Work Gets Underway On Project To Extend Electricity To Navajo Homes
April 4, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 4, 2022
Work got underway this week on Light Up Navajo III (LUN III), a joint effort between the American Public Power Association (APPA) and the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) to extend electricity to Navajo homes.
The LUN III initiative began on April 3, 2022 and will last for 11 weeks. The goal is to connect 300 families’ homes to the electric grid for the first time.
NTUA will be welcoming workers from public power utilities and organizations from 11 states, including Arkansas, Arizona, Delaware, California, Connecticut, North Carolina, New Mexico, Ohio, Washington, Texas, Utah, and Washington D.C.
There will be up to four crews working each week at different locations throughout the Navajo Nation.
“The Navajo Nation appreciates our partners in this collaborative effort to bring much-needed electricity to hundreds of homes this spring,” said Navajo Nation Speaker Seth Damon. “We commend the NTUA and the APPA for leading this project to help improve the standard of life for our families.”
Financing the cost to construct electric service “can be a burden for many, so the Light Up Navajo initiative will serve as the foundation to allow people to connect to the internet and modernize a way of living. The Navajo people are grateful for all the volunteer line workers and the utility companies involved to make this happen,” he said.
“Public power utilities have shown over the years that they are incredible at stepping up to help each other,” said APPA President and CEO Joy Ditto. “We are well practiced in sending aid in the wake of natural disasters, and we are leveraging these skills to help bring power to those who still don’t have it in our country in the year 2022, a situation that must be rectified.”
NTUA General Manager Walter Haase said the partnership embodies the true American spirit of helping one another. In its first year, the project connected more than 230 homes to electricity, reducing the total number of U.S. homes without electricity by one percent.
“We are grateful that outside communities are sending their electric crews to help,” said Haase. “These visiting crews are ready to help build and will be ready to celebrate with Light Up Navajo III families after they get connected. The project will not only make a positive life changing impact on our families, but it is also a powerful impression on the lineworkers and their communities who proudly volunteer their services.”
In 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of the Light Up Navajo II project. The suspension was not an easy decision for NTUA, knowing there were families waiting years for electricity. There were 48 utility companies from 15 states that had signed up for the project.
Although the project was canceled for the health, safety, and well-being of everyone involved, preparation resulted in NTUA acquiring the necessary clearances and making 330 projects construction ready.
In August 2020, NTUA received funds from the Navajo Nation through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), and connected 330 Navajo homes initially identified and prepared for shovel-ready status through LUN II. Overall, 737 families received electricity through the CARES Act funding in 2020.
In 2021, NTUA spent most of the year preparing for LUN III, working with the Navajo Nation Land Department and with the families requesting electric service. NTUA had to secure Rights of Way, land clearances, permits and wire homes so that they will be ready to have their homes ready to be connected to the electric grid.
Earlier this year, Massachusetts public power utility Peabody Municipal Light Plant donated surplus equipment to help with electrification of Navajo Nation through the Light Up Navajo Project.
BOEM To Auction Offshore Leases With 1.3 GW Of Wind Potential On May 11
April 1, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
April 1, 2022
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has completed its environmental review and scheduled an auction for May 11 for two wind energy lease areas off the coast of the Carolinas.
The lease areas cover 110,091 acres in the Carolina Long Bay area that, if developed, could result in at least 1.3 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy, the Department of the Interior said in an announcement.
Developers will be able to bid one or both of the lease areas within the Wilmington East Wind Energy Area (WEA), as described in BOEM’s Final Sale Notice (FSN), which is available in the Federal Register reading room. The two lease areas include similar acreage, distance to shore, and wind resource potential, BOEM said.
Among the stipulations in the Final Sale Notice, BOEM is offering a 20 percent credit to bidders if they commit to invest in programs that would advance U.S. offshore wind energy workforce training or supply chain development.
The leases will also require lessees to identify Tribal Nations, underserved communities, agencies, ocean users and other interested stakeholders, and report on their communication and engagement activities with those parties.
