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TVA Board of Directors approves move to establish series of decarbonization milestones

May 10, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 10, 2021

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Board of Directors on May 6 approved a resolution that endorses a document establishing a series of decarbonization milestones over the next three decades for TVA.

At its quarterly business meeting, the TVA board approved a resolution endorsing TVA’s Strategic Intent and Guiding Principles.

TVA said that by 2030, it will focus on growing its current 63% carbon reduction to 70% by:

Specific plans to achieve this milestone, including any decisions affecting existing or new facilities, will be developed over the coming months and will include detailed environmental assessments that will seek public input before any actions are taken, TVA said.

TVA said it has a path to an 80% reduction by 2035 with up to 10,000 MW of solar capacity online and continued investment in extending the lives of its current nuclear and hydro fleets, as well as the integrated systems needed to support the energy system of the future, while moving toward an aspirational goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

TVA noted that since 2005, it has reduced carbon emissions by 63% primarily through the creation of a diverse generation portfolio, which includes adding 1,600 MW of new nuclear capacity, an additional 1,600 MW of wind and solar capacity, retiring 8,600 MW of coal capacity that was at the end of its useful life by the end of 2023 and investing more than $400 million to promote energy efficiency.

Key U.S. energy pipeline company hit by ransomware attack

May 9, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 9, 2021

Colonial Pipeline on May 7 learned it was the victim of a cybersecurity attack and it has since determined that this incident involves ransomware.

“In response, we proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat, which has temporarily halted all pipeline operations, and affected some of our IT systems,” the company said on May 8 in a statement.

“Upon learning of the issue, a leading, third-party cybersecurity firm was engaged, and they have launched an investigation into the nature and scope of this incident, which is ongoing. We have contacted law enforcement and other federal agencies,” Colonial Pipeline said.

Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline said it is taking steps to understand and resolve this issue.

Colonial Pipeline is the largest refined products pipeline in the United States, transporting more than 100 million gallons of fuel daily to meet the energy needs of consumers from Houston, Texas to the New York Harbor.

The company transports 2.5 million barrels per day of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined products through 5,500 miles of pipelines linking refiners on the Gulf Coast to the eastern and southern United States, Reuters noted in a story about the attack.

“At this time, our primary focus is the safe and efficient restoration of our service and our efforts to return to normal operation. This process is already underway, and we are working diligently to address this matter and to minimize disruption to our customers and those who rely on Colonial Pipeline,” Colonial Pipeline said in the statement.

Over the past 48 hours, Colonial Pipeline personnel have taken additional precautionary measures to help further monitor and protect the safety and security of its pipeline, it said on Sunday, May 9.

“The Colonial Pipeline operations team is developing a system restart plan. While our mainlines (Lines 1, 2, 3 and 4) remain offline, some smaller lateral lines between terminals and delivery points are now operational. We are in the process of restoring service to other laterals and will bring our full system back online only when we believe it is safe to do so, and in full compliance with the approval of all federal regulations,” it said.

Biden declares emergency

The White House declared a state of emergency on Sunday tied to the ransomware cyberattack, the BBC reported. The emergency status enables fuel to be transported by road, the BBC said.

A number of media outlets reported that the attack was carried out by DarkSide. “The cyberextortion attempt that has forced the shutdown of a vital U.S. pipeline was carried out by a criminal gang known as DarkSide that cultivates a Robin Hood image of stealing from corporations and giving a cut to charity, two people close to the investigation said Sunday,” the Christian Science Monitor reported.

On CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Secretary Gina Raimondo on May 9, said that “This is what businesses now have to worry about, and I will be working very closely with Ali Mayorkas on this. It’s a top priority for the administration. Unfortunately, these sorts of attacks are becoming more frequent,” she said. “They’re here to stay and we have to work in partnership with businesses” to secure networks, “to defend ourselves against these attacks. As it relates to Colonial, the president was briefed yesterday. It’s an all hands on deck effort right now. And we are working closely with the company, state and local officials to, you know, make sure that they get back up to normal operations as quickly as possible and there aren’t disruptions in supply.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “is monitoring the ransomware incident affecting Colonial Pipeline. Every organization must be vigilant and strengthen its cybersecurity posture against ransomware and other types of cyber-attacks,” said Alejandro Mayorkas, DHS Secretary, said in a May 8 tweet.

