California PUC Issues Revised Proposal on Solar Net Metering Rates
November 14, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
November 14, 2022
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently issued a proposal to revise the state’s Net Energy Metering (NEM) solar tariff to better reflect the value of solar power generation to the state’s grid.
The proposal would replace NEM payments to utility customers tied to the retail electric rate with payments linked to the avoided cost a utility would pay to buy the electricity elsewhere. The CPUC said the aim is to provide the largest incentives for solar exports during the late afternoon and early evening hours when the grid is the most stressed and prices are highest and minimize incentive payments during times when demand, and prices, are lowest, such as midday during a week day.
The proposed tariff would also provide extra electricity bill credits to residential customers who adopt solar or solar paired with battery storage in the next five years, which would be paid on top of the avoided cost bill credits. Customers would be able to lock in the extra bill credits for nine years.
The proposed tariffs would also provide low-income customers more access to solar power by providing a larger amount of extra bill credits to ensure the solar system payback is just as attractive as the payback for higher-income customers.
The proposal would cover 150 percent of a customer’s electricity usage to accommodate future electrification of appliances and vehicles, the CPUC said.
The proposal would have no impact on existing rooftop solar customers who would maintain current compensation rates.
“NEM has helped California make significant progress toward meeting its climate goals, but now that California has nearly 25 gigawatts (GW) of solar on our grid, needs have shifted,” the CPUC said in a statement. “It is now essential to address grid reliability shortfalls during ‘net peak’ hours in the early evening when the sun is down and we rely on fossil fuels to meet demand.”
In December 2021, the CPUC issued an initial proposal to reform its NEM tariffs and to encourage customers to combine energy storage with their solar systems. The proposal also included a grid participation charge of $8 for every kilowatt hour of rooftop solar power produced. The proposal met with heavy criticism from many stakeholders, and in January the commission postponed a vote on the proposal.
Like the December proposed revisions, the new proposal would use avoided costs to determine incentive levels, but the new proposal does not include the controversial participation charge.
Under the new proposal, the CPUC said “average residential customers of Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, or San Diego Gas & Electric installing solar will save $100 a month on their electricity bill, and average residential customers installing solar paired with battery storage will save at least $136 a month.”
While CPUC decisions apply only to investor owned electric and natural gas utilities and not public power utilities, the commission’s effort has a broad impact on the state’s electric grid.
The CPUC said the revised proposal on NEM tariffs will be on its Dec. 15 voting meeting agenda.
California Energy Commission Grant Will Fund Long Duration Storage for Calif. Tribe
November 14, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
November 14, 2022
The California Energy Commission (CEC) earlier this month made a $31 million grant to fund a long duration energy storage system for the Viejas Tribe of Kumeyaay Indians in Southern California.
The grant is the first award under California’s $140 million Long-Duration Energy Storage Program, which is part of the state’s efforts to fight climate change and to achieve 100 percent clean electricity by 2045.
The CEC said the 60-megawatt-hour (MWh) project is one of the first of its kind in the country and will provide renewable backup power to the Viejas community in the event of local outages and provide the opportunity for the tribe to shift electricity use away from California’s electric grid during calls for conservation.
The CEC awarded the grant to Indian Energy LLC, a privately held Native American-owned developer that is building a microgrid project on the tribe’s behalf.
“This solar microgrid project will enable us to create a reliable and sustainable source of clean energy for our gaming, hospitality, and retail operations going forward,” John Christman, chairman of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, said in a statement.
The Viejas Band is one of 12 bands of the Kumeyaay Indian Nation that lives on a 1,600-acre reservation in the Viejas Valley, near Alpine in San Diego County, where the tribe owns and operates the Viejas Casino and Resort.
The microgrid system is designed to deliver power to the casino and resort. The energy storage system will connect with an existing, onsite 15-MW solar power installation. Eos Energy Enterprises is supplying a 35-MWh, zinc-based flow battery to the project. Invinity Energy Systems is supplying a 10-MWh vanadium redox flow battery. The energy storage system will have the potential to discharge for up to 10 hours.
The remaining 15 MWh will also be non-lithium ion and will provided by the tribe at a later date, CEC spokeswoman Lindsay Buckley said via email. The initial 45 MWh are scheduled to enter service by summer 2023, and we expect the full 60 MWh to be operational by the summer of 2024.”
Flow batteries use electrolytes moving through tanks to produce electricity. They are rechargeable and do not degrade. And, because they do not use lithium ion, they avoid the potential first hazards associated with those batteries.
