NYPA program helps local governments to host community solar project
February 24, 2021
by APPA News
February 24, 2021
New York recently accelerated its efforts to help local governments and agencies in the state participate in community solar projects.
Under the new program, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) will work with municipal and state government entities to assist in the development of community solar projects on their buildings and land to mitigate the challenges they face in adopting distributed renewable energy.
Long development timelines and uncertain revenue streams can pose problems for municipalities trying to secure approvals and find funding for community solar projects. The new program provides NYPA staff to assist in the project development process, from scoping, design, and purchasing to execution, project management and close-out.
As project hosts, local governments would bear no upfront capital cost for the solar projects, which would be able to generate revenues in the form of lease payments and subscriber fees.
NYPA said the new program would help it meet its 2025 community solar target of having 75 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity online by 2025, including 15 MW of paired battery storage. NYPA estimates those projects could stimulate more than $135 million in direct, private investments toward their development, construction, and operation, and create more than 1,250 jobs. NYPA estimates the program could support at least 40 community solar projects.
“By setting a stretch target to address the need for more solar and storage systematically, NYPA will help governments overcome potential hurdles in onboarding solar projects and more effectively serve as ‘anchor subscribers’ which can then help engage the surrounding community,” Gil Quiniones, president and CEO of NYPA, said in a statement.
A June 2020 New York Public Service Commission order allows Community Distributed Generation (CDG) projects to sign up large commercial customers to “anchor” a community solar project.
Prior to the order, the incentives available for community solar projects often put developers in the position of trying to support a project’s financing wholly on the basis of residential customer subscriptions.
The commission’s order allows large electric customers to serve as anchor subscribers for distributed solar projects, helping to reduce costs by improving economies of scale and providing more certain income streams, NYPA said.
NYPA has several community solar projects in its development pipeline, including projects in Quarryville in Ulster County and at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, as well as a community solar program with the City of White Plains.
The new program is part of the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act agenda that calls for installing 6,000 MW of solar power by 2025 and 3,000 MW of energy storage by 2030.
Public power offers help with rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in their communities
February 24, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 24, 2021
Public power utilities and their staff are making themselves available to help with the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in their communities.
“We are supporting the vaccination process at a Chelan County community center in several ways,” said Neil Neroutsos, Communications Manager at Washington State’s Chelan County PUD.
Specifically, Chelan County PUD is assisting with site logistics, security, parking lot attendants, snow-removal and supplemental back-up generators. It is also providing overflow parking in a Chelan PUD park for people waiting for vaccinations.
“This support is coming in part from the PUD’s Public Power Benefit program, which uses a portion of funds from surplus energy sales for investments in the community,” Neroutsos said.
“We have a few folks acting in support on planning teams, including myself” in the county joint information system “and have offered the county some facilities for storage and other power supply needs,” said Aaron Swaney, a spokesperson for Snohomish County PUD. “They haven’t needed it so far.”
Meanwhile, Patty Garcia-Likens, a spokesperson for Arizona’s Salt River Project, said that like a number of organizations in the community, SRP has worked with a couple different vaccine distribution sites to assist with their staffing requirements.
“These opportunities are done on a voluntary basis only and SRP employees have been able to react on short notice and with enthusiasm,” she noted.
Washington State’s Grant PUD has asked employees who may want to assist with vaccination events to complete a short survey “based on feedback we have received from Grant County Health District,” noted Chuck Allen, Public Affairs Supervisor at Grant PUD.
“At this time, they have not asked for our support for anything, but we are ready to offer support as much as possible if they do make a request,” Allen noted.
Dothan Utilities installs EV chargers as part of AMEA initiative
February 24, 2021
by Ethan Howland
APPA News
February 24, 2021
Dothan Utilities has installed two DC fast chargers in what is seen as a step in adapting to the growing numbers of electric vehicles on U.S. roads.
“We’ve got to be ready,” said Chris Phillips, Dothan Utilities assistant director for electric operations.
