NEPPA eNewsletter

So, you’re probably asking what any of this has to do with public power in general and NEPPA in particular. The simple answer is because you are underdogs. You don’t have the financial resources that the investor owned utilities possess. You are at the mercy of organizations like ISO/New England and FERC that control your destinies with little to none of your input. And while your customers love you today, you are an extended outage away from having them turn on you and overwhelm your staff with a flood of negativity. In almost every imaginable way the odds are stacked against you; you are the underdogs who should not win.

And yet, where some would throw in the towel, you have found strength. Together, you formed the Northeast Public Power Association. Together we are able to raise our collective voice and ensure that the powers that be hear what we have to say. Together we form a network of mutual aid that allows us to bring together resources that no one of us could supply alone. Together we are able to educate and train lineworkers who get the job done and get home safely to their families. Together we are able to overcome adversity and accomplish something truly amazing.

It is our unity that will continue to strengthen and inspire us here at NEPPA.  I see it in the dedication that the Rodeo Committee has been putting together a great event; in the respect that our apprentices have for our instructors; in the willingness of our affiliate members to lend a hand when they can; and in the dedication and determination of the entire NEPPA staff and leadership. Early this month we will travel to Washington, DC to represent public power on Capitol Hill and later in the month we will gather for our Engineering Kick-off event. It is that energy, that passion, and that commitment that I hope each of you will remain a part of for years to come.

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This new NEPPA benefit offers the maximum discounts available from top-rated pet insurance with a 98% satisfaction rating. Healthy Paws is also the only company to offer unlimited lifetime benefits with an annual deductible, and you can use the Healthy Paws Mobile App or online Customer Center to submit claims.

Through the Every Quote Gives Hope program, every pet insurance quote helps a homeless pet. Get a free quote online with your special NEPPA discounts here.

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In business since 2011, Veracity Connect has some 1,000 public power systems within its collaborative utility community, according to CEO Graham Nelson. Membership is free of charge for public power systems.

"We’re the only platform that offers a mobile-enabled digital version of mutual aid," Nelson said. "We’ve had it for about two years, and it has changed the way mutual aid happens."

Contact CEO Graham Nelson at 705-450-6101, email gnelson@veracityamg.com, or visit veracityamg.com.

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Flexible Generation in Volatile Markets

By Joseph Ferrari, Wartsila North America, Inc.

"With increasing wind and solar penetration, ever more stringent environmental regulations, and coal retirement, comes increased market volatility.

"Volatility is manifested as an increased frequency of price swings, which influence a thermal plant’s ability to participate in the market, as frequent starts/stops and long periods of part load operation may put them "out of the money" and ultimately increase costs to serve load.

Flexible gas generation can help utilities cope with market volatility by maximizing efficiency of dispatch. Here, flexibility is defined as modular capacity with the ability to start/stop multiple times per day at no added cost, with minimal to no restrictions on up or down time, with very low minimum loads, all while maintaining efficiency.

In this presentation we give examples from NYISO and ISO-NE, based on historical analysis of price signals, showing that the most flexible units are indeed the most beneficial of new-build options. Comparisons are made across gas-fired technologies, from simple and combined cycle gas turbines to medium speed, utility-scale reciprocating engine plants. Results show reciprocating engine power plants can 1.) help utilities serve load at minimum cost and/or 2.) provide the highest profitability for Independent Power Producers (IPPs)."

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The seminar is aimed at both power monitor equipment users and anyone concerned with solving power quality issues. For questions contact Fred Avila at favila@avcomsolutions.com. Register here.

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All PUMP programs include at least one session from each of eight core certification requirements. These include industry knowledge, management skills, financial, human resources, technology, communications, legislative & regulatory, and boards & commissions.

Registration is due by April 15. Details...

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The American Public Power Association offers educational webinars that you and/or your staff can access through any computer. This month, subjects range from the legal obligations of public power governing boards to what you should know about purchasing cyber insurance, and an "Electric Utility 101" series on substations. NEPPA members get the APPA discounted price with coupon code NEPPA. Details...  

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"I leave Taunton with mixed feelings, because it’s a very special place with a family of wonderful people," he said. "But this is a great opportunity for me, and I’m lucky to go to Mansfield – everyone has great respect for the linemen and the entire staff. They have a superlative reputation."

 A native of Providence, R.I. who now lives in Taunton, Joe holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Northeastern University, and earned a law degree from Southern New England School of Law.

