Industry News | EnergyNorthwest.com

Pipeline Company Shifts Ultimatum in Vistra Natural Gas Supply Dispute

January 20, 2022

Energy Transfer, a major pipeline firm that threatened to terminate natural gas service to five Vistra Corp. gas-fired power plants in Texas next week as part of a $ 21.3 million penalty payment standoff, has relaxed its ultimatum, though the underlying dispute continues.

In a letter filed with the Texas Railroad Commission late on Jan. 20, the midstream and intrastate transportation and storage giant said it reached an agreement with Vistra subsidiaries Luminant Energy Co. and Dynegy Marketing to “temporarily maintain natural gas service” through March 31, 2022, not Jan. 23, as it had threatened.

However, Energy Transfer subsidiaries Energy Transfer Fuel (ETF) and Oasis Pipeline will continue to sell natural gas to the Vistra subsidiaries under terms and conditions that have been place since Dec. 1, 2021. It will mean that Luminant will keep buying natural gas for power generation at daily spot prices.

Luminant in a complaint filed with the Railroad Commission—Texas’s oil and gas regulator—on Jan.…

Predict, Optimize, Synchronize, Control: How AI Can Fulfill the Promise of Sustainable Energy Resources and Reshape the Future of Utilities

January 15, 2022

| No Comments

| Industry News

The world is changing rapidly as technology advances at breakneck speed. From the fourth industrial revolution and virtual reality to 5G and artificial intelligence (AI), our society is on the brink of tremendous technological upheaval. Although many industries evolve alongside innovations, some, such as utilities, have not moved at the same pace. This is in large part due to a range of complex existing barriers that most regulated industries face, with changing regulatory regimes and lack of funding.

Despite challenges, the utilities industry is long overdue for modernization. Just the fact that, of the G20 countries, which account for 80% of the world’s emissions, only six have formally increased their emissions reduction targets tells us how little we have collectively accomplished. While, from a distance, it looks like the energy industry is dragging its feet, the question of transitioning to green power is much more complicated. In terms of grid reliability and resilience, success will depend on how distributed energy resources (DERs) are integrated, optimized, synchronized, and controlled.…

A Win-Win-Win Solution for DER Owners, the Power Grid, and the Environment

January 13, 2022

| No Comments

| Industry News

New distributed energy resources (DERs) are being added to the power grid every day. However, DERs don’t automatically provide owners with the greatest value possible. In many cases, that requires the help of an aggregator, that is, a company that specializes in managing DERs owned by a pool of clients and optimizing performance of the overall system based on real-time signals coming from the wholesale power markets.

“Wholesale electricity markets need grid services from distributed energy resources. We connect those underutilized distributed energy resources—typically behind customer meters—to those wholesale power markets to orchestrate and monetize those resources to deliver reliable, cost-effective, and clean energy,” Gregg Dixon, co-founder and CEO of Voltus, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast.

Voltus’ customers and grid services partners generate cash by allowing Voltus to maximize the market value of their flexible load, distributed generation, energy storage, energy efficiency, and electric vehicle resources. “Voltus is to the electricity industry what Airbnb is to the real estate market in the sense that Airbnb connects under-utilized apartments or homes to buyers who want to make use of those under-utilized assets, and Voltus does that for the electricity grid,” Dixon explained.…

Readying for First Offshore Wind Farm, New York Launches New Procurement, Infrastructure Investments

January 11, 2022

| No Comments

| Industry News

As New York this year readies to build the 132-MW South Fork Wind Farm—its first offshore wind project—the state will dedicate $ 500 million in funding to enable offshore wind manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure. The investment announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul as part of New York’s 2022 State of the State plan is just one of a suite of measures aimed at kickstarting the state’s offshore wind industry.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) on Jan. 5 unveiled plans to launch its third offshore wind procurement this year, a measure that could support the construction of 2 GW in new projects. The state’s designated R&D agency also moved to initiate a new “master plan”—Master Plan 2.0: Deep Water—“to unlock the next frontier of offshore wind development.” The state additionally said it would work to identify strategic wind cable corridors and access key points of interconnection of the grid as part of a broader plan to realize an offshore wind transmission network.…

Evergy to Build Solar Array at Kansas City Coal Power Plant Site

January 9, 2022

| No Comments

| Industry News

Evergy, a Kansas City, Missouri–headquartered energy provider serving about 1.6 million customers in Kansas and Missouri, announced plans on Jan. 5 to build a 10-MW solar array at the company’s Hawthorn power plant.

“Our Hawthorn power plant is a prime location to showcase Kansas City’s commitment to renewable energy and our city’s forward-thinking progress,” said Chuck Caisley, Evergy senior vice president and chief customer officer. “Bringing this renewable energy to Hawthorn will limit the expense by using infrastructure already in place.”

The Hawthorn Generating Station is located in northeast Kansas City, Missouri, and includes a 564-MW coal-fired unit known as Unit 5 and a 225-MW natural gas-fired combined cycle unit known as Unit 6&9. Hawthorn 5 was built in 1969, but after an explosion in February 1999 destroyed the power plant boiler, the unit was substantially rebuilt and returned to service in 2001.

Evergy plans to build the solar array on 67 acres to the northwest of the plant. The site is expected to include more than 22,000 solar panels and be operational in fall 2022.…