Reading Municipal Light Department Launches Renewable Choice Program
January 27, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 27, 2022
The Reading Municipal Light Department (RMLD) in Massachusetts recently announced the upcoming launch of its renewable choice opt-in program that will allow customers to support additional renewable energy resources above and beyond RMLD’s annual non-carbon energy targets.
Funds from the renewable choice program will be used to retire additional New England Power Pool Generation Information System compliant renewable certificates, specifically Mass Class 1 certificates.
The program launches February 1, 2022 for residential customers and will be available to commercial and industrial customers this spring.
Customers can choose to contribute at one of three levels to bring their monthly electricity usage to 50%, 75%, or 100% renewable/non-carbon. The renewable choice charge will be based on the participating customer’s monthly kilowatt hour (kWh) usage and will be added as a line item on the customer’s monthly electric bill.
A one-year commitment is required, and customers must be current with their bill to sign up.
Additional information about the program is available here: https://www.rmld.com/home/pages/renewable-choice.
The page also features a calculator which allows customers to input their monthly kWh usage to see how much their monthly renewable choice charge would be for all three available participation percentage levels.
Established in 1894, RMLD is a municipal electric utility serving over 70,000 residents in the towns of Reading, North Reading, Wilmington, and Lynnfield Center. RMLD has over 30,000 meter connections within its service territory.
USDA Launches $10 Million Program For Rural Renewables Projects
January 26, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
January 26, 2022
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is making up to $10 million available to help residents of rural towns develop community renewable energy projects.
The funds, available through the new Rural Energy Pilot Program, can be used to deploy community-scale renewable energy technologies and innovations to reduce climate pollution and increase resilience to the impacts of climate change.
The technologies can include solar, wind, geothermal, micro-hydroelectric and biomass/bioenergy projects. Up to 20 percent of awarded funds may also be used for community energy planning, capacity building, technical assistance, energy efficiency and weatherization.
As part of the pilot program, the USDA is offering priority points to projects that advance key priorities under the Biden-Harris administration to help communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, advance equity and combat climate change. The points will increase the likelihood of funding for projects seeking to address the identified rural challenges.
The USDA said details on a planned informational webinar will be posted on the Rural Energy Pilot Program webpage.
SRP, Navajo Tribal Utility Authority Extend Solar Agreement, Sign New Solar Contract
January 24, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 24, 2022
Officials with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA), Arizona’s Salt River Project (SRP), and leaders of the Navajo Nation have 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 (MW) 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.
The full facility includes Kayenta I and II and is a 55 MW renewable energy plant that produces green power on the Navajo Nation. The Kayenta facilities help NTUA supplement its power resource mix and maintain some of the lowest consumer electric rates in the region.
Kayenta I first became operational in May 2017 and the duration of the newly expanded agreement for Kayenta I now more closely resembles the long-term duration of the agreement SRP and NTUA have for Kayenta II, which became operational in 2019. The combined Kayenta facilities generate enough energy to power 36,000 Navajo Nation residential homes.
The Jan. 20 ceremony also celebrated the contract signing for Cameron Solar, a 200-MW solar plant resource scheduled to be built and operational on the Navajo Nation by the end of 2023, which contributes to SRP’s goal to add at least 2,025MW of new utility-scale solar to its power system by 2025.
This project supports renewable project development on Navajo Nation and the community’s transition from a coal-dependent economy. The project will infuse roughly $11 million for the land lease as well as an additional $32 million in transmission operations over the next 25 years. The project will also generate approximately $15 million in tax revenues associated with solar and infrastructure, as well as 300-400 local construction jobs that will be 80-90% filled by residents of Navajo descent.
There will also be ongoing scholarship and internship opportunities for Cameron community residents. Any excess proceeds from this development will go back into supporting investment in utility infrastructure and electrification, including the Light Up Navajo initiative, a joint program between NTUA and the American Public Power Association dedicated to the electrification of homes on the Navajo Nation and creation of a better future for local communities.
Light Up Navajo III will start this spring. Interested public power utilities should contact lightup-navajoproject@ntua.com for more information on this important event.
SRP noted that it has been recognized by NTUA as a cornerstone member of the Light up Navajo initiative through its work in securing solar power purchase agreements and providing ongoing support to NTUA in the development of renewable projects.
Through its collaboration with NTUA, SRP has also provided technical support in developing interconnection facilities for large-scale renewable development within the Navajo Nation and has provided procurement and financing expertise related to the construction and ownership of such projects.
APPA-Funded Study Provides Strategy For Optimal Renewable Power Bids
January 20, 2022
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
January 20, 2022
A new American Public Power Association-funded study has brought small- and medium-size utilities one step closer to confidently offering and purchasing renewable energy products on wholesale power markets.
