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DOE Steps Up Investments into Electric Generation Technology Research

May 3, 2018

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) over the past two weeks has made a string of funding announcements, including nearly a half-billion dollars of new investment in power-related initiatives. The funding backs advancements in cybersecurity, advanced nuclear, solar, bioenergy, fuel cells, geothermal, and energy storage.

$ 25 Million for Cybersecurity.On April 16, the DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability’s Cybersecurity for Energy Delivery Systems program issued a $ 25 million funding opportunity announcement (FOA),seeking applications to conduct research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) for innovative approaches to advance cyber-resilient energy delivery systems.

The project hones in on five areas: redesign of cyber-resilient architecture for the power and oil and natural gas (ONG) subsectors; cybersecurity for the ONG environment; cybersecure communications; cybersecure cloud-based technologies in the operation technology environment; and innovative technologies that enhance cybersecurity in the energy sector. Applications are due by June 18, 2018.

$ 105 Million for Solar Technology. On April 17, the DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office said it would fund about 70 projects to advance both solar PV and concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) technologies and help them secure facilitated integration into the grid.…

PJM Says Grid Reliable, but Will Analyze Resilience

May 1, 2018

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The operator of the nation’s largest electrical grid on April 30 reiterated its system will remain reliable even with the retirements of substantial generation resources. But PJM Interconnection, whose system covers customers in 13 states, said it will conduct a review of its operations over the next several months “to understand the fuel-supply risks in an environment trending towards greater reliance on natural gas.”

PJM wants to know whether its network could still operate reliably in the event of outages from natural disasters such as extreme weather, a cyberattack, or pipeline issues that would curtail the flow of natural gas on its system. The regional transmission organization (RTO) in March 2017 issued a report—”PJM’s Evolving Resource Mix and System Reliability”—that said its system could add more natural gas and renewable power generation and remain reliable, but “heavy reliance on one resource type” could bring risks to grid resiliency.

PJM recently said more than 3,600 MW of generation capacity will retire in its service territory in 2018.…

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.…

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.…

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.…

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.…