“We are engaged with the company and our interagency partners regarding the situation. This underscores the threat that ransomware poses to organizations regardless of size or sector. We encourage every organization to take action to strengthen their cybersecurity posture to reduce their exposure to these types of threats,” said Eric Goldstein, Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is part of the DHS.

“This incident highlights that ransomware continues to be a significant issue facing all critical infrastructure sectors. While this incident did not involve an electric utility, the relevance to the electricity subsector cannot be understated,” said Sam Rozenberg, Senior Director of Security and Resilience at the American Public Power Association.

Ransomware is a very familiar threat to the public power segment of the industry and APPA held a webinar on April 21st of this year, with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The slide deck and the recording can be accessed here. Additionally, the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC) in February of this year released a report labeled Ransomware Trends for Utilities and APPA encourages public power utilities to review this resource.

APPA continues to stress the importance of public power utilities joining the E-ISAC for timely and actionable sharing of threats to the electricity subsector. To learn more about the E-ISAC and how to join, visit the E-ISAC website or contact E-ISAC Member Services.

Any questions can be directed to: cybersecurity@publicpower.org.

Salt River Project consolidates testing functions with new innovation lab

May 8, 2021

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
May 8, 2021

Arizona public power utility Salt River Project (SRP) recently began operation of its new utility innovation testing laboratory.

The 5,400 square foot Technology Innovation Lab in Scottsdale, Ariz., provides space for SRP employees and contractors working in a variety of functions across the public power utility, including telecommunications; distribution integration; distribution operations; protection, automation and control; power delivery engineering; and power delivery technology services.

“The lab will support the day-to-day activities of these teams as well as longer term testing, proof of concept, and vendor evaluation efforts of new software and hardware solutions to see firsthand how these will work in an isolated environment before fully deploying across SRP’s system,” Tait Willis, director of protection, automation and control at SRP, said in a statement.

The new lab consolidates the lab space that SRP already had. The utility used to have six labs. It now has three. Four of the former labs are now housed in the new lab and two labs – one for customer programs for things such as smart thermostats, the other tests metering technologies– remain at separate locations, though they are being connected to the new lab so they can participate in tests that better replicate the breadth of the utility’s operations.

There was some discussion about bringing all the labs under one roof but limiting the scope of the project made the costs more manageable, Kyle Cormier, director of telecommunications systems at SRP, said. In the past, many of those labs were siloed; now “the new lab provides a more cohesive space for testing and training.”

The new lab also has a small classroom space where vendors and SRP teams can conduct training sessions with engineers and technicians. “Training is a huge area of focus for this lab space,” Willis said. SRP’s engineers and technicians needed “a central space where employees can come to learn maintenance and commissioning practices in a safe environment.”

The idea of creating a single lab for the whole utility had been under discussion at SRP for nearly a decade, but the concept really came together about three or four years ago when SRP hired a consultant to conduct a cyber penetration test. It turned out it was hard to run a useful version of the test because the representations of the utility’s system at the various labs were not consistent.

Instead of testing the robustness of the utility’s cyber security measures, the test showed that the various labs did not accurately reflect the reality of the utility’s system, Cormier said. It became apparent that the utility needed to have “more integration to do end-to-end testing that can look at the system as a whole.”

After about two years of planning, construction of the Technology Innovation Lab began in December of 2019, and it began operation in April 2021.

SRP’s protection, automation, and control department is one of the departments that has already started using the lab’s capabilities. In collaboration with Intel and other utilities, SRP’s team is in the early stages of running tests to evaluate the benefits of virtualizing substation systems.

In the past, substation controls were mostly electro-mechanical with different functions controlled by separate computers. In that configuration, adding a relay to a substation requires a lot of rewiring and physical integration.

If those functions can be virtualized, that is, replicated using software instead of adding another box with dedicated controls to the substation, the utility would be able to perform the same function by adding a new application.

From SRP’s perspective, a virtualized solution would help standardize substation hardware, consolidate and centralize functionality, improve employee safety, and reduce capital investment, as well as operation and maintenance costs.

SRP’s telecom engineering department is using the lab to test firmware for Field Area Network (FAN) Tier 2 radios as a way of improving two-way communications for connected devices. The tests are designed to help determine if new firmware solutions improve communication with SRP’s devices in hard-to-reach areas.

“Right now, we can send information to the device, but we don’t get anything back,” Cormier said. “Two-way communications would yield more information about temperatures and voltage levels and more insight into basic power qualities, which will be helpful as we integrate more renewables into our system.”

