Dennis Quinn

NEEA Plays a Key Role in U.S. DOE's Landmark Energy Efficiency Standard for Water Heaters - New federal standard signals move toward efficient, affordable water heating for all consumers. “The energy savings from this final rule over 30 years of shipments is 17.6 quadrillion British thermal units—the largest savings ever from a single DOE efficiency standard, representing more than the energy use of the entire U.S. residential building sector in a single year." The passage of the federal water heating standard represents a major milestone in alliance Market Transformation efforts and is a win for all Northwest gas and electric customers. It is a direct result of nearly 20 years of leadership by the alliance, its market partners, and many stakeholders across the country. For example, the U.S. DOE cites NEEA’s Advanced Water Heating Specification (AWHS) as reference material for its final rule. Originally developed by NEEA in 2009 to ensure cold-climate performance, NEEA has continued to iterate and improve the AWHS to advance higher-performing electric and gas heat pump water heaters. “The new federal consumer water heating standard is a stellar example of how long-term collaboration between utilities, manufacturers, trade allies, efficiency organizations and consumer advocates can deliver lasting market change leading to tremendous energy savings for all Northwest customers. The alliance will continue to collaborate with the market to bring this standard to its fullest potential to ensure affordable and reliable hot water energy-efficient solutions for residential, multifamily, commercial and industrial customers." - Becca Yates, Executive Director, NEEA https://lnkd.in/gnEdRT9R

17

1 Comment

All the details on how the heat wave is impacting the grid and power prices- our lead story in today's California Energy Markets from Linda Dailey Paulson https://lnkd.in/gYHBMMDW

6

According to Fortescue's US chief a 1GW electrolyser needs 7GW of green energy supply to meet hourly matching requirements 🤔 “If I am building a gigawatt of electrolysers in Texas I may only need a gigawatt of energy at any time, but I have to buy seven times that to ensure that I have all the probabilities working, so I know I can match in that hour, which means the bulk of what I buy I don’t need,” I think Fortescue needs better energy project modelling tools (*cough* Gridcog) and a better understanding of how to contract PPAs. Oh and a reminder that Hyrdogen produced with coal and gas isn't especially green. https://lnkd.in/ge2x5Wdf

87

14 Comments

This is the most authoritative piece I’ve read on emissions, and really highlights the benefit of living and operating a business in California. It should make emissions accounting much easier if the cost is already included in electric rates. It should make businesses outside California want back in. https://lnkd.in/eeVkj-_3

5

One of the top priorities for all utilities will need to be clearly and effectively communicating all the costs associated with the "energy transition." "Half of the average consumer bill has nothing to do with what fuel is used to generate electricity. It reflects the cost of transmission and distribution. And those costs are rising fast, according to consumer advocates. Utilities are spending heavily to ramp up their transmission infrastructure as electricity demand grows because of the advent of electric vehicles and data centers for artificial intelligence applications. Increasingly, those costs will be passed along to consumers." “I expect it to accelerate,” wrote David Springe, executive director of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, in an email to Barron’s. “A lot of spending has yet to hit the consumer bill.” Ten percent rate increases are beginning across the country during a period where natural gas prices are rock bottom and the cost of capital is rising like the sun. Hard to buy the argument that inflation will soon moderate and the Fed will cut rates soon. But if inflation does moderate somewhere down the road, it will not be because of lower electricity prices. There is no kicking this can down the road #communication #utilities #inflation #electricity #costofcapital #interestrates

8

What a great program from GridLab. Taking the plunge into entrepreneurship can be daunting. Don’t let the fear win out. Support like this in the beginning is a great way to help with the transition. Kudos to GridLab

