The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently affirmed a July 2021 decision by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims blocking public power utilities from recovering direct payment bond refunds cut by sequestration.

“Having considered all of Appellants’ arguments, we find no basis to overturn the decision,” the Appeals Court found in its decision. The American Public Power Association expressed disappointment with the decision.

Based on Office of Management and Budget reports, APPA estimates that sequestration has cut $2.4 billion in direct payment bond refunds, with $221 million to public power issuers alone.

APPA said that Congress fully intended refunds to issuers of direct payment bonds to be exempt from budget sequestration and that OMB appears to have the authority to exempt these refunds from sequestration.

APPA said it will continue to work to advance legislation that would end sequestration.

Under a 15-year power purchase agreement Terra-Gen will provide 77.7 megawatts of electricity generated between three sites in Kern County, Calif. Electricity received through this PPA accounts for nearly 5 percent of SVCE’s annual retail load.

This is the second long-term wind project to come online for SVCE and is complementary to other resources in the agency’s power mix, including solar with battery storage and long-duration storage.

The three Terra-Gen wind sites generating the electricity were built in 1986 and partially repowered in 1999. The projects still operate at high availability rates. The SVCE portion of the project is made up of 430 turbines.

The PPA is a result of a request for offers issued in 2020. To date, SVCE has signed 16 contracts for clean energy projects totaling more than 670 MW of capacity and over 803 MWh of battery storage.

Silicon Valley Clean Energy provides electricity from renewable and carbon-free sources to more than 270,000 residential and commercial customers in 13 Santa Clara County jurisdictions.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Feb. 17 issued a final rule that reaffirmed the scientific, economic, and legal underpinnings of the 2012 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for power plants, which required significant reductions of mercury, acid gases, and other harmful pollutants.

The final rule, which responds to President Biden’s January 20, 2021, Executive Order 13990, “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis,” reverses a rule issued by the previous administration in May 2020.

The final rule leaves the current emissions standards unchanged. “When weighing the substantial burden that hazardous air pollutants, including mercury, impose on public health against the reasonable costs of controlling these emissions, EPA finds that it is appropriate and necessary to regulate emissions of air toxics from power plants under the Clean Air Act,” EPA said in a news release.

The agency said it is also continuing to consider the MATS Residual Risk and Technology Review, as directed by Executive Order 13990, to determine whether more stringent protections for hazardous air emissions from power plants are feasible and warranted and expects to address that review in a separate action.

The initial appropriate and necessary finding was made in 2000 and affirmed in 2012 and 2016. In May 2020, the Trump Administration reversed EPA’s 2016 finding, the costs of regulating hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from coal and oil fired electric generating units grossly outweigh the quantified HAP benefits. However, is 2021, Executive Order 13990 directed EPA to review that finding and consider an action to rescind it.

In its Feb. 17 action, EPA determined that the 2020 action was “based on a fundamentally flawed interpretation of the Clean Air Act that improperly ignored or undervalued vital health benefits from reducing hazardous air pollution from power plants,” it said.

EPA reaffirmed that “it is appropriate and necessary to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants.” In 2022 APPA submitted comments supporting the restoration of the appropriate and necessary finding to help secure critical regulatory and business certainty for power sector which had spent $18 billion to comply with the MATS rule since it became effective.

 In 2021, APPA, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, and the Edison Electric Institute commissioned a study to evaluate particulate matter, hydrogen chloride, and mercury emissions measurements from a representative subset of coal-fired electric generating units.

The evaluation was conducted to understand the impact of potentially lower particulate matter, hydrogen chloride, and mercury emission rates, if EPA were to propose to revise the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards residual risk and technology review rule for coal and oil-fired plants.

In a proposed decision, a California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge recommended granting a challenge that would deny Sunnova Energy’s plans to build community microgrids in California.

In September Sunnova Community Microgrid California, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sunnova Energy, applied to the CPUC for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for authorization to build and operate public utility microgrids and to set electric service rates for the microgrid customers.

In the application (22-09-002), SCMC laid out plans for the microgrids that would be built as part of new master planned residential communities of between 500 to 2,000 homes, as well as and select non-residential facilities that would be co-located in or an essential part of each community.

