Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Newsdata’s Energy West podcast delivers in-depth conversations with energy experts and weekly news updates about the energy industry in California, the Northwest and beyond. Stay plugged in with Newsdata’s award-winning journalists.
Intro:
Welcome to NewsData's Energy West, a podcast about the energy
industry today and where it's going tomorrow.
Dan Catchpole:
Hello, I'm Dan Catchpole, reporter with NewsData's, Clearing Up.
And joining me is my cohost, Jason Fordney, editor of
NewsData's, California Energy Markets or CEM.
Jason, how are you doing today?
Jason Fordney:
Great. Dan, how are you?
Dan Catchpole:
I'm doing good.
Glad to see you back from San Diego where you were last week.
How did that go?
Jason Fordney:
Yeah, it went really well.
I made it back in one piece.
I had a very interesting couple of days at CREPC-WIRAB, which
for people that don't know, that's the Committee on
Regional Electric Power Cooperation and the Western Interstate
Energy Board.
A very popular meeting and well-attended and a lot of interesting
topics.
I got a couple of stories coming out of it.
Dan Catchpole:
Oh, that's great. And how was San Diego?
Did you have a chance to get around the city at all?
I've only been there once.
Jason Fordney:
Yeah, I did.
It's a really lovely city.
I was able to get out a little bit and went around the Gaslamp
Quarter, which is interesting.
You know, the entertainment district.
Even did a little live band karaoke, which was kind of
fascinating, and yeah, I went down.
I tried to get into the Midway Museum, but it was closed, but I
got to look from the outside and yeah, great city.
Dan Catchpole:
Yeah. The only time I was there, I took my daughter, who's my
oldest, who was, I think, like three at the time, m
aybe four. We went to the Midway Museum, very cool museum.
That also was — San Diego will forever be in my memory as the
first time I heard one of my kids drop the F-bomb.
You know, a four year old, actually, no, she was three.
We missed the, there's a little light rail train or whatever; I
forget what it's called.
We're going to go catch it, and it was just pulling away as we
got there.
She said, I was like, "Oh, we missed the train." She goes, "Oh.
Fork.
We missed it." I was like, "Right, that seems a little.
.. Wait, what?" But, you know, at least she used it in context.
But that's kids.
They're a mirror for us.
You realize, "Oh, maybe I need to be a little bit more selective
with how I talked around my kids." Anyways.
Jason Fordney:
I remember my daughter's first F-bomb, too, is probably around
the same age.
It's just something that every parent doesn't forget, I guess.
It happens.
Dan Catchpole:
I mean, they are adult words.
When you're an adult and you feel that it's warranted to use it,
you can.
That's fine, but for now.
Jason Fordney:
Yeah, well, the main thing is hopefully they don't use it with
regularity at that age, which she hasn't said it since.
Yeah, there we go.
Dan Catchpole:
I don't think I've heard it come out of her again, so.
Anyways, I don't know, maybe there was, were there a lot of
F-bombs at CREPC-WIRAB?
Jason Fordney:
A lot of cursing, yeah.
No, very civil.
It's a really interesting conference.
Obviously, you have a lot of state regulators there.
It's a very frank discussion because it's a pretty small, tight
group.
I wrote my first story here from My Bottom Lines column, which
had to do with transmission, discussing
FERC's new notice of proposed rulemaking.
And from what I've seen, this does not appear to be very popular
proposals so far with
Western state regulators.
We're talking public utility commissioners here.
So yeah, interesting discussion.
A lot — I use the term side-eye in my column the way reactors,
the way regulators are reacting to this
. Cliff Rechtschaffen, who is a member of the California Public
Utilities Commission, is also the Western
representative on the FERC Federal State Task Force, which is
kind of shaping the discussion around
the NPRM.
And then Thad LeVar from Utah is the other western service
commissioner.
So there was a panel discussion with those two getting kind of
peppered with questions.
And yeah, a little bit of mistrust; this is something the
dynamic between Washington and the West has always been
this way. Rechtschaffen often said, you know, "FERC is trying to
avoid a problem where interconnection requests identifying need,
then they drop out of the queue and are not acted on.
As a result, nothing happens." That's just one small portion of
this rulemaking.
I won't get into the specifics of it, but safe to say it does
include a little bit more state participation,
which some people are saying that's not going to speed up the
process.
That's going to slow it down.
LeVar from Utah said, "We need to do this in a way that respects
and recognizes the individual policies of states." So this can be
tricky. You have different renewable standards, different
planning approaches in the West.
So Ann Rendahl of Washington Utilities and Transportation
Commission appeared skeptical of this FERC NPRM, said "Given that
the West is so big, how do you make sure you're reflecting not
just the views of your state, but the views of the larger West?"
LeVar responded that staff from NARUC — National Association of
Regulatory Utility Commissioners — is getting feedback
from other states to submit in the process.
But it didn't really.
What he said was, "I haven't given you a clear answer.
I'm not sure there is one.
I can promise I'm mindful of that issue and taking it seriously
and trying to be respectful of broad interests and not just
representing Utah on the task force." So yeah, we have to...