Another huge benefit is being better able to test new equipment, Cormier said. Just because a manufacturer’s equipment meets industry standards does not mean it will work well with other components. The Technology Innovation Lab gives SRP the ability to run “end-to-end tests” on new equipment in a more realistic and holistic way, he said.

Power sector explores ways in which to leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning

May 7, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 7, 2021

The electric power sector is increasingly looking for ways in which to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning for its systems as the industry undergoes a digital transformation.

On March 18, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) convened a roundtable that looked at AI and the power sector.

EPRI is leading a collaborative effort (AI.EPRI) between the electric power and AI industries. To kick off a 2021 community-building event series, EPRI hosted the virtual roundtable with executives in both industries.

Arshad Mansoor, President and CEO of EPRI, said “We’re starting a decade where the full digital transformation of how we generate, how we distribute, how we use electricity is going to happen.”

AI “will play a huge role in that digital transformation,” Mansoor said during the roundtable. “The reason this is the decade to seize on is the technology advancement that has happened just in the last five years.”

The use cases for AI are huge, he said. “There are a lot of entities – data companies, universities, technology providers – who are working with our members to shape this future.”

When asked by Heather Feldman Director for R&D at EPRI, to discuss AI use cases in the power sector, Bhavani Amirthalingam, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Information Officer at Missouri-based investor-owned utility Ameren, mentioned asset health.

“Being able to do predictive, preventative maintenance, condition-based maintenance on key assets I think is a fantastic use case,” Amirthalingam said. “It’s great for customers from a reliability standpoint. It’s great for customers from an affordability standpoint.”

Another roundtable participant, Arun Majumdar, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, said that “it’s important to point out that the people who are focused on data do not always understand the issues related to the electricity industry and vice versa.”

Majumdar also said that “there are security issues with this, there are privacy issues with this. There needs to be anonymized data sets that could be used and this needs to be at scale and the scalability of organizing data and making it useful is something that the information industry understands very, very well. They have techniques that the electricity industry does not have.”

“I think the topic of data is really very central to how you make AI useful,” said Jatinder Singh, Vice-President, Digital and Data Transformation at Texas public power utility CPS Energy.

“Even if I have data, even if all of us have data, do we have the right tools and talent to do something with that data?” If not, this is one way that data sharing can help, he said.

In a Q&A with the American Public Power Association’s Public Power Current newsletter, Singh noted that he is responsible for developing strategy and multi-year roadmaps for digital capabilities that will elevate customer and employee experiences.

“The roadmap will transform our technological capabilities and the way we work – from technology projects to digital products – from waterfall to agile. In parallel to the digital transformation is the transformation of our data eco-system and governance that will allow us to capitalize on the promising newer emerging technologies,” he said.

Singh was also asked whether there are any projects currently underway at CPS Energy that involve the application of artificial intelligence to the utility’s power system.

“There are several examples of where our teams are currently leveraging machine learning to improve management insights into operations,” he noted.

“The teams are leveraging several data sources for outage prediction for seasonal weather patterns to reduce potential outage duration for customers and engage in preventative maintenance.”

For San Antonio’s wide load forecasting, the team is leveraging machine learning for better demand management. And for vegetation management, the team is at the early stage of leveraging LiDAR and GIS data combined with machine learning to be more effective and efficient in addressing potential vegetation related outages. The team is also leveraging machine learning on AMI data to solve several asset management, maintenance, and demand management use cases, he said.

Meanwhile, Singh elaborated on what he sees as the long-term benefits that the power industry could derive from the use of AI.

“There are at least four areas where I see opportunities for artificial intelligence (AI) to potentially provide meaningful benefits for the energy industry,” he said.

 One is asset management. “By leveraging image recognition and data such as GIS and LiDAR, AI will dramatically improve the industry’s efficiency to manage sprawling transmission and distribution assets, which are the highways through which our services are made available to our consumers,” Singh said.

Another benefit is in customer service, he said. Through natural language processing and voice recognition, the industry “can provide personalized, relevant, and convenient access to information and services to new and existing customers in their language and at the time of their preference,” he said.

There could be opportunities to explore how AI could help improve the efficiencies with renewable energy by combining weather data and mechanical devices that will maximize renewable energy generation from solar panels and wind turbines, he said.

Singh also mentioned new solutions. The industry “could generate new revenue sources through services and products, powered by data and AI, that will allow customers to reduce their carbon footprint and power their increasingly electrified lives.”