He first joined Taunton as a co-op student from Northeastern, and later worked as an electrical engineer for Commonwealth Electric, and as a business analyst for American Superconductor before returning to Taunton.

As part of the senior management team at Taunton, Joe acquired a wealth of experience that he brings to his new job, including work on energy efficiency projects such as community solar, and strategic planning initiatives. He also has been active with NEPPA, and is past chairman of both the Education and Training Committee and the Customer Service Committee.

Thanks to his longtime municipal utility experience, he brings to his new job a keen appreciation of the unique values that are shared by those who work in public power.

It’s not about being rich and powerful, he explained, but about service to the community.

"In Taunton, my favorite memories took place in times of crisis, when people all gathered together and worked together," he said. "What’s important is that we can lay our heads on our pillows and know that we did something good and important – that people thought well of us, and that we were appreciated."

As for his plans in Mansfield, Joe says his first priority is not to dictate changes, but to listen.

"It’s already a well run utility, so my job is to help support the staff, understand how Mansfield works, and support them so they can go home at night and feel good about what they’ve done," he said.

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Ferreira lives in Middleton with his wife Betsy and children Jeffrey and Sadie, and says he has no immediate retirement plans, although things will be different.

A Middleton native and lifelong local resident, Ferreira joined MELD on January 2, 1979. "I feel fortunate," he said about his time at the Light Department. "It was a very good place to work." He also recently retired from his position as a reserve Middleton police officer after nearly four decades.

"We appreciate Lenny’s dedication to not only the Light Department but to the entire Town of Middleton," said MELD Manager Mark Kelly. "We wish him a long and healthy retirement. The Light Department will really miss him."

"My wife will be happy that I’ll be home during snowstorms," he said. "And she won’t miss the 3 a.m. phone calls."

He won’t need to go far to visit family – his mother Dorothy and sister Patricia Dube and her husband James all live in Middleton, while daughter Nicole Ferreira lives in Peabody with grandchildren Timothy and Christian, and sister Diana lives in Kittery, Maine. You may, however, catch him visiting his brother Joe at the Yankee Smokehouse in Ossipee, N.H. after a relaxing day at his nearby camp.

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Region needs affordable energy

By Carl Gustin, Boston Herald, 1/16/2016

As You Were Saying

Kumi Naidoo, then executive director of Greenpeace, said following the international climate change deal in Paris last month, "We will push our beautifully simple solution to climate change – 100 percent renewable energy for all ­– and make sure it is heard and embraced."

His statement, beautiful in its simplicity, might be viewed as stunning in its naivete and even dangerous in its consequences. Greenpeace is not the only environmental organization that believes abandoning fossil fuels is necessary to save future generations from a worldwide environmental catastrophe

For many of them, the collapse of energy prices resulting from abundant U.S. supplies of gas and oil, is an unwelcome development. Looked at another way, however, this new abundance "can not only help restore U.S. competitiveness, but can also create geo-political advantages for America ... while substantially mitigating local environmental impacts and speeding up the transition to a cleaner future that is both practical and affordable."

That’s the conclusion reached by Michael Porter and a team from the Harvard Business School and the Boston Consulting Group in a report last year on "America’s Unconventional Energy Opportunity." It outlines an all-resource strategy built around America’s unconventional but abundant oil and natural gas resources.

It is consistent with findings in a report prepared last year for the New England Coalition for Affordable Energy by a team headed by Daymark Energy Advisors in Boston that found a mix of new natural gas pipelines, wind energy and electric transmission lines could mitigate or eliminate $5.4 billion in higher prices New England consumers and businesses will have to pay if no new energy infrastructure is built in the region by 2020.

Unfortunately, virtually all infrastructure projects in New England, from pipelines to transmission lines and even wind projects, face strong opposition.

Energy transitions do not happen quickly and can be heavily influenced by unforeseen events. President Jimmy Carter came to office in 1977 and his administration immediately began to tackle energy as a top priority. Three months after taking office, Carter set our national energy goals, one of which was to have "solar energy in more than 2.5 millions homes by 1985." By 2013, 36 years after the Carter goal was announced, there were just 400,000 homes powered by solar.

This is not to suggest that solar and renewables should not, or cannot, play a major role in meeting future energy needs, only that abundant supplies of domestic natural gas and oil – supplies not anticipated during the Carter years – will continue to power the U.S. economy for the foreseeable future.

For New England businesses and consumers, a reliable 24/7 supply of affordable energy is vital. Intermittent renewable resources will not meet that requirement without the support of a robust energy infrastructure to move electricity and the fuels that produce it.