There are few electric vehicles in Dothan, a city of about 75,000 in southeast Alabama, according to Phillips.
However, Dothan is close to beaches in Florida and the utility expects travelers from other areas will take advantage of the new charging stations, which can provide an electric vehicle about 100 miles of range in an hour.
The ChargePoint chargers will put Dothan on the electric vehicle map and draw visitors to the town as they pass through the region, according to Phillips.
While waiting for their cars to charge up, visitors can grab something to eat and enjoy downtown Dothan, Phillips said. The chargers may boost Dothan’s efforts to revitalize its downtown, he said.
The effort comes as some states and the federal government are taking steps to spur the adoption of electric vehicles.
General Motors, the largest U.S. automaker, in late January said it aims to sell only emissions-free light-duty cars and trucks by 2035. GM is working with EVgo Services, an electric vehicle charging station company, to add 2,700 fast chargers by the end of 2025. The fast chargers will be powered by renewable energy.
The Alabama Municipal Electric Authority (AMEA) is trying to get ahead of the electric vehicle trend.
“We saw the writing on the wall,” said Arthur Bishop, AMEA manager of transmission and distribution technology support. “EVs are coming, and faster than we thought. When you see a trend that is definitely going to happen, you want to embrace it.”
AMEA, which supplies power to its 11 members, including Dothan Utilities, started its EV Charging Initiative two years ago. The initiative provides funding to its members to pay for charging infrastructure and electric vehicles.
Through the initiative, AMEA members have installed two DC fast chargers and 9 Level 2 chargers, according to Bishop. They are preparing to add another fast charger and five more Level 2 chargers, he said.
It’s unlikely Dothan Utilities would have installed its chargers without the roughly $265,000 in funding it received through the initiative, according to Phillips.
Besides the charges, the utility is preparing to use the funding to help buy two electric vehicles, one for the utility and one for the city, Phillips said.
As part of the electric vehicle initiative, AMEA is meeting with its members to discuss electric vehicles, according to Bishop.
Alabama doesn’t have many electric vehicles but is surrounded by states like Tennessee and Georgia that do, Bishop said.
When travelers with electric vehicles come through Alabama, they determine their routes based on where charging stations are located, Bishop said.
AMEA has three chargers at its headquarters in Montgomery.
Utility members are also exploring options for buying electric vehicles, Bishop said.
Besides the AMEA initiative, the authority’s members can apply for electric vehicle-related grants from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, according to Lisa Miller, AMEA communications and economic development manager.
The ADECA funding comes from Volkswagen’s agreement to pay nearly $15 billion to settle allegations the car company installed software in its diesel vehicles to evade emission standards. Alabama received $25.5 million in the settlement.
The state provided grants to replace diesel buses and recently started a funding process for charging infrastructure to be built on key highway corridors. Several AMEA members are eligible for the charging infrastructure funding, according to Bishop, who is on a board that advises ADECA on electric vehicles.
Established in 1981, AMEA is a coalition of public power utilities that provide power to the Alabama cities of Alexander City, Dothan, Fairhope, Foley, LaFayette, Lanett, Luverne, Opelika, Piedmont, Sylacauga, and Tuskegee.
Public power crews from the Carolinas help Virginia’s Danville Utilities restore power
February 24, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 24, 2021
Crews from North Carolina and South Carolina public power entities recently helped Virginia’s Danville Utilities restore power after Danville was hit by ice storms.
Jason Grey, Director of Utilities at Danville Utilities, on Feb. 24 noted that Danville this month was hit by two ice storms that caused approximately 10,000 outages at peak.
Danville was assisted by North Carolina’s ElectriCities, South Carolina’s Santee Cooper, Rocky Mount, N.C., Statesville, N.C., Tarboro N.C., and Apex, N.C., Grey noted. Service restoration was completed on Feb. 21.
ElectriCities is a not-for-profit membership organization of municipally owned electric utilities that are spread across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Santee Cooper is the state-owned public power utility in South Carolina.
