Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority Generation and Battery Storage Project Advances
April 20, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 20, 2023
The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority recently provided an update on the Randolph Harley Power Plant New Generation Project, which includes the installation of four 9-megawatt Wartsila generators and a 9 MW battery energy storage system.
BESS, a key component of the Wartsila project that will aid in fortifying and creating additional redundancy for the Authority’s electrical grid, is now in the process of being integrated into the RHPP system.
The Wartsila project, which began in 2021 will be a major contributor towards providing more affordable and reliable power generation to the territory — specifically the Randolph Harley Power Plant, Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority said.
The plant currently provides electrical generation to the island of St. Thomas, as well as Water Island and St. John by using underwater electrical cables that run for miles to distribute electricity.
The Wartsila generators feature state-of-the-art technology that enables them to operate efficiently, providing notable cost savings and with much less environmental impact than their diesel counterparts which will benefit the entire territory, the Authority said.
The Randolph Harley New Generation Project is completely funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Huntsville Utilities, Toyota Announce Solar Project Power Purchase Agreement
April 20, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 20, 2023
Alabama public power utility Huntsville Utilities, Toyota Alabama and Toyota Tsusho America Inc. on April 5 announced a power purchase agreement to support a 168-acre, $49 million solar project.
The 30-megawatt solar-generated system will be located in the North Huntsville Industrial Park, surrounding the Toyota engine plant. It is expected to generate 62,000 megawatt hours annually.
TAI’s Energy Infrastructure Solutions team led the project’s development and will manage the construction, scheduled to begin this spring. As the owner of the solar facility, they will be responsible for long-term operations.
Through a long-term agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority, the facility is part of a shift in TVA’s relationship with local power companies across the Tennessee River Valley.
The solar facility is scheduled to begin generating solar energy in summer 2024.
Wisconsin’s Manitowoc Public Utilities Secures Community Solar Project Site
April 19, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 19, 2023
Wisconsin public power utility Manitowoc Public Utilities on April 10 reported that it has secured a site for a community solar project. MPU is building the facility with GRNE Solar.
MPU recently signed a lease with the City of Manitowoc to utilize the space, which is an old gravel pit, for solar panels as part of the utility’s new community solar program.
The program “is intended to give customers the opportunity to participate in solar without the upfront cost that rooftop solar panels require,” MPU said. Additionally, the site will offer optimal panel placement, which is hard to accomplish on residential homes, it said. The 20-year project is offered to current MPU electric customers.
Blocks of solar are available for subscription in 1 kilowatt increments, up to 20 kW, on a first-come, first-serve basis. The project developer will be installing the 1,000 KW solar generation facility with work anticipated to begin in May and with an expected completion date of November.
Public Power Officials Briefed by Department of Energy on Supply Chain, Other Key Issues
April 19, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 19, 2023
Officials from public power utilities and American Public Power Association staff were recently briefed by Department of Energy officials on a number of key issues including supply chain challenges.
Members of APPA’s Mutual Aid Committee attended the DOE meeting at the federal agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
APPA members raised significant supply chain concerns. DOE officials discussed the current threat environment facing the power sector. The officials also addressed state, local, tribal and territorial programs and federal energy emergency response activities.
DOE officials addressed the agency’s Rural and Municipal Utility Cybersecurity Grant and Technical Assistance Program. In late 2022, APPA told DOE that there are a number of ways in which APPA can help DOE successfully implement the Rural and Municipal Utility Advanced Cybersecurity Grant and Technical Assistance Program.
Along with the meeting at DOE, members of the Mutual Aid Committee also held a meeting at APPA’s headquarters in Arlington, Va.
The Mutual Aid Committee meeting was led by Santee Cooper’s Neil James, who is chair of the committee. Mike Willetts (MMUA) is the Vice Chair. JT Flick (NYPA), Kenny Roberts (ElectriCities of North Carolina), and David Hefner (GRDA) are At-Large members. The committee nominated and elected Grand River Dam Authority’s David Hefner to serve a second term as an “At Large” member of the Mutual Aid Executive Council until June 2026.
At the meeting, Mutual Aid Committee governance materials were reviewed. The mutual aid state coordinator roster was also reviewed and updated.
The APPA mutual aid agreement document was discussed and a working group was established to assess the need for an update or an addendum to the mutual aid agreement.
In addition, Mutual Aid Committee members shared lessons learned from 2022 disasters including hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires.
