Calif. CCAS Reach Agreement To Install Up To 20 MW Of Solar And Battery Backup Power
August 3, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
Posted August 3, 2020
Three California community choice aggregators have reached agreement with Sunrun to install up to roughly 20 megawatts of solar and battery backup power to 6,000 households vulnerable to emergency power shutoffs during the state’s wildfire season.
East Bay Community Energy, Peninsula Clean Energy and Silicon Valley Clean Energy have agreed with Sunrun to increase renewable power, reduce overall peak demand and improve grid reliability by putting this increased capacity online on a rolling basis from 2020 through 2022.
All three agencies have carve outs in their contracts for low-income customers, disadvantaged communities and vulnerable residents in Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, including those hit by last year’s Pacific Gas & Electric emergency power shutoffs.
The contracts are part of a joint solicitation last November from the three CCAs and Santa Clara municipal utility Silicon Valley Power that was issued shortly after emergency power shutoffs last fall affected hundreds of thousands of customers in the Bay Area.
By reducing peak power demand, these contracts will effectively enable the use of local resources to help fulfill state resource adequacy requirements.
This requirement has historically been filled through purchasing resource adequacy supplies from distant power plants.
The new contracts will shift the purchase of resource adequacy to new local solar power and battery storage systems that provide the benefits of backup power directly to local homes and businesses, the CCAs noted in a July 30 news release.
“The wildfires that disrupted our power and lives last fall have given us an opportunity to find ways to better protect our most vulnerable customers from losing essential supplies and comfort during emergency outages. By partnering with Sunrun and our local non-profit agencies, we can identify those customers who can benefit the most from this program,” Peninsula Clean Energy CEO Jan Pepper said.
Additional information about Sunrun is available here.
The American Public Power Association has initiated a new category of membership for community choice aggregation programs.
Ground Broken On Community Solar Project In Ames, Iowa
July 29, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
Posted July 29, 2020
A groundbreaking event was held on July 24 for the SunSmart Ames Community Solar Project in Ames, Iowa.
Speakers at the groundbreaking ceremony included Donald Kom, Director of Ames Electric Services, and John Haila, the Mayor of Aimes (a video of the speakers and the groundbreaking is available here).
Implementing a community solar project has been a long-established goal of the Ames City Council.
“A community solar project allows all residents to invest in renewable energy,” said Kom earlier this month. “This 2-megawatt community solar farm will add clean, solar energy to our renewable energy portfolio, which includes refuse-derived fuel.”
SunSmart is on track to be producing electricity by the end of the year.
The solar generation facility will be built and operated by ForeFront Power of San Francisco, Calif., and Ames Electric Services will purchase all electricity provided by the solar panels.
Additional information on the project is available here.
CPS Energy RFI Lays Groundwork For Solicitation That Would Seek Solar, Battery Storage
July 27, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
Posted July 27, 2020
San Antonio, Texas-based public power utility CPS Energy on July 27 issued a request for information (RFI) that it said will help in the development of a future request for proposal (RFP) that would seek proposals for the addition of solar, battery storage and firming capacity.
The RFI “confirms the utility’s continued interest in solar photovoltaic, energy storage, demand response, and other low-emitting sources to add more year-round, all-weather solutions,” CPS said.
The RFI will inform the design of two strategic CPS Energy initiatives, the “FlexPOWER Bundle” and “FlexSTEP.”
The FlexPOWER Bundle is the next step in CPS Energy’s “Flexible Path,” the utility’s overarching strategy to transform the utility’s generation fleet to lower and non-emitting sources for decades to come.
CPS said the information obtained through the RFI process will help CPS Energy seek a partner or partners through a future RFP process to implement the FlexPOWER Bundle.
The FlexPOWER Bundle package of generation and firming capacity technologies will supplement 1,700 megawatts of aging power generation capacity and be broadly designed to meet the needs of a growing metropolitan service area, CPS said.
The FlexPOWER Bundle RFP will seek to add up to 900 MW of solar, 50 MW of battery storage, and 500 MW of firming capacity.
RFI also seeks information on energy efficiency
The RFI is also seeking information for innovative solutions and technologies for the next phase of the utility’s energy efficiency program, the Save for Tomorrow Energy Plan (STEP).
STEP was launched in 2009 and was designed to empower customers to manage their energy consumption through efforts like energy efficiency, conservation and adoption of renewable energy (i.e. rooftop solar).
The goal of the program was for savings of up to 771 MW over the course of 12 years, which was reached early – in August of 2019 – a year ahead of schedule.
CPS Energy is now in the one-year STEP Bridge program as it prepares to present a new, long-term version of STEP, which will be designed to meet the changing needs of customers and introduce new energy efficiency technologies.
