DOE Offers Funding For EV Charging, Other Transportation Activities
August 4, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
August 4, 2022
The Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced a $96 million funding opportunity to support decarbonizing the U.S. transportation sector.
The funding will focus on expanding access to electric vehicle charging stations, creating cleaner non-road vehicles through electrification and the use of alternative fuels, and developing electric drive components and materials to maximize electric vehicle efficiency and affordability.
Non-road vehicles, including agricultural and construction equipment, rail, marine and aviation, are a major source of pollution, emitting more carbon pollution than any other sector of the economy, the DOE said.
While decarbonizing on-road vehicles is critical to fighting climate change, it is equally important to research, develop, and deploy clean engines and fuel technologies for non-road vehicles, the DOE said in the funding announcement. The federal agency said the new funding opportunity aims to support research on non-road engine technologies that are less harmful to the environment and develop electric, natural gas, and other alternatives for fueling and powering non-road engines.
DOE’s funding for on-road electric vehicles is aimed at helping to support President Biden’s call for electric vehicles to make up half of all automotive sales by 2030 by ensuring that the nation’s charging infrastructure is prepared to meet increased demand.
The new $96 million opportunity complements the $5 billion made available under the new National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to build out a national electric vehicle charging network.
The DOE also said it is committed to developing solutions in underserved areas and for drivers who do not have access to charging at home and would invest in projects that create regional refueling infrastructure plans for zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles powered by electricity and hydrogen fuel.
The DOE is also seeking to fund projects to develop novel multi-functional materials for electric vehicles and improve powertrain performance in electric vehicles for increased functionality and reliability.
New materials and advanced electric drive systems are key to developing next-generation electrified vehicle platforms, including full battery electric and fuel cell electric vehicles with smaller, more affordable electric systems for improved performance and durability, the DOE said.
Applicants for the new funding opportunity must submit a concept paper by Aug. 25 and register and submit application materials through the DOE online application portal by Nov. 10.
U.S. Power Grid Added 15 GW Of Utility-Scale Generating Capacity In First Half Of 2022
August 4, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 4, 2022
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) on August 3 reported that 15 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale electric generating capacity came online in the United States during the first half of 2022.
Based on the most recently reported plans, developers could add another 29 GW of capacity in the second half of the year, it said.
EIA’s Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory compiles information on all U.S. utility-scale power plants — plants with a nameplate capacity of at least 1 megawatt (MW) — that are currently operating, planning to come online, or retired. The inventory includes all utility-scale plants that have retired since 2002.
EIA updates this inventory once a month with preliminary data and then finalizes that data annually with a survey that provides additional information about the power plants.
With respect to operating capacity, EIA reported that wind generation accounts for the largest share, 34%, of the 15.1 GW of capacity that came online in the United States during the first half of 2022, followed by natural gas, solar, and battery storage.
More than 40% of the wind capacity added so far in 2022 is located in Texas, 2.2 GW of the 5.2 GW wind total.
In terms of planned capacity, developers and project planners reported plans to add 29.4 GW of new capacity in the United States in the second half of 2022. Nearly half of that planned capacity is from solar (13.6 GW), followed by wind (6.0 GW). As in previous years, many projects plan to come online in December because of tax incentives.
Respondents to EIA’s survey currently plan to add 3.7 GW less solar capacity in 2022 than what they had expected at the beginning of the year. Pandemic-related challenges in supply chains and a U.S. Department of Commerce tariff investigation are likely causes for this decrease, the agency said.
As for retired capacity, of the 15.1 GW of electric generating capacity that U.S. operators plan to retire during 2022, more than half (8.8 GW) was retired in the first half of the year. Coal-fired power plants will account for 76% of the retirements this year, followed by natural gas (12%) and nuclear (9%).
Federal Nuclear Regulators Authorize Fuel Loading And Operation At New Georgia Unit
August 4, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 4, 2022
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has authorized Southern Nuclear Operating Company to load nuclear fuel and begin operation at Vogtle Unit 3 in Georgia, the first reactor to reach this point in the agency’s combined license process.
The NRC’s decision moves Vogtle Unit 3, adjacent to the operating Units 1 and 2, near Waynesboro, Georgia, out of the construction reactor oversight program and into the operating reactor oversight process.
Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 are two 1,100-megawatt Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactors being constructed in Burke County, Ga.
“The team at the site continues working diligently to make final preparations for Unit 3 fuel load, initiate startup testing and bring the unit online,” Southern, an investor-owned utility, noted on Aug. 3.