CPS Energy “is taking a test and learn approach towards several use cases in the above categories. However, there are some potential use cases that we haven’t yet envisioned that are becoming more apparent as the technology and its usage gain maturity within the energy and other industries. We will continue to explore those new opportunities to leverage AI as they present themselves.”

SRP

In 2019, Arizona public power utility Salt River Project (SRP) signed a deal to use AI to improve its information technology (IT) operations. The Phoenix-based public power utility adopted ScienceLogic’s SL1 platform to monitor its IT operations and applications.

In a Q&A with Public Power Current, Joe Kosmal, manager of data center operations at SRP, said that SRP completed phase one of the ScienceLogic implementation in July 2020, which was a value-added replacement of SRP’s legacy IT operations platform. 

“We are currently well into our phase two project which includes the advanced capabilities to assess the health, availability, and risk to applications and systems that serve critical business processes in the enterprise,” he said.

Kosmal was asked to discuss how ScienceLogic’s platform has improved SRP’s IT operations since its implementation.

“Since implementation, ScienceLogic has helped us regularly identify issues before they caused impact to the reliability and resiliency of our IT systems,” he said. “This has helped mature our IT operations from reactive monitoring and escalations to proactive monitoring that fosters a stronger partnership with application and system support teams in the organization.”

When asked whether SRP is considering deploying AI in any other parts of its operations beyond IT, he said SRP is exploring use cases for AI in different areas of the utility and evaluating how those capabilities can improve operations and better serve SRP customers.

NYPA

Meanwhile, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) has been awarded two $125,000 grants from the American Public Power Association’s Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments (DEED) program to fund demonstration projects that will analyze the impact of ice on a hydropower plant and test an advanced technology that evaluates the health of high voltage assets in a substation.

The DEED program funds research, pilot projects and educational programs to improve the operations and services of public power utilities. 

NYPA will undertake the following projects:

Analyze the Impact of Ice on Hydro Power Resources with Machine Learning: NYPA has had significant power generation losses due to ice blockages near intake valves in the Niagara River and has worked to address the issue with industry groups and other utilities. During the winter, water can become supercooled all the way to the bottom of the river, leading to the formation of frazil ice crystals, anchor ice, or both. Anchor and frazil ice affects water availability estimation by Niagara River Control Center and frazil ice can affect hydropower plan operation since it’s “sticky” and can result in ice formation on the plant’s water turbines. These studies will include using 3-D sonar to quantify the impact of frazil ice on the efficiency of the hydropower units and forecasting the formation of anchor and frazil ice with a look ahead of a few days to a few weeks.

Smart Insulation Condition Monitoring System (CMS) for Substation Assets: A state-of-the-art Condition Monitoring System will be developed to constantly monitor the insulation condition of various high voltage assets (transformers, GIS, switchgears and cables) in a substation. The CMS consists of smart sensing, advanced noise mitigation and artificial intelligence for data interpretation. The system will use an advanced diagnostic technology that recognizes and evaluates defects and provides guidance for maintenance planning. The system will improve the power grid reliability, reduce customer outage costs, and help asset management optimize maintenance and maximize asset life.

NYPA deploys AI-based application

In 2018, NYPA selected C3 IoT to provide a software platform to help NYPA and the state implement and meet its energy efficiency targets.

Under a multi-year, software-as-a-service agreement, NYPA agreed to deploy C3 Energy Management, an AI-based application, as part of New York Energy Manager, NYPA’s advanced, secure energy management center, headquartered in Albany, N.Y. It provides public and private facility operators across New York State with timely data on energy use.

The C3 Energy Management application enables the New York Energy Manager program to aggregate enormous volumes of data, including real-time data from smart meters, building management systems, end-use equipment controls, sensors, weather data, occupancy and daylight data, solar data, and utility bills.

C3 IoT said the application would allow the New York Energy Manager program to employ machine learning at scale, generate insights about individual customers’ energy usage, and deliver personalized recommendations to help customers reduce their energy use.

The company said the software would also allow NYPA to offer its customers services such as building energy load forecasting, fault detection and diagnostics, continuous optimization of energy use, dynamic demand response, solar and energy storage monitoring, and aggregation and dispatch of buildings as distributed energy resources.

New York Energy Manager “is utilizing C3’s Energy Management application to help our customers reduce their energy costs, improve their building operations, and track and report their progress towards energy efficiency and sustainability targets,” said Paul DeMichele, Manager, Media Relations, at NYPA. The application gives New York Energy Manager advisors “visibility into customers’ energy use and expenditure, helps them identify and prioritize actions to reduce operational and energy-related costs, and reduce their carbon footprint.”