Apex Electric Utilities crews assisted with the power outages in Danville by replacing electric poles broken during the ice storm, it noted in a Feb. 16 tweet.
“Our crews returned safely last night from Danville, Va. where they were helping with recovery efforts after snow and ice storms,” Santee Cooper noted in a Feb. 22 Facebook post.
APPA, APGA urge President Biden to declare a natural gas supply emergency, cap prices
February 23, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 23, 2021
The American Public Power Association (APPA) and the American Public Gas Association (APGA) recently urged President Biden to use the Natural Gas Policy Act (NGPA) to declare a natural gas supply emergency and to authorize the Secretary of Energy to exercise delegated authority under section 302 of the act to cap the price for purchases of natural gas from producers of natural gas or other persons to the extent authorized by the NGPA.
In their Feb. 19 letter to Biden, APPA and APGA noted that the recent cold weather in the Midwest and Texas has driven high demand for electricity while at the same time supply (power generation) has been constrained due to natural gas well and pipeline freezes, wind turbine freezes, and freezes/cold weather impacts at power plants themselves.
“As a result, many public power customers in Texas have been without power as their local providers have been forced to ‘shed load’ (reduce demand) to help the entire Texas electrical system (known as ERCOT) remain stable and functioning,” the letter said.
In addition, natural gas prices, which had hovered around $3/MMBtu, skyrocketed to upwards of $300/MMBtu and even higher in some cases, APPA and APGA pointed out.
“With demand for natural gas rising in response to the cold temperatures, our members had no choice but to purchase gas at the inflated prices or pay even steeper penalties to ensure that our members could meet their communities’ energy needs,” the letter said.
“This situation has also driven up wholesale gas and power prices in adjacent areas of the country, into the Southwest and Southeast.”
Within ERCOT and the Midwest markets known as the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), prices for power purchased on the wholesale market in these regions have sharply risen over the last several days, APPA and APGA pointed out.
Natural gas powers a significant amount of the baseload generation in the regions impacted, and inadequate supplies of natural gas have caused the price of this critical fuel to skyrocket.
“This, in turn, has impacted the spot prices of electricity, compounding the financial burden on many of our not-for-profit utility members. While these utilities have hedging strategies and reserves in place, the magnitude of the spike has outpaced these risk management tools in some cases,” APPA and APGA said.
“For example, natural gas for one public power-owned power plant cost $78 million for four days of supply — whereas fuel had cost only $18 million for all of 2020. If no relief is provided, these staggering costs will ultimately have to be borne by utility customers at a time when many have lost their jobs or are otherwise struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Given the magnitude of this situation, the groups urged Biden to consider using his authority under section 301 of the NGPA to declare a natural gas supply emergency and to authorize the Secretary of Energy to exercise delegated authority under section 302 of the NGPA to cap the price for purchases of natural gas from producers of natural gas or other persons to the extent authorized by the NGPA.
Inadequate supplies of natural gas threaten the availability of the fuel for high priority uses, including electric power generation, the groups said.
“Limiting the price of gas to a fair and equitable level, we believe, would assist in meeting the requirements of such high priority uses. While the natural gas supply emergency authority under the NGPA has been used sparingly, we believe this financial crisis is significant enough to merit such action.”
In the meantime, public power and public gas utilities “are focused on keeping the lights and heat flowing and taking steps like conservation measures to ensure consumers have the energy they need. They are also communicating with their customers about ways they can save energy (to prevent future curtailments in the case of generation); stay safe while using generators and space heaters; and avoid scams,” APPA and APGA noted.
The letter was signed by Joy Ditto, President and CEO of APPA, and Dave Schryver, President and CEO of APGA.
FERC’s Office of Enforcement to examine potential wrongdoing in markets during recent cold snap
February 23, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 23, 2021
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Feb. 22 said that its Office of Enforcement is examining wholesale natural gas and electricity market activity during recent extreme cold weather to determine if any market participants engaged in market manipulation or other violations.