“Over the next several weeks, well-trained and highly qualified nuclear technicians will continue work required to support loading fuel, which is already onsite, into the unit’s reactor. This will be followed by several months of startup testing and operations,” the utility said.
Startup testing is designed to demonstrate the integrated operation of the primary coolant system and steam supply system at design temperature and pressure with fuel inside the reactor. Operators will also bring the plant from cold shutdown to initial criticality, synchronize the unit to the grid and systematically raise power to 100%.
Florida public power utility JEA, the City of Jacksonville and the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG Power) in 2020 announced a settlement of all disputed issues relating to the new Units 3 and 4 of the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant and an amended and restated power purchase agreement.
The Vogtle Electric Generating Plant is jointly owned by Georgia Power (45.7%), Oglethorpe Power Corporation (30%), Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (22.7%) and Dalton Utilities (1.6%).
Additional information about Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 is available here.
DOE Issues Notice Of Intent For Potential Hydrogen Research Funding
August 4, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
August 4, 2022
The Department of Energy (DOE) recently issued a notice of intent for a potential funding opportunity to accelerate the research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) of clean-hydrogen technologies and grid resilience.
The potential funding would advance the DOE’s goal of reducing the cost of clean hydrogen to $1 per 1 kilogram in 1 decade that is central to the agency’s Hydrogen Shot initiative. It would also support the DOE’s H2@Scale initiative to develop clean and affordable hydrogen across multiple sectors in the economy and improve energy resilience.
The DOE said the goals would be advanced through RD&D efforts in several areas, including advanced pathways for solar-based hydrogen fuel production; technologies for high-resolution hydrogen sensing; demonstrations of materials-based hydrogen storage and transport systems; and development of high-performance, durable, low-cost fuel cell components for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.
The potential funding opportunity would also seek to establish a grid resilience university consortium with agreements between universities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico to foster information sharing on best practices and cross-border dependencies. The consortium would work collaboratively with tribes, states, regions, industry, utilities, and other stakeholders to support grid resilience planning and pilot projects that can serve as a model for others.
In the Notice of Intent, the DOE said it envisions awarding multiple financial assistance awards in the form of cooperative agreements, with the performance period running from two to four years. DOE is encouraging applicants that include stakeholders in academia, industry, and national laboratories across multiple technical disciplines.
Teams are also encouraged to include representation from diverse entities such as minority-serving institutions or through linkages with Opportunity Zones.
The DOE said the potential funding opportunity would advance the Biden administration’s goals of achieving carbon-free electricity by 2035 and net-zero carbon emissions across the entire economy by 2050.
In February, the DOE announced two requests for information to collect feedback from stakeholders to inform the implementation and design of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Regional Hydrogen Hub and the Electrolysis and Clean Hydrogen Manufacturing and Recycling Programs.
In June, the DOE closed on a $504.4 million loan guarantee to the Advanced Clean Energy Storage project in Utah.
Florida Senator Introduces Legislation That Addresses Utility Sector Supply Chain Challenges
August 4, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 4, 2022
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., recently introduced legislation that would establish an energy grid product manufacturing loan program at the U.S. Department of Energy to expand domestic production as a way in which to address ongoing electric utility sector supply chain challenges.
The new loan program would be fully paid for by the rescission of unused appropriations, as recommended by the Government Accountability Office.
The program would finance $8 billion in loan guarantees for the re-equipping, expansion, or establishment of domestic energy grid product and component manufacturing facilities in the United States.
“Due to international supply chain backlogs, electric utilities in the U.S. are struggling to receive ordered electric grid products in a timely manner, especially transformers,” Rubio’s office said in an Aug. 2 news release related to the legislation. “These delays are resulting in dangerously low stockpiles for new developments and replacement equipment, which threaten preparedness throughout the country, but especially in a state like Florida where hurricanes can severely disrupt the electric grid,” the news release said.
The Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA) “has been diligently working this issue since March and applauds Sen. Rubio for his efforts to address the significant issues we have been raising with our federal and state officials,” said Amy Zubaly, Executive Director of FMEA.
A group of federal lawmakers from Florida on June 10 sent a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency that highlighted “the dangerous supply chain shortages affecting Florida’s electric cooperatives and municipalities.”
APPA Moves To Address Supply Chain Challenges
The American Public Power Association (APPA) is taking a number of actions to address ongoing supply chain challenges.
APPA recently rolled out an additional feature to its eReliability Tracker that is available to all public power utilities and allows for voluntary equipment sharing by matching systems with the same distribution voltages.
In a speech in June at APPA’s National Conference in Nashville, Tenn., Ditto urged member utilities to share their supply chain challenges with APPA so that the trade group can relay details on these challenges to federal partners and discuss how critical burdens on the sector can be alleviated.