Vehicle To Grid Charging Could Provide Grid Savings, Report Finds
November 14, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
November 14, 2022
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging could provide substantial system savings for New England as it transitions to a clean energy future, according to a new report.
The report, Can vehicle-to-grid facilitate the transition to low carbon energy systems?, published in the journal Energy Advances, examined V2G potential in the context of the greenfield buildout and operation of renewable energy resources in the New England power system in 2050 in which there is high electric vehicle penetration and tight emissions constraints.
In that scenario, V2G in aggregate could shift load via demand response and shift excess renewables generation to periods of low availability and high net loads across a range of carbon constraints and participation rates, the report found.
If V2G electric vehicles were to participate in both power and ancillary markets, they could provide substantial value, primarily by displacing stationary storage.
With relatively little participation of just 13.9 percent of the New England light duty vehicle fleet, “14.7 gigawatts (GW) of 6-hour stationary storage is completely displaced and amounts to over $700 million in savings,” the report’s authors said.
Additional savings could come in the form of reductions in firm generation capacity and more efficient utilization of renewable resources, that is, reduced curtailments, they said.
“Not only does this analysis demonstrate V2G’s utility, but also the importance of how one chooses to measure its value (i.e., counting investment deferral), particularly in the context of future systems,” the report said.
The magnitude and nature of V2G savings also changes as the electric system changes. Under more aggressive emissions caps, for instance, V2G decreases the need to compensate for the intermittency of renewable resources by increasing the size of the deployed resources or by using fossil fuel generation with expensive carbon capture technologies, thus increasing the marginal value of V2G, the report found.
In addition, the nature of optimal V2G dispatch changes with participation rates. At low electric vehicle participation rates, V2G power injection is called on at a higher rate in order to shave uncontrolled evening charging loads, while higher participation rates rely on less injection through charge load shifting, the report said.
Similarly, the value of V2G could change depending on geography and the energy storage marketplace. Shorter duration storage, such as the 6-hour lithium ion batteries studied in the report, are not sufficient to remedy extended periods of low renewable generation availability, so firm generation is required to satisfy electric vehicle loads.
However, long duration storage and V2G could add flexibility to each other’s ancillary service offerings, with EV batteries providing rapid frequency regulation and long duration storage increasing operating reserve contributions. Pumped hydroelectric storage in the Northwest, for example, could provide “significant utility” throughout the region, the report found. The implications and interactions of more prevalent long duration storage with V2G are areas that “stand to be investigated further in future works,” the report’s authors said.
Combined Cycle Gas Plants Reverse Trend, Adding Nearly 8 GW This Year: EIA
November 14, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
November 14, 2022
By the end of the year, eight natural gas-fired combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants have either come online, reversing a four-year decline in CCGT start-ups, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The new plants will add 7,775 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity to the electric grid, according to the latest estimates and data from EIA’s Monthly Electric Generator Inventory. The EIA expects CCGT capacity to reach almost 290 gigawatts (GW) by year-end, or 24 percent of total U.S. generating capacity.
Output from CCGT plants, which use combine a gas and steam turbine in a single plant, will likely rise from the 1,326,278 gigawatt hours (GWh) they generated in 2021, which was 32 percent of total electric generation last year. Coal-fired generation ranked second at 22 percent of total generation and nuclear power was third at 19 percent in 2021.
The EIA expects 4,215 MW of CCGT capacity will be added in 2023, when five new plants are slated to open. All of those facilities are under construction and expected to enter service before the end of 2023.
About half of the existing CCGT fleet currently operating entered service between 2000 and 2006. CCGT additions have continued since then albeit it at a slower pace. This year’s additions are about 80 percent below the record level of CCGT additions set in 2002 and 2003, the EIA noted.
Seven of the eight CCGT plants opening this year are either in the upper Midwest or in Florida where they are being built to meet rising demand for electricity and to replace retiring coal-fired power plants, the EIA said.
In Michigan, 1,403 MW of new CCGT capacity will replace the 1,560 MW of existing coal-fired generating capacity scheduled to retire this year.
In Florida, the 2,222 MW of new CCGT capacity will replace 1,486 MW of coal-fired capacity retiring this year.
Three CCGT plants, with 3,918 MW of capacity, are opening this year in the PJM Interconnection region where they will help replace the 5,346 MW of coal-fired capacity in PJM that is retiring this year and the 3,774 MW of coal capacity scheduled to retire next year, EIA said.
