Abstract: A decentralized clean energy future is both necessary and inevitable. The centralized bulk power system, while still needed, is not capable by itself to meet today’s goals for decarbonization, resilience and energy justice. These goals all have local dimensions that require local solutions. Meanwhile DER technologies are rapidly improving in performance and cost just in time to enable cost-effective local energy solutions to be deployed for almost any type and scale of end-use need. This presentation will describe key elements of a decentralized, democratized future electricity system and offer practical strategies for building that future from the bottom up.

Speaker bio: Lorenzo Kristov is an independent consultant working on electric power system reform to integrate high levels of renewable generation and distributed energy resources (DER). With 18 years of experience as a Principal in market design and infrastructure policy at the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), Lorenzo’s areas of expertise include wholesale power market design, DER participation in wholesale markets, coordination of transmission and distribution operations, markets and planning, distribution system operator (DSO) models, distribution-level markets, local energy resilience and microgrids, and whole-system grid architecture.

Resources

1. Speaker slides available here.
2. Rough audio transcript available here.
3. Video recording available on request to kentwitt@gmail.com.
4. Announcement by Maine of availability of DSO study draft, webinar, and opportunities for comment.

Background

1. Envisioning a More Democratic, Bottom-Up Energy System, VOLTS podcast, May 15, 2024.
2. Testimony to Minnesota PUC re Xcel Minnesota rate case in 2022, provided by speaker.

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Bob recommends the following sources for industry news going forward. All of them allow for email subscriptions.

John Kemp’s daily Best in Energy: An interesting big-picture source, particularly from the financial perspective.

Northeast Energy News: It draws from a multitude of local and regional sources. 

Utility Dive:  Reporters have inside connections to FERC and all U.S. regional transmission organizations including ISO-NE. Comprehensive resource.

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For more industry news summaries from the Technical Committee, see Bob Person’s Resource Digest. The latest entries also include news of a solar PV concern challenging the special treatment given to MA wind and hydro projects, an analysis of reliability factors for various generation sources, the cancellation of Avangrid’s contract for offshore wind, and more data on the unreliability of natural gas.

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Two articles in the local press reported on the FERC Winter Reliability Conference held in Portland on 6/20/2023. 6/23. Shared by Lilly Worthley and Tracy V. Posted here by K. Wittenburg. The WBUR report is reasonably comprehensive and mentions Fix-the-Grid. The Commonwealth report somewhat overstates the view that ISO-NE is no longer concerned in the short run about realiability after the EPRI report. It seemed to us that ISO-NE leadership is in favor of keeping open the Mystic LNG terminal despite the EPRI study.

Grassroots buy-in will be vital to transmission buildout, say clean energy experts 6/22/23 Utility Dive Brief by Diana DiGangi. The recent debt ceiling agreement obligated NERC (see item below) to spend 18 months studying interregional transmission capacity needs. But given the recent Columbia study on local permitting resistance, many feel a better approach is for states to persuade local jurisdictions of the economic and climate change benefits of transmission build-out as a more timely solution.

Presentation | December 2022 Winter Storm Elliott Inquiry into Bulk-Power System Operations: FERC, NERC and Regional Entity Joint Team Status Update 6/15/23 Headline by FERC staff,

largely a “we told you so” reminder of 2011, 2014, and 2021 recommendations on power plant and gas system cold weather preparedness and freeze protection measures and better ISO-NE weather and load forecasting. NERC, North American Electric Reliability Corporation is the non-profit organization responsible for continent wide electric reliability, and the regional entity under it which serves ISO-NE is NPCC, Northeast Power Coordinating Council.

Four non-transmission solutions for clean energy with new power lines in the permitting ‘Valley of Death’ 6/21/23 Utility Dive Deep Dive by Herman Trabish describes in great depth four ways to temporarily sidestep transmission inadequacy as a cause of interconnection delays: 

• Storage-as-transmission a.k.a. SATA – locate the storage near the grid congestion
• Grid-enhancing technologies – deploy sensors and logic to optimize use of the existing grid
• Economic overbuilding – Grant interconnection to distributed resources located closer to existing transmission lines and loads
• Engage customers – Pay customers with DERs (distributed energy resources) the real market value of energy supplied to the grid from their batteries and energy saved by demand response.

