What's Happening in Energy highlights the most interesting findings from public utility commission filings.
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What's Happening in Energy highlights the most interesting findings from public utility commission filings.
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What's Happening in Energy — Sept 12
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Let’s start in Colorado, with some clarity on curtailments and Xcel CO’s participation in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) Western Energy Imbalance Service (WEIS) market through the Electric Commodity Adjustment (ECA) and Purchased Capacity Cost Adjustment (PCCA) Annual Prudence Review. The total economic purchase and sales benefit of WEIS participation is $759,000 and avoided curtailment carbon savings and WEIS Net Transactions carbon savings together total carbon savings of slightly more than 1 million tons.
Note: the X-axis dates are YY MM, so this time series starts in June 2022, not the year 2206.
- Docket profile
- Hearing Exhibit 101, Direct Testimony of Marci A. McKoane
- Hearing Exhibit 101, Attachment MAM-1, Benefits of SPP WEIS
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We have some wildfire news in Idaho. The Idaho Public Utility Commission approved, with modifications, Idaho Power Company’s $22 million request to defer certain incremental wildfire mitigation costs — including vegetation management, pilot projects, and a standby helicopter service — through 2025 (excluding proposed labor expenses), and sets requirements for future wildfire mitigation plan filings and documentation.
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In Missouri, Ameren Missouri’s proposed New Modified Tariffs for Service to Large Load Customers received a raft of rebuttal comments from Amazon Data Services, Google, Sierra Club, Ameren’s responses to data requests, and Commission staff’s recommendations which include “That the Commission should …
- order Ameren Missouri to cooperate with Staff to finalize tariffs for service to a new class of customers taking service at 34 kV or greater, or with a peak demand of 25 kW or greater, that is consistent with the recommended tariff and rates attached as Appendix 2 - Schedule 1 (and shown below).
- order the creation of the regulatory liability accounts for revenue from these customers as described in that tariff.
- order Ameren Missouri to effectuate Staff’s recommended changes concerning facilities extensions, increasing connected loads, emergency energy conservation planning, and the interconnection studies.
- order that a separate commercial load node be established for each Large Load Customer Electric Service (LLCS) customer, order that any Capacity Deficiency Charge incurred after the addition of LLCS customers be borne solely by the LLCS customer class in proportion to the overall peak demand of each customer, order Ameren Missouri to create subaccounts for each set of interconnection infrastructure associated with each customer interconnecting at transmission voltage.
- not approve the Riders that Ameren Missouri has proposed at this time, but Staff will continue to work with Ameren Missouri and other Stakeholders for development of reasonable Riders.”
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Also in Missouri, a procedural schedule has been proposed for the 800-megawatt combustion turbine and 400-megawatt battery storage facility at Ameren’s redeveloped Rush Island Energy Center site, formerly a coal-fired plant facility. Public Counsel requests an in-person hearing, as opposed to a virtual hearing, in response to Ameren Missouri’s application for Permission and Approval and Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity Authorizing it to Construct a New Generation Facility and Battery Energy Storage System.
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Next up in California, Southern California Edison, CALSTART, Inc., Small Business Utility Advocates (SBUA), Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), and Vehicle-Grid Integration Council (VGIC) requested California Public Utilities Commission’s approval of a settlement agreement establishing a Vehicle to Grid Rate Proposal (VGRP).
For the full list of the VGRP rider option including Participation Cap, Market Transition Measures, Metering & Control Requirements and others see Table 1 on pages 3-5. For a summary Comparison of Positions between SCE, Cal Advocates, SEIA, and VGIC see Appendix A on pages 34-35.
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Also in California, Pacific Gas & Electric provided supplemental testimony in their application of approval of Electric Rule 30, which would establish a process and terms for interconnecting new transmission-level retail electric customers, such as data centers and large electric vehicle charging facilities, to PG&E’s electrical system. The application responds to a sharp rise in large-load interconnection requests. PG&E had fewer than 200 megawatts (MW) of these interconnections from 2014 to 22; it has more than 8,000MW since 2023. Guess what type of customer leads the chart?
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Finally in California, the California ISO (CAISO) Demand and Distributed Energy Market Integration (DDEMI) Working Group hosted a presentation from Sunrun, CA Solar and Storage Association, and Tesla, proposing ways to enable full participation of behind-the-meter (BTM) storage in wholesale markets by addressing issues in current market models. Presenters’ state market models were not designed specifically for BTM storage like Proxy Demand Response (PDR) and Distributed Energy Resources Provider (DERP). Instead, BTM batteries should have a participation model designed specifically for them.
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A quick, non-power hit in Arizona. An emergency increase since 2023 continues for Voyager at White Mountain Lakes Water Company, and Commission Staff believe that it would be difficult for the Company to operate without the emergency surcharge until new rates are authorized in a Decision by the Commission.
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In New England, ISO-NE is looking ahead – CEO retirement (congrats Gordon van Welie! and successor Dr. Vamsi Chadalavada!), as well as projected investment in transmission assets of $5.8 billion through 2032. Looking backward, 2022 was an expensive year for New England Wholesale Electricity costs at $16.8 billion.
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Southwest Power Pool (SPP) provides visibility into the Generator Interconnection (GI) queue for SPP East. Within: a 261% increase in MW and a 199% increase in the number of active projects making a generation interconnection request from 2023 to 2024.
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Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) shows a record number of expedited project requests in the MISO Transmission Expansion Plan (MTEP) and the Expedited Resource Additions Study (ERAS) process is being maximized to accelerate approval of critically needed resources – the majority gas (74% ) and storage (15%).
