State Grant to Fund AMI Installations for Vermont Public Power Utilities
February 27, 2023
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
February 27, 2023
The Vermont Public Power Supply Authority has won a $5 million grant that will enable it to install advanced metering infrastructure for over 30,000 customers.
The grant comes from a legislative allocation in the 2023 state fiscal year budget.
Last spring the Vermont General Assembly carved out $8 million for the state’s Department of Public Service to distribute as grants to municipal and cooperative electric utilities installing AMI. VPPSA applied for the funds on behalf of its 11 municipal utility members.
VPPSA said the funding will help its member utilities install meters over the next several years with the first installations expected in late 2023. The utilities plan to communicate installation schedules in several ways, and customers should expect direct outreach from their utility prior to meter changeover, VPPSA said.
“AMI will bring new benefits to municipal utilities and the customers we serve,” Stephen Fitzhugh, chair of VPPSA’s board of directors and commissioner of Northfield Electric Department, said in a statement. “We’ll know when power is out before we get a customer call, and the in-depth data will give us the insights we need to develop new, innovate services.”
VPPSA provides municipal electric utility members with a broad spectrum of services and solutions, including wholesale power supply purchasing, regulatory assistance, and financial planning.
VPPSA members include Barton Electric, Village of Enosburg Falls, Hardwick Electric Department, Jacksonville Electric Company, Village of Johnson Water & Light, Ludlow Electric Light Department, Lyndonville Electric Department, Morrisville Water & Light, Northfield Electric Department, Orleans Electric, and Swanton Village.
EIA Reports Western Hydropower Generation Rose 13% in 2022
February 27, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 27, 2023
After decreasing to a 20-year low for the 2020–21 water year, hydropower production in the western U.S. increased slightly during last year’s water year, rising 13% to reach 161 million megawatt-hours, the Energy Information Administration reported.
Western hydro generation can vary significantly from year to year because it follows rain and snowpack patterns. A water year covers the 12-month period from October 1 through September 30. The water year follows the water cycle. Precipitation in the fall or early winter does not affect stream and river flows until the following spring and summer, EIA noted.
The western U.S. produced 61% of the country’s hydroelectricity last water year (2021–22).
Increases in hydropower generation in the region’s three largest hydropower-producing states—Washington, Oregon, and California — drove last year’s rise in western hydroelectric generation. Combined, these states made up 82% of western hydropower generation in the 2021–22 water year.
Data from the Northwest River Forecast Center and the California Department of Water Resources show that increased precipitation in the 2021–22 water year fueled the increased hydropower generation in these states.
Washington’s Grand Coulee Dam generated 21.5 million MWh of electricity during the 2021–22 water year, 19% more than it did in the previous water year.
Although hydropower generation in some western states, including Montana, Idaho, and Colorado, was relatively unchanged, well-below-normal flow rates in the Lower Colorado River reduced hydropower generation in Arizona and Nevada.
In the 2021–22 water year, the Hoover Dam generated 10% less electricity than it did in the previous water year because the water level of the dam’s reservoir continued to decline during a historic drought.
From December 2022 to January 2023, a series of atmospheric rivers drenched parts of the western United States, especially California, with large amounts of rain and snow. The snowfall helped establish significant snowpack at high elevations and somewhat replenished reservoirs after years of drought.
EIA said the excessive rainfall in California may have improved the prospects for hydropower production in the state this summer.
EIA forecasts hydropower generation for electricity market regions, rather than at the state level, in its short-term energy outlook.
In the latest STEO, it forecasts that total hydropower production in the western market region (California, Southwest, plus Northwest and Rockies) in the 2022–23 water year will decline slightly, by 4%, from the last water year.
Federal Energy Regulators Accept PJM Proposal Tied to Base Residual Auction
February 27, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 27, 2023
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently accepted a PJM Interconnection proposal addressing a unique set of circumstances discovered during the clearing process for PJM’s 2024/2025 Base Residual Auction conducted as part of the capacity market administered by PJM.