In many wholesale power markets, utilities with a real time production shortage from cleared day-ahead bids must purchase products in the real-time market to make up the shortage. It’s no surprise, then, that wind and solar resources are not currently eligible to provide ancillary services in many electricity markets: their intermittency and the uncertainty of forecasts surrounding these products leads to expensive shortages for utilities.
This is true in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), which PhD candidate Anne Stratman has researched as part of her studies in electrical engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Power and Energy Systems Lab. Stratman’s current research focus is refining a model that utility operators with renewable energy resources in their portfolios can use to participate more fully in wholesale power markets. Her recent project, Providing System Reserves with Renewable Resources in the Southwest Power Pool Market, offers a glimpse into a future where renewable-based energy systems can provide system reserves using wind and solar resources. This work was partially funded by the American Public Power Association’s Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments (DEED) program.
As a basis for her research, Stratman pulled from Southwest Power Pool and National Renewable Energy Laboratory databases to gather historical data for day-ahead energy and reserve prices, real-time prices, and wind and solar power production. Data collection centered on a location near Beatrice, NE, an area within Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD)’s service territory. Roman Estrada of NPPD offered a utility perspective to Stratman’s research as her DEED project sponsor.
“Through discussions with my NPPD sponsor, I gained valuable insights into current industry practices and challenges faced by small to medium utilities. These discussions were helpful in bridging the gap between academic theory and industry practice and ensuring the model would be useful to utilities,” said Stratman.
Stratman used Beatrice, NE-area price and production datasets to develop a stochastic optimization model for utilities with wind and solar resources that could calculate curves for bidding into markets for different products: namely, energy, spinning reserves, up regulation, and down regulation. Stochastic optimization was used as a low-cost method to consider many different forecast scenarios, adjust for uncertainty, and formulate an optimal bidding strategy in all possible scenarios.
The resulting model suggested that the best approach for wind and solar resources produced in the region would be to offer, on average, about 5 percent of forecasted power output on the day-ahead market and 95 percent on the real-time market. The average product distribution for wind power, in the day-ahead and real-time markets combined, was 84 percent energy, 0.5 percent spinning reserves, 3.5 percent up regulation, and 12 percent down regulation. For solar power, the average product distribution was 91 percent energy, less than 1 percent spinning reserves, 3 percent up regulation, and 6 percent down regulation, Stratman’s report said.
Additionally, Stratman reviewed case studies and found that by offering several types of products, some with much lower real-time prices than others, a utility would likely be able to avoid real-time penalties by offering less expensive products when forecast uncertainty is high.
“Based on the project results and my dissertation research up to this point, I’ve observed that offering reserve products can allow utilities with highly uncertain generation resources to hedge against the risk of large real-time deviation penalties, compared to only participating in the energy market. Usually, it’s only necessary to offer small quantities of reserve products to reduce risk significantly. However, the tradeoff between profit and the need for reliable reserve commitments should also be considered. Hopefully, this project provides a steppingstone towards greater use of wind and solar resources in reserve markets as forecasting methods improve,” said Stratman.
In the future, Stratman plans to write a conference paper about the model developed in the project that would use a forecasting model to generate prices and wind and solar power scenarios, instead of using historical data as scenarios. There is much less variation in scenarios generated using forecasting models than in scenarios that use historical data, meaning that day-ahead bids would not exceed forecasts, the report said.
DEED members interested in experimenting with Stratman’s model are in luck: as part of her research, she developed a simple MATLAB code and a user guide for use by small and medium utilities with wind and solar resources. This software is applicable for utilities participating in any of the organized independent or regional wholesale markets. The software is available to members of APPA’s R&D community via the DEED Project Library.
Non-DEED members interested in learning more might like to stop by the DEED booth at the American Public Power Association’s Engineering & Operations Conference, where a research poster (and perhaps the researcher herself!) will be available to answer follow-up questions. Additional details about the DEED program are available here.
Tennessee Valley Authority Solicitation Seeks Swine Renewable Energy Credits
January 18, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 18, 2022
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is seeking offers for up to 2,000 swine renewable energy credits (RECs) that meet the North Carolina Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard.
Offers must be submitted through the TVA website by Feb. 15, 2022 and TVA is seeking RECs for Compliance Year 2021.
Swine RECs are associated with electricity generated by swine-waste fueled electric generating facilities properly registered with the state of North Carolina, TVA said.
TVA said it is investing in swine RECs “to support innovative solutions for cleaner energy to promote economic development opportunities in North Carolina.”
It noted that in fiscal year 2021, TVA’s economic development efforts supported record-breaking job creation — nearly 81,000 jobs and more than $8.8 billion in capital investment attracted to its seven-state service region.