The move came in the wake of the arctic storm impacts on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the Southwest Power Pool, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, and other surrounding regions.
If the Office of Enforcement finds any potential wrongdoing that can be addressed under FERC’s statutory authority, it will pursue those matters as non-public investigations, FERC said.
FERC explained that this examination will take place as part of the Division of Analytics and Surveillance’s (DAS) ongoing surveillance of market participant behavior in the wholesale natural gas and electricity markets.
The Division uses market participant-level trading data and data from the financial markets to screen daily and monthly trading at the majority of physical and financial natural gas trading hubs in the United States and the organized and bilateral wholesale electricity markets.
DAS closely identifies and scrutinizes any potentially anticompetitive or manipulative behavior to determine if an investigation is appropriate.
Throughout this process, the Office of Enforcement will work with FERC’s federal partners as necessary and appropriate, FERC said.
In a Feb. 19 letter to FERC Chairman Richard Glick and David Huizenga, Acting Secretary for the Department of Energy, the American Public Power Association and the American Public Gas Association said that FERC, in coordination with the DOE, should expand a current inquiry into the operations of the bulk-power system during recent extreme weather to include the significant price increases experienced in the natural gas markets.
FERC and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation announced on Feb. 16 that they will open a joint inquiry into the operations of the bulk-power system during the extreme winter weather conditions experienced by the Midwest and South Central states.
FERC to examine threat of climate change, extreme weather to reliability
February 23, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 23, 2021
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Feb. 22 said that it will open a new proceeding to examine the threat that climate change and extreme weather events pose to electric reliability.
The proceeding will examine how grid operators prepare for and respond to extreme weather events, including, but not limited to droughts, extreme cold, wildfires, hurricanes, and prolonged heat waves.
FERC said that the proceeding would include a technical conference with an opportunity for parties to submit comments in advance of that conference, with additional details to follow.
Climate change “is unfortunately already having a dramatic impact on our weather, be it wildfires, hurricanes or the extreme cold we’ve seen across the middle of the country,” FERC Chairman Richard Glick said at FERC’s monthly meeting on Feb. 18.
“The challenges that climate change poses for the grid are only going to grow more starker and more immediate,” he said
FERC to look at PJM capacity construct during two-day technical conference in March
February 22, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 22, 2021
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in March will convene the first in a series of technical conferences focused on modernizing electricity market design.
The technical conference will be held on March 23 and 24, 2021. News of the conference was unveiled at FERC’s monthly open meeting on Feb. 18. The meeting was Richard Glick’s first open meeting as Chairman. Glick was named Chairman by President Biden on January 21, 2021.
At the meeting, Glick noted that next month’s conference will address the role of capacity constructs. The focus of this first conference will examine the PJM Interconnection’s capacity construct “and examine options for creating a durable resource adequacy construct” that will accommodate states’ exercise of their authority in the modern electricity sector, he noted.
“We will also plan to hold similar conferences regarding ISO New England and New York ISO in the months ahead,” Glick said.
“In addition, later this year we will convene additional conferences to examine how energy and ancillary services markets may need to evolve to meet challenges posed by the grid of the future.”
Clements to lead effort to establish new FERC Office of Public Participation
In another announcement, Glick said that he has asked Commissioner Allison Clements to take the lead in getting a FERC Office of Public Participation up and running.
Although 1978 legislation provided for such an office within FERC, it has never been established. Congress recently directed FERC to develop a plan for establishing and operating the Office of Public Participation.
With respect to her lead role in establishing an Office of Public Participation, Clements said that she intends “to place priority on listening to stakeholders, in particular reaching out to environmental justice and front line communities, that lacked representation before FERC.”
She cited the importance of such an office not only for natural gas pipeline proceedings, but in cases impacting the reliability and affordability of electricity.
Clements said FERC would be holding a workshop on April 16, 2021 to receive input on the establishment of the Office of Public Participation, along with an opportunity to submit written comments.
Glick also highlighted his recent announcement of the creation of a senior level position to help consider the impact of FERC actions on historically marginalized communities.
