hydrogen strategy study in conjunction with NREL, to compile the foundational, base-line information and data that will enable New York to have robust discussions and dialogue around the role green hydrogen could play in New York’s decarbonization plans.

This strategy study will place a particular focus on opportunities surrounding green hydrogen to align the State’s hydrogen strategy with the existing mandates for 70 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and 100 percent zero-emission electricity by 2040. Building on relationships with NREL and the United States Department of Energy, NYSERDA will benefit from local, regional, national, and global insights on the evolution of green hydrogen to help guide State direction and decision making. 

NYPA Green Hydrogen Demonstration Project

A NYPA-led, first-of-its-kind demonstration project will investigate the potential of substituting renewable hydrogen for a portion of the natural gas used to generate power at NYPA’s Brentwood Power Station on Long Island.

The project team will evaluate different concentrations of hydrogen blended with natural gas at regular intervals and will assess the blend’s effect on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and its overall system and environmental impacts, including nitrogen oxide emissions. The project will begin in fall 2021 and is expected to last six to eight weeks. 

The plant, which consists of a GE LM-6000 combustion turbine currently fueled by natural gas, was commissioned in the summer of 2001 to increase local power generation capacity for Long Island and New York City in anticipation of potential summer power shortages. GE has more than 6 million operating hours and more than 30 years of experience using hydrogen and other similar low-BTU fuels.

NYPA will lead the project with collaboration from partners including EPRI, GE, Sargent & Lundy, Airgas, and Fresh Meadow Power. EPRI will assist with the project design and technical evaluation. As the gas turbine original equipment manufacturer, GE will supply a state-of-the art hydrogen/natural gas blending system and support the project’s planning and execution. Sargent & Lundy, acting as the engineer of record for the project, will provide overall engineering and safety reviews. Airgas is the supplier of renewable hydrogen and Fresh Meadow Power will provide piping system design, material procurement and installation services for the project.  

Participation in National and Global Hydrogen-Focused Groups 

To ensure New York State is at the forefront of hydrogen safety, NYSERDA has joined the Center for Hydrogen Safety, a global community of more than 75 government, industry and national lab participants supporting and promoting hydrogen safety and best practices worldwide across industrial and consumer applications in the energy transition. As a member, NYSERDA will have direct access to global safety best practices on hydrogen, training courses and materials, and a safety panel of experts available for specific demonstration project safety reviews. 

Joining the HyBlend Collaborative Research Partnership

NYSERDA has also joined the HyBlend Collaborative Research Partnership, which is comprised of six national labs and fifteen university/industry partners co-led by NREL and Stony Brook University. This national partnership will generate a database to allow New York to assess the use of existing infrastructure for hydrogen and to develop general principles of operation of blended hydrogen/natural gas delivery systems. 

Long Duration Energy Storage Program  

Finally, NYSERDA will encourage product development and demonstration projects in energy storage that is six-plus hours in duration, otherwise known as long duration energy storage, by making up to $12.5 million in funding available through its Renewable Optimization and Energy Storage Innovation Program.

Project submissions should advance, develop, or field-test hydrogen, electric, chemical, mechanical, or thermal-electric storage technologies that will address cost, performance, and renewable integration challenges in New York State. Submissions must only include innovative long duration energy storage technologies which are yet to be commercialized. Awards will be made for the following project categories: early studies, product development, multi-stage, demonstration projects and federal cost-share. 

Proposals will be accepted in three rounds through June 2022.

Additional details for this solicitation are available on NYSERDA’s website, including proposal submission requirements. 

APPA hydrogen report

The American Public Power Association (APPA) recently released a report that provides a perspective on where the emerging hydrogen market is in the U.S. and globally, what is driving the growing interest in hydrogen and what obstacles are preventing hydrogen technology from being able to scale-up.

The report’s author, Patricia Taylor, Senior Manager, Regulatory Policy and Business Programs at APPA, discussed the report in a recent episode of APPA’s Public Power Now podcast.

Budget For Johnson City, Tenn., Includes Smart Grid And Broadband Upgrades

July 13, 2021

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
July 13, 2021

The board of directors of BrightRidge, the public power utility serving Johnson City, Tenn., has unanimously approved budgets that include funding to build out the utility’s smart grid network and to accelerate the expansion of the broadband services of BrightRidge Broadband by 12 months.

The fiscal year 2022 budget approved for BrightRidge in late June includes plans to issue $28 million in bonds in August to finance to pay for system design and installation of 72 Intellirupter smart switches that reroute electricity automatically in outage events to restore as many customers as quickly as possible while protecting sensitive distribution infrastructure.

Smart switches, such as the Intellirupter, are a key feature of self-healing electric distribution systems and have improved system reliability by as much as 50 percent according to an impact study after 1,100 of the switches were installed at the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga.

The smart switching work is expected to cost $3.9 million. BrightRidge also expects to spend $9.2 million to upgrade substations in the West, Northeast and Gray sections of the its service territory, which are approaching the end of their useful life cycle and in need of overhaul, BrightRidge engineering officials said in a statement.

BrightRidge expects to spend another $3 million over three years to cover electric infrastructure improvements related to the Walnut Street project in downtown Johnson City.