SCMC also requested the CPUC’s approval to provide bundled retail service under Section 2780 of the Public Utilities Code and requested authority to establish market-based rates for service and requested exemption from several CPUC general orders and rules, including its general order regarding advice letters and customer notice requirements and affiliate transaction rules.

In October, the Public Advocates Office (Cal Advocates), an independent unit of the CPUC, filed a motion to dismiss SCMC’s application. In the petition, Cal Advocates argued that SCMC’s requests are based on “unsubstantiated claims and lack the basic information” required for a CPCN. Cal Advocates also said SCMC did not demonstrate that its proposals would ensure rates are just, reasonable, and necessary.

Cal Advocates also contended that the CPUC should not consider SCMC’s application before a regulatory framework for multi-customer microgrids is developed in the commission’s ongoing Rulemaking 19-09-0091 and noted that the commission “rejected the same proposal to rely on the microutility statute that SCMC proposes.”

The Utility Reform Network, Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas and Electric, and San Diego Gas and Electric also filed protests with the CPUC seeking dismissal of SCMC’s application.

In the proposed decision, Administrative Law Judge Colin Rizzo granted Cal Advocates’ motion to dismiss because the motion is not improper, the exemptions SCMC seeks are unauthorized, and SCMC fails to provide the information required for a CPCN.

The proposed decision has no legal effect until and unless the CPUC hears the item (Agenda ID #21361) and votes to approve it. At the earliest, the item may be heard at the CPUC’s April 6 business meeting.

California does, under Section 2780, provide for an “electric microutility” to be the sole-source of generation, distribution, and exclusive electricity sales to a customer base of fewer than 2,000 customers, but in the proposed decision Rizzo noted that SCMC was seeking “numerous exemptions from statutory requirements for electrical corporations based on its proposed characterization as an ‘electric microutility’ under Section 2780.”

However, the statute defines an “electric microutility” as an electrical corporation that is regulated by the commission, thus, “by the express terms of the statute, an ‘electrical microutility’ must also meet the definition of an ‘electrical corporation,’” a conclusion already affirmed in the commission’s microgrid rulemaking, which rejected “the assertion that under Section 2780, we can exempt ‘microutilities’ from the requirements applicable to electrical corporations,” Rizzo wrote in the proposed decision.

And while SCMC argued that granting Cal Advocates’ motion to dismiss would be a “drastic” remedy that “may be true in the abstract,” the argument “would be more persuasive were there not already an ongoing rulemaking,” Rizzo said. Further, rather than seeking modification of a prior commission decision, SCMC instead was seeking “a divergent, contrary ruling in a totally new proceeding.”

“SCMC is seeking to be exempt from the Commission’s statutorily required function of conducting oversight of electricity rates to ensure that they are just and reasonable,” Rizzo wrote. To grant “SCMC this authority, the Commission would have to abdicate its responsibility to ensure just and reasonable rates,” Rizzo said.

“It is curious and concerning that the PAO, a presumably independent division of the CPUC who is charged with representing the public interest, is seeking to dismiss our microgrid application before it gets any opportunity to be heard through a public hearing,” said Meghan Nutting, Executive Vice President for Government and Regulatory Affairs, at Sunnova.

“Our application clearly outlines the reliability, rate, environmental, and other public interest benefits that community microgrids can provide. This proposed decision is troubling and disappointing for a state that has set such bold climate targets yet is struggling with making steady progress on them,” she said.

The benefits of participating in this year’s American Public Power Association’s Lineworkers Rodeo include communication, collaboration and networking opportunities, said Mike Fergus, Director of Electric Distribution and Services at the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities, which is hosting the 2023 Lineworkers Rodeo in Kansas City, Kansas.

“This rodeo provides you a chance to connect with the vendors on a personal level, and learn new initiatives from other utilities from throughout the country,” said Fergus in a Q&A with Public Power Current.

The rodeo will take place from March 31 to April 1. The deadline to register crews to participate in the rodeo is March 3.

 “In my experience, I always leave with something new to bring back to the company, or with a better understanding of our industry. The emphasis on safety is second to none, and even though it is a competition for first place, you are required perform each task with safety first,” Fergus said.

“In our trade, lineman’s families are just as committed as they are. They worry when they leave for restoration efforts and wait for the minute they come home. The rodeo encourages families to come enjoy the day and provides kid zones and other activities. It allows each lineman to showcase their skills with family and friends,” Fergus said.