The committee discussed recent Light Up Navajo activities. Light Up Navajo is a joint effort between the American Public Power Association and the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority. Light Up Navajo IV started in April and runs through June 2023. Light Up Navajo is a project to extend electric service to households on the Navajo Nation.
The Mutual Aid Committee was established in 2022 at APPA’s National Conference in Nashville, Tenn. Acting Co-Chairs of the MAWG, Amy Zubaly (FMEA) and Kenny Roberts, oversaw establishment of the Mutual Aid Committee and the elections for the Mutual Aid Committee Executive Council
Previously, national-level public power mutual aid efforts had been conducted under the auspices of the Mutual Aid Working Group, which coordinated and facilitated the mutual aid program for APPA for well over a decade.
The creation of the Mutual Aid Committee formalized APPA member oversight of the mutual aid program and the Mutual Aid Committee remains focused on networking, supporting emergency response, facilitating mutual aid, and sharing ideas and resources.
City Council Approves New Braunfels Utilities Proposed Two-Year Rate Plan
April 19, 2023
by APPA News
April 19, 2023
The New Braunfels City Council recently approved the New Braunfels Utilities proposed two-year rate plan, effective August 1, 2023.
The first public hearing to consider adopting NBU’s proposed two-year rate plan was held on April 3, 2023, culminating a series of public involvement, including more than 15 public meetings since June 2022, the Texas public power utility noted.
The Fiscal Year 2024 and 2025 rate design included a cost of service analysis that modeled an equitable rate plan for each customer class.
As NBU’s customer count and system size increase, NBU’s expenditures in its Capital Improvement Program must also increase to keep pace with growth and replace aging infrastructure, the utility noted.
This investment in the future ensures that the NBU systems maintain compliance with regulatory agencies, such as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and are prepared to meet the community’s electric, water, and wastewater needs for generations to come, it said.
The average NBU residential bill, with all three services (water, wastewater, and electric), will see an increase of 6.9% next fiscal year and 6.4% the following year.
New Braunfels Utilities’ water infrastructure remains its most significant and costly community investment, and the approved water rate design includes the most significant changes.
The two-year rate plan removes the current peak/off-peak season monthly charge distinctions from water rates to simplify the rate structure.
The water volume charge usage tiers have been modified for residential, small general service, and irrigation in order to more closely match the usage levels of the customers in each class and to strengthen conservation pricing signals.
The general service rate classification was split into small general service and large general service to more closely match the usage levels of customers in each class and to strengthen conservation pricing signals. The average system revenue increases expected from the approved rate plan for the water utility are 9.1% for FY 2024 and 13.4% for FY 2025.
The revenue requirements identified are driven primarily by the need to put into service acquired water supply and build infrastructure to keep up with growth and meet regulatory requirements. Capital needs for infrastructure are the most significant driver at 84%, with personnel and operating and maintenance expenses driving the remaining 16%.
The wastewater rate design was closely aligned with the cost of service analysis and includes increases in FY 2024 and 2025. The two-year rate plan reflects the need to recover sufficient revenues to continue equitably operating the system and meeting regulatory requirements.
Wastewater classifications remain unchanged, with the average system revenue increase expected from the approved rate plan for the wastewater utility being 7.3% for FY 2024 and 7.3% for FY 2025. The revenue requirements are driven primarily by the need to build and maintain infrastructure to meet regulatory requirements. Like NBU’s water line of business, the primary driver for additional revenue is capital at 87%, with operating and maintenance and personnel driving the remaining 13%.
The electric rate design provides for the electric utility’s revenue sufficiency, rate-setting equity, and financial stability and strength, reducing the debt needed to cover costs and ensuring financial strength and flexibility.
The average system revenue increases from the approved rate plan for the electric line of business are 4.8% for FY 2024 and 5.9% for FY 2025.
The revenue requirements identified are driven primarily by building and maintaining electric infrastructure to meet electric consumption needs. Capital needs for infrastructure are the most significant driver at 67%, with personnel and operating and maintenance expenses driving the remaining 33%.
The approved two-year rate plan affects NBU’s three lines of business, with the rate design for water changing the most. Year one of the FY 2024 and 2025 rate design is effective on August 1, 2023.
The NBU fiscal year is effective from August 1 through July 31.
Lazard Report Finds Continued Declines In Renewable Generation Costs
April 19, 2023
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
April 19, 2023
Continued declines in the costs of renewable energy have made some renewable generation technologies cost competitive with conventional generation, according to the most recent edition of Lazard’s energy cost analysis.