FERC terminates docket tied to grid resilience issues in RTOs, ISOs, Chatterjee dissents
In other news from the meeting, FERC terminated a generic administrative docket it initiated in January 2018 to explore grid resilience issues in regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs).
Commissioner Neil Chatterjee dissented from FERC’s decision to terminate the docket.
“I acknowledge that the issues teed-up in this proceeding are multi-layered and complex. I also acknowledge that this proceeding has politically charged origins beginning with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) initial proposed rulemaking to compensate certain categories of generators with on-site fuel,” wrote Chatterjee in his dissent.
“However, a unanimous, bi-partisan Commission rejected DOE’s proposal and, in its stead, posed fuel-neutral, critical questions about what it means to have a resilient grid and what steps the Commission can take to foster it. Those questions and their answers remain as critical today as they were three years ago.”
Despite thorough examinations of previous cold weather events, “we find ourselves wondering what went wrong this week when much of the nation encountered extreme cold weather that led to load shed in ERCOT, MISO, and SPP,” he said.
“Initial reports suggest that, as with previous cold weather events, these regions experienced unusually high demands, inadequate natural gas supplies, frozen infrastructure, correlated generation resource outages, and varying levels of load shed,” wrote Chatterjee.
The severity of the event, “measured in duration, geographic scope, amount of load shed, customers affected, and amount of unplanned generation outage — suggests that, despite the lessons learned and actions taken in the past to improve winterization and gas-electric coordination, the bulk power system may not be able to adequately withstand extreme cold weather events,” he said.
Chatterjee said he is concerned that extreme weather events will continue to increase in frequency and severity, and present serious risks to the resilience of the bulk power system.
“I would prefer that the Commission grapple with the resilience concerns raised in this proceeding in a more comprehensive way,” he wrote. “The Commission is well positioned to, for instance, adopt a definition of resilience that could be implemented in all regions, describe categories of resilience concerns that would include extreme weather events and common-mode failures, and then take additional steps to ensure that the Commission, RTOs/ISOs, and stakeholders can understand how each RTO/ISO assesses the resilience of its region.”
Such assessments “would enable a comparative, cross-market view of how each RTO/ISO identifies and addresses resilience needs and would enhance coordination across regions. Such a holistic review would not only assist RTOs/ISOs and their stakeholders in considering different approaches to these efforts, but also help the Commission understand how to best assess and address bulk power system resilience,” Chatterjee said.
FERC Commissioner James Danly offered a concurrence.
“I concur in the result of this order insofar as it is the privilege of the majority to terminate a discretionary inquiry. I write separately, however, to highlight my concern that the resilience issues raised in this proceeding have not been solved—indeed, in most cases they have not even been addressed,” he wrote.
Commissioners Christie, Clements offer joint concurrence
Commissioners Mark Christie and Clements offered a joint concurrence in the RTO/ISO grid resilience docket “to emphasize that our agreement to terminate this specific proceeding is purely procedural, not substantive.”
The issues “attendant to grid resilience and reliability that this particular proceeding raised are compelling and must command this Commission’s future attention. Procedurally, this matter has languished for more than three years with no action, so the unavoidable conclusion is that these issues need to be shifted to other procedural vehicles to make progress. On that basis, we concur,” wrote Christie and Clements.
“As the widespread power outages this very week in Texas – as well as the outages in California last summer – graphically demonstrate, the challenges of ensuring a reliable supply of power to American consumers as the generation mix changes, remain as relevant and compelling as ever,” the Commissioners said.
“Reliability to most Americans means power available 24/7; not just during good weather, but during bad weather, when they need it most to heat or cool their homes, operate their businesses, and to some consumers, even to maintain their very health.”
Christie and Clements also agree that “while there are general issues attendant to reliability and resilience, each RTO/ISO is different and faces different challenges from its generation mix and weather patterns. FERC’s job is to ensure that each RTO/ISO is meeting its individual operational responsibilities to ensure a 24/7 supply of power.”