David Mehlhaff, Chief Communications Officer at BPU, noted that the public power utility was scheduled to host the event in 2020, but had to cancel the rodeo about two weeks before the event because of the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions.

“That was disappointing after our team had put so much planning towards the event. On the plus side, we had a real good idea what was required as we worked on plans for the 2023 event,” he noted.

“Also, since we have staff members that are involved with the International Linemen’s Rodeo which is held annually at the same location, we have a deep knowledge of the grounds and what it takes to put on a successful event.”

When asked to detail BPU’s coordination with APPA on rodeo planning, Mehlhaff said that the APPA rodeo committee and the key staff that work on this annual event “have been doing this for a number of years and they have a system down as well as key learnings from previous rodeo host utilities. Our team, the rodeo committee and association staff have regular communications via e-mail, calls and virtual meetings.”

In a recent episode of APPA’s Public Power Now podcast, Aaron Haderle, Manager of Transmission and Distribution Operations at Kissimmee Utility Authority, and Danette Scudder, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, detailed the benefits of public power utilities participating in the rodeo.

Click here for additional details about the rodeo.

The Western Area Power Administration has issued requests for information for the procurement of electric generation. One of the RFIs is for short- to mid-term procurement, while the second RFI is for long-term procurement. Responses are due by February 24.

WAPA issued the RFIs through the Colorado River Storage Project Management Center and in collaboration with several of its preference power customers.

The short- to mid-term (1-5 years) RFI notes that CRSP and the participating customers would like to identify up to 400 megawatts of existing or potentially new electricity generation, including a broad range of traditional sources and carbon emissions free sources to meet the firm and non-firm energy requirements associated with federal power marketing contractual arrangements with municipalities,
federal agencies, state agencies, Native American Tribal Organizations, and Joint Action Agencies.

Under the long-term (5-25 years) RFI, CRSP and the participating customers would like to identify up to 400 MW of existing or potentially new electricity generation.

Under both RFIs, the intention is for CRSP to enter into a purchase power agreement or agreements for
replacement power and/or facilitate PPA(s) through participating customers.

The RFIs are available for download here.

The New York Power Authority and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority recently announced that a first-of-its-kind battery energy storage system using patented, high-safety, lithium-ion superCell technology is delivering energy peak shaving capabilities to NYPA’s White Plains, N.Y., offices, as part of a demonstration project.

The BESS developed by Cadenza Innovation allows NYPA to demonstrate a peak energy demand shaving function that reduces the peak electricity load typical of a commercial building, NYPA said.

The BESS can supply building power at desired demand times and includes the ability to function in a peak shaving mode.

NYPA noted that this can achieve cost reductions for building/site owners, primarily by arbitrage, storing lower cost energy absorbed at time periods of lower power demand and delivering that energy at time periods of higher cost due to higher power demand, and by peak shaving, reducing a building/site maximum power demand and therefore reducing the associated utility peak demand charge.

 “This initial testing phase shows the potential for this type of battery energy storage system to serve as a model for managing energy demands and lowering costs for owners of commercial and industrial buildings,” said NYPA Acting President and CEO Justin Driscoll. “The unit is reducing peak loads at the Power Authority’s main offices, smoothing electricity network operations and showing a safety advantage by demonstrating a reduction in the potential of thermal runaway,” he said.

“Our goal is to demonstrate whether this unit will provide energy storage and power quality services on a scale that can meet commercial, industrial and network demands at buildings that are similar to ours.”

Deployed immediately adjacent to NYPA’s White Plains offices and funded in part with a $1 million award through NYSERDA’s Innovation program, the BESS was developed by Cadenza Innovation in collaboration with Hitachi Energy “to showcase the key role that energy storage can play in enhancing demand management and grid flexibility,” NYPA said.

The project at NYPA is using the energy storage system to demonstrate a peak shaving function that reduces the peak load typical of a commercial building.

The aim is for the BESS to serve as a model for integrating low-cost, safe, high-performance renewable energy resources into the grid – especially in urban areas – that can be replicated at other businesses throughout New York State and beyond.