The 16th version of Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy+ report analyzed the levelized costs of energy from various generation technologies, as well as energy storage technologies and hydrogen production methods, and found that selected renewable energy generation technologies are cost-competitive with conventional generation technologies under certain circumstances.
Specifically, at the low end of Lazard’s unsubsidized levelized cost of energy analysis, utility scale solar photovoltaic and onshore wind came in at $24 per megawatt hour compared with $39 per megawatt hour for the most competitive conventional generation source, combined-cycle gas-fired generation.
The low-end unsubsidized levelized cost of energy for coal and nuclear generation was $68 and $141 per megawatt hour, respectively.
The low-end unsubsidized levelized cost of energy for solar photovoltaic and onshore wind generation paired with energy storage, at $46 and $42 per megawatt hour, respectively, was approaching competitive levels with conventional generation, Lazard found.
Lazard’s analysis also found that the low-end unsubsidized levelized cost of energy for solar photovoltaic and onshore wind generation — $24 per megawatt hour – is competitive with the marginal cost of existing conventional generation. The low-end of the marginal cost of nuclear and coal generation is $29 per megawatt hour and for combined-cycle gas generation is $51 per megawatt hour, according to the report.
Lazard’s unsubsidized levelized cost of energy analysis also showed “significant historical cost declines for utility-scale renewable energy generation technologies driven by, among other factors, decreasing capital costs, improving technologies and increased competition.”
“Even in the face of inflation and supply chain challenges, the LCOE of best-in-class onshore wind and utility-scale solar has declined at the low-end of our cost range, the reasons for which could catalyze ongoing consolidation across the sector,” the report’s authors noted, though they added, “the average LCOE has increased for the first time in the history of our studies.”
The authors said their findings reinforced their observation that across the energy industry “companies of scale that can take advantage of supply chain and other economies of scale will continue to lead the buildout of new renewable assets given the observed LCOE declines for best-in-class renewable generation relative to smaller or more regionally focused companies that have seen moderate to significant LCOE increases.” That trend, they said, “will lead to ongoing consolidation across the sector as well as development of evolved business models and strategies to address supply chain and scale considerations.”
In the eighth edition of its levelized cost of storage analysis, Lazard said that the use-cases and applications for energy storage are becoming more valuable, well understood and, therefore, more widespread as grid operators adopt methodologies to value energy storage systems.
Lazard’s analysis found a 100-megawatt wind plant paired with a 50-megawatt, four-hour energy storage system to be the most cost effective with an unsubsidized cost of energy ranging from $69 to $79 per megawatt hour and from $33 to $44 per megawatt hour for subsidized projects. Stand alone, utility scale energy storage systems ranged from a low of $154 per megawatt hour to a high of $323 per megawatt hour, depending on the size of the energy storage system and the inclusion of subsidies.
In addition, despite being subjected to the same cost pressures as other energy technologies, the levelized cost of energy values for energy storage systems have remained relatively neutral compared with Lazard’s last analysis, version seven for 2021, because of the energy storage investment tax credit granted as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
In the third edition of its levelized cost of hydrogen production analysis, Lazard found given its versatility as an energy carrier, “hydrogen has the potential to be used across industrial processes, power generation and transportation, creating a path for decarbonizing energy-intensive industries” where other technologies are not yet viable.
Additionally, clean hydrogen, produced from renewable sources, is “well positioned to reduce CO2 emissions in typically ‘hard-to-decarbonize’ sectors,” such as cement production, centralized energy systems, steel production, transportation and mobility (forklifts, maritime vessels) applications, the report’s authors found.
The report also noted that natural gas utilities are likely to be early adopters of green hydrogen as methanation, that is, combining hydrogen with carbon dioxide to produce methane, becomes commercially viable and pipeline infrastructure is upgraded to support hydrogen blends. In addition, the Inflation Reduction Act “provides a distinct policy push to grow hydrogen production” through the hydrogen production tax credit and investment tax credit., Lazard said.
Navajo Tribal Utility Authority to Explore Opportunities to Develop Up to 1 GW of Green Energy Projects
April 18, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 18, 2023
The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and AVANGRID on April 17 announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore opportunities to develop up to 1 gigawatt of green energy projects within the Navajo Nation in the states of New Mexico and Arizona.