In May, APPA convened a supply chain summit that included participation from public power utility officials who discussed their supply chain challenges and mitigation strategies.
APPA also recently finalized a new supply chain issue brief. APPA members can download the issue brief here.
Berkeley Lab Study Looks At Battery Storage And Net Billing
August 4, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
August 4, 2022
Using battery storage to manage solar self consumption is not efficient from the perspective of an individual consumer or the wholesale power grid, according to a new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The Berkeley Lab study, Private vs. public value of U.S. residential battery storage operated for solar self-consumption, set out to quantify the value of using residential battery storage to maximize solar self-consumption from the individual solar customer and the larger power system standpoint.
The impetus of the study is the growing popularity of net billing schemes that are being put in place to replace net metering schemes that are being phased out in many states.
Net energy metering (NEM), in which residential solar exports to the grid are credited against consumption at full retail electricity price, has been the dominant compensation structure, but it has raised several concerns, including the potential for cost-shifting from solar to non-solar customers.
As the use of net metering dwindles, net billing has become the de-facto NEM successor in many states, the study said. Net billing allows customers to offset consumption with contemporaneous solar generation, but any surplus generation exported to the grid is credited at a grid export rate below the full retail electricity price, often tied to a utility’s avoided costs.
Currently, some variation of net billing has been adopted in 10 states and has been proposed in at least five others.
Using metered data from 1,800 residential customers across six utilities, the study found that batteries operated solely for self-consumption provided “customer bill savings up to $20–30 per kWh of storage capacity annually, but virtually no grid value.”
Even though net billing may save customers money on their electricity bills, it is still inefficient overall for individual customers, the Berkeley researchers found.
Nonetheless, they said, private bill savings may be enough to drive adoption when combined with the resilience value from backup power or other revenue streams.
Compared with market-based dispatch, self-consumption dispatch will likely become more severe over time, insofar as increased renewable energy penetration leads to more volatile wholesale prices, the study found.
“Storage used for solar self-consumption yields virtually no value to the bulk power system in terms of reduced wholesale energy costs,” primarily because of a misalignment between the temporal profiles of storage dispatch and wholesale energy prices, the researchers aid.
Even in “a future with high solar penetration, where wholesale prices resemble the proverbial “duck curve”, the energy value of storage dispatched for solar self-consumption remains highly suboptimal,” they added.
Storage used for solar self-consumption also yields virtually no value in terms of reduced peak-related costs, such as those related to generation, transmission, and distribution system capacity, the study found, because almost all solar generation on peak-load days is used to directly serve onsite customer load, resulting in little surplus solar energy available to fuel storage discharge during peak-load hours later in the day. As a result, battery storage largely sits idle on those days, barring some other incentive to operate for system-peak reduction purposes.
Alternatively, incentivizing storage customers to respond to market prices, particularly on peak days, would enhance both private and public value. “Compensating customers for operating storage in response to market prices can create a win-win, providing benefits to the power system while offering commensurate financial returns to PV+ storage adopters (or their aggregators) that exceed what they would receive from simply maximizing solar self-consumption,” the study’s authors wrote.
The authors noted, however, that outcome is conditional on customers being allowed to discharge storage to the grid. Unrestricted market response would significantly increase exports, which could impose stress on the local distribution network under certain conditions, but a significant portion of the potential market value could be achieved without significantly increasing exports, by relying on pricing or programmatic incentives that target storage discharge during narrow peak demand periods, the study concluded.
Easton Utilities Awarded $3.5 Million To Close County’s Broadband Gap
August 3, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
August 3, 2022
Maryland public power utility Easton Utilities has been awarded a $3.5 million grant to finish building out broadband infrastructure in Talbot County, Md.
The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development awarded the grant in response to a solicitation to which Easton Utilities responded to earlier this year.
The grant is being used to extend broadband to the remaining unserved locations in Talbot County, specifically in the western part of the county including parts of St. Michaels, Bozman, McDaniel, Neavitt, Sherwood, Tilghman, and Wittman, as well as several other isolated areas in Easton and Oxford.
The grant will enable Easton Utilities to extend broadband service to the remaining 8 percent of the Talbot County population that do not yet have broadband service, Easton Utilities spokeswoman Kelly Simonsen said.
When the Connect Talbot project is completed, expected in 2026, it will provide broadband service to some unserved 3,600 locations throughout the county.
“Throughout this initiative, we have focused on securing funding to ensure all residents without access to broadband service will have the opportunity to obtain high-speed internet if desired,” Hugh Grunden, president and CEO of Easton Utilities, said in a statement.