Groups Urge Risk-Based Approach for Covered Entities for Cyber Incident Reporting
November 10, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 10, 2022
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) should define “covered entities” for cyber incident reporting in a risk-based manner, the American Public Power Association (APPA) and the Large Public Power Council (LPPC) said in response to a request for information (RFI) issued by CISA on the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 (CIRCIA).
“While the whole electric sector is critical to national and economic security, not all electric utilities have the same risk profile,” APPA and LPPC said in their comments.
“Acknowledgement of this fact is of particular importance to public power utilities, as APPA’s and LPPC’s members have widely different risk profiles ranging from an electric utility with transmission assets that serves millions of customers to a very small distribution electric utility without an industrial control system serving 200 customers,” they said.
Moreover, APPA and LPPC strongly encouraged CISA to utilize previous efforts to identify the most critical of critical systems and assets as it determines what constitutes a covered entity under the law.
APPA and LPPC believe that such a targeted definition of “covered entity” — especially in this initial implementation period — has the dual benefit of ensuring that entities with the highest risk profiles begin incident reporting immediately, thereby increasing national security, and keeping the number of entities covered under the law to a limited, more manageable level, allowing CISA and industry to more easily work out any implementation kinks.
APPA and LPPC also recommended that CISA tightly limit the definition of “covered cyber incident” to significant and substantial incidents that impact critical systems or services.
For example, a large electric utility that is a covered entity should have to report if it discovers an industrial control system breach at a generation plant or transmission facility. “A covered entity should not have to report a phishing attempt on the email of an accountant that has no connection or control of the operating technology for the electric system,” APPA and LPPC said.
“Critical infrastructure entities are the targets of malicious cyber actors millions of times a day. An overly broad definition of covered cyber incidents would present enormous compliance challenges for utilities, and even if these challenges could be overcome, the result would be a deluge of reports that would make it difficult, if not impossible, for CISA to determine a signal through the noise.”
Balancing Situational Awareness and Cyber Incident Response
The groups also argued that as CISA considers reporting processes and reporting content, it is important that it considers the ultimate purpose of this reporting, which is not to over burden victims for the sake of reporting, but to assist critical infrastructure and the federal government in identifying, addressing, or responding to cyber security threats.
Some critical infrastructure sectors are already covered by federal mandatory reporting of certain cyber incidents, in addition to state laws for reporting of data breach incidents. “In implementing CIRCIA’s incident reporting standards, APPA and LPPC strongly encourage DHS CISA to harmonize any new obligations with utilities’ existing requirements to avoid confusion and conflict between CIRCIA obligations and other mandatory reporting channels.”
Additionally, some sectors, like the electric sector, also have active voluntary reporting and machine-to-machine sharing already taking place. “CISA should recognize and take into consideration these voluntary reporting pathways and associated sector focused analysis, given the value these mechanisms currently provide to critical infrastructures.”
Existing Reporting
A covered entity is exempt from reporting under CIRCIA if it is already required to make reports on similar information to another federal agency, within a similar timeframe, if there is an agreement in place between CISA and that other federal agency, the groups pointed out.
Given the existing incident reporting regimes overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy, “CISA should engage in direct and deep consultation with FERC and DOE as it works to implement CIRCIA.”
Moreover, CISA must take into account existing data breach reporting requirements at the state level, they added.
“To improve the threat landscape and associated awareness of it, it will be critical to work with existing infrastructures wherever possible to allow single-point reporting with the government being responsible for sharing information internally in a need-to-know environment, rather than imposing multiple reporting obligations on an impacted entity, which may also be dealing with a live cybersecurity event.”
Cost Impacts
APPA and LPPC also said that CISA must be mindful of the cost of any new rule on smaller entities.
“The cost of electric service is a key factor in the nation’s economic health, and the reality of varying, but finite resources and budgets suggests that overspending on security measures may compromise grid reliability in other respects. This is especially important to consumer-owned, not-for-profit public power utilities,” they said.
Snohomish County PUD Marks Completion of Microgrid and Clean Energy Center
November 10, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 10, 2022
Washington State’s Snohomish County PUD recently hosted a ribbon-cutting to celebrate the completion of its Arlington Microgrid and Clean Energy Center.
The project is located near the Arlington Airport and demonstrates multiple uses of energy storage, including utility-scale battery energy storage, residential battery energy storage and vehicle-to-grid charging systems.