“This partnership will allow the two parties to collaborate and study the feasibility of developing wind and solar projects, as well as battery storage solutions, to create new jobs, create economic development on the Navajo Nation, offset lost revenue on the Navajo Nation, and bring reliable, affordable, and renewable energy to power Navajo Nation businesses and residents,” a news release related to the MOU said.
“NTUA Generation has been working diligently to explore renewable energy development opportunities on the Navajo Nation with the promise of new jobs and clean green energy,” said NTUA General Manager Walter Haase. “We do believe the partnership we have with AVANGRID will advance clean green energy development on the Navajo Nation and will help provide benefits to the communities served by NTUA,” Haase said. “We look forward to the progress this partnership will bring.”
“The Navajo Nation appreciates Navajo Tribal Utility Authority’s efforts in the clean energy generation space. As a wholly owned entity of the Navajo Nation, the utility’s tenacity and development of partnerships shows what can be accomplished,” said Navajo Nation President Nygren.
As part of the partnership, AVANGRID and NTUA will explore how the projects being contemplated could benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act. The IRA “opens a path to meaningful emissions reductions in Indian tribes through the development of projects that can help them transition to a cleaner energy economy,” the news release said.
NTUA was established on January 22, 1959, to address the absence of utilities on the 27,000 square-mile Navajo Nation. Since then, NTUA has grown into a self-sustaining, not-for-profit, successful tribally-owned enterprise.
NTUA is organized for the operation, maintenance and expansion of electric, communications, natural gas, water, wastewater and generation, including off-grid residential solar services for the Navajo people at reasonable costs.
In addition to providing multi-utility services, other objectives of NTUA are to promote employment opportunities on the Navajo Nation, and to improve the health and welfare of the residents of the Navajo Nation while improving the standard of life.
NTUA Renewable Energy Projects
NTUA has already been actively pursuing renewable energy projects.
In early 2022, officials with NTUA, Arizona’s Salt River Project, and leaders of the Navajo Nation agreed to extend an agreement that paved the way for the first-ever, large-scale utility solar farm on the Navajo Nation, the “Kayenta I” facility.
The groups also signed a contract for a new, 200-megawatt solar resource on the Navajo Nation called “Cameron Solar” that is set to be operational by the end of 2023.
The SRP Board of Directors approved a long-term energy and environmental-attribute agreement through March 2038 from the 27-MW Kayenta I portion of the Kayenta Solar generation facility.
Groups Say Interim GHG Guidance Threatens Ability to Deliver Reliable, Affordable Power
April 17, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 17, 2023
The Council on Environmental Quality’s interim National Environmental Policy Act guidance on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change “misses the mark” and threatens the ability of the public power utilities and rural electric cooperatives to provide affordable and reliable electricity to the communities they serve, the American Public Power Association and National Rural Electric Cooperative Association said.
APPA and NRECA argued in their April 10 comments in response to the interim guidance issued in March 2023 that the guidance encourages overbroad NEPA reviews “divorced from the statutory limitations and purposes of NEPA.”
“CEQ should reconsider the interim guidance’s approach to indirect effects analyses,” APPA and NRECA said. “Otherwise, CEQ will exacerbate rather than improve the principal problem with NEPA reviews: that they have evolved into overly long, excessively broad paperwork exercises that stifle progress and innovation contrary to NEPA’s balanced objectives.” Requiring consideration of an unlimited universe of indirect effects will cause analyses to further expand, they added.
“Applicants, agencies, and the public will be buried in a mountain of paperwork related to an ever-widening web of attenuated environmental effects that are neither reasonably foreseeable nor have a reasonably close causal relationship to the specific action at issue,” they said.
APPA and NRECA pointed out that NEPA’s overall purpose is to ensure that federal agencies consider “the environmental impact of the proposed action” under consideration.
To make sure that the information reviewed and analyses performed by agencies is relevant and helpful to fulfilling NEPA’s objectives, “effects or impacts” has been interpreted to mean “changes to the human environment from the proposed action or alternatives that are reasonably foreseeable.”
In fact, the Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized the limiting aspect of the “reasonably foreseeable” standard, they noted.
When the “reasonably foreseeable” requirement is ignored, NEPA analyses produce a voluminous amount of information that neither helps inform the decision maker nor the public, APPA and NRECA said.
“The proliferation of overbroad and unnecessarily long NEPA analyses creates a bottleneck to important electric infrastructure improvements with little environmental benefit. Indeed, from the outset, CEQ has recognized the importance of timely environmental reviews and focused environmental documents.”