As an example of SATA, National Grid’s $50 million, 8-hour, 48-MWh battery deferred an estimated $250 million transmission line for Nantucket Island.

Northeastern states seek DOE support for transmission collaborative across three regions 6/20/23 Utility Dive article by Ethan Howland reports on a letter to DOE from eight states’ energy administrators requesting that DOE form a Northeast States Collaborative on Interregional Transmission and suggesting that ISO-NE, NYISO, and PJM “could be invited to participate as additional technical support”. The states acknowledge the existing Interregional Planning Stakeholder Advisory Committee, which is a Restricted Access Committee and currently shows no events on its calendar.

Is It Time for Big-Business to Sit Down & Shut Up? By Thom Hartmann 6/20/23. “Or, as was common in the 19th century, should they be dissolved by the state and have their assets sold to other corporations that will behave in a way that is not toxic to democracy or the community?” This expansive history of why corporations are NOT people starts with mention of Maine’s Our Power’s referendum calling for state buyout of the assets of (Canadian-owned) Versant and Central Maine Power (Spanish-owned) to combine them into a “nonprofit utility that will be owned by and operated for the benefit of the state of Maine and its citizens” and describes the challenges to such progressive ideas right up to Harlan Crow.

Opposition to Renewable Energy Facilities in the United States: May 2023 Edition May 2023 Edition Sabin Center (Columbia) for Climate Change Law study by Hilary Aidun, et al. about local opposition to renewable energy projects. It’s a state-by-state cataloging. Only three states were found not to have local opposition cases. A takeaway is that FTG outreach might also need to advocate for support for renewables at the local level.

Why the U.S. Electric Grid Isn’t Ready for the Energy Transition 6/12/23 New York Times article by Nadja Popovich and Brad Plumer, references the history of the US grid’s structure, barriers to interconnecting renewables, and pending and potential solutions. For extensive details, see the post immediately above re: Sabin Center study.

FERC’s backstop siting authority: Why considering emissions, EJ will get transmission built 6/8/23 Utility Dive Opinion by Matt Lifson. “Commissioner James Danly argues that his colleagues are trying to enact an ‘environmental justice wish list’ and ‘standardless environmental tests well beyond our statutory authority.’” The Chamber of Commerce and some House committees concur. However, the Supreme Court has instructed that the Federal Power Act’s “public interest” clause, to content and meaning, must include the subsidiary purposes of considering environmental questions.

Virtual power plant grid participation can grow with new business models, market rules: Guidehouse 6/7/23 Utility Dive post by Robert Walton. “The aggregations of distributed energy resources could reduce 2030 peak demand in the U.S. by 60 GW, according to research from RMI… [Guidehouse] recommends providers streamline their offerings for end consumers, while system operators and regulators develop market frameworks to encourage the resources.”

Offshore wind news and policy: Tracking the latest U.S. developments 6/6/23 Utility Dive post by Diana DiGangi and Jasmine Ye Han. Includes an interactive map showing 8 existing and proposed projects between Block Island and Nantucket totaling 6,978 MW with completion dates through 2028. Also includes an exhaustive list of recent and proposed federal and state legislation with opportunities for public input.

The Climate Solution That’s Horrible for the Climate 6/6/23 New York Times Opinion by Michael Grunwald (no paywall). “It’s fairly well-known that farm-grown fuels like corn ethanol and soy biodiesel accelerate food inflation and global hunger, but they’re also a disaster for the climate and the environment. And that’s mainly because they’re inefficient land hogs. It takes about 100 acres worth of biofuels to generate as much energy as a single acre of solar panels…” Planting, harvesting, refining, and distributing ethanol uses almost as much energy as the ethanol delivers.