Through a public comment process for the upcoming lease auction that began in November 2021, BOEM reduced the acreage available for leasing by 14 percent from the originally proposed lease areas in order to avoid conflicts with ocean users and minimize environmental impacts. BOEM said it would continue to engage with its partners and stakeholders as the process unfolds.
In October 2021, the administration of President Joe Biden announced a new leasing path forward that identified up to seven potential lease sales by 2025, including the upcoming Carolina Long Bay lease sale and last month’s New York Bight lease sale. Lease sales offshore California and Oregon, as well as in the Central Atlantic, Gulf of Maine, and the Gulf of Mexico are expected to follow, BOEM said.
In February, an auction of six lease areas totaling over 488,000 acres in the New York Bight for potential wind energy development drew winning bids from six companies totaling about $4.37 billion, making it the highest-grossing competitive offshore energy lease sale in history, including oil and gas lease sales.
The announcement of the Wilmington East Wind Energy Area auction marks “significant progress in achieving this Administration’s goal for deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, while creating jobs and strengthening a sustainable domestic supply chain,” Amanda Lefton, director of BOEM, said in a statement.
Nebraska Public Power District Joining National Electric Highway Coalition
April 1, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
April 1, 2022
Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) has signed a memorandum of cooperation to become a member of the National Electric Highway Coalition (NEHC).
The National Electric Highway Coalition currently consists of more than 60 investor-owned, public power and cooperative electric companies that have committed to providing electric vehicle (EV) fast charging stations along major travel corridors by the end of 2023.
“Our membership in NEHC reaffirms our commitment to support the expansion of the EV charging infrastructure along highways and main thoroughfares across the state,” Tom Kent, NPPD’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
“Most EV owners will charge their vehicles overnight, and that’s very convenient for daily travel, but getting more fast charging stations out in the public along heavily traveled corridors is an important next step to support our customers who are purchasing EVs,” Kent said.
NPPD says it has installed or provided financial assistance for the instillation of several DC fast charging stations in its service territory, including five charging stations installed in Auburn, Aurora, Kearney, Norfolk, and York, as well as eight stations planned in Ainsworth, Chadron, Hebron, McCook, O’Neill, Scottsbluff, Thedford, and Wahoo.
NPPD also offers a variety of incentives for customers who want to install residential or public electric vehicle charging stations or who are interested in purchasing an electric vehicle.
In 2018, NPPD launched a pilot program under which owners of electric vehicles will receive a $200 incentive if they install a charging station at their home.
The following year, NPPD in partnership with its wholesale utility customers, the Nebraska Environmental Trust and the Nebraska Community Energy Alliance, introduced three programs that will help to reduce the purchase price of an electric vehicle.
“We will continue to work with our wholesale customers and retail communities to install new chargers where the opportunities arise,” Kent said.
Reports Present Framework For Using Storage To Mitigate Solar Interconnections
April 1, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
April 1, 2022
A pair of reports from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory presents resources to aid developers and utilities with the integration of solar power to the grid by using battery energy storage to mitigate interconnection costs.
The project, Use of Operating Agreements and Energy Storage to Reduce Photovoltaic Interconnection Costs, was done under the auspices of the Solar Energy Innovation Network and comprises two reports, a Technical and Economic Analysis report by researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Conceptual Framework report authored by the national laboratory researchers, as well as staff from the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources, National Grid, and the Rocky Mountain Institute.
The researchers set out to address the problem that connecting solar photovoltaic systems to the grid can result in time consuming and expensive upgrades. Developers usually either pay the cost of the grid upgrades, which can delay construction and interconnection, or reduce the capacity of the solar system to eliminate the risk of grid violation fees and reduce interconnection costs. A third option, controlling the generation exported to the grid, can be achieved through curtailment or the addition of equipment such as battery storage.
To minimize time from project conception to operation, developers often downsize the size of their solar system in order to maintain proper voltage and power quality requirements on a feeder, the researchers said.