BrightRidge’s new budget did not contain an increase in retail electric rates.

When complete, substation and distribution system improvements will accommodate more load as the region grows, while also providing additional flexibility for quicker power restoration during a storm event that damages electric distribution infrastructure, BrightRidge said.

“In my tenure as BrightRidge chief executive, this has remained a priority item as we believe this offers a critical upgrade to our customers that will dramatically cut outage times,” Jeff Dykes, BrightRidge’s CEO, said in a statement. “These projects move BrightRidge forward when it comes to overall system resilience.”

“With borrowing costs near an all-time low, this is the perfect time for BrightRidge to accelerate these investments,” Dykes said. “As multi-generational investments designed to last for decades, bonding also allows those costs to be spread out over several generations, keeping rates low for customers today and tomorrow.”

The board of directors also approved BrightRidge Broadband’s plan to accelerate broadband deployment, which now is projected to take place in seven years instead of eight.

The plan calls for building out service over the next 12 months to 5,449 potential customers instead of the original 2,940 customers. And in phase five, which begins in July 2023, BrightRidge Broadband plans to add 8,248 customers who would have ultra-high-speed fiber to the premises service available, 5,300 more than originally planned for that phase.

“We are seeing huge broadband demand from our customers,” Dykes said.  “No one in the country matches this level of service. It’s both a point of pride for our community and a key selling point in economic development.”

California Grid Pressured By Heat Wave, Oregon Wildfire That Threatens Transmission Lines

July 12, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
July 12, 2021

A rapidly growing wildfire in Southern Oregon that threatened transmission lines used to import energy to California, along with continued extreme heat throughout California, put new stresses on the electric grid, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) reported over the weekend.

CAISO on Saturday, July 10, extended a statewide Flex Alert for a second consecutive day and strongly encouraged consumers to conserve as much electricity as possible from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. to help keep the grid stable.

Conditions on the electric grid were already a challenge Friday, July 9, when much of California was experiencing triple-digit temperatures, some generating capacity was not available and a Flex Alert was called for the late afternoon and evening, the grid operator noted.

ISO data show demand for electricity did start to drop once Friday’s Flex Alert was in effect and consumer conservation began to take hold. But conditions deteriorated quickly as the Bootleg Fire continued to grow and posed an imminent threat to transmission lines leading into the California Oregon Intertie (COI).

The COI is not only used to import electricity from the Pacific Northwest to the electric grid managed by the ISO, it also imports power into other grid balancing authorities and the state of Nevada, the grid operator noted.

“The fire has been a wildcard for grid operators since it began Tuesday in rural Klamath County reportedly from a lightning strike. The wind-driven blaze, which has forced evacuations and is not projected to be contained for another two weeks, had burned a little less than 40,000 acres by Friday, nearly doubling in size from the day before,” CAISO said.

By Saturday morning, it had nearly doubled in size again and burned more than 76,000 acres.

On Friday afternoon, the ISO issued a formal grid warning, which gives the grid operator authority to initiative emergency demand response programs that compensate electricity customers for conserving. That warning was canceled at 10 p.m. Friday, about the time demand for electricity is typically low.

On Sunday, July 11, CAISO said that with electric transmission lines from Oregon still unreliable due to the Bootleg Fire and continued high temperatures across the West resulting in increased demand for electricity, it was issuing a statewide Flex Alert for Monday, July 12 to help stabilize the state’s electric grid and deal with uncertainty created by the extraordinary conditions. Consumers were also strongly encouraged to continue to conserve as much electricity as possible between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.

In addition, the ISO issued a Restricted Maintenance Operations for Monday that requires generators to postpone any planned outages for routine equipment maintenance, ensuring that all available resources can be dispatched to the grid.

The fast-moving Bootleg Fire tripped off transmission lines on Friday and again Saturday, limiting electricity flow from the Pacific Northwest to California and other states. Power supplies to the California ISO service territory, which covers about 80 percent of the state, have been reduced by as much as 3,500 megawatts because of the fire.

California governor signs order to free up additional energy capacity

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday, July 10, signed an executive order to free up additional energy capacity.

Building on Newsom’s emergency proclamation on July 9 which suspended certain permitting requirements to enable the use of back-up power generation, the July 10 order allows the emergency use of auxiliary ship engines to relieve pressure on the electric grid.

Public power plays its part to help alleviate stress on grid

Meanwhile, public power utilities in the state have been proactively working to help alleviate stress on the grid by reminding customers of the ways in which they can help.

For example, in a Saturday night tweet, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) said that “Every bit of energy conservation will help the state power grid right now. A statewide #FlexAlert is in effect until 9 pm tonight. Hold off on the laundry for a bit longer, set AC thermostats to 78 and turn off unnecessary lights and appliances. Thanks LA!”

For its part, SMUD in a tweet said it was asking customers to limit electricity usage in the afternoon of Saturday, July 10, and through the weekend. “The Bootleg Fire in Oregon is impacting critical transmission lines and has reduced imported energy. We’ll use every measure to keep the lights on, but power shortfalls are possible,” SMUD said.