APPA receives patent tied to machine learning techniques

APPA recently received a patent related to protecting the ability of public power utilities to use machine learning techniques for advanced analytics and benchmarking to improve safety.

This is the third patent APPA has received in its work to help ensure that public power utilities have long-term access to advanced analytical technologies for business-related decision making.

While it is likely that utilities will increasingly use specialized machine learning techniques to predict and prevent outages and equipment failure, this application is focused on increasing the likelihood that maintenance actions are safe.

“Using machines to help us see patterns that aren’t obvious is a great role for technology and can help keep us safe,” said Alex Hofmann, Vice President, Technical and Operations Services, APPA.

“Through the system we have designed, our systems and workers will be able to take actions that are safer for a given situation. How many times has the weather drastically changed and line workers keep working without adjusting to the new risk, leading to injury?”

Though participation in APPA’s eSafety Tracker service, APPA is helping public power utilities work together to build and train machine learning models to predict the safety-related outcomes of planned future maintenance actions. 

Renewable energy and AI

Machine learning and AI are also being looked at for renewable energy projects.

Case Western Reserve University computer scientists and energy technology experts are partnering to leverage the diagnostic power of AI to make solar power plants more efficient, the Cleveland, Ohio-based university reported in January 2021.

The project aims to use computers to better analyze data from a large number of neighboring PV systems to help quantify their short- and long-term performance. Those machine-learning methods will be used to overcome data-quality issues affecting the individual plants.

The work, funded by a three-year, $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is part of a broad $130 million solar-technologies initiative announced by the DOE in 2020 including $7.3 million specifically for machine-learning solutions and other AI for solar applications, the university noted.

In 2018, DeepMind and Google started applying machine learning algorithms to 700 megawatts of wind power capacity in the central U.S. DeepMind is an AI firm and Google affiliate.

“Using a neural network trained on widely available weather forecasts and historical turbine data, we configured the DeepMind system to predict wind power output 36 hours ahead of actual generation,” DeepMind noted in a 2019 blog. “Based on these predictions, our model recommends how to make optimal hourly delivery commitments to the power grid a full day in advance. This is important, because energy sources that can be scheduled (i.e. can deliver a set amount of electricity at a set time) are often more valuable to the grid,” DeepMind said in the February 2019 blog post.

“Although we continue to refine our algorithm, our use of machine learning across our wind farms has produced positive results. To date, machine learning has boosted the value of our wind energy by roughly 20 percent, compared to the baseline scenario of no time-based commitments to the grid,” it said.

LADWP official details wildfire mitigation efforts

May 7, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 7, 2021

Brian Wilbur, Senior Assistant General Manager, Power Systems, Construction, Maintenance, and Operations, at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, recently provided details on how the utility is taking steps to mitigate the threat of wildfires.

He made his comments while participating in a Wildfire Workshop and Technology Summit held by the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC).

Sam Rozenberg, Senior Director of Security and Resilience at the American Public Power Association (APPA), and Jack Cashin, Director, Policy Analysis and Reliability Standards, at APPA, moderated panels at the summit.

Wilbur noted that Los Angeles has a relatively small amount of High Fire Threat Area within its service territory when compared with other parts of the state (around 14%).

Addressing the topic of preventative maintenance, Wilbur said that LADWP has spent more than $3.9 billion over the last five years in rebuilding aging infrastructure, which has been a key step in mitigating hazards in high fire threat areas.

While noting that technology plays a role for LADWP, Wilbur said the “bang for our buck” remains replacing things like poles, cross arms, conductors, and transformers.

Cashin asked panelists to detail what is on their wish lists when it comes to the key piece for wildfire mitigation today and in the future.

“It’s not about getting the information but what you do with it when you get it,” Wilbur said. “We have all kinds of line sensors, relay equipment, what we’re doing with distribution automation, what we’re doing with our communication system, putting that all together gives us a ton of data, but it’s the analytics portion of that. It’s not only just warehousing the data once you get it but analyzing” it properly and getting your system to work together. “That’s our goal moving forward,” he said.

Wilbur said that “getting our communication system to tie in with SCADA, with our line sensors, with our relays, with all of that – we’re just getting that off the ground to where we’re starting to tie some of our systems together.”