However, because of decreasing land availability and increasing public concern over the visual impact of many small solar power systems, there may be benefit to a shift in strategy, the researchers said. Instead of maximizing the number of solar systems, “there may be future emphasis on maximizing the revenues (and perhaps grid benefit) of each PV system by providing electrons during expensive hours and near large load centers,” they said.
In addition, instead of grid upgrades on an as-needed, project-by-project basis, “focus could shift to using advanced controls and storage technology at the point of interconnection to increase the hosting capacity for distributed resources,” the researchers said.
The two reports examine how controlling exported solar generation at critical hours can be a viable alternative to downsizing a solar project.
The technical report explores the viability and economic feasibility of pairing energy storage to mitigate solar system grid violations. The second report develops an Operating Envelope Agreement that can serve as the conceptual framework for a contractual agreement between a solar system owner and an electric utility on how to operate the paired solar and storage system.
The technical report concluded that an Operating Envelope Agreement that “specifies technical parameters by which a developer can avoid downsizing a proposed PV system and avoid paying expensive infrastructure upgrade costs can be an economically attractive option under select conditions.”
In the second report presents the parameters for developing an Operating Envelope Agreement (OEA). In the future, the researchers said they hope “to produce a follow-on report with real-world examples of OEAs, or interconnection service agreements that include OEA concepts.”
Arizona City Offers Cryptocurrency As Payment Option For Utility Bill Payments
April 1, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 1, 2022
The City of Chandler, Ariz., now offers cryptocurrency as a payment option for Chandler residents to pay their utility bills.
Customers who have Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin connected to their PayPal account can use their cryptocurrency when making a utility bill payment.
By selecting PayPal as the payment option, the crypto option will automatically display as a payment method in PayPal Checkout if there is a sufficient balance of cryptocurrency to cover the payment amount.
The option began being offered in March, following research by the city to determine if it was a feasible option for its customers.
Chandler determined that the best option was to use a third-party payment processor and reached out to Invoice Cloud, its current payment partner for online utility bill payments. Invoice Cloud was able to initiate the additional payment option in its system.
Chandler is believed to be one of the first valley cities to offer cryptocurrency as a payment option.
New Product Aims To Brings More Transparency To REC Market In Midwest
April 1, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
April 1, 2022
Australian software firm Powerledger is introducing a new product to the Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (M-RETS) that aims to provide greater transparency and granularity to the renewable energy credit (REC) market.
By using blockchain technology, the new software, TraceX, will allow companies with renewable energy targets to have greater speed and visibility over the RECs that are bought and sold, Powerledger said.
Decisions on which unbundled RECs to purchase are often based on price and vintage (the year the REC was issued), Fiona Tiller, Powerledger’s TraceX product owner, said in a statement.
“Powerledger’s TraceX marketplace provides provenance transparency, so customers can pick and choose exactly what they want and get alignment with their corporate goals,” Tiller said. “For example, customers can buy by project, fuel source, voluntary or compliance eligibilities or at the most basic level, vintage and price.”
Those and other attributes “are becoming increasingly important as companies look behind the REC at the energy they represent,” Tiller said.
In February 2020, Powerledger announced its plans to add the ability to buy and sell RECs to the M-RETS platform that previously had only been a Web-based platform for tracking RECs.
Powerledger says its blockchain-enabled digital platform can match buy and sell orders using TraceX. The platform also provides an immutable and verifiable audit trail for the transfer of REC ownership and allows financial settlement to occur seamlessly within the platform, which connects to users’ business bank accounts and their REC registry account with M-RETS.
M-RETS, the largest REC registry in North America, is used by power generators, utilities, marketers, and qualified reporting entities across the United States.
“M-RETS is excited to be working with Powerledger to pioneer a more data-driven approach to renewable energy certificates,” Ben Gerber, M-RETS CEO, said in a statement.
“Organizations can now make a much deeper impact on the environment, community or grid beyond decarbonization alone,” Tiller said.