Responses to the RFI are due Aug. 31, 2020.
Additional information is available here.
California CCAs Launch RFO For Long-Term Renewable Energy And Storage Proposals
July 24, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
Posted July 24, 2020
Peninsula Clean Energy and San Jose Clean Energy recently launched a long-term renewable energy and storage request for offers (RFO).
The two California community choice aggregators are soliciting competitive proposals for the purchase of long-term renewable energy contracts to fulfill each organization’s energy goals.
The goal of the RFO is to provide a competitive, objectively administered opportunity for suppliers to propose projects to fulfill the CCAs desire for long-term renewable resources that have a commercial on-line date of December 31, 2024 or sooner.
Specifically, the CCAs plan to enter into one or more power purchase and sale agreements (PPAs) for energy from eligible renewable resources.
The CCAs intend to collect all relevant energy, environmental attributes, resource adequacy, and ancillary services benefits from the projects, as applicable.
Peninsula Clean Energy and San Jose Clean Energy are looking to contract for 1,000,000 MWh total through this solicitation.
The CCAs will consider offers from all eligible resources, but in consideration of current economic trends, they do not anticipate stand-alone solar projects to be cost competitive.
Offers are due Sept. 4.
Additional details are available here.
The American Public Power Association has initiated a new category of membership for community choice aggregation programs.
Pilot Project Tests Potential Of Solar Energy For Grand Island, Neb.
July 23, 2020
by Taelor Bentley
APPA News
Posted July 23, 2020
A solar panel array built in 2018 is a part of a pilot project in Grand Island, Neb., which is testing the potential of solar as a source of energy for Grand Island.
The intent is to get operational data on projects and give the City of Grand Island Utilities Department hands-on information on how it might interact with their system.
Grand Island solicited proposals for renewable energy projects in the summer of 2016, with a 50-megawatt wind project being the primary goal, noted Tim Luchsinger, Utilities Director, in an email. A contract was awarded to Sempra Renewables in January 2017. That project has since been assigned to AEP Energy Partners.
The solar project size and term were based on iterations during the contract negotiations, “which enabled a price point that we were comfortable to propose to our city administration and council,” Luchsinger noted.
The solar project is connected to an adjacent substation through a dedicated 13.8 kV feeder breaker. This arrangement minimizes possible system effects on customers and allows the project output to be recorded through the substation Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA).
The supplier provides additional information through a web portal that includes forecasted versus actual generation along with inverter performance.
The project represents a 25-year commitment by the city at no cost. The solar farm is owned by private investors who sell the city the power it produces. The solar panels generate 1-MW, producing about 1% of the city’s load when it’s at full operation.
Luchsinger said that Grand Island anticipates that this project will be considered for a future storage arrangement, “but we don’t have a set plan at this time as the current pandemic situation has affected our immediate and short term future outlooks.”
Additional information about the City of Grand Island’s renewable energy supplies is available here.
Gainesville, Fla., City Commission Approves Solar Plus Storage Project
July 21, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
Posted July 21, 2020
The Gainesville, Fla., City Commission on July 16 unanimously approved a project that will bring 50 megwatts of solar power to the public power community by 2022. The project also includes 12-MW of energy storage.
Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) previously reached an agreement to add 50 MW of solar power generation to its renewable energy portfolio through a power purchase agreement with Origis Energy.
The agreement moves the city closer to a goal of 100 percent renewable by 2045.
GRU’s current renewable resources include the Deerhaven Renewable Generating Station (103 MW), landfill gas-fueled power (3.6 MW), and Solar Feed-in-Tariff (18.5 MW).
GRU also has approximately nine MW of customer-owned and net-metered solar connected to its distribution system.
The solar facility will be located approximately two miles south of GRU’s Parker Road substation.
FERC Dismisses Net Metering Jurisdiction Petition On Procedural Grounds
July 16, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
Posted July 16, 2020
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on July 16 dismissed on procedural grounds a petition that asked it to find that it has jurisdiction over energy sales from rooftop solar facilities and other distributed generation located on the customer side of the retail meter whenever the output of these resources exceeds the customer’s demand.
The American Public Power Association on June 15 argued that FERC should dismiss the petition without reaching the merits, saying that the matters on which the New England Ratepayers Association (NERA) sought a declaratory order were neither the source of controversy nor uncertainty (Docket No. EL20-42-000). APPA contended that NERA failed to identify any particular case or controversy from which the issues addressed in the petition arose, and that the petition improperly sought a broad, generic jurisdictional ruling untethered from any meaningful discussion of particular statutes or programs that implement net metering.
In response to the NERA petition, FERC determined that the issues presented in the petition “do not warrant a generic statement from the Commission at this time,” said FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee at FERC’s monthly open meeting.
