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Puerto Rico Power Restoration Effort a Focus of EEI Convention

June 7, 2018

The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), an industry association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies, made a point during its annual convention of recognizing the mutual assistance workers who labored tirelessly to restore power to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.

Nearly 200 personnel, who had worked on the ground in Puerto Rico, gathered on stage during the opening session of the EEI event in San Diego, California, on June 5. Even though the actual number of workers involved in the effort was far greater—Tom Kuhn, EEI president, said more than 3,000 lineworkers, support personnel, and company representatives were part of the historic mutual assistance response and restoration effort—a gasp could be heard from the crowd when the group of 200 stood to make their way to the stage.

EEI Chairman and PNM Resources Chairman, President, and CEO Pat Vincent-Collawn said, “The expertise, the creativity, and the leadership that was brought to bear, along with the sacrifices of so many of you who answered the call for help, were extraordinary.…

[UPDATED] Trump Administration to Force Purchases of Coal, Nuclear Power

June 5, 2018

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A draft memo circulated by the Trump administration before the National Security Council urges federal action to force grid operators to buy power from uneconomic coal and nuclear plants.

Bloomberg on May 31 first pointed to the existence of the 41-page memo, which is dated May 29 and distributed Thursday. The memo outlines plans for a directive by the Department of Energy (DOE) under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act (FPA) to “direct the operators to purchase electricity or electric generation capacity from at-risk facilities.”

The draft memo, which is tagged “Privileged & Confidential, Attorney-Client Privilege,” says that regulatory and economic factors have prompted the premature retirement of “fuel-secure” plants—which include nuclear and coal, but also oil-fired and dual-fuel units with adequate storage. “Although the lost megawatts of power often are replaced by new generation from natural gas and renewable energy sources, this transition comes at the expense of fuel security and resilience,” it says.

The memo reasons that because premature retirements of fuel-secure baseload plants reduce resilience to fuel supply disruptions, and because this “crisis” is caused by regulatory and economic actions, federal and state regulatory bodies as well as the private sector must act promptly “to achieve a lasting solution that meets the needs of both national security and the efficient operation of energy markets.”…

DOE Lays Out How Power Sector Could Win the Cybersecurity Battle

May 19, 2018

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Cybersecurity threats are outpacing the energy sector’s “best defenses,” and costs of preventing and responding to cyber incidents are straining company efforts to protect critical infrastructure, the Department of Energy (DOE) warned as it released a comprehensive five-year cybersecurity strategy for the industry.

The Multiyear Plan for Energy Sector Cybersecurity, dated March 2018 but which was made public by the DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) on May 14, lays out an “integrated strategy” for the DOE’s new Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER). It essentially seeks to “gain an upper hand” in the fight against cybersecurity, outlining “disruptive changes in cyber risk management practices.”

Power companies and utilities, along with oil and gas entities, have integrated advanced digital technologies to automate and control physical functions for improved efficiency and adjust to a “rapidly changing generation mix,” but this has created a “larger cyber attack surface and new opportunities for malicious cyber threats,” the plan notes.…

Wind Power Faces a Post-PTC ‘Valley of Death’

May 17, 2018

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Wind power capacity in the U.S., whose explosive growth has tripled since 2008—even overtaking hydropower to become the nation’s largest source of renewable electricity—could face a period of stagnation once the production tax credit (PTC) is phased out in 2021.

Analysts at WINDPOWER 2018 in Chicago last week called the period between 2021 and 2026 the “valley of death,” and though forecasts vary, many expect that new onshore wind capacity additions will slow if not grind to a halt. That’s despite a number of market drivers wind power has enjoyed recently.

According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), which hosts the annual wind industry conference, 89.4 GW of wind power from 54,000 wind turbines was installed in the U.S. by the end of the first quarter of 2018. Another 33.5 GW was under construction or in advanced development.

A Certain Dip But When?

Max Cohen, an associate director for IHS Markit’s North American Integrated Energy Research arm, introduced the phrase “valley of death” in one of the first sessions at the conference.…

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.…