Pending Connecticut law to protect utility ratepayers will backfire 6/6/23 Utility Dive Opinion by Brad Viator. The author argues that SB7 will scare investors away from CT utilities, causing a rise in interest rates that will make the utilities’ planned investments go less far and result in higher rates. Per a fastdemocracy.com web page on the bill, Conservation Law Foundation supported SB7 because it would ensure that utility company shareholders pay for utility

lobbying, trade associations, and advertising rather than recovering these costs from ratepayers; and because it may increase the capacity of stakeholders, individuals, and groups with limited resources to participate in PURA dockets.

Hundreds of US localities restrict renewables siting, with 293 projects currently contested: Columbia report 6/5/23 Utility Dive post by Diana DiGangi. “A report from Columbia Law School examined legal and regulatory obstacles to renewables projects, finding 228 local restrictions across 35 states as well as 293 projects that have received “significant opposition” in 45 states.”

Constellation sets hydrogen-gas plant blending record, but more advances needed for utility-scale use: experts 6/5/23 Utility Dive Brief by Emma Penrod. “A hydrogen blending trial at Constellation Energy’s Hillabee Generating Station, a 753-MW combined cycle natural gas plant in central Alabama, operated successfully on a 38% hydrogen blend with only minor modifications to the plant… Emissions of nitrogen oxide did not increase during the test…” The article says nothing about whether the hydrogen used came from electrolysis using wind and/or solar electricity – a.k.a. “green” hydrogen, or if it did then what percentage of the source electricity was lost due to the imperfect efficiency of that process. If it was “blue” hydrogen, made by burning gas to turn other gas into hydrogen and CO2, the carbon footprint is even worse. This is another case of semi-greenwashing fossil fuel use, similar to gas utilities’ suggestion that hydrogen could be mixed into their distribution systems and used for heating and cooking.

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No ‘silver bullet’: Report lays out fixes for interconnection delays plaguing US renewables and storage 5/25/23 Utility Dive Brief by Stephen Singer. The non-profit Clean Energy Group sponsored a study by Applied Economics Clinic outlining the interconnection problem and concluding that: 

• “policymakers need to establish interconnection processes to ‘take a systemic view’ of applications rather than examine interconnection applications and grid upgrades” on a case-by-case basis.
• “utilities, state officials, grid operators and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should iterate interconnection processes to ‘build in regular improvements, examine effectiveness, and coordinate stakeholders to tackle ad hoc coordination problems.’”
• “end the model of cost allocation for grid upgrades known as cost causation by spreading distribution system upgrade costs over a broader set of stakeholders than the projects applying for interconnection”
• “study proposed storage resources in a way that reflects how the resources would reasonably be expected to operate once interconnected.”

The generators who cry ‘wolf’: How competitive wholesale markets handle generator bankruptcy 5/24/23 Utility Dive Opinion by Mike Hogan. “During the recent Winter Storm Elliott, a shockingly large amount of generation receiving capacity payments from PJM and ISO New England failed to perform when called upon. Nearly all of it was fossil-fueled, most of it fueled with natural gas. Under the pay-for-performance arrangements established years ago following a similarly dismal performance during 2014’s ‘Polar Vortex,’ under which these generators have collected hundreds of millions of dollars a year to be reliable capacity, they face steep financial penalties for their failure to perform. Now some are seeking to evade those penalties, offering a flurry of excuses… Regardless of the validity of any of the excuses offered (or lack thereof), these generators are also attempting to fall back on the stratagem behind which the fossil industry customarily retreats when caught with their pants down — claiming a threat to reliability, in this case from the possibility that the penalties might drive some generators into bankruptcy… Recent history demonstrates this tired grandstanding about reliability should receive no weight in considering their appeals (or in considering changes to the market rules). Why? Bankruptcy rarely leads to a loss of the associated capacity, in fact, quite the opposite…”

Mass. agency dismisses 2 battery storage projects, citing lack of legal clarity over ‘generating facility’ 5/23/23 Utility Dive Brief by Stephen Singer. MA DPU will review proposals for two battery energy storage systems after – with prodding by local interest groups – MA’s Energy Facilities Siting Board couldn’t determine whether it had the jurisdiction to do so. 