“In the order, we also note that the manner in which the Commission addresses a petition for a declaratory order depends on the specific facts and circumstances presented to the Commission,” Chatterjee said.
“Here, we find that the petition does not identify a specific controversy or harm that the Commission should address in a declaratory order,” he said.
Details on NERA petition
In its April petition, NERA sought a declaratory order from FERC that there was exclusive federal jurisdiction over energy sales from distributed generation located on the customer side of the retail meter whenever the output exceeds the customer’s demand or the energy from such a generator is designed to bypass the customer’s load.
The petition argued that a wholesale sale occurs when the output from behind-the-meter generation exceeds demand, and the rates for such sales must be priced in accordance with section 210 of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), or sections 205 and 206 of the Federal Power Act (FPA), as applicable.
NERA also asked the Commission to “find unlawful, and therefore reject, state net metering laws which assert jurisdiction over such wholesale sales and establish a price in excess of what PURPA or the FPA allows for wholesale sales subject to this Commission’s exclusive jurisdiction.”
APPA said public power net metering programs could be jeopardized
In its June filing, APPA noted hundreds of self-regulated public power utilities across the country accommodate their customers’ behind-the-meter resources through retail net metering programs.
Local control over these programs allows public power utilities to structure retail net metering approaches that respond to the policy preferences of their states and local communities, while seeking to ensure that the costs and benefits associated with distributed generation deployment are appropriately reflected in retail rates.
“Although the petition does not specifically address the use of net metering by public power utilities, the declarations requested by NERA, if granted, could jeopardize public power net metering programs in addition to the state laws that NERA asks the Commission to ‘reject,’” APPA said.
Granting the petition could render the distributed generation output of hundreds of thousands of public power utility customers subject to federal regulation, under the FPA or PURPA, APPA told FERC.
FERC should dismiss the petition without reaching the merits, APPA argued, saying that the matters on which NERA seeks a declaratory order are neither the source of controversy nor uncertainty.
It pointed out that the Commission’s policy with respect to authority over retail net metering programs has been well-settled for years and was recently reaffirmed in FERC Order Nos. 841 and 841-A, relating to storage resources.
“Granting the petition and upsetting the regulatory certainty that the Commission has fostered would be a recipe for creating, not terminating, controversy and regulatory uncertainty. The petition is potentially sweeping in scope and broadly applicable, yet it is not grounded in any concrete proposal or specific facts and circumstances, nor does the petition include sufficient information for the Commission to analyze and address the requested declarations,” APPA said.
Construction Starts On Logansport Municipal Utility’s First Solar Power Project
July 8, 2020
by Taelor Bentley
APPA News
Posted July 8, 2020
Inovateus Solar has begun construction of Logansport, Indiana’s first solar power plant. The installation will be developed for Logansport Municipal Utility (LMU).
Financed by a power purchase agreement (PPA), the solar installation will reduce LMU’s carbon emissions, help to stabilize energy costs for LMU’s customers, and also host a bee and butterfly habitat that will benefit agriculture in the surrounding area.
The 30-year PPA, financed by Alchemy Renewable Energy, allows LMU to purchase the solar generation at a fixed kilowatt-hour rate with no upfront capital costs, Inovateus noted.
The contract also includes options for LMU to buy the solar energy system in the future.
The 16-megawatt solar installation will be sited on 80 acres and construction on the solar project is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2021. LMU recently retired a coal-fired power plant.
Inovateus noted it is also designing a solar education program and launching a college scholarship contest for naming the solar park.
Inovateus has also designed a 45-foot vegetation buffer around the solar array. The buffer will feature native Northern Indiana tress, plants, and more than 100 tulip trees donated by the community.
Inovateus has partnered with Fresh Energy and the Bee & Butterfly Habitat Fund to plant a pollinator seed mix under and around the solar panels instead of traditional ground cover. The pollinator mix will cultivate honeybees and butterflies that local farmers rely on for pollinating their crops.
Commercial And Industrial Companies Purchase Record Amount of U.S. Wind Power
June 25, 2020
by Taelor Bentley
APPA News
Posted June 25, 2020
Commercial and industrial companies bought 4,447 megawatts (MW) of U.S. wind capacity last year, setting a new record for annual procurements and bringing total corporate agreements for wind power to 16,857 MW, according to the first Wind Powers American Business report from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
More than 140 companies have purchased U.S. wind energy. Google is the top corporate wind energy purchaser in the U.S., having contracted for 2,397 MW. Facebook is the second largest purchaser with 1,459 MW, followed by Walmart, AT&T, and Microsoft.
Walmart also purchased the most wind energy of any company in 2019, signing contracts for three wind projects totaling 541 MW. AT&T was the second largest corporate buyer of wind for the year, contracting 460 MW from two projects. Facebook followed after AT&T with 440 MW.