To meet that reliability challenge, RTOs and ISOs “must be willing to face and speak inconvenient truths about what is – and is not – feasible from an engineering standpoint, given the state of technology,” the Commissioners wrote.
“They must also tell the public and the elected political leaders at both the state and federal levels about the realistic impacts on the bills consumers will have to pay for reliability. Politically driven mandates and deadlines may not be grounded in engineering reality and we depend on the leadership of each RTO and ISO to provide forthright information about what is needed to ensure the 24/7 power supply Americans expect.”
Christie and Clements said that decarbonization “is a necessary policy goal and preliminary reports from ERCOT, for example, indicate supply problems not only with wind resources, but also with gas and other forms of dispatchable generation as well. We should avoid drawing final conclusions about the events in these various RTOs/ISOs before complete investigations and reports are available. Common sense tells us, however, that as what is called the ‘energy transition’ takes place, it must be grounded in the scientific facts of electrical engineering and physics, if Americans are to receive the reliable supply of power they need at the least cost to them.”
The Commissioners noted that they do not take issue with the sentiments included in Chatterjee’s dissent — “indeed, we share them. Resilience and reliability issues remain compelling and unavoidable. Unfortunately, this specific proceeding, which began long before we came to this Commission and is rooted in another proposal that was unanimously rejected, no longer appears to be the right vehicle.”
In that regard, “we agree with Commissioner Chatterjee’s statement that he ‘. . . would prefer that the Commission grapple with the resilience concerns raised in this proceeding in a more comprehensive way.’ It is our hope that this Commission will do exactly that – and soon.”
Lafayette Utilities System sends crews to help La. public power communities restore power
February 22, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 22, 2021
Lafayette Utilities System (LUS) line worker crews were recently deployed to the City of Natchitoches, La., and the Town of Vidalia, La., to assist with power restoration efforts in the wake of outages caused by harsh winter weather.
Alex Antonowitsch, Public Information Specialist at LUS, on Feb. 18 said that five LUS line workers were deployed to Natchitoches through Sunday, while thirteen line workers were deployed to Vidalia.
They were deployed under a mutual aid agreement.
A total of 3,500 customers were initially without power in Natchitoches, while 2,500 customers were initially without power in Vidalia.
On Feb. 17, the City of Natchitoches reported that electrical outages were starting to be reported across the city as ice accumulation on power lines and trees were impacting its electrical system. “The Utility Department is aware and working to address these outages. Please be patient as weather conditions make our response slower than normal,” the city said.
On the evening of Feb. 18, the City of Natchitoches reported on its Facebook page that power had been restored to 99% of utility customers at that time. Crews are now assisting to restore power to isolated cases across the city, it said.
“Conditions have been very wet and icy. Our guys have been taking extra safety precautions especially when climbing the poles in this weather,” said Greg Labbe’, LUS Electric Operations Manager.
“The roads were slick with ice on the way to Vidalia. We had to cut away some trees blocking the road just to get there,” said Colby Boggs LUS T&D Foreman.
Public power utilities help Portland General Electric restore power
February 22, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 22, 2021
Public power utilities recently sent crews to help Oregon investor-owned Portland General Electric (PGE) with power restoration efforts after PGE was hit hard by a winter storm this month.
Seattle City Light crews left Seattle at 6 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 15 to assist PGE.
Julie Moore, Seattle City Light’s Director of Communications, noted that the utility sent two crews (10 people total). Tentatively, they will return on Friday, Feb. 26, but it depends on how the restoration goes, she noted.
The Seattle City Light crews were deployed under a mutual aid agreement with PGE.
Meanwhile, Washington State’s Snohomish County PUD reported that it had four service crews working in western Oregon to assist PGE with power restoration.
Snohomish noted that more than 500,000 customers were without power at the height of the storm, “but incredible progress has been made.”
PGE reported that it has also received assistance from Avista Utilities, Central Lincoln PUD, Puget Sound Energy and Eugene Water and Electric Board.