Federal judge dismisses whale case, upholds permits for offshore Vineyard Wind project 5/23/23 Utility Dive piece by Diana DiGangi. “Judge Indira Talwani of the District of Massachusetts ruled Wednesday that the advocacy group Nantucket Residents Against Turbines failed to demonstrate that the wellbeing of the endangered species wasn’t sufficiently taken into account by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and National Marine Fisheries Service when permitting the project… The project currently faces three other lawsuits, with two of them representing the interests of the fishing industry.”

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The last two weeks of highlights for grid technical news include an article favorably comparing battery storage technology to fossil-fuel-based peakers, a proposal for EV charging on highways, a large new RFP for offshore wind energy in MA, challenges to ISO-NE proposed plan for winter fuel storage, a startup’s smart electrical plane, a call for more competition in the power sector, an auction for energy storage in areas other than NE, performance-based regulation in CT, and an argument for how to streamline transmission permitting.

VPPs provide same resource adequacy as gas peakers, large batteries at up to 60% less cost: study 5/5/23 Utility Dive Brief by Patrick Cooley. The Brattle Group study for Google “compared the cost and reliability of generating 400 MW of power through a VPP consisting of smart thermostats, EV chargers, smart water heaters and behind-the-meter batteries with the cost and reliability of generating the same amount of electricity through a natural gas peaker or a transmission-connected utility-scale battery.” 

Minnesota highway initiative goes national to advance co-located energy, communications buildout 5/5/23 Utility Dive Brief by Robert Walton. The Next-Gen Highways Initiative plan solves two problems: expediting transmission expansion and supplying power to highway EV charging stations. 

Massachusetts energy agency calls for 3,600 MW of offshore wind proposals in state’s largest RFP to date 5/3/23 Utility Dive Brief by Emma Penrod. MA DOER filed on 5/2 for DPU approval a draft RFP seeking 3,600 MW of offshore wind power, which could supply 25% of the state’s energy demand. “[T]he filing has raised questions about additionality and whether some of the 3,600 MW will go to companies looking to re-bid existing projects they say are no longer financially viable.” 

Environmentalists, state consumer officials challenge ISO-NE’s proposed winter fuel storage costs 5/1/23 Utility Dive Brief by Stephen Singer. ISO-NE has proposed to FERC an expanded Inventoried Energy Program (IEP) on top of other market vehicles to improve winter reliability. Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Conservation Law Foundation said ISO-NE’s rate request “shows the risks to consumers of a system that relies on imports of a volatile commodity fuel for electricity generation.” Consumer advocates from MA, NH, CT, ME, and NH protested ISO-NE’s application, saying a redesign of the IEP could result in a windfall to oil resources.

Span’s Gateway for the Grid 4/28/23 blog post by Climate Tech VC, an in-depth interview with Span founder and CEO Arch Rao about Span’s smart electrical panel. The panel is ahead of and ready for integration into electric distribution utilities’ advanced metering infrastructure and demand response programs and ISO New England data connectivity, and Rao expresses a vision as to how the future might play out. 

Rep. Casten, ex-FERC chairs eye DERs, more power sector competition to achieve net zero goals 4/27/23 Utility Dive Brief by Diana DiGangi. A panel of one US Rep and two former FERC chairs cited a need for more competition and innovation and less suppression of competition by political actors and monopoly utilities.

Peregrine Energy Solutions, Ascend Analytics plan auction for nearly 900 MW of energy storage 4/27/23 Utility Dive Brief by Patrick Cooley. The companies plan to build and sell six battery projects in Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin and Virginia, in the ERCOT, PJM, MISO and SPP power grids, i.e. none of this instantly dispatchable storage will be in ISO-NE territory.

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