Currently, TVA has over 8,000 megawatts of renewable energy in its portfolio.
TVA’s request for offers is posted at www.tva.com/information/doing-business-with-tva.
Biden Administration To Hold Its First Offshore Wind Lease Sale Next Month
January 12, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 12, 2022
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland on Jan. 12 announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold a wind energy auction in February for more than 480,000 acres offshore New York and New Jersey, in the area known as the New York Bight.
This will be the first offshore wind lease sale under the Biden-Harris administration.
The Feb. 23 auction will allow offshore wind developers to bid on six lease areas — the most areas ever offered in a single auction — as described in BOEM’s Final Sale Notice. Leases offered in this sale could result in 5.6 to 7 gigawatts of offshore wind energy.
The White House’s goal to install 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 is complemented by state offshore wind policies and actions throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, Interior noted in a news release.
Collectively, New York and New Jersey have set the nation’s largest regional offshore wind target of installing over 16 GW of offshore wind by 2035.
According to Interior, the New York Bight offshore wind auction will include several innovative lease stipulations designed to promote the development of a robust domestic U.S. supply chain for offshore wind and enhance engagement with Tribes, the commercial fishing industry, other ocean users, and underserved communities. The stipulations will also advance flexibility in transmission planning.
The Sale Notice also requires lessees to identify Tribes, underserved communities and other ocean users who could be affected by offshore wind development.
More information about the auction, lease stipulations, list of qualified bidders for the auction and Interior’s collaboration with New York and New Jersey can be found on BOEM’s website.
APPA DEED Members Encouraged To Apply For Energy Innovator Award
January 11, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 11, 2022
Members of the American Public Power Association’s (APPA) Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Development’s (DEED) program are encouraged to apply for its Energy Innovator Award. The deadline for submissions is Jan. 31, 2022.
The APPA program’s Energy Innovator Award honors utilities that have developed or applied creative techniques and technologies to improve the efficient delivery of energy services in their communities through the implementation of new projects and programs. Awards recognize creativity, resource efficiency, benefits to consumers, transferability, and project scope in relation to utility size.
A list of APPA DEED members is available here.
Energy Innovator Award winners are chosen by an outside panel of judges carefully selected from leaders in the energy industry, public office, the media, and private business.
The most recent Energy Innovator Award recipients are Florida public power utility Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) and Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (SMMPA).
OUC developed a nanogrid with the aim of achieving transformative strategic objectives that addressed decarbonization of the grid, electrification, and decentralization. OUC’s nanogrid will provide real-world testing of new technologies at a scale that allows OUC to gain valuable operational data, with lower investment risk.
The nanogrid aims to solve the key challenges of vehicle electrification, demand charge mitigation and resiliency through direct-coupled solar PV and battery storage with electric vehicle chargers.
Additionally, the nanogrid will be integrated with a hydrogen system for backup power, consisting of an electrolyzer, hydrogen storage tanks, and two fuel cells, which are part of a Department of Energy-supported green hydrogen feasibility demonstration.
SMMPA’s Member EV Charging Network was a collaboration between the agency, 17 of its member utilities, and ZEF Energy to facilitate the acceptance of electric vehicles and help with the transformation of both the electric utility and transportation industries.
SMMPA made the investment in the chargers and maintenance programs, while member utilities located suitable sites and handled the installation. This project will bring fast charging stations to the region and reduce range anxiety by providing EV owners with a quick charge when they are traveling longer distances.
For additional details on the SMMPA project and the process for applying for an Energy Innovator Award, click here for the latest episode of APPA’s Public Power Now podcast, which features Chris Schoenherr, Director, Agency and Government Relations and Chief External Affairs Officer, at SMMPA.
Among the 2020 Energy Innovator Award winners was South Dakota’s Heartland Power Consumers District.
During the summer of 2019, Heartland employed a college intern to develop calculator tools to help determine the annual benefit and cost of installing a renewable energy system, particularly a solar array. One calculator is for retail customers who want to install solar panels on their property, while the other is for the utility to determine the cost to the utility itself. The solar calculators are complete and functional within the Microsoft Excel program.
The calculator makes some assumptions but does so based on answers to certain questions including geographic location, making it a useful tool for any utility.
“We developed the renewable cost calculator to help customers make an informed decision when considering the costs and benefits of installing a renewable energy system,” said Ann Hyland, Chief Communications Officer at Heartland Power Consumers District.
“It also helps utilities determine the effect it will have on their system. Heartland has made a commitment to innovation and developing the necessary resources to most effectively serve our customers. As technology continues to evolve, it is vital to stay ahead of the curve, and this award helps recognize those efforts,” she said.
Additional details about the award are available here.