The Feb. 21 order will allow PJM “to complete the auction in a manner that ensures just and reasonable results consistent with the reliability requirements of each Locational Deliverability Area in PJM,” the grid operator said.
FERC found PJM’s proposed tariff revisions to be just and reasonable and did not require PJM to reopen the bidding window.
As a result, PJM will post the Base Residual Auction results for the 2024/2025 Delivery Year on Feb. 27 after 4 p.m.
In the 2024/2025 Base Residual Auction, which closed Dec. 13, a large amount of planned generation with signed interconnection service agreements did not offer in the auction in one small Locational Deliverability Area of Delmarva South (DPL South), resulting in a supply and demand condition that did not reflect underlying fundamentals, according to PJM.
As a result, PJM estimated that customers in DPL South would be required to pay four times more for capacity for the 2024/2025 Delivery Year absent updating the Locational Deliverability Area Reliability Requirement.
In late December, PJM sought narrow tariff revisions to ensure a just and reasonable outcome for consumers in DPL South for the 2024/2025 Base Residual Auction in particular. PJM’s proposal to update the Locational Deliverability Area Reliability Requirement would also apply to future RPM Auctions where the requirement increases by more than one percent from the prior auction.
PJM’s proposed Tariff revisions, prevent “consumers from being charged unnecessarily high capacity prices that do not reflect actual reliability needs or supply and demand fundamentals,” the FERC order stated. “That exorbitant price increase would not be the result of supply and demand fundamentals – or an actual reliability need – meaning that there is no economic or reliability justification for those additional costs.”
FERC accepted the PJM tariff changes over the objection of a number of protestors, including merchant generators, who argued that PJM was improperly changing the auction rules retroactively. In a dissent, FERC Commissioner Danly agreed with the protestors, likening FERC’s action to a casino where the house changes the rules of blackjack in the middle of a game. He suggested that the order would reduce generators’ willingness to participate in the PJM capacity market.
While accepting the PJM proposal, the FERC order directed the convening of a forum in the near future to consider generally the PJM capacity market and “how best to ensure that it achieves its objective of ensuring resource adequacy at just and reasonable rates.”
Miniature Version of Village Helps Mass. Public Power Utility Teach Electrical Safety Lessons
February 24, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 24, 2023
The Electric Division of the Town of Danvers, Mass., is spreading the word about electrical safety to community residents through a miniature version of a village that offers a powerful visual tool to illustrate the dangers of electricity.
The town’s Electric Division has a program called S.A.F.E, Safety Awareness From Education. The program was created to educate the public on the hazards and dangers of electricity.
“We try to create real life scenarios on how electricity works and how to go about your everyday life understanding how it gets from generation to everyday use,” said Anthony Calascibetta, Safety and Risk Manager for the Electric Division, in an interview with Public Power Current.

A key tool for this program is a miniaturized village that the utility brings to local schools for a safety in electricity introduction and demonstration.
“I have been with the utility for 25 years,” Calascibetta said, noting that the utility previously utilized a mocked-up village that was built in-house, “but it didn’t have a lot of wow factor.”
The utility therefore decided to reach out to Moore Syndication to build a model for Danvers to use in safety demonstrations. Moore Syndication offers a high voltage demonstration model that shows a variety of contact hazards with overhead and underground service.
The Electric Division of Danvers has taken the mocked-up village to elementary schools, high schools and vocational schools, as well as settings where adults in the community can learn more about the safe use of electricity.
“It’s a great tool to educate both the student and the public end user on the hazards of electricity,” Calascibetta said.

Along with helping to educate people on how to stay safe when it comes to electricity, the miniature village can also work as a way in which to visually demonstrate how wildlife and acts of violence can impact the grid and create sustained outages, he pointed out.
When students and other members of the Danvers community see the electric demonstration, they are surprised at how high the voltage is and the potential hazards, Calascibetta said.