The PUD’s Arlington Microgrid is a combination of a 500-kilowatt solar array, 1-megawatt/1.4-megawatt-hour lithium-ion battery energy storage system and a pair of vehicle-to-grid charging stations. The group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources focus on disaster recovery, grid resiliency and electric vehicle integration.
Washington’s Department of Commerce Managing Director Jennifer Grove stressed the importance of collaborating with forward-thinking utilities like the PUD in her remarks. The PUD received $3.5 million in funding from the Department of Commerce’s Clean Energy Fund.
Other attendees included U.S. Congresswoman Suzan DelBene, state Senator June Robinson, and Representatives Keith Goehner, Mike Steele and Carolyn Eslick, and members of the Arlington City Council.
John Haarlow, PUD CEO/General Manager, spoke about the project’s connection to the future and how the PUD is working to better understand new technology.
“The lessons the PUD is learning at this project every day are informing our future,” said Haarlow. “Battery energy storage will help make critical infrastructure impervious to outages and help us meet energy demand when customer usage is at its highest. Vehicle-to-grid charging will allow us to work with homeowners and business owners to leverage EVs as backup or grid-assisted power sources.”
The Arlington Microgrid was designed and sized to provide power to the Clean Energy Center and a future community office, which is currently under construction on the site, during an outage that could be caused by a major windstorm or earthquake.
PUD Generation Engineer Scott Gibson, who oversaw the Arlington Microgrid project, and Hitachi Energy General Manager of Grid Edge Solutions Antonio Verga both spoke on the complexity of the project and the key to collaboration between the PUD and the numerous vendors.
“The Arlington Microgrid provides a foundation for meeting both today’s emerging energy challenges and the future energy needs in Washington state and beyond,” said Verga.
One of the most impressive aspects of the project is the ability for the microgrid to disconnect from the electrical grid and transition to microgrid mode seamlessly, the PUD said.
“At most microgrids, the disconnection from the larger grid to microgrid mode is very noticeable and can result in a momentary power interruption lasting several seconds,” said Gibson. “At the Arlington Microgrid this transition is not noticeable to the eye or even the PUD’s metering equipment and has no effect on computer systems running in the Clean Energy Center. This is a significant achievement.”
The PUD plans to use the Clean Energy Center and accompanying solar tree to demonstrate microgrid technology and educate the public about battery energy storage and vehicle-to-grid technology.
For more on the Arlington Microgrid and Clean Energy Center, visit snopud.com/microgrid.
Public Power Utility Crews Deploy to Help with Florida Power Restoration Efforts
November 9, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 9, 2022
Crews from public power utilities on Nov. 9 traveled to various locations in Florida prior to the arrival of Tropical Storm Nicole, which is expected to turn into a hurricane.
Amy Zubaly, Executive Director of the Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA), on Nov. 8 said that FMEA and its members were closely watching and monitoring Nicole.
Florida public power utility Keys Energy Services (KEYS) on Nov. 9 said it had mobilized six linemen to assist with post-Hurricane Nicole power restoration efforts in Ft. Pierce, Florida.
KEYS’ crew will assist personnel from other regional utilities and contractors with regional power restoration in the aftermath of the storm.
KEYS’ linemen, along with three bucket trucks, one digger truck, one material trailer, and one utility pole trailer, departed for Ft. Pierce on Wednesday, November 9, and will be pre-staged to begin assisting with power restoration once the storm has passed.
“Our crew is looking forward to lending their unique hurricane restoration experience to Fort Pierce Utilities Authority, a fellow public power utility,” said Lynne Tejeda, KEYS’ General Manager & CEO.
Also on Nov. 9, Louisiana public power utility Lafayette Utilities System (LUS) reported that LUS line crews headed out early that morning to travel to Tallahassee, Fla., a public power city, ahead of Tropical Storm Nicole. “LUS crews will ride out the storm with the Tallahassee crews and will assist in restoration once weather conditions are safe,” LUS said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, crews from Alabama public power utility on Nov. 9 headed out for Ocala, Fla., to arrive in advance of Nicole and be ready to work as soon as weather permits.
Another Alabama public power utility, Riviera Utilities, reported that 14 of its linemen and two engineering technicians on Nov. 9 departed for Gainesville, Fla., a public power city. “Our mutual aid crews will be on-site and ready to help once Nicole makes landfall,” Riviera Utilities said.