California Community Choice Aggregators Seek Clean Energy Supply Proposals
January 7, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 7, 2022
Three California community choice aggregators (CCAs) have partnered to jointly issue a request for proposals (RFP) for new clean energy resources.
The RFP, which was issued by Central Coast Community Energy, Silicon Valley Clean Energy and Sonoma Clean Power, solicits proposals from qualified and experienced individuals or firms to develop non-polluting energy sources to meet California’s new Mid-Term Reliability procurement mandate in addition to each respective CCA’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), greenhouse gas emission reductions and reliability requirements.
The CCAs are seeking to procure resources to satisfy the requirements of a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) order that includes a procurement mandate in response to more extreme weather events and to replace power from the Diablo Canyon nuclear facility, which will be decommissioned in 2025.
As a result, the CPUC ordered all load serving entities in the state, including CCAs, to purchase 11,500 megawatts of new, clean resources to come online by 2026.
The CPUC decision requires the three CCAs to procure a combined total of more than 600 MW of additional Net Qualifying Capacity (NQC) to come online before June 1, 2026. NQC refers to the ability of a power plant to meet the reliability needs of the grid, particularly during peak, evening hours.
Eligible resources for the RFP include non-fossil fuel sources such as solar, wind, renewable plus storage hybrids, and demand response; zero-emitting resources available during peak evening hours, such as energy storage; firm generation resources that are not weather dependent, such as geothermal; and long duration energy storage that is able to discharge over at least an eight-hour period.
Proposals are due by 5 p.m. PT on Jan. 31, 2022, and the RFP is available here.
Central Coast Community Energy serves more than 400,000 customers throughout California’s Central Coast, including residential, commercial and agricultural customers in communities located within Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz counties.
Silicon Valley Clean Energy provides clean electricity from renewable and carbon-free sources to more than 270,000 residential and commercial customers in 13 Santa Clara County jurisdictions.
Sonoma Clean Power is the public power provider for Sonoma and Mendocino counties, serving a population of about a half-million.
Financing Package Closes For Solar Project That Will Supply Energy To AMEA Members
January 4, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 4, 2022
Lightsource bp has successfully closed on a $100 million financing package for its 130-megawatt Black Bear Solar energy project in Montgomery County, Alabama.
The power contract secured with Alabama Municipal Electric Authority (AMEA) played a critical role in enabling investment and financing of this new energy infrastructure for Alabama, Lightsource bp noted.
AMEA, located in Montgomery, Alabama, is the wholesale power provider for 11 public power utilities in Alabama, which serve some 350,000 customers in the cities of Alexander City, Dothan, Fairhope, Foley, LaFayette, Lanett, Luverne, Opelika, Piedmont, Sylacauga, and Tuskegee.
The tax equity investment for the project was secured from Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank. Debt for the project was provided by Spain’s Banco Santander and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, a global financial group headquartered in Tokyo. The balance of the equity requirements will be invested by Lightsource bp.
Black Bear Solar will supply energy to AMEA’s 11 member utilities located across the state. The project will also contribute almost $7 million in property tax revenue to county schools over the first 35 years of the project life.
Massachusetts Taps Offshore Wind Project That Will Supply Energy to Public Power Utilities
January 4, 2022
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 4, 2022
Massachusetts officials recently announced the selection of an offshore wind project that includes a partnership between Vineyard Wind, the developer, and Energy New England (ENE), which is representing 20 participating Massachusetts Municipal Light Plants (MLPs) including Reading Municipal Light Department (RMLD).
The partnership will allow MLPs to purchase offshore wind power for the first time, an opportunity that will green the portfolios of MLPs across the state, RMLD said.
Under the agreement, MLPs will be able to purchase up to 32 megawatts (MW) or approximately 146,000 megawatt hours (adjusting for capacity availability for offshore wind) per year, plus the associated non-carbon certificates — specifically, renewable energy credits (RECs).
Announced in October, Commonwealth Wind is a first of its kind partnership between Vineyard Wind and ENE, which is representing 20 participating Massachusetts MLPs, including RMLD. It is the first time MLPs were allowed to bid for Massachusetts offshore wind power.
The Vineyard Wind project is one of two offshore wind projects that will now move forward to contract negotiations.
The selected projects include a 400 MW proposal from Mayflower Wind and a 1,200 MW proposal from Vineyard Wind. The Mayflower Wind and Vineyard Wind bids were selected for contract negotiations based on criteria established under a Request for Proposal (RFP) released in May 2021.
Established in 1894, RMLD is a Massachusetts public power utility serving over 70,000 residents in the towns of Reading, North Reading, Wilmington, and Lynnfield Center. RMLD has more than 30,000-meter connections within its service territory.
ENE is a wholesale risk management and energy trading organization serving the needs of public power utilities in New England.