As part of the demonstration, the utility includes a simulated device that has a voltage of 480vac as a way in which to show the hazards of electricity. Utility officials use a hot dog to simulate how electricity will burn from the inside out.
Calascibetta noted that the utility is in the early stages of designing a larger version of the village.
Lincoln Electric System’s Rates Continue to Rank Among Lowest in the U.S.
February 24, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 24, 2023
A nationwide study shows that Lincoln Electric System’s rates continue to rank among the lowest in the country based on 2021 data, the Nebraska public power utility said on Feb. 23.
LES’ annual competitive market study determined that the utility ranked 3rd best for the lowest residential all-in price and 16th best for the lowest average all-in price among 87 cities surveyed nationwide when including all retail sectors, said Joe Cocklin, manager, LES Rates and Analytics.
The study is a comprehensive report of electric utility metrics allowing LES to benchmark its performance with other utilities.
“This study is an effort to monitor our affordability and reliability,” Cocklin said. “We like to provide our customers an annual comparison to show our competitiveness with rates of other U.S. electric utilities.”
Additionally, LES ranked 8th for most stable rates over the past 10 years. In the area of reliability, without major event days of adverse weather, LES ranked 1st overall. The average total time a customer experienced a non-momentary power interruption in 2021 was 17.1 minutes.
LES is ranked 10th lowest overall for the average monthly residential bill. A typical residential customer paid an average of $82.99 on their monthly LES bill (less than $3 per day), which is 31% less than the U.S. average of $121.01. LES’ affordability is further shown by its 17th-place ranking for the lowest residential bill as a percentage of household income.
Cocklin said LES’ low rates are attributed to several factors, including low-cost generating resources and LES’ ongoing efforts to improve operational efficiency across all LES business units.
To learn more about LES’ study and its methodology, visit LES.com/Rates.
New Resource Focuses on Electricity Substation Physical Security
February 23, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 23, 2023
The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released a new resource that provides owners, operators, and stakeholders with updated threat information and protective measures that can help improve a substation’s on-site physical security. CISA produced the resource in collaboration with the Department of Energy.
The product also provides resources to guide in the awareness of the threat environment facing electrical substations, the implementation of protective physical security measures, and options for a layered security strategy that will ultimately reduce or minimize the impact of an attack.
The resource, “Sector Spotlight: Electricity Substation Physical Security,” is available here.
The American Public Power Association has a suite of resources to help in hardening a utility’s physical security.
Those resources include Physical Security Essentials: A Public Power Primer, which addresses physical security protective measures and describes leading practices that can help mitigate risks.
To access that and other resources on the APPA website, click here.
Board of Colorado Springs Utilities Votes to Hire Travas Deal as Next CEO of Utility
February 23, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 23, 2023
The Colorado Springs Utilities Board on Feb. 22 approved an offer of employment to Travas Deal to serve as CEO of the public power utility. Prior to this appointment, Deal served as the utility’s acting CEO.
He was named Chief Operations Officer in April 2020 in which he was responsible for the safe and reliable operations of the utility’s four services – electric, natural gas, water and wastewater.
Prior to joining Colorado Springs Utilities in 2017 as Field Services Manager, he worked at Duke Energy, in the transportation industry and served as a U.S. Marine for a decade.

TVA Study Will Examine Creating Pathways to Clean Energy Economy
February 23, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 23, 2023
The Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors on Feb. 16 announced plans to move forward with a study that will look at all segments of the economy to accelerate the region’s clean-energy economy.
Jeff Lyash, TVA president and CEO, said that the study — a partnership between the University of Tennessee’s Baker Center and TVA — is critical to help the region better define the pace of electrification and identify the connections between the power industry and all sectors of the economy to pinpoint ways that will allow for adoption of sustainable, carbon-free solutions.
Lyash noted that, after a decade of nearly flat load growth, TVA has experienced nearly 2.5% demand growth from 2020 to 2022. Southern states are the fastest-growing region in the nation, and Tennessee is among the states with the largest rate of population increase for the past year for the entire country. TVA’s service area is expected to exceed 10 million residents in the next Census Bureau report.
