LOCKHEED MARTIN SPONSORS FREE ACCESS TO EXCLUSIVE CONTENT.

Vienna, Va.: Public Utilities Fortnightly magazine launched a new twice-monthly online resource today. Fortnightly’s Green Utility (http://greenutility.fortnightly.com) features content developed by Fortnightly’s editorial staff, focusing on renewable power generation technology, finance and regulatory policies in the United States and Canada. The new editorial resource is made possible with sponsorship support from Lockheed Martin.

Fortnightly’s Green Utility will feature exclusive articles, webcasts, intelligence and commentary, as well as special access to related articles from the archives of other publications at Public Utilities Reports Inc. — including Public Utilities Fortnightly, Fortnightly’s Spark and Utility Regulatory News.

“Green Utility will focus Fortnightly’s editorial analysis on the challenges and opportunities of building out North America’s renewable energy infrastructure,” said Michael T. Burr, Fortnightly’s Editor-in-Chief. “Fortnightly brings the world-class editorial expertise to look beyond the news and hype, and analyze renewable energy issues in a way no other publication does. Lockheed Martin’s support allows us to make this unique and objective analysis freely accessible online.”

Fortnightly’s Green Utility is part of Fortnightly.com’s growing inventory of online resources. In the past two years, Fortnightly.com launched two financial databases — the Utility ROE Database and the Transactions Database — providing data about utility ratemaking decisions and financial transactions, such as mergers, acquisitions and debt issues.

The March 1, 2011, installment of Fortnightly’s Green Utility, with a webcast and article developed by Fortnightly Contributing Editor Steven Andersen, features a conversation with tax-credit guru Keith Martin of Chadbourne & Parke. The second installment is scheduled for release on March 15.

PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY (www.fortnightly.com), published by Public Utilities Reports Inc., in Vienna, Va., is the journal of record for the U.S. utility industry, providing authoritative, in-depth analysis of trends in generation, transmission and distribution of electricity and natural gas. For more than 80 years, Public Utilities Fortnightly has delivered exclusive interviews and expert analysis to help utility-industry executives and regulators decide where to invest, how the industry will be regulated and what the future holds. Subscription rate: $287/year.

Posted: March 1st, 2011 under IGCC, R&D, biomass, carbon regulation, climate change, efficiency, electric vehicles, geoengineering, green energy, offshore wind, regulation, renewable energy credits, renewables.
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National Grid to pay 18.7 cents/kWh with 3.5% annual escalation.

Courtesy of Utility Regulatory News #3997: The long-planned and highly controversial Cape Wind project took a major step forward when the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities signed off on a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) between the developer, Cape Wind Associates, and an electric utility, National Grid.

The contract covers 50% of the output of the facility, which is located offshore from Massachusetts in federal waters in Nantucket Sound. The initial price in the PPA, effective in 2013, is 18.7 cents per kilowatt-hour, inclusive of electricity, capacity, and renewable energy attributes. The price is subject to an annual 3.5% escalation clause.

In approving the contract, the department noted that National Grid had demonstrated a need for additional sources of supply and that the Cape Wind project was the best choice to satisfy that need given the project’s size, proximity, capacity factor, renewable energy benefits, and advanced stage of permitting. The department estimated that the PPA would have no more than a 1% to 2% billing impact on National Grid ratepayers. Moreover, the department found that the Cape Wind facility would moderate peak load requirements in the region. The department said it was impressed by wind data that showed that Cape Wind’s capacity factor would have averaged 76% during the area’s top ten historic peak hours. Nevertheless, the department declined to approve a second PPA for the remainder of the wind farm’s output, observing that the second contract was subject to assignment, which could include assignment to a non-jurisdictional party. For the full story, subscribe to URN.

Posted: December 23rd, 2010 under green energy, offshore wind, regulation, renewable energy credits, renewables.
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Removes perceived impediments to RPS solicitations

Courtesy of Utility Regulatory News #3998: Building on its 2009 decision to increase from 25% to 30% the minimum proportion of electricity sales that must come from renewable resources by 2015, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) has amended several of the programs that comprise the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) initiative.

According to the commission, the changes were necessary so as to strengthen, expand, and enhance the RPS protocols. One of the modifications permits the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) to solicit main tier RPS resources at least once a year, in consultation with PSC staff. Previously, NYSERDA had to obtain formal commission preapproval before it could undertake such an auction. A second change eliminates a restriction that had prevented NYSERDA from considering the economic development benefits of certain jurisdictional renewable projects that are not yet part of the RPS program. Yet a third change broadens the eligibility of certain “behind-the-meter” energy transactions that can be included in RPS solicitations. Such expansion is contingent on compliance with existing measurement and verification criteria, however. For the full story, subscribe to URN.

Posted: December 23rd, 2010 under regulation, renewable energy credits, renewables.
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Finds they exceed Michigan RPS requirements

July 22, 2010 - Weekly Update From Utility Regulatory News #3978: While not discounting the importance of renewable energy in the resource strategies of electric utilities, the Michigan Public Service Commission nevertheless has reduced an electric utility’s jurisdictional renewable power supply cost for rate-making purposes, to reflect the fact that the company had been exceeding the proportion of renewable power needed to meet the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requirements.

The utility, Wisconsin Electric Power Co. (WEPCO), is headquartered in neighboring Wisconsin but has a multistate presence. It had allocated $5.4 million in renewable power costs to its Michigan services, based in part on Wisconsin’s RPS requirements, which provide that 4.27 percent of retail sales in 2010 and 8.27 percent by 2015 must qualify as renewable energy. However, the commission pointed out that Michigan had adopted a less ambitious RPS program with a lower minimum purchase term, such that the amounts attributed to WEPCO’s Michigan operations were clearly excessive.

According to the commission, WEPCO actually had been acquiring more renewable energy than it needed even for the Wisconsin RPS targets. The commission said it had discovered that for the period 2011 to 2014, WEPCO’s renewable power commitments ranged from 31 percent to 120 percent more than necessary for meeting Wisconsin’s RPS requirements. As a result, the commission reduced WEPCO’s Michigan revenue requirement by more than $4 million to account for the excess purchases. Subscribe to URN for the full story.

Posted: July 22nd, 2010 under energy policy, green energy, regulation, renewable energy credits, renewables.
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State RPS provisions might violate Commerce Clause.

Weekly update courtesy of URN #3976: Determining that purchases of power from renewable resources are of regional, not just statewide, importance, and citing the possible implications of a recently filed civil lawsuit, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) has temporarily ceased enforcement efforts of regulations that require electric distribution companies to solicit long-term “green” power supply contracts only from developers within the state.

The DPU explained that Massachusetts law has established through its renewable portfolio standard program a certain minimum threshold amount of energy that electric utilities must procure from renewable resources, such as wind, solar, and biomass. However, the law presently restricts long-term purchases of such to being from renewable power suppliers whose facilities are located within Massachusetts, or at least within state or federal waters. But the DPU acknowledged that a competitive energy services marketer has challenged that limitation in a federal district court, alleging that the law discriminates against out-of-state generators and thus violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

In light of that pending litigation, and asserting that it was reasonable to facilitate the ongoing development of renewable energy sources throughout the region, the DPU ruled that existing in-state purchase requirements should be lifted, at least for the interim. It therefore authorized electric utilities to reopen their renewable power solicitations so as to consider bids from eligible out-of-state generators in addition to in-state suppliers. Subscribe to Utility Regulatory News for the full story.

Posted: June 30th, 2010 under Uncategorized, energy policy, green energy, regulation, renewable energy credits, renewables.
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