APPA and NRECA argued that agencies are producing overly inclusive NEPA documents “to stem the tide of litigation, rather than focused reviews that analyze the significant environmental effects and reasonable alternatives that will actually aid decision-makers.”
However, despite these years-long efforts to produce voluminous NEPA reviews on ever-increasing topics, such as the indirect effects analyses recommended by the interim guidance, the agencies have not successfully reduced the risk or reality of endless and costly litigation.
The setbacks and delays particularly harm electric cooperatives and public power utilities, employees, and the communities they serve, the groups said.
“As non-profit entities, electric cooperatives and public power utilities must directly pass increased costs due to project delays onto consumers at the end of the line,” the public power and cooperative associations said. “Electric infrastructure investment is crucial for economic growth and to improve the quality of life for communities most in need of improved electric reliability and clean energy access. Indeed, the need to upgrade our power infrastructure and to facilitate the expansion of the grid were part of the motivation for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.”
At a time when the United States is making the largest investment in clean energy infrastructure ever, the interim guidance “completely misses the mark by expanding rather than focusing NEPA analyses.”
While the interim guidance recites the “reasonably foreseeable” limitation in its discussion of indirect effects, its explanation of the types of effects covered as “indirect effects” would expand NEPA reviews “well beyond what could be considered reasonably foreseeable.”
The interim guidance asserts that upstream and downstream indirect emissions must be considered “reasonably foreseeable since quantifiable connections frequently exist between a proposed activity that involves use or conveyance of a commodity or resource, and changes relating to the production or consumption of that resource.”
But this presumes that any GHG emissions in a chain of commerce are necessarily indirect effects, even of narrow actions committed to agency discretion, they added.
The interim guidance also suffers from “several fundamental flaws that will render any NEPA analyses that rely on it arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law,” APPA and NRECA argued.
For example, the interim guidance “inappropriately favors renewable energy alternatives over fossil fuel related projects with no statutory basis by instructing agencies to consider renewable energy alternatives to fossil fuel related projects.”
Presumptively requiring consideration of such alternatives is a substantive policy-oriented objective that violates NEPA’s instructions, the groups said.
“While many of the Associations’ members are deploying renewable energy projects, consideration of renewable alternatives is not always a reasonable alternative, including where reliability, geographic, infrastructure, and cost constraints make them simply infeasible.”
APPA and NRECA also said that the interim guidance fails to provide sufficient instruction on when agencies can make findings of no significant impact.
The groups urged CEQ to withdraw the interim guidance and reconsider its terms to address these and other stakeholder’s comments.
“Failure to do so will render NEPA analyses of electric infrastructure projects that are critical to the Association’s members and the communities they serve vulnerable to unreasonable delay and lengthy litigation.”
California Utilities Unveil Plans for Retail Electric Rate Reforms
April 17, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 17, 2023
Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison Company and San Diego Gas & Electric recently submitted residential electric rate reform proposals to the California Public Utilities Commission that call for a customer income verification process that would be administered by a third-party contractor supervised by the CPUC.
The electric rate proposals come in response to a state law (AB 205) passed in 2022 requiring the California Public Utilities Commission to adopt a fixed price based on household income to help fund electric delivery infrastructure such as poles, wires, meters and customer service. The CPUC must adopt a new electric rate structure no later than July 1, 2024.
“Current residential rate structures based primarily on volumetric rates do not reflect cost of service, are not equitable, and do not send appropriate price signals to encourage broader 6 adoption of greenhouse gas reducing technologies,” the investor-owned utilities said in their April 7 filing.
They said that the artificially high volumetric rates in existing residential rate structures pose affordability challenges for many lower- and moderate-income customers, very high bills for larger users, and monthly bill volatility.
The utilities said their proposals to combine an Income Graduated Fixed Charge (IGFC) with lower volumetric rates on all residential rate schedules will improve equity.
“Our proposals will bring customers’ rates closer to the cost to serve them, result in greater month-to- month bill stability, and provide low-income customers with bill reductions, on average, relative to the current rate structure.”
They also said the lower volumetric rates will encourage decarbonization by making transportation and building electrification more affordable. “More cost-based electricity prices will compare more favorably to prices of gasoline and natural gas.”
Income Verification is Key Part of Proposal
The utility said that an important part of their proposal is the recommendation that income verification for purposes of assigning customer households to the appropriate IGFC level be administered by a third-party contractor supervised by the CPUC, as is done for a state program for telecommunication companies.