Eighteen first-time buyers of wind entered the market last year. McDonald’s, Sprint, Ford Motor Company, Crown Holdings, and Gap were the leading first-time buyers of wind in 2019. McDonald’s became the first quick service restaurant company to buy wind energy, having purchased 220 MW. This led McDonald’s to land sixth in wind purchases for the year and into the top 20 for overall contracted capacity.
Before 2015, technology and retail companies made up nearly 80 percent of corporate wind energy purchases. Now the types of companies buying wind are diversifying. Today, technology and retail account for 53 percent of purchases. Wind energy purchases in the retail, food and beverage, and telecommunications sectors have increased significantly in the past few years.
The past six years have seen a large amount of growth for corporate wind purchases, with total contracts rising from fewer than 800 MW at the end of 2013 to over 16,800 MW at the end of 2019. Economics has been a major factor for this growth, AWEA said.
Wind is now the lowest-cost source of electricity generation in many parts of the country, thanks to costs declining more than 70 percent since 2009, AWEA said.
AWEA said that while corporate wind purchases have grown significantly in recent years, it is still a fairly new market and represents a large opportunity for future growth. Today, Fortune 1000 companies only source 5 percent of their electricity needs from renewables, it noted.
Utilities, individuals and businesses looking to reduce their respective carbon footprints buy renewable energy certificates. This is a green power procurement strategy used by electricity consumers to decrease the cost of their renewable electricity use, while also substantiating renewable electricity use and carbon footprint reduction claims.
The AWEA report is available for download here.
Calif. Community Choice Aggregators Sign PPAs For Solar-Storage Capacity
June 19, 2020
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
Posted June 19, 2020
Two California community choice aggregators, Monterey Bay Community Power and Silicon Valley Clean Energy, have signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with 8minute Solar Energy for the output of a solar-plus-storage plant the company is building.
8minute Solar Energy’s 200-megawatt (MW) Aratina Solar Center includes 150 megawatt-hours (MWh) of storage and is scheduled to come online before year-end 2023. It is being build in Kern County, Calif., where 8minute built eight other solar projects.
Monterey Bay Community Power has contracted for 120 MW of solar power and 30 MW of battery storage with a three-hour discharge duration from the Aratina project, which is sufficient to meet between 7% and 8% of its retail load. Silicon Valley Clean Energy has contracted to buy 80 MW of solar power and 20 MW of battery storage with a three-hour duration from 8minute Solar Energy, which will be able to meet 6.6% of the utility’s annual retail load.
The PPA came out of a joint request for offers issued by Monterey Bay Community Power and Silicon Valley Clean Energy in April 2019.
In addition to the PPA with 8minute Solar Energy, the April request for proposals also resulted in the community choice aggregators signing a 20-year PPA in late May with NextEra Energy for output from its 500-MW Yellow Pine Energy Center in Clark County, Nevada, starting in December 2022.
Monterey Bay Community Power has contracted for 75 MW of solar capacity and 39 MW of energy storage, enough to meet 5% of its annual retail load. Silicon Valley Clean Energy has contracted for 50 MW of solar capacity and 26 MW of energy storage, enough to meet 4% of its annual retail load.
The solicitation also resulted in the community choice aggregators signing contracts for geothermal power, one with Coso Geothermal Power Holdings and the other with Ormat Technologies, as well as another solar-plus-storage contract with Rabbitbrush LLC.
The contract with Coso calls for Monterey Bay Community Power to receive 67.5 MW per year and for Silicon Valley Clean Energy to receive 43 MW per year for five years. For the following 10 years, power deliveries to the aggregators drop to 50 MW per year and 28 MW per year, respectively.
Under the Ormat contract, Monterey Bay Community Power and Silicon Valley Clean Energy will each purchase 7 MW from Ormat’s 30-MW Casa Diablo-IV geothermal project in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., which is due online by year-end 2021.
The 10-year PPAs have a fixed MWh price that includes energy, capacity, environmental attributes, and all other ancillary benefits. The remaining 16 MW of capacity from the geothermal plant is contracted to be sold to Southern California Public Power Authority under a PPA signed in early 2019.
Monterey Bay Community Power and Silicon Valley Clean Energy also signed 15 year PPAs for a combined capacity of 100 MW of solar power and 20 MW of battery storage from a project Rabbitbrush is building in Rosamond, Calif., that is due online in June 2022.
“The Aratina Solar Center, complete with battery storage, will allow us to store and deliver solar power when our customers need it — well into the evening hours — reducing our reliance on carbon-emitting gas plants and moving us ever closer to a decarbonized grid,” Girish Balachandran, CEO of Silicon Valley Clean Energy, said in a statement.