Biden Moves To Support Production Of Minerals, Materials For Large Capacity Batteries
April 1, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 1, 2022
The White House on March 31 said that President Biden would issue a directive authorizing the use of the Defense Production Act (DPA) to support the production and processing of minerals and materials used for large capacity batteries such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, and manganese.
The sectors supported by these large capacity batteries — transportation and the power sector — account for more than half of our nation’s carbon emissions, the White House said in a fact sheet.
“The President is also reviewing potential further uses of DPA — in addition to minerals and materials — to secure safer, cleaner, and more resilient energy for America,” the White House said.
On March 11, a group of Senators sent a letter to President Biden that urged him to invoke the DPA to rebuild the capacity of key sectors and value-chains by domestically producing and processing critical minerals, such as battery metals like lithium and graphite.
The letter was sent by Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Jim Risch (R-ID) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA).
“We appreciate your issuance of Executive Order 14017 and the associated 100-day review that recognizes America’s ongoing supply chain crisis,” the Senators said in the letter.
“We are committed to maintaining and strengthening our nation’s leadership and rebuilding our productive capacity in key sectors and value-chains. To do so, however, we must address our most vulnerable positions, and in no place are our supply chains more vulnerable than our lack of home-grown production and processing of rare earth and critical minerals,” they wrote.
LG Energy Solution Invests $1.7 Billion In EV Battery Plant Expansion At Holland, Mich., Location
March 31, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
March 31, 2022
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation recently announced that LG Energy Solution (LGES) is investing $1.7 billion and creating 1,200 jobs at its current location in Holland, Mich.
LGES’ expansion will quintuple the plant’s capacity to help produce battery components into the future as Michigan’s electric vehicle industry grows.
“Holland Board of Public Works is proud to support the expansion of LG Energy Solution,” said Dave Koster, General Manager for the public power utility in Holland.
“Just as with the original investment almost 12 years ago, we appreciate that LG puts it trust in the reliable, cost-effective power that the HBPW provides. HBPW is dedicated to bringing innovative energy solutions to a robust and diverse primary manufacturing base, comprised of automotive, office furniture, food processing, and automation,” he said.
“LG’s growth in the advanced energy sector will keep Michigan, and specifically the Holland-area at the center of tomorrow’s automotive industry,” Koster said.
As the future of the electric vehicle industry grows, LG Energy Solution said it needs the additional capacity to allow for the production, testing and storage of materials needed for battery manufacturing. The expansion includes the construction of several new facilities on LGES’s existing footprint in Holland.
The state-of-the-art Michigan plant will use the most advanced and efficient battery cell manufacturing processes, the company said. In particular, the facility will manufacture the company’s new long cell design batteries with improved energy density thanks to cutting-edge technologies that allow engineers to more fully utilize the space within the battery pack. The long cell design batteries are expected to advance EV’s driving range and ESS’s energy storage, and at the same time, simplify the overall structure of battery pack.
The LGES expansion announcement comes just two months after GM announced its historic $7 billion investment in the state, which includes up to $2.5 billion to build Ultium Cell LLC’s third U.S. battery cell plant in the public power city of Lansing and Delta Township, a joint venture between GM and LG.
Wisconsin Public Power Utilities Rally To Help Stoughton, Wis., In Wake Of Tornado
March 31, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
March 31, 2022
Electric utility customers and officials in Stoughton, Wis., are thanking their local lineworkers, as well as those from many neighboring public power communities, for their quick response to safely restore service in the wake of a recent tornado traveling up to 95 miles per hour.
The tornado touched down for approximately five miles and was up to 50 yards wide.
“This is the spirit of neighbors helping neighbors when it’s needed most,” said Stoughton Utilities Director Jill Weiss. “That’s what our not-for-profit, community-owned utilities are all about.”
The severe storm struck the community March 5. High-speed, destructive winds — later classified as an F-1 tornado — damaged homes and buildings southeast of downtown and decimated a local family farm.