Dan Catchpole:
A lot of ground ..
I was going to say there's some gaps there to close between the
states, like you were saying.
Jason Fordney:
Yes.
Dan Catchpole:
A lot of ground to cover in between people's positions.
Jason Fordney:
Yeah. And I'm not sure people are so thrilled about California
being one of the representatives.
So there seemed to be a little bit of tension there.
From Idaho, Jon Chatburn from Idaho Public Utilities Commission
said he's concerned FERC will forget about public land issues in
the West, how hard it is to site transmission on federal lands
as opposed to the East, where it's a lot more private lands.
But yeah, this will be ongoing.
The NPRM is a big deal.
I have my doubts in the end, just personally whether this will
lead to more transmission.
Considering that local opposition is usually the biggest
obstacle, and this process is not going to change that.
Dan Catchpole:
No. Yeah, that's something that just is out of regulator's
control, how locals feel about it.
I mean, at the same time, the.
federal land it can be tough, but it gets around some of that.
But still not totally.
Look at the stop BTUH, Boardman to Hemingway Coalition that has
been advocating against
that transmission line for many years now, even though that the
proposed transmission line from
Pacific Core and Idaho Power mostly goes on federal land.
I don't think it's all on federal land, but I don't recall the
exact transmission path that they have mapped out.
But it's yeah, regardless, people have a lot of concerns about
aspects of the project
and its effects.
Even the parts that are going on federal land.
So to your point, building transmission is complicated, it turns
out, dear listeners.
Jason Fordney:
Oh, yes.
And I have to think back maybe ten or 12 years ago, you know,
DOE came up with this national
interest transmission corridor proposal, and there was all about
renewables, and it just went over
like a lead balloon.
They held public hearings, basically got shouted down and
nothing ended up happening.
So, it's tough.
The Fed, no one really likes the federal government, especially
coming in and citing large infrastructure.
Dan Catchpole:
Well, speaking of federal entities and lots of infrastructure,
Bonneville Power Administration started trading
in the Western energy and balance market on May 3rd, and that
ended decades of market skepticism from Northwest Public Power
Utilities. The federal agency said that it thinks participating
in the EIM will help BPA optimize surplus
capacity and load service.
Participation is expected to cost about $7 million a year for the
entity, but an independent analysis by consulting firm
Energy and Environmental Economics, also known as E3, forecasts
BPA will save $29 million to
$34 million a year.
Bonneville is participation in the EIM gives a big boost for the
imbalance market, which is managed and operated by the California
ISO or CAISO, Cal-ISO.
And BPA's participation is the latest step in the West's apparent
progress towards organized markets.
You can read more about that story at NewsData.com.
The story by my colleague Steve Ernst.
One of the founders at Pacific Core helped start the Western
EIM with Cal-ISO.
Jason Fordney:
2014. Yeah.
Dan Catchpole:
And it now covers like 85% of the load in the West or something
like that.
But Pacific Core on April 29th, they released an all source
request for proposals for new energy
projects that can connect to its ten state transmission system.
Pacific Core's most recent integrated resource plan, like the
long term 20 year projection plans that utilities
regularly do, shows that the utility needs 1345 megawatts of new
wind
and solar generation resources, combined with 600 megawatts of
co-located energy storage
resources within the next six years.
So Pacific Core is shopping for new energy resources.
So if you've got them, Pacific Core needs them.
Jason Fordney:
See what I can dig up.
Interesting story that EIM is really turning into a major
success story for CAISO, and as you said, sort of a precursor to
possibly a Western RTO, although there's a lot of questions
there whether anyone wants CAISO operating that regional market.
Dan Catchpole:
Yeah, yeah, we'll see.
Southwest Power Pools Markets Plus is the other competitor, and
it's getting a lot of
attention.
Jason Fordney:
Yeah, it's a really an interesting time in Western energy
markets.
So enjoying exploring that topic.
I'll bring it back to California a little bit.
Our next story from CEM in Friday's issue, California Public
Utilities Commission on May 5th, approved three vehicle to
grid integration pilot programs valued at 11.7 million.
They are aimed at promoting electric vehicle bidirectional
charging among consumers.
Hearing more and more discussion on this topic.
Increasing numbers of EVs being sold across the state, issues
such as the time and places in which EVs charge to prevent
grid problems is important.
Consumers also need assurance they're saving money and creating
good benefits.
This is coverage from Linda Daily Paulson.
Bidirectional charging is when power is sent from EVs back to
the grid and has the potential, of course, to provide backup
power during public safety power shutoffs and other emergencies.
Just briefly, there's three programs.
One is a $7.5 million, three-year B2G program designed to
increase light duty EV adoption by
providing 1000 PG&E single family residential customers with
rebates.
Another $2.7 million is three-year pilot program is aimed at
increasing adoption of medium and heavy duty EVs, charging at
commercial buildings by providing equipment and incentives.
And at $1.5 million pilot designed to support vehicle to
microgrid charging and discharging for public safety power shut
off events by providing incentives.
So some activity there in B2G from the Public Utilities
Commission.