Marty Adams, General Manager of LADWP, also discussed the utility’s wildfire mitigation efforts in a recent episode of APPA’s Public Power Now podcast.

The panel moderated by Rozenberg examined advancements and improvements in preparing for public safety power shutoffs (PSPS). Investor-owned utilities including Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) in 2020 implemented public safety power shutoffs in response to elevated wildfire risks.

Along with Rozenberg and Cashin, Corry Marshall, APPA Senior Government Relations Director, moderated a panel on drones that included Dan Herrmann, regional manager for transmission at the New York Power Authority (NYPA).

Dan Beans, Electric Utility Director at California’s Redding Electric Utility, spoke on a community engagement panel, while Scott Corwin, executive director of the Northwest Public Power Association (NWPPA), moderated a panel on technologies.

Joy Ditto, President and CEO of APPA, also participated in the summit.

ESCC

The ESCC serves as the principal liaison between the federal government and the electric power industry on national level response issues such as pandemics. APPA President and CEO Joy Ditto serves on the ESCC Steering Committee. Kevin Wailes, CEO of Lincoln Electric System, is an ESCC co-chair.

Three other public power CEOs also sit on the ESCC directly (Jackie Crowley, Middleborough Gas & Electric Dept.; Gil Quiniones, NYPA; and Mike Hummel, Salt River Project) and another three lead or participate in working groups: (Brian Skelton, Tullahoma – cross sector communications working group; Randy Howard, NCPA – ESCC Wildfire working group Co-Lead; and Corwin, NWPPA – ESCC Wildfire Working Group member).

Report finds increase in high-capacity EV chargers could benefit utilities

May 5, 2021

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
May 5, 2021

Longer range electric vehicles and more powerful chargers could be a “boon to utilities” technically, environmentally, and financially, but will require utilities to adopt strategies for optimizing residential EV charging, according to a new report from research firm Pecan Street.

The premise of the report, Charging Smart, is that an increase in the maximum power level of residential electric vehicle (EV) chargers is imminent and will likely reach the highest charger levels within a decade, leading to increased costs for utilities by shifting charging load to times of day when electricity is more expensive.

Today, most electric vehicles charge at below 10 kilowatts (kW) of power, but Pecan Street’s researchers expect power levels to increase. The practical upper limit of power for residential charging is a function of the electrical service to the home. For a home with 200 to 300 ampere service, the maximum charge level is likely to peak around 18 kW, they said.

Higher capacity electric vehicles and chargers creates “significant electricity demand” and “fundamentally changes a home’s energy demand profile,” the report found. “If charging takes place at scale across a utility’s territory during times of peak demand, it will contribute significantly to higher peak demand with rapid ramp rates.” However, because high-capacity chargers are more time-efficient, “they offer more flexibility to shift EV charging to off-peak times while still allowing for vehicles to be sufficiently charged,” the authors said. The authors noted that several vehicles in their sample already have charger power levels in the 16-kW to 18-kW range.

The sample consisted of 92 homes, most within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region. The report included data from 2018 and 2019 but excluded 2020 data because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which changed driving patterns.

More powerful electric vehicle chargers could add more load to peak summer demand and increase the cost of summer charging by 8 percent, but shifting that load could have a large impact, the report said.

Moving 35 percent of residential charging load (by kilowatt hour) leads to a 59 percent wholesale electric cost differential between the highest and lowest scenario outcomes during the summer season, the report found.

The report looked at four scenarios:

Pecan Street’s analysis of the scenarios found that a post commute charging trend would “significantly increase utility costs” but that both scenarios in which electric vehicle charging is shifted to overnight hours “reduced overall EV charging cost in every model run.”

“The findings show an 18 percent cost increase for the worst-case scenario and a 23 percent cost decrease for the best-case scenario,” the report’s authors said. The best case scenario shifted a percentage of electric vehicle charging from peak times to overnight. The worst case scenario had more electric vehicle owners charging in the early evening.

The authors recommended that utilities should explore time variant rate options, as well as hybrid pricing options that offer higher fixed rates from 6am to midnight and discounted fixed rates from midnight to 6am. Utilities should also consider incentives for the deployment of smart charging technologies, such as owner-operated programmable charging systems and direct charge control functions in conjunction with pricing signals. And, finally, the authors say utilities should establish outreach campaigns to influence customer behaviors to shift charging patterns.