In 2017, the Maryland General Assembly established the Task Force on Rural Internet, Broadband, Wireless and Cellular Service to help address broadband inequities on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and in other rural parts of the state. Gov. Larry Hogan appointed Easton Utilities’ Grunden to serve on the task force.
Around the same time, the Talbot County Council issued a solicitation to help close the gap on broadband access. In December 2018, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced its ReConnect Program with $600 million in funding for broadband. Easton Utilities applied and in July 2020, USDA awarded Easton Utilities a $13.1 million grant to fund the extension of broadband into underserved portions of Talbot County.
An additional $13 million of funding for the project came from a combination of funding from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the State of Maryland, and Talbot County.
The state of Maryland contributed about $6.2 million. Talbot County contributed $3 million in matching funds and in March the county contributed another $1.75 million to the project, which eliminated funds that were originally slated to come from the project’s newly served customers. Easton Utilities is contributing a total of $4.25 million to the Connect Talbot project.
Easton Utilities has offered cable service to customers in its greater Easton metropolitan service territory since 1984 and began offering broadband service in 1998. Easton created Easton Velocity in 2016 with the merger of Easton Cable and Easton Online. Easton Velocity now serves 4,600 cable customers, more than 9,000 internet customers, and 1,600 digital voice customers.
In addition to providing the basis for internet service to an underserved community, the Connect Talbot project will also allow for Easton Velocity to offer services to new subscribers.
Separately, Easton Utilities is converting its current subscriber base in Easton to fiber optic cable, using $5 million of the Town of Easton’s American Rescue Plan funds and $10 million of its own funds to bolster the backbone of its broadband service and bring fiber optic cable from the curb to customers’ houses.
Public Power Communities Recognized For Reliability, Safety Efforts By State Association
August 3, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 3, 2022
The Municipal Electric Systems of Oklahoma (MESO) has recognized public power members from Oklahoma and adjoining states for safety and reliability efforts.
Oklahoma’s Fairview Utilities Authority earned first place in MESO’s annual Electric Operations and Reliability Competition in the category for cities under 10,000 population and was cited for achieving the highest reported level of service reliability for public power cities in Oklahoma. The utility delivered an Average System Availability Index of 99.9988 percent in 2021.
Additionally, the utility had a perfect safety record for 2021. The utility’s personnel went a year without a reportable lost work time incident, either “days away from work,” “restricted light duty,” or “medical treatment” cases in 4,232-man-hours.
The City of Miami and Miami Electric in Oklahoma earned MESO’s Outstanding Achievement in the annual Electric Safety Competition in Oklahoma in the category for cities with over 10,000 population.
Miami employees delivered an exceptional safety record in 2021, MESO said. The utility’s personnel went the year with one reportable incident, resulting in no lost work time, either “days away from work,” “restricted light duty,” or “medical treatment” cases in 20,322-man-hours.
Coffeyville Municipal Light & Power in Kansas earned MESO’s Outstanding Achievement in the association’s annual Electric Operations and Reliability Competition. The utility was recognized in the category for cities with over 10,000 population and cited for achieving the second-highest reported level of service reliability for cities within MESO’s four-state member region. The utility delivered an Average System Availability Index of 99.9983 percent in 2021.
Oklahoma’s Prague Power, the city’s electric utility, earned Outstanding Achievement in MESO’s Operations and Reliability Competition in the category for cities under 10,000 population. The utility delivered an Average System Availability Index of 99.9933 percent in 2021. Additionally, Prague Power was recognized for having a perfect safety record for 2021 working without a reportable lost work time incident, either “days away from work,” “restricted light duty,” or “medical treatment” cases.
Tahlequah Public Works Authority (TPWA), serving the citizens of Tahlequah, Okla., earned First Place in MESO’s Electric Operations and Reliability Competition in the category for cities with a population over 10,000. TPWA achieved the highest reported level of service reliability for cities within Oklahoma with an Average System Availability Index of 99.994 percent in 2021.
The Town of Olustee in Oklahoma earned First Place in MESO’s Electric Operations and Reliability Competition in the Town Category with an Average System Availability Index of 99.9995 percent in 2021. Additionally, Olustee was recognized for having a perfect safety record for 2021. The Town’s employees working a year (or 7,251-man-hours) without a reportable lost work time incident, either “days away from work,” “restricted light duty,” or “medical treatment” case.
