Clean Dispatchable Resource Enthusiasm w/ Kieran Connolly

special celebrity guest star Kieran Connolly brings his enthusiasm for hydrogeneration and public power to the recording where we talk markets, ira, smr, and energy emergencies

Show Notes

Kieran Connolly, Dan Catchpole, Abigail Sawyer, and Paul Dockery kick off the Season 5 premier of Public Power Underground.

06:11 - what evolution into a centrally dispatched market means for a hydro-centric region

• SPP Sees Markets+ as Potential Path to Full RTO in the West
• Carrie Simpson to serve as Southwest Power Pool’s director of western services development
• California Independent System Operator released its draft final proposal for the Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM)

18:42 - how does increased deployment of wind and solar in the Northwest impact hydro operations

• Biden Signs Inflation Reduction Act; Permitting Reform Next Step
• Rural Electric Co-ops Glad to Be Included in Inflation Reduction Act Benefits
• Twitter memo on Ira versus I-R-A
• The definitive podcasts on the content of the Inflation Reduction Act

29:05 - thoughts on SMRs in a hydro dominated region like the Pacific Northwest

• PacifiCorp, TerraPower to Study Deploying Five More SMRs by 2035
• TVA developing plans for 20 small nuclear reactors to power Tennessee Valley by 2050
• TVA takes step to build small modular reactor near Oak Ridge

38:52 - hydro operations under stressed grid conditions

• California Avoids Rolling Blackouts in Record Heat; Energy Prices Surge
• Pacific Northwest heat wave was a freak, 10,000-year event, study finds
• An energy emergency alert 3 for CAISO in August of 2020
• Extremely constrained system in the Northwest in March of 2019

53:46 - Short to Ground; where we TL;DR our way through the rest of the news

• SPP membership elects two new directors
• Western Power Pool Approves Nominees for New Independent Board of Directors
• SRP coverage by Abigail Sawyer
• Southwest elections preview by Abigail Sawyer
• Coverage of PPC pressing Columbia Basin Collaborative by K.C. Mehaffey
• Fusion coverage by Dan Catchpole
• Product switch coverage by Dan Catchpole
• Hydrogen project coverage by Steve Ernst
• Drought coverage by Linda Dailey Paulson
• Briefs in Clearing Up
• Spot Market Power
• La Nina
• NOAA Climate Forecasts
• WY2023 Water Supply Forecast

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What is Public Power Underground?

Public Power Underground is more than a discussion about public ownership of electric infrastructure, the infotaining episodes cover the energy enthusiast trifecta of electrification, markets, and people. The hosts interview industry experts on a broad range of energy industry and energy-industry-adjacent topics at the nexus of electric utilities and the energy transition. The podcast doesn’t take itself too seriously and frequently plays energy inspired games like “energy enthusiasm distilled,” “draw an analogy,” and “say something nice about electric utilities."