“What’s so promising about this analysis is the clear opportunity to push innovation that will use vehicle electrification to create a more reliable electric grid and maximize greenhouse gas reductions,” Suzanne Russo, Pecan Street CEO, said in a statement. “It’s critical that utilities and regulators act now to establish programs that encourage the adoption of smart charging technology and optimal charging behaviors.”

Austin, Texas-based Pecan Energy worked with Austin Energy to test the use of EVs as peak shaving tools and, eventually, as a grid resource. The tests, which were conducted at Pecan Street’s laboratory in east Austin, involves the use of an EV capable of bi-directional energy flows, also known as V2G capability.

The American Public Power Association’s Public Power EV Activities Tracker summarizes key efforts undertaken by members — including incentives, electric vehicle deployment, charging infrastructure investments, rate design, pilot programs, and more.

APPA recently published a report for its members in order to help them navigate the ins and outs of rate design for electric vehicle charging.

Massachusetts lawmakers tour Reading Municipal Light Department battery storage system

May 5, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 5, 2021

A group of Massachusetts state lawmakers on April 23 toured the Reading Municipal Light Department’s (RMLD) Minuteman Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in North Reading, Mass.

The tour provided an opportunity for the lawmakers to see how the RMLD, a Municipal Light Plant (MLP), utilized a $1 million state grant to demonstrate the capabilities of energy storage. RMLD received the grant in 2018.

In addition to seeing the system firsthand, the lawmakers were briefed on how RMLD utilizes the BESS to reduce wholesale electricity costs for its customers as part of its demand response program.

The 5-megawatt, 10-megawatt hour BESS was constructed at RMLD’s North Reading substation and became operational on June 1, 2019. The system is owned by NextEra Energy Resources and operated under an energy storage agreement between NextEra and the RMLD.

people

The primary purpose of the unit is coincident peak demand management for reductions during critical peak times when electricity is most expensive and to mitigate ISO New England’s need to dispatch less environmentally friendly generators.

In the 19 months that the BESS has been operational, the RMLD has realized net savings of $346,000 by reducing demand during annual capacity and monthly transmission peaks.

Lawmakers who attended the tour were Jeffrey Roy, new chairman of the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy (TUE) Committee and six TUE Committee members: House Minority Leader Brad Jones, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, Rep. Joan Meschino, Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian, Rep. David Robertson, and Rep. Rich Haggerty.

APPA members invited to make board nominations for Region 2

May 5, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 5, 2021

The American Public Power Association is inviting member organizations from Region 2 to nominate candidates for a seat on APPA’s board of directors to represent that region on the board. Nominations must be submitted no later than May 21, 2021

Region 2 covers Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin. 

The nomination form can be found here to nominate deserving individuals for this important position. 

The Nominating Committee will meet telephonically in late May to consider nominations for the Region 2 seat.  The Committee’s recommendations for the new Board members will be presented and voted upon by the Board of Directors at the annual business meeting held in June during APPA’s National Conference.

Contact Cartina Parks-Williams at CParks-Williams@publicpower.org for questions regarding submissions.

SRP to more than double utility scale solar to 2,025 megawatts by 2025

May 4, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 4, 2021

Salt River Project (SRP) on May 3 unveiled plans to more than double its 2025 utility-scale solar commitment to now add a total of 2,025 megawatts (MW) of new utility-scale solar energy to its power system by the end of fiscal year 2025, driven in part by dedicated customer demand for new renewables.

This is more than 1,000 MW beyond SRP’s original 2025 commitment of 1,000 MW announced in November 2018, the Arizona-based public power utility noted.

As part of this 1,025 MW solar increase, 450 MW is enabled by an SRP commercial customer to meet its renewable energy commitments. All the renewable energy purchased is expected to be from solar energy developments built in Arizona or on the Navajo Nation and will ultimately be used by SRP commercial and residential customers. 

SRP currently has 648 MW of utility-scale solar plants online or contracted and under development across the state and will add more than 1,375 MW of newly contracted solar power by 2025.

SRP recently contracted for the output from the Sonoran Energy Center, which will be the largest solar-charged battery project in the state, giving SRP one of the largest commitments to energy storage in the nation, it said.

The utility has also contracted for an additional large-scale solar and battery storage project at Pinal Central Solar Energy Center and is bringing online a new grid-charged battery storage project at Agua Fria Generating Station.

SRP’s latest solar field developments which came online in December 2020 include the 100 MW East Line Solar and the 100 MW Saint Solar. The two utility-scale solar fields serve commercial, municipal and educational customers who chose to participate in SRP’s Sustainable Energy Offering.