“Tropical Storm Nicole continued to strengthen as it swirled across the western Atlantic from Tuesday to Wednesday, and AccuWeather meteorologists said the massive storm will make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane along Florida’s east coast early Thursday morning,” AccuWeather reported on Nov. 9.
SMUD to Collaborate with Japan’s TEPCO on Vehicle-Grid Integration Technologies
November 9, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 9, 2022
California public power utility SMUD and the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), Japan’s largest electric utility, on Nov. 2 announced an agreement to collaborate on vehicle-grid integration technologies with the purpose of accelerating transportation electrification and decarbonization.
The Memorandum of Understanding between SMUD and TEPCO establishes a framework for shared research and collaboration on how to expand and support EV adoption and vehicle-to-everything technology while maintaining a resilient and reliable power grid.
The collaboration also aims to enhance solar consumption initiatives, reduce on-peak load, prevent strain on distribution infrastructure, increase customer bill savings and share the grid value of these services with customers.
With respect to grid planning, operations, interconnection and utility and customer financial impacts, SMUD and TEPCO will study, develop and pilot complementary programs that further account for, and promote, vehicle-grid integration technologies.
Automated EV load management, managed EV charging, bidirectional EV charging and other advanced grid services also grant customers access to backup power resources for their homes or businesses and Virtual Power Plant technology for battery aggregation in a manner that bolsters grid stability and systemwide decarbonization, TEPCO said in a news release.
Salt River Project’s Mike Hummel to Retire as General Manager
November 8, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 8, 2022
On Nov. 7, Mike Hummel announced to the Salt River Project (SRP) Board of Directors that he will be retiring from SRP in May 2023.
“As Hummel approaches his fifth year as general manager, he decided the time was right to retire after nearly 41 years of dedication to SRP’s mission, its customers and the Arizona community,” SRP said.
The SRP Board will conduct a search to fill his role with support from executive search firm Korn Ferry.
The Board expects to identify a new general manager before Hummel retires in May.
Public Power Utilities Prepare for Arrival of Tropical Storm Nicole
November 8, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 8, 2022
Public power utilities are preparing for the arrival this week of Tropical Storm Nicole, which is expected to turn into a hurricane.
Amy Zubaly, Executive Director of the Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA), on Nov. 8 said that FMEA and its members were closely watching and monitoring Nicole.
“Like all storms, the where and when landfall will occur is still a fluid situation, but Nicole is likely to make landfall along the central to south-central east coast of Florida,” she said.
Zubaly said that FMEA has been in communication with all of Florida’s public power communities to discuss anticipated needs in advance of and following the storm.
“In addition, we have been in touch with our mutual aid partners across the southeast,” she noted.
Zubaly said that crews from Lafayette, La., Alabama, Paducah, Ky., and Keys Energy, Fla., were being pre-staged in various Florida public power utilities in advance of the storm, “and several others on standby to come in post storm, once conditions are safe and depending on Florida public power’s needs.”
Florida public power utility Kissimmee Utility Authority said it has activated its Emergency Operations Plan.
The utility is currently operating at Alert Level 3 and will advance to Alert Level 4 once the storm is within 24 hours of impacting its 85-square-mile service territory in Osceola County. Once the storm passes, its crews will begin their damage assessment analysis to determine if additional assistance is needed.
“Nicole may be capable of causing power outages and flooding. In addition, restoration may be hampered by flooding, downed trees, high winds, or other obstacles. KUA crews are prepared to work long hours after the storm passes, restoring service to customers as quickly and as safely as possible,” KUA said.
Meanwhile, South Carolina’s Santee Cooper on Nov. 8 said its team members were making preparations for the anticipated effects that Tropical Storm Nicole may have on Santee Cooper’s service territory.
As of noon on Nov. 8, Santee Cooper went to Operating Condition (OpCon) 4 alert status. This means there is a possible threat to Santee Cooper’s electric system, but effects may be limited or uncertain.
At OpCon 4, the utility is primarily checking and fueling vehicles, including line trucks, making sure communications equipment is in proper working order and taking inventory and procuring supplies as needed, such as utility poles, electric transformers and associated equipment.
A hurricane warning was issued along the central part of Florida’s east coast on Nov. 8 as Tropical Storm Nicole “churned across the Atlantic and showed signs of further strengthening as it tracked toward” the state, AccuWeather reported. AccuWeather “meteorologists expect this sprawling storm to take a turn and hit Florida’s east coast — as a hurricane — later this week before it takes a run up the Eastern Seaboard.”