The utilities noted that they currently perform a limited form of income verification in the narrow context of opt-in discount programs.
“However, the process of assigning all of California’s residential electric customers to income categories is unprecedented, and requires capabilities and processes that are best administered by a state agency – and are far beyond prior utility experience and capabilities,” they told the PUC.
“Adding the resources and systems necessary for the energy utilities to perform such income validation would not be cost effective. Doing so also raises sensitive issues of consumer privacy, cybersecurity, and utility-customer relations.”
Utilities Detail Benefits of Proposals
SDG&E, PG&E and SoCal Edison said that their proposals provide several benefits compared to the current, primarily 4 volumetric, rate structures for the IOUs’ residential electric customers.
Specifically, they said that while the energy environment in California “continues to evolve rapidly, the residential rate structure for investor-owned, regulated utilities has become outdated and misaligned with the new energy landscape.”
As the three utilities continue to build and maintain necessary critical infrastructure to help enable California’s energy transition, collecting residential customers’ fixed costs through volumetric rates unfairly shifts fixed costs from lower to higher-use customers and disincentivizes beneficial uses of electricity, they said.
Because nearly all of their fixed costs are recovered through such volumetric prices, “the price customers pay when they turn on their lights is substantially higher than the marginal cost of providing that electricity.”
They went on to say that while they have proposed to substantially reduce volumetric electricity rates for all residential customers, the proposals also recognize many customers may not be able to electrify in the near term.
A key priority of the proposals is to provide bill savings for customers in specific income brackets. The IGFC proposals provide annual bill savings for these customers, on average, without changing their energy consumption, according to the utilities.
CPUC Public Advocates Office Also Weighs In
Meanwhile, the Public Advocates Office at the CPUC (Cal Advocates) also weighed in at the Commission in the proceeding.
The office proposed an IGFC framework “that promotes affordability and encourages electrification by reducing volumetric rates, provides additional bill discounts for low-income customers, and recovers the electric utility’s cost to serve in a more equitable manner than current rates,” it said in an April 7 filing.
“Absent an IGFC, persistently high volumetric rates will continue to exacerbate affordability issues over time and discourage electrification,” the office said.
Cal Advocates recommended the Commission adopt an IGFC based on Cal Advocates’ proposed structure presented in its filing for all residential default and optional rate schedules.
It said this structure consists of progressively higher fixed charges across three identical income brackets for California Alternative Rates for Energy (CARE) and non-CARE residential customers.
The differentials (i.e., the difference in fixed charge levels between income brackets) are set higher between the second (i.e., customers making between $50,000/year and $100,000/year) and first (i.e., customers making less than 12 $50,000/year) income brackets to provide more reductions to low-income customers whereas the differential is set lower between the third (i.e., customers making more than $100,000/year) and second brackets to facilitate implementation of the IGFC.
Cal Advocates estimates that this proposal will reduce overall volumetric rates by 16%-22% depending on the investor-owned utility compared to the same rate absent such a fixed charge.T
To mitigate impacts on low-income customers, Cal Advocates also proposes to redeploy the California Climate Credit to offset fixed charges to the greatest extent possible for customers in the first income bracket.
Click here for the filings made by the utilities, Cal Advocates and other parties in the proceeding.
Perseverance Pays Off for Cleveland Public Power’s First Female African American Lineworker
April 15, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 15, 2023
Ta’Jahnae Buchanan recently became the first female and first African American female to complete all requirements of the Cleveland Public Power lineworker apprentice program.
In a Q&A with Public Power Current, Buchanan said she was introduced to Cleveland Public Power’s intern-to-apprentice program by her grandmother.
“She didn’t have much information about this program — she just gave me an address and time and told me to be there.” Her grandmother emphasized what a great opportunity the program was for Buchanan.
She started her apprenticeship in 2019 — a four-year program. During her first and second year of the apprenticeship, she worked on cable pulling, framing poles and setting transformer cans and secondaries.
She also worked in the utility’s transformer shop, getting transformers ready for crews. Buchanan has also worked in the utility’s trouble dispatch office.
“This is such an exciting opportunity,” she said.
While Buchanan encountered obstacles during her apprenticeship, she noted that her perseverance paid off for her and helped her to complete the program.
In a CPP Linkedin post, Ammon Danielson, commissioner of CPP said, “We are proud of the hard work that Ta’Jahnae has put in to reach this pinnacle and we look forward to the role she will play as a mentor to those following in her footsteps.”