TVA anticipates adding 10,000-14,000 megawatts of new resources by the end of this decade to meet the growing power demand from both businesses and homeowners.
“We are aggressively investing in our system, more than $18 billion in capacity expansion and base capital, since 2014,” said Lyash in a statement. “In addition, we plan to continue these investments as we work to bring online about 3,800 megawatts of generation to create an energy system that is affordable, reliable, resilient, and clean. Those investments are now paying dividends to Valley families in terms of good jobs, lower power bills and cleaner air, and the Valley Pathways Study can help support our region’s economic competitiveness.”
With a 57% carbon reduction against the 2005 benchmark, coupled with no base rate increase since 2019, TVA noted that it has helped attract $2.7 billion of business additions and expansions, which is projected to create or retain more than 21,700 jobs, in the first fiscal quarter alone.
Over the past five years, those figures are much larger – 346,000 jobs and $47 billion of investment.
Greenville Electric Utility System Recognized for Excellence in Financial Reporting
February 23, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 23, 2023
The Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada has awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting to Texas public power utility Greenville Electric Utility System for its annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2021.
The report has been judged by an impartial panel to meet the high standards of the program, which includes demonstrating a constructive “spirit of full disclosure” to clearly communicate its financial story and motivate potential users and user groups to read the report.
The Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting, and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a government and its management, GEUS said.
Public Power Community of Marshall, Mich., Poised to Benefit from Ford Battery Plant
February 23, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 23, 2023
Kevin Maynard, Director of Electric Utilities for the public power community of Marshall, Mich., recently detailed how Marshall will benefit from Ford’s plans to invest $3.5 billion to build the country’s first automaker-backed lithium iron phosphate battery plant in the city.
Ford announced the news about the battery plant on Feb. 23. Ford noted that the plant will initially employ 2,500 people when production of LFP batteries begins in 2026. Ford will have the option to further grow its battery capacity at the plant, which will be part of a wholly owned Ford subsidiary.
While investor-owned Michigan utility Consumers Energy will be supplying power to the plant, Maynard noted that Marshall’s utility will have plenty of work on its plate in terms of economic development tied to the plant and serving new load.
In general, if a customer is outside of a city’s limits in Michigan “and it’s a new customer it can be served by either the municipal electric system or the investor-owned utility,” he said in an interview with Public Power Current. The Ford site is outside of Marshall’s city limits. Marshall’s utility and Consumers Energy both made pitches to serve the new plant.
Maynard noted that any of the support industries or ancillary industries “that come along with” the plant will be served by the city’s utility.
“It looks like there’s going to be water and wastewater treatment facilities that are going to be built out there to serve the site. We plan to serve those,” he said. “And then, of course, there’s all the local economic activity – residential, commercial, industrial…that we anticipate will add to our load here.”
Maynard noted that the utility is “working on a number of potential residential developments. Some of those are single family dwellings. Some of them are apartments and multi-family apartment structures. We were working on all of those before Ford’s announcement. So our anticipation is that with 2,500 new jobs coming to the Marshall area, there will be a renewed interest in residential building here in our community.”
Supply Chain
Maynard also addressed the question of whether the utility is facing any supply chain challenges.
“We have taken a look at what our inventory levels should be and tried to plan accordingly,” he said. “If we, for example, said how many electric meters do we typically use in a year’s time – well, maybe that should be our minimum reorder quantity now.”
In the short term, the utility has purchased re-manufactured electric meter units. The city is considering an advanced metering infrastructure system “and we didn’t want to just halt all meter changeouts while we got that fully vetted.” So the utility is buying re-manufactured meters for electric $25, “which is dirt cheap, so we don’t feel bad if we have to throw them away in four or five years.”
Transformers have also been an issue, he noted, while “poles have not been much of an issue.”