6

1 Comment

Canary Media: "This coal-heavy rural coop utility is buying its first solar plants." Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, one of the largest rural cooperative utilities in the U.S., really should change its name to Quad-State. The reason is that Tri-State generates and transmits power to 41 member cooperatives, which retail to 1 million customers in rural Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Nebraska. "The customer base spans 200,000 square miles, more land than the entirety of California, with an average density of just five customers per mile of power line." [American cooperative utilites deliver some 12% of our electricity but serve 56 percent of its landscape]. Co-op 'announced last week it will buy the forthcoming Axial Basin Solar, a 145-megawatt project in Moffat County, Colorado, and Dolores Canyon Solar, a 110-​megawatt project in Dolores County, Colorado.' The co-op also signed 3 new power purchase agreements from solar plants that will come on line by end of 2024. "Within days of that announcement, Tri-State also reported that electricity was flowing from the largest third-party solar project it has contracted for thus far, a 200-megawatt site developed by Origis Solar at the former Escalante Station coal-fired power plant in New Mexico." US 'incubated its renewables industry with tax credits, which don’t do much good for the many federal, municipal, or cooperative utilities that generate power as not-for-profit corporations, and thus owe little to the IRS.' This status changed under the 2022 IRA, which creates a “direct pay” option that lets nonprofits access the same generous clean energy tax credits as their for-profit peers — even with little to no tax burden. IRA also 'created a program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture called Empowering Rural America, which offered up $9.7 B to help rural utilities finance the transition from coal and support coal communities in the process. Tri-State 'recently hit a new record for instantaneous renewable production on May 24, when wind + solar delivered 87% of its generation for half an hr.'

1

Canary Media with an article on how rural electric cooperatives are tapping into the IRA to fund the shift from fossil to renewable generation. "How $7.3B will help rural co-ops build clean power—and close coal plants This Inflation Reduction Act program is offering 16 rural electric co-ops financing to overcome the up-front costs of shifting from dirty coal to clean power. Rural electric cooperatives, which bring electricity to the most sparsely populated parts of the country, are getting their biggest federal investment since the New Deal — and this time around, the money is going to help fight climate change. Last week, the Biden administration announced $7.3 billion in financing for 16 rural co-ops serving about 5 million households across 23 states. The money will be administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which implemented the Rural Electrification Act, the 1936 law that financed the buildout of the grid in more remote areas of the country. It will also be matched by more than $29 billion in private investments with a goal of building more than 10 gigawatts of clean energy. That’s a big jump from the nearly 16 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity co-ops have today." Read more at https://conta.cc/4d4kLmE #solar #energy #solarenergy #renewables #renewableenerg

3

For anyone who will be at IEEE Power & Energy Society T&D Conference feel free to stop by our panel session on #EVs and #gridreliability. Will be an interesting cross-sector discussion including technology provider, independent system operator, and utility perspectives among others. E-mobility is driving the blending of Transmission and Distribution system planning, design, and operations. Particularly with the growing prevalence of distributed energy resources, IoT and grid-edge technologies, and virtual power plants (#VPPs).

15

Canary Media with an article on how rural electric cooperatives are tapping into the IRA to fund the shift from fossil to renewable generation. "How $7.3B will help rural co-ops build clean power—and close coal plants This Inflation Reduction Act program is offering 16 rural electric co-ops financing to overcome the up-front costs of shifting from dirty coal to clean power. Rural electric cooperatives, which bring electricity to the most sparsely populated parts of the country, are getting their biggest federal investment since the New Deal — and this time around, the money is going to help fight climate change. Last week, the Biden administration announced $7.3 billion in financing for 16 rural co-ops serving about 5 million households across 23 states. The money will be administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which implemented the Rural Electrification Act, the 1936 law that financed the buildout of the grid in more remote areas of the country. It will also be matched by more than $29 billion in private investments with a goal of building more than 10 gigawatts of clean energy. That’s a big jump from the nearly 16 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity co-ops have today." Read more at https://conta.cc/4d4kLmE #solar #energy #solarenergy #renewables #renewableenerg

3

Our Executive Director, Larry Gasteiger, discussed the adverse impacts of competitive processes on needed transmission development on a recent NPR podcast The Indicator from Planet Money. Darian Woods: "The list of arguments against competition is long … Larry Gasteiger points to opposing studies showing cost increases from competition, less reliability, delays to development. Timing is a concern with just 26 years to build an insane amount of transmission.” Even Jon Wellinghoff points out that Order 1000 “didn’t turn out the way we expected." Larry recommends "We should stick with what is tried and true, and get transmission built … and meet the needs that we have today rather than try to experiment with new processes that don’t seem to be working." Give a listen: https://lnkd.in/e9_et7d4 Producer: Cooper Katz McKim #transmission #gridofthefuture #cleangrid #gridreliability #gridresilience #grid #Order1000 #FERC #gridexpansion