The City of Marlow, Okla., was recognized for Outstanding Achievement in MESO’s annual Electric Operations and Reliability Competition. The utility was recognized in the category for cities under 10,000 population and delivering an Average System Availability Index of 99.9964 percent in 2021.
Other cities that were recognized by MESO were: Siloam Springs, Arkansas: Reliability – 1st, over 10,000, four-state region; Tecumseh, Okla. – Outstanding Achievement; Duncan, Okla.: Reliability – Outstanding Achievement; and Comanche, Okla: Safety – First Place.
New York Issues Solicitation To Purchase At Least 2,000 MW Of Offshore RECs
August 3, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
August 3, 2022
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently announced the issuance of the third in a series of solicitations aimed increasing offshore wind production in the state.
The solicitation, administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), seeks to purchase a minimum of 2,000 megawatts (MW) of offshore renewable energy credits (ORECs).
If the responses to the solicitation justify procurement of a larger quantity of ORECs, NYSERDA said it may procure through the solicitation up to the remaining capacity authorized by the state’s Offshore Wind Orders.
New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act sets a goal of developing 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035. New York has a pipeline of five offshore wind projects totaling over 4,300 MW under active development.
Offshore wind projects under way in New York include the 924-MW Sunrise Wind project, the 816-MW Empire Wind project, the 1,260-MW Empire Wind 2 project, the 1,230-MW Beacon Wind project, and the 130-MW South Fork Wind Farm being developed by Long Island Power Authority (LIPA).
New York State is aiming to become a hub of offshore wind energy by establishing ecosystems for workforce development, manufacturing, and operations and maintenance to support the offshore wind projects in the region.
Proposals in response to the solicitation are due on Dec. 22. A webinar will be held on Aug. 23. Solicitation award announcements are expected in early 2023.
APPA’s Ditto Says Infrastructure Law Offers Huge Opportunity for Public Power
August 1, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 1, 2022
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provides a huge opportunity for public power utilities, and the American Public Power Association (APPA) is working hard to ensure that its members are able to take full advantage of funding opportunities flowing from the ILJA, said Joy Ditto, President and CEO of APPA on July 25.
Ditto made her comments at an event held by Environmental and Energy Study Institute and the House and Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (REEE) Caucuses in Washington, D.C., while participating on a panel that focused on the IIIJA.
“The IIJA is a huge opportunity for public power and, I would venture to say, the entire sector,” she said.
The law helps public power utilities and, in particular, many smaller public power utilities, “to really build on what they’ve already done and to meet” clean energy needs and address climate change.
“There is, however, some concern with some of these smaller entities about how they manage even accessing some of these funds because they are small businesses basically,” Ditto said.
Therefore, a lot of APPA’s current focus is “enabling our members to interface with the federal government, giving them resources to access the funds as they become available” and to make sure that as funds become available public power utilities are eligible.
As the legislation was being crafted, APPA worked hard to define public power. “Even though we’re affiliated with municipalities in many cases and all our utilities are public, in some cases we look more like a rural electric cooperative in terms of our service territory…so we have to define ourselves very specifically. We want to make sure those definitions hold as funds are made available and that’s some of our work that we do at APPA as well.”
Ditto noted that public power utilities are closely tied to what their community needs are. “We can be very nimble, and we can deploy resources that have an immediate impact on the communities that we serve.”
Public power already has a proven track record in this regard, she pointed out, citing community solar and small wind energy projects as examples.
“We’ve done this already, but now as we accept some of these funds, we can be even more innovative. We can take advantage of newer technologies or build on those existing technologies to really meet the needs of our communities and we look forward to doing that,’ she said.
When asked to discuss her vision for public power in 2030, Ditto underscored the ongoing need for the electric sector to focus on affordable and reliable energy. APPA and public power communities “recognize sometimes this clean energy transition is going to be more expensive. It’s why the IIJA is so important because it helps defray some of that expense,” Ditto said.
Public power’s concern is that “if we see reliability suffer, we might have to take a step back from driving toward” a clear energy future “because people will start to get a little bit worried about what that means, so we have to keep those things front of mind” as the transition continues with new technologies.
By 2030, Ditto envisions public power having effectively managed the transition “and that we’ve moved forward to enable some of these new technologies – maybe we’re farther along with hydrogen. We have additional hydropower technologies we are looking at. We have things like small modular reactors.”
But the power sector can’t discard baseload power as part of the future energy mix, she said. “We need to have some type of electricity that you can produce 24, seven,” throughout the year. “That has to be there or else we’re going to have reliability concerns.”
She said that “we need to enhance that reliability, particularly on the green side.
Click here for resources and opportunities for public power tied to the IIJA curated by APPA.