What else is happening in Northwest?
Dan Catchpole:
Well, so the Northwest has entered a new era of nuclear energy
development.
This time, though, the focus is on smaller, more flexible
projects with some pretty remarkably tight development
deadlines. So NewsData hosted a virtual conference April 26 on
small modular nuclear development in the Northwest.
To learn more about the projects planned for the region and
about the challenges facing developers who are trying to bring
new resources online as soon as 2028 in some cases.
So currently, the world's only operational, small modular
nuclear reactor, or SMR, is run by
Russia aboard the barge Akademik Lomonosov, which is also the
world's first floating nuclear
power plant.
That began commercial operation in May 2020 and consists of two
35 megawatt light water reactors repurposed from
former icebreakers in the Arctic Ocean.
Historically, the Northwest has pursued nuclear power to meet
expected load growth, some of which has never materialized though
. Today's projects are driven by decarbonization.
The emission free resources can help integrate renewable energy
resources.
And if all goes according to plan, by 2030, the Northwest could
have more than 1100 megawatts of carbon-free
SMR generation online.
Now one of the leaders in development, Utah Associated Municipal
Power Systems and NuScale Power are developing a
462 megawatt project at the Idaho National Laboratory that could
be online by 2029.
The plant will be able to ramp up from 20% to 100% capacity in
about 27 minutes and ramp down from 100% to
20% in only about 8 minutes using a turbine bypass method.
Speaking of NuScale power, in another story, it completed its
merger with Spring Valley Acquisition, a publicly traded special
purpose acquisition company that completed earlier this month.
Shares of the company are listed on the New York Stock Exchange
as NuScale power and under the ticker symbol SMR.
The merger gives NuScale access to enough capital to accelerate
the commercialization of its
77 megawatt small modular nuclear reactor technology, which it's
marketing as the Voyager
Power Module.
So, Jason, what else do you have going on in California?
Jason Fordney:
Well, we had some drought news.
This is some of our Friday coverage.
Actually, the past couple of days, I woke up to snow this
morning up in the Sierra.
I live at about 5,000 feet.
So we are getting a little bit of respite from the the drought
here.
But there is historic drought and low runoff into the Colorado
River Basin, which
prompted the US Bureau of Reclamation to take, "Urgent,
extraordinary measures" to protect Lake Powell and
preserve hydroelectric power generation capability at Glen
Canyon Dam.
Under a 2019 drought contingency plan, 500,000 acre feet of
water will be released into Lake Powell, while the annual release
from Glen Canyon Dam will be reduced from 7.48 million acre feet
to about 7 million acre feet.
This will keep an additional 480,000 acre feet in Lake Powell,
which aligns with
operational guidelines for Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams.
The changes are designed to support Lake Powell from May 2022
until April 2023 and should result in an
elevation increase of about 16 feet.
But yeah, we're in a pretty serious situation with the reservoir
levels here starting to affect hydro going into
summer and just one of the many moving pieces in California and
the West energy landscape.
That's about it from CEM.
Dan Catchpole:
That drought, wish we, hopefully we'll get some better news at
some point.
Well, coming out of central Washington, two next generation
battery companies have announced plans to open up factories in
Moses Lake in central Washington.
The two companies, Group 14 Technologies and Sila
Nanotechnologies, are making batteries for the electric
vehicle market. They say their new battery technologies can
boost duration and energy density of lithium ion batteries.
The two companies aren't working together.
They're pursuing their own separate battery technologies.
And both companies do say their batteries can plug into existing
EVs with no modifications needed.
So they're coming to central Washington.
Both of them are attracted by central Washington's cheap
electricity.
Their proposed plants will be in Grant County PUD service
territory.
Grant PUD has worked with County Economic Development officials
for several years to attract new industries to the
area, including BMW produces some of its composite material
there.
Mitsubishi aircraft has been doing flight testing there.
They've really done a great job of attracting, landing some
pretty impressive industrial customers.
And you can read more about that at newsdata.com.
Also want to let listeners know that the sixth annual Pacific
Northwest Wholesale Power Markets Conference is coming up June
23rd and 24th.
The virtual conference is hosted by NewsData and CJB Energy
Economics.
If you want to know the latest on the current energy market
conditions and to learn about near-term market outlooks around
the West, register now.
You can find information for it at NewsData.com.
Well, that's all for me.
As always, please rate and review this podcast and let other
people know about it.
You can find me on Twitter.
I'm at @DCatchpole and my co-host Jason Fordney is on Twitter at
@FordneyEnergy.
Jason Fordney:
Yes. Thanks, Dan, and thanks everybody for listening to
NewsData's Energy West.
You can read more of our coverage at NewsData.
Nobody covers energy in the West like we do.
Follow us on Twitter. CEM is @CEMNewsData.
That's the letters C-E-M NewsData.
Clearing up is at @CUNewsData.
Again, that's the letter C-U NewsData.
Thanks for listening. We'll see you back here next week.
Outro:
You've been listening to NewsData's Energy West, a podcast about
the energy industry today and where it's going
tomorrow.