East Line Solar was built by developer sPower and is located in the town of Coolidge in Pinal County, Ariz., and solely serves Intel Corporation with 100 MW of renewable solar energy. Saint Solar was built by developer NextEra and is also located in Coolidge, Ariz., and customers currently receiving a portion of the 100 MW of renewable energy from this solar plant include Air Products, Albertsons Companies, Inc., City of Chandler, City of Mesa, City of Phoenix, CMC Steel Arizona, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Freeport-McMoRan, Mesa Public Schools and Walmart.

Another utility-scale solar plant part of SRP’s Sustainable Energy Offering is Central Line Solar, a 100 MW solar field to soon be built by developer sPower in Eloy, Ariz., that will serve 21 SRP companies with renewable energy once the plant becomes operational in December this year.

Customers who will receive renewable energy from Central Line Solar include Apple, Inc., Arizona State University, Boeing, CenturyLink, Chandler Unified School District and Circle K Stores, among others.

SRP is already in the process of procuring the additional 1,025 MW of solar capacity from solar developers interested in building new generation resources in Arizona, it noted.

Washington governor tours Snohomish County PUD’s unique microgrid site

May 4, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 4, 2021

Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, recently visited a Snohomish County PUD microgrid site. The Arlington microgrid is currently undergoing testing and commissioning and should be fully operational in a few months.

In 2018, the PUD received a grant from the state’s Clean Energy Fund to help build the Arlington microgrid. In fact, the grant covered a quarter of the costs to make the project feasible for the PUD, said Aaron Swaney, a Snohomish County PUD spokesperson, who noted that Inslee has been a champion of clean energy in the state of Washington.

The Arlington Microgrid project is funded in part by a $3.5 million grid modernization grant from the Clean Energy Fund, noted Washington State Department of Commerce Managing Director Jennifer Grove.

“We’re excited to support projects like this that demonstrate how clean energy technologies such as battery storage and solar can work together to provide the community with renewable energy and grid resilience. Commerce is accepting applications for the next round of grid modernization grants through 5 p.m. on May 18, with a focus on funding and technical assistance for earlier-stage planning and design efforts,” she said.

Inslee was interested in the progress of the project, Swaney said.

inslee

The microgrid is a very unique project, Swaney pointed out. “More than just a ‘microgrid,’ the innovative project is designed to demonstrate the multiple uses of energy storage: grid resiliency, renewable energy integration, grid support and electric vehicle integration,” Swaney said.

On top of that, the microgrid “could play a critical role in helping the PUD restore power in the case of a devastating earthquake in our region,” he said.

The area where the microgrid is built is near the Arlington Airport and a growing hub of industrial and commercial activity, including the recently announced development of a large Amazon facility.

Inslee received a brief tour of the different elements that make the microgrid unique:

PUD Arlington Microgrid Project Manager Scott Gibson led the tour of the V2G and battery storage system, while Community Solar Project Manager Suzy Oversvee talked about the PUD’s investment in Community Solar.

Inslee also chatted and joked with four members of a PUD Substation Construction crew who helped build the microgrid, Swaney said.

solar

Swaney said that the project is undergoing testing and commissioning and should be fully operational by early July. “We are anticipating hosting a virtual ribbon cutting in late August,” he said.

There are many aspects of the project that are innovative, but three are truly unique and being studied closely, he said.

The pair of Mitsubishi Electric V2G chargers on site are one of the first utility deployed (non-demonstration) projects of its kind in the U.S. Nissan is a partner and Pacific Northwest National Laboratories is studying the use of V2G technology.

Second, the Hitachi-ABB PowerGrid’s Grid Forming Inverter helps ensure there is no power loss during the battery’s transition from powering the grid to acting like a generator to power the facilities on site. The University of Texas is studying the Grid Forming Inverter.

Finally, the PUD collaborated with several parties including Burns & McDonnell, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), MESA Alliance, other utilities, and the Arlington Fire Department (AFD) to create a battery storage system that maximizes functionality and safety.

“The battery fire suppression system was a great collaboration between PNNL and the AFD to create a system that is arguably the safest in the country if not the world,” Swaney said.

“We are planning to use this system to provide back-up power to a future office being constructed on the site (anticipated completion 2023),” said Gibson. “We are currently testing the system on the recently completed Clean Energy Center so that when it comes time to connect to the new office – we know that everything works.”