By packaging components to lower costs and increase safety, the superCell is designed to reduce the need for additional, high-cost fire safety protection and mitigation systems — resulting in improved energy density and supporting the advancement of the Li-ion battery industry.

NYPA and Cadenza Innovation will continue to monitor and evaluate the system’s performance over the next 12 months.

Independent power producer Calpine earlier this month said it was starting development efforts for a new approximately 425-megawatt peaking plant next to its Freestone Energy Center in Freestone County, Texas.

“These development efforts are warranted in light of the Public Utility Commission’s recent adoption of a framework for implementing a Performance Credit Mechanism designed to incent new generation,” Calpine said in a news release.

In January, the Texas PUC voted unanimously to adopt a PCM electric market design option and a set of guiding principles for implementation to strengthen reliability, accountability, and affordability of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas electric grid.

The Commission said it would defer implementation of all elements of the PCM until the 88th Texas Legislature has an opportunity to review the PCM and its guiding principles and provide guidance or direction based upon the market design option’s merits.

Calpine said that because the final design and implementation of the PCM will likely take a couple years, “we also are encouraged that the PUC and ERCOT will be developing ‘bridge’ solutions to create near-term incentives for building new dispatchable generation. Regulatory certainty on PCM will be critical as Calpine continues to move this project forward.”

Community solar installations dipped last year but are expected to grow rapidly over the next five years, according to a new report from Wood Mackenzie.

Community solar installed capacity declined 16 percent in 2022 compared with last year, according to the report, US community solar market outlook: H1 2023.

Last year’s drop in community solar installations was primarily driven by interconnection delays that hindered growth in key markets such as Massachusetts, Maine, and Maryland, the report’s authors said, adding that industry wide supply chain constraints pushed project timelines into 2023.

Despite last year’s slow down, the community solar market is forecast to grow 118 percent with at least 6 gigawatts of direct current capacity expected to come online in existing markets between 2023 and 2027, according to the report, which was done in collaboration with the Coalition for Community Solar Access.

If a “conservative forecast” of new market opportunities is included Wood Mackenzie estimates that 11.5 GW of community solar could be installed by 2027.

CCSA’s new target of 30 GW of community solar by 2030, announced in January, will require an acceleration of installed capacity in existing markets and continued establishment of new state markets, the report said.

“Any upside to our existing forecast will require strong policy and market reforms that release pipeline backlogs in existing markets, as well as additional capacity from new state markets,” Caitlin Connelly, research analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said in a statement. “The newly passed state-wide program in California, for example, has the potential to yield a significant number of megawatts in the coming years.”

New state markets will provide upside to the national forecast starting in 2024, the report said. Wood Mackenzie’s preliminary forecasts call for a 605-megawatt (MW) boost by 2027 from potential new state markets, including Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

“The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is cause for optimism,” Connelly said. “Community solar developers are well positioned to take advantage of the new and extended investment tax credits (ITC) once guidance is released in 2023, with many developers interested in qualifying projects for the low-to-moderate income and domestic content adders.”

The report also found that as project portfolios grow, community solar developers are increasingly outsourcing subscriber acquisition and management services to third-party companies. The top three subscriber companies now manage over 37 percent of the total market, according to the report.

“The landscape for subscriber companies is becoming more competitive and complex,” Connelly said. “Developers seek partners that can successfully subscribe projects, form trusting relationships with subscribers, and manage these relationships throughout the lifetime of the project or program.”

California public power utility Alameda Municipal Power has secured a long-term purchase agreement with the Northern California Power Agency and the Geysers Power Company under which Alameda Municipal Power will procure and deliver up to five megawatts of energy produced from the Geysers geothermal power plants located in California’s Sonoma and Lake Counties.

The agreement will run for a period of 12 years beginning in 2025.  

Alameda Municipal Power is a department of the city of Alameda that has served residents and businesses for 135 years. It provides 100 percent clean energy to more than 35,000 customers at rates that average 35 percent below neighboring communities.

Its clean power mix includes geothermal and hydroelectric sources, wind power and landfill gas.

Headquartered in Roseville, California, NCPA is a nonprofit California joint powers agency established in 1968 to construct and operate renewable and low-emitting generating facilities and assist in meeting the wholesale energy needs of its members.

The Geysers Power Company is an indirect subsidiary of Calpine Corporation.