Balancing and integrating fossil fuel use with renewable resources is a good thing, not just for businesses and consumers economically, but for the environment as well.

An important step in that direction is to make sure New England has the energy infrastructure to keep prices affordable and supplies reliable. That means removing physical and regulatory constraints that limit delivery of low-cost natural gas from the west, hydropower from Canada, and wind energy from remote areas of New England.

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Carl Gustin served in the Carter Administration Energy Department. He is a retired utility executive and adviser to the New England Coalition for Affordable Energy.

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Bill Bottiggi, General Manager of Braintree Electric Light Department, testified before the subcommittee on behalf of NEPPA in support of the bill. He described the recent experience, in New England’s forward capacity market auction, that escaped review due to a deadlock.  Despite allegations of manipulation in the capacity auction, a four-member FERC was split on whether the resulting rate – in which capacity costs tripled to $3 billion for the region – was "just and reasonable" under the Federal Power Act. More broadly, Bottiggi expressed concerns about mandatory capacity markets in general and advocated for public power to be able to self-supply capacity.
 
Subcommittee Chair Ed Whitfield (R-KY) asked about the manipulation allegations, then focused on why the eastern RTOs felt it was necessary to implement mandatory capacity markets while other regions of the country have not. Bottiggi explained that long-term contracts drive new construction outside mandatory capacity markets, as opposed to short-term price signals from the capacity market – a key flaw in the design of these so-called markets. When asked whether mandatory capacity markets were necessary to ensure reliability (as the RTO has claimed), Bottiggi said, "Utilities have been around since the 1800s. The capacity market has been in effect since 2007.  I don’t think the huge windfalls to generators are necessary."
 
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced a companion bill, S. 2494, immediately following the hearing.
 
On Feb. 25, the House Energy and Commerce Committee reported H.R. 2984 by voice vote.  In addition to NEPPA, both APPA and NRECA supported the legislation. The bill now moves to the House floor, as part of a suite of non-controversial energy bills that could see action in March.  Committee staff have indicated those measures could be included in a conference version of the energy bill if the Senate approves a bill.

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Prior to the impasse, Senators from both sides of the aisle filed roughly 325 amendments, 38 of which were voted on, and 30 of which were adopted. Key amendments include a measure to support research and development of advanced nuclear technologies, offered by Sen. Crapo (R-ID) (approved by a vote of 87-4); Grid modernization efforts to be coordinated with energy storage, offered by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) (approved by a voice vote); and a prize for creating a technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and permanently capture it, offered by Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) (approved by a voice vote).  Among the amendments not adopted was one to establish a national energy efficiency standard (which APPA and the electric sector opposed), offered by Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), which failed by a vote of 43-52.

On Feb. 24, Senators announced a deal to send $100 million in drinking water funds to the city of Flint, Michigan, paving the way for S. 2012, the Senate’s "Energy Policy Modernization Act," to return to the floor as early as next week. However, by the following day, Senators had begun placing "holds" on the aid, reflecting concerns with both the funding and the energy bill.

Expecting to move to the energy bill, Senate Leaders are proposing to adopt by voice vote an en bloc package of 30 amendments that have bipartisan support, then proceed to consideration of another eight amendments – all of which would need 60 votes to pass – before voting on final passage. Additional amendments could get votes to appease Senators who have placed holds on the bill.

The King/Reid Amendment is among the filed amendments that are not currently included in the list of amendments to be considered.  King/Reid would preempt state and local retail ratemaking decisions related to net-metering and distributed energy resources (DER).  APPA, NRECA, NARUC and EEI all strongly oppose the amendment as a sweeping federal preemption of state and local decision making.

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Of note, the budget request included a significant boost in cybersecurity funding – a total of more than $19 billion. The funds would be used, in part, to implement a new Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP), outlined in a White House release issued the same day.

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Shortly after issuing the ruling, on Feb. 13, conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia was found dead at a West Texas hunting resort. Scalia’s passing has policy and political ramifications that are difficult to overstate.  If a successor is not confirmed and the court reaches a 4-4 tie on a matter, the lower court’s ruling would stand, or the justices could rehear the case when a ninth jurist is empanelled.
 
Meanwhile, the case is progressing in the lower court. Litigants filed opening briefs with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals this week, and 34 Senators and 171 Republican Members of Congress filed an amicus curiae brief saying that Congress never intended to vest the EPA with authority to promulgate such a sweeping rule.

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Participants include the governors of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

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