The tornado also downed nine poles on one of the American Transmission Co.’s high-voltage transmission lines that deliver bulk power to the utility, along with three poles belonging to Stoughton Utilities. More than 7,000 homes and businesses in Stoughton lost power as a result.
Through the Municipal Electric Utilities of Wisconsin’s mutual aid program, public power utilities across the state assist one another to restore local electric service in the wake of major storm events.
Responding to the call for help in Stoughton were the WPPI Energy member municipal electric utilities of Cedarburg, Hartford, Lake Mills, Mount Horeb, Prairie du Sac and Waunakee.
WPPI Energy is a member-owned, not-for-profit organization that serves 51 locally owned electric utilities in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Upper Michigan.
“The support was overwhelming,” said Weiss. “I know that many other local utilities were ready and willing to jump in as well.”
The lineworkers responded immediately, opening up roads, repairing power lines and restoring service.
Power was returned to all but 25 percent of customers by 4 a.m. on March 6, and all service connections were restored within 25 hours of the storm hitting the area.
“Not only do we have a highly dedicated local crew, but we are also part of something bigger,” said Weiss.
“When the worst happens, and we know all too well that it sometimes does, we can lean on the shared strength of our highly dedicated Stoughton Utilities line crew, as well as our fellow public power communities, to get the lights back on for local customers safely and as quickly as possible.”
New York Leads Multi-State Group To Develop A Regional Hydrogen Hub Proposal
March 29, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
March 29, 2022
New York State, along with Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, has formed a coalition to develop a proposal to become one of at least four regional clean energy hydrogen hubs designated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The New York-led consortium also encompasses an initial group of 40 hydrogen ecosystem partners, including Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) and the New York Power Authority (NYPA).
The agreement calls for the consortium partners to collaborate with New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), NYPA, and Empire State Development (ESD) on proposal development to advance hydrogen projects under the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The partner states of the consortium will coordinate with their respective state entities to help align the consortium’s efforts with each state’s climate and clean energy goals.
New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act calls for the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 85 percent by 2050. Connecticut’s Global Warming Solutions Act sets a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, while Massachusetts set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2050, and New Jersey’s Global Warming Response Act set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.
The consortium members also committed to develop a proposal in response to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funding opportunity announcement, anticipated to launch in May 2022 with $8 billion in funding available.
In addition, the coalition members agreed to work together to define the shared vision and plans for the regional hydrogen hub that can advance safe green hydrogen energy innovation and investment to address climate change; advance a hub proposal that makes climate and environmental justice central to its strategy; and to perform research and analysis necessary to support the hub proposal and align on an approach to quantifying greenhouse gas emissions reductions resulting from use of the technology.
“We at the New York Power Authority are intrigued by the role that hydrogen may play in pushing us toward that decarbonized future and we are supporting green hydrogen firms like Plug Power at multiple locations throughout the state with low-cost hydropower,” Justin Driscoll, NYPA’s interim president and CEO, said in a statement.
The consortium members described the project as “a multi-state approach to a hydrogen hub that connects the entire value chain of hydrogen producers, users, technology and equipment manufacturers, and the research and development community including national labs and universities,” adding that the group would welcome the participation of other states in the future.
In her 2022 State of the State address, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also announced that NYSERDA, with the Department of Public Service and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, would work to develop a green hydrogen regulatory framework to measure emissions reduction and health benefits and will evaluate and develop codes and standards to ensure the safe operation of green hydrogen.
NYSERDA is also developing a program to support locally owned green hydrogen-powered microgrid solutions and plans to release $27 million in Hydrogen Innovation funding to support product development, pilots, and demonstration projects.
NYSERDA is also working on a green hydrogen demonstration project for district heating and cooling and plans to launch a Green Hydrogen Prize Program to support green hydrogen firms seeking to expand in New York State.
To help public power utilities understand the potential — and the limitations — of hydrogen, and why they should get involved, the American Public Power Association developed Understanding Hydrogen: Trends and Use Cases.