12

Colorado just hit 28% market share of plug-in vehicles in Q3 2024! These numbers have skyrocketed over the past 3 years, almost catching up with California. WHY? Maybe it's because Colorado now has about 100,000 roving EV "billboards" in the form of an attractive and distinct EV license plate. Or maybe it's because Colorado's major EV education campaign called EV CO (https://evco.colorado.gov/) has used solid consumer market research (conducted by E Source) to create a practical yet compelling multi-year educational campaign to directly address the key and persistent barriers to adoption. Note that EV CO does NOT use flashy ads, yet it's getting thousands of hits per month. 1. "Charging at home is easier than you think." 2. "Charging on the go will take you where you need to go...mountains, hiking, concerts, games, family outings." 3. Real people, like you, telling their own stories in plain language about how easy it is to have an EV in Colorado. (And some influencers thrown in as well). 4. Direct assistance with how to shop for an EV, and how to find and calculate rebates and tax credits. Why aren't more states taking a small portion of their EV investments in charging infrastructure and putting it towards education and outreach? I don't know, but let me know if your state wants more insights on accelerating EV demand. Source for 28% market share: https://lnkd.in/ggWrYvaF Colorado Energy Office Plug In America Alliance for Transportation Electrification (ATE) Forth Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE) Zero Emission Transportation Association NASEO - National Association of State Energy Officials RMI EPRI Xcel Energy #evs #electriccars #tesla #rivian #gm #ford #electricvehicles #sustainability #EVcharging #evco #utilities

158

19 Comments

An interesting example of an energy storage PPA, enabling project finance debt on battery projects: "The £538m battery fund said the 12-year resource adequacy (RA) contract would provide revenues from next summer and could operate alongside other revenue streams from wholesale trading and ancillary services. The contract with J Aron & Company, a commodities trader owned by a Goldman Sachs subsidiary, will see Big Rock provide a minimum duration of four hours, or 100MW, of RA deliverability to enable power companies to prove their generation capacity can cover peak demand plus a reserve margin. As RA contracts represent a larger portion of the Californian energy market than equivalent capacity contracts in the UK, this contract could account for up to 40% of Big Rock’s revenues over the next 12 years and underpin project-level debt." https://lnkd.in/d_nkv2NC #energystorage #PPA

6

1 Comment

Today MAREC Action Executive Director Evan Vaughan is offering public testimony on HB 2277, which would codify Governor Shapiro’s Pennsylvania Reliable Energy Sustainability Standard (PRESS).    MAREC Action views HB2277 as a strong piece of legislation - it represents the single largest new market opportunity for energy investment currently under consideration by any state legislature in PJM. Through HB2277, Pennsylvania has an opportunity to diversify its electricity mix with clean and reliable energy storage projects paired with wind or solar.    MAREC Action is strongly supportive of the inclusion of energy storage in Tier 2 under HB2277. One note of concern about the legislation, however, is the strict limitations placed on regional market participants. The legislation as introduced prohibits any regionally sited clean energy projects larger than 150 MW from being able to participate in the Pennsylvania clean energy market. Leveraging the regional market for a portion of Pennsylvania’s electricity supply results in greater competition and the best outcomes for consumers. MAREC Action looks forward to continuing its work with the Pennsylvania General Assembly as the legislation moves forward.   For more information check out the link below: https://lnkd.in/e5_xNBuu

16

1 Comment

GOPOWEREV GETS CEC FUNDING FOR ACCESSIBLE EV CHARGING: GoPowerEV has been awarded a US$4.1m grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC) through the Reliable, Equitable, and Accessible Charging for Multi-family Housing 2.0 (REACH 2.0) program. The grant will help deploy GoPowerEV’s #EVcharging solutions in California's disadvantaged and low-income communities, and affordable housing. https://lnkd.in/eY6_Mw9a

5

1 Comment

Ancillary services, like frequency regulation and voltage control, are essential elements of a stable and resilient electricity grid And have been the last bastion fossil fuel power plants That is changing with distributed renewables and smart grid technologies And changing in a big way with grid scale #battery #energystorage Plus Power's signature facility in Hawai'i demonstrates this. Just one example: Two months after the Kapolei Energy Storage facility was commissioned, a fossil fuel power plant failed, causing a sag in frequency that created a risk of blackouts. Hawaii Electric Light dispatched us, and within only 250 milliseconds safe frequency levels were restored. This is the new normal. Renewables and batteries cleaning up after, and continuing on their mission to replace fossil fuel power plants. #decarbonization

4