The public power utility said that customers can help by doing the following:

Nebraska Public Power Utilities Make Progress In Restoring Power In Wake Of Storms

July 12, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
July 12, 2021

Public power utilities in Nebraska continued to make progress over the weekend in restoring power to customers in the wake of outages caused by severe storms that hit the state.

A storm that hit on the night of Friday, July 9, damaged transmission structures as well as local distribution structures in several communities and crews from across the state were called to help restore power as quickly and safely as possible, Nebraska Public Power District (NPDD) reported.

Over the weekend, crews continued restoration work in the hard-hit areas of Plattsmouth and Kearney, Neb., NPPD said. Broken poles and downed trees entangled in power lines continued to be a challenge, especially in Plattsmouth. Power has been restored in the Kearney area.

NPPD said that progress continued to be made in restoring power to the Plattsmouth area with approximately 300 customers still without power. Crews continued to work into the evening hours to restore as many customers as possible, but not all power will be restored, it said. Linemen were back working early Monday morning.

Meanwhile, Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) and mutual aid crews made good progress Sunday on outages caused by historic, hurricane-force winds that ripped through the service area in the early morning hours Saturday. At its peak, the storm left 188,000 customers without power, OPPD said.

OPPD made significant progress on Saturday, its first restoration day — restoring more than 75,000 customers’ power — more than all outages that were restored following the 2017 Father’s Day tornado.

Because of the magnitude of this event, more than 500 people from OPPD, mutual aid partners and tree-trimming contractors continue to work in the field to make these repairs and re-energize lines, OPPD said on July 11.

The work began in the early morning hours Saturday and will continue 24 hours a day until all customers have power.

Soon after the storm, OPPD’s mutual aid partners reached out to offer help and assistance. “The outpouring was overwhelming and showed how committed the public power industry is to helping each other,” the utility noted.

The weekend storm is the largest in OPPD history, topping storms in 2017, 2008 and 1997. 

“The widespread nature of the severe weather damage has made this storm unique,” said Javier Fernandez, OPPD President and CEO, in a statement. “Rather than isolated outage areas, we have seen broad swaths of extensive tree damage, which can impact power lines and cause outages.”

The complex work involves first removing tree limbs tangled in lines, then making needed repairs to poles and equipment. In some locations, tops of power poles were snapped off or entire poles were flattened to the ground, OPPD said.

ELCON Asks Congress To study How Wholesale Markets Have Affected Consumer Prices

July 9, 2021

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
July 9, 2021

The Electricity Consumers Resource Council (ELCON), leading a coalition of 11 organizations, on July 8 sent a letter to Congressional leaders calling for an independent study on the impacts on consumers of wholesale electric power markets under the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

The letter requests that the Congressional leaders direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) or other independent oversight organization “to undertake a detailed and objective study of the cost of electricity” and specifically of how FERC policies regarding wholesale power markets impact the cost and reliability of delivered power.

“We need regulators who base their policy decisions on objective data and real-world impacts rather than assumptions by advocates,” the signatories said in the letter.

While FERC commissioned a report on the benefits of wholesale competition in the Entergy region in 2010, that study looked at future prices, not actual historical costs and benefits. “To our knowledge, no one has studied the impacts of RTOs [regional transmission organizations] on customer bills,” the letter said.

“Government studies published more than a decade ago regarding wholesale markets claimed to lack the necessary data—the time is right to revisit these issues with fresh data so we can have an informed debate about the impacts of wholesale markets on consumers,” Travis Fisher, president and CEO of ELCON, said in a statement.

ELCON is a national association of large industrial consumers of electricity. ELCON was joined in the request by other industrial consumer advocates, as well as public policy organizations, including Energy Choice Coalition, Public Citizen, Conservative Energy Network, Industrial Energy Consumers of Pennsylvania, Louisiana Energy Users Group, and R Street Institute.

The letter was addressed to the leaders of the energy committees of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. It was also copied to the chairman and commissioners of FERC.

“At minimum,” the letter’s authors said, the study “should examine how existing RTO market structures have impacted the cost of electricity to retail consumers. We also ask that the study explore the reliability impacts of wholesale market structure and, if resources allow, develop a set of best practices regarding RTO expansion.”

The letter cited a letter by nine former FERC chairmen and commissioners who advocated for an expansion of RTOs.

Saying that the requested study is “long overdue,” the signatories also cited a 2008 study in which the GAO said, “there is no consensus about whether RTO markets provide benefits to consumers or how they have influenced consumer electricity prices.”

With “no guidance from federal regulators, states and regions are independently exploring the impacts of RTOs,” the letter says, citing proceedings under way in North Carolina, South Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, Missouri, and Oregon.

Many of those battles are primarily between incumbent utilities and “a growing chorus of consumers who want more choice, better access to new technologies, or less exposure to the ratepayer risks associated with monopoly utilities,” the signatories said.

The issue is not matter of “historical trivia,” the signatories said, but is “more important than ever” because of three trends: discussions about the voluntary or mandatory expansion of RTOs, state and federal policies driving changes in resource mix that will require large spending increases in transmission infrastructure, and increased electrification to the economy.