Net Metering and Time-Variant Rates Drive Solar Power and Energy Storage Growth [PODCAST]

April 29, 2018
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Nevada law has included net metering provisions for more than 20 years. Net metering is an arrangement that allows energy generated by a customer’s leased or purchased solar system to offset monthly power bills. It also permits excess energy supplied to the grid to earn credits, which are then automatically applied to future billing periods in which more energy is consumed than produced.

Historically, net metering was a one-for-one transaction in Nevada. For every kWh supplied to the grid, a credit was given to the customer for one kWh in the future. The scheme changed in 2015 when the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC) created a laddered approach that ratcheted down the value of customer-generated energy over a period of years to about 2¢/kWh, which was much less than the retail rate of about 11¢/kWh. The change effectively stopped all construction on new residential rooftop solar systems.

Through Assembly Bill 405 (AB 405), the Nevada Legislature modified the net metering rate structure effective June 15, 2017.…

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EPA Rampaging on Coal Ash Rule Despite Groundwater Concerns

April 27, 2018
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Despite pleas by environmental groups for more time to review recent dumps of groundwater monitoring data from power companies, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is forging ahead to finalize a proposed overhaul of the Obama administration’s 2015 final Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) rule.

The EPA’s 45-day comment period for the agency’s March 1 proposed rule, which includes more than a dozen significant changes to the 2015 action, is slated to end on April 30. Most of the rule’s changes focus on providing more regulatory flexibility to owners of coal ash landfills or surface impoundments, and they explicitly give states the authority to operate CCR permit programs “in lieu of federal regulations,” as long as they are agency-approved. According to the EPA, those changes are expected to save industry between $ 32 million and $ 100 million per year.

However, the proposal also seeks to address four provisions that a federal court remanded to the agency in June 2016. Those changes, for example, propose a clarification of the type and magnitude of non-groundwater releases that would require a coal plant to comply with corrective action procedure, and it adds boron to a list of constituents that may trigger corrective action.…

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Russian Cyber Actors Preying on Network Devices, Authorities Warn

April 23, 2018
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Russian state-sponsored cyber actors are exploiting routers and other network infrastructure devices worldwide to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks that specifically target critical infrastructure providers and other sectors, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the FBI, and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned in a new joint technical alert.

In the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) report issued on April 16, and revised on April 18,  the FBI explicitly emphasizes it has “high confidence that Russian state-sponsored cyber actors are using compromised routers to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks to support espionage, extract intellectual property, maintain persistent access to victim networks, and potentially lay a foundation for future offensive operations.”

The report, a result of analytic efforts by the U.S. and UK entities that identifies victims through a coordinated series of actions between U.S. and international partners, urges readers to act on past alerts and advisories issued by the U.S., the UK, and “allied governments,” along with reports issued by network device manufacturers and private sector security organizations.…

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Utility Reaches Settlement in Emissions Lawsuit

April 19, 2018
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The Colorado Springs City Council, which also serves as the board for community-owned Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU), approved the settlement of a lawsuit brought against the city’s downtown coal-fired Martin Drake Power Plant, an agreement that in part promises CSU will look at options for 100% of its power to come from renewable sources as early as 2030.

The city council—in executive session and without a public vote—approved a $ 425,000 settlement with New Mexico-based environmental group WildEarth Guardians. The group had said thousands of violations of the federal Clean Air Act had occurred at Martin Drake. The settlement was filed April 17 in U.S. District Court in Denver, Colorado.

Amy Trinidad, a spokeswoman for the utility, told the Colorado Springs Gazette that CSU denied the allegations in the lawsuit but was still willing to reach a settlement. A bench trial on the suit was originally scheduled to begin in early April, but attorneys in the case informed the court negotiations were underway toward an out-of-court resolution.…

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Under Competitive Pressure, Nuclear Industry Doing All It Can, NEI Head Says

April 15, 2018
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The nation’s paramount nuclear power trade group has launched a wide-ranging strategy to help generators stay profitable in tight markets, the head of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) told Wall Street analysts on April 12.

In an address broadcast on Facebook, Maria Korsnick, NEI president and CEO, said that nuclear plants that operate in competitive wholesale markets “are obviously under significant economic stress.” Six reactors have retired over the last five years, and plant owners have announced intentions to shutter another 12 in the coming years. “If nothing is done to save those plants, the impacts will be devastating,” she said, pointing to job losses and resiliency worries.

“We didn’t have to stress these virtues 10 years ago, but in today’s market we do,” she said. The nation’s fleet of 99 reactors produces no air emissions, which is important especially in places where downwind air quality is already bad. A unit can operate for months or years after a refueling, making it immune to problems with pipelines, barges, and railroads that sometimes afflict fossil fuel generators, Korsnick noted.…

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