Department of Energy Reports on New Transmission and Wind Curtailment

Posted on January 19, 2017 by Jeff Bayne

Last week, DOE released a report titled Reducing Wind Curtailment through Transmission Expansion in a Wind Vision Future.  This report follows up on a 2015 DOE Wind Vision study, which looked at the potential benefits of a scenario in which wind power provided more than a third of U.S. electricity consumption in 2050.  Last week’s report examined the feasibility of developing significantly more wind generation in the western U.S., emphasizing the impediments transmission constraints pose to such development.

Wind power currently makes up approximately 4.7% of total U.S. electricity production.  While technological advances have reduced the costs of deploying variable renewable resources (e.g., wind and solar), these resources still pose operational challenges for the grid because their generation is weather dependent.  As the DOE report explains, grid operators sometimes are unable to accommodate all of the available variable renewable generation because of transmission congestion or the inability to reduce output from other resources.  In such circumstances, variable renewable resources must be curtailed, even though they could provide additional generation at near-zero marginal cost.  Currently, curtailment of variable renewable energy is about 15.5%, but if there were no transmission constraints, curtailment would be just 0.5%.

In contrast to previous research, which used simplified models of system operations and transmission networks, DOE’s new report focuses on curtailment and ways to minimize it.  The report analyzes three transmission buildout scenarios: one with a small amount of additional transmission, one with a greater amount of new transmission, and one that also adds a hypothetical 3,000 MW line from high wind areas in the Rocky Mountains to highly populated areas in southern California.  The report concludes that a small amount of additional transmission would cut curtailment to about 7.8%, but that there are diminishing returns thereafter.  A line from the Rocky Mountains to southern California would further reduce congestion by 1.8%, although the report does not consider the costs of such a project or provide a cost-benefit analysis.

Ultimately, DOE’s analysis suggests that the power system in the Western U.S. can operate with more than 35% of power coming from wind and 12% from solar, but that high levels of transmission‑induced curtailments will make this difficult.  The solution addressed by DOE is the construction of new transmission facilities.  As the report states, even moderate amounts of additional transmission could reduce wind curtailment by half.  (By contrast, the retirement of coal generation is expected to have only a minimal impact on variable renewable resource curtailment.)

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EPA Denies Reconsideration of the Clean Power Plan

Posted on January 17, 2017 by Jessica Bell

On January 17, 2017, EPA’s denial of petitions for reconsideration of the Clean Power Plan was published in the Federal Register.  EPA posted the Basis for Denial of Petitions to Reconsider and Petitions to Stay the Clean Power Plan, with detailed responses to the petitions, as well as several appendices [link eliminated], on its website.  The Clean Air Act requires EPA to convene a proceeding for reconsideration for a rule if (1) it was impracticable to raise the objection during the comment period, and (2) the objection is of central relevance to the outcome of the rule.  EPA received 38 petitions for reconsideration of the final CPP.  EPA denied 31 of them in full, but is deferring action on issues related to biomass and waste‑to‑energy.  The petitions are available in EPA’s rulemaking docket.

In the same action, EPA denied the 22 petitions for an administrative stay of the CPP on the grounds that they were mooted by the Supreme Court’s stay of the rule.

Petitions for review of the denials must be filed in the D.C. Circuit by March 20, 2017.  It is not clear whether any petitions for review related to the denial of reconsideration would be consolidated with the ongoing CPP litigation.   

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Department of Energy Week in Review: Release of New Scientific Integrity Policy and Inaugural State of the Labs Report, PetraNova Becomes First Power-Related CCS Project in U.S. to Begin Commercial Operation, and Signing of U.S. and Mexico Bilateral Electric Reliability Principles

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Anjali Patel

It has been a busy week for DOE.  Yesterday, January 11, 2017, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced the release of DOE’s Scientific Integrity Policy and the corresponding implementation order.  Stating that “[t]he cornerstone of the scientific integrity policy at DOE is that all scientists, engineers, or others supported by DOE are free and encouraged to share their scientific findings and views,” the policy address the discussion and dissemination of both scientific work and research, and personal opinions on scientific and technical related policies.  The policy was developed in response to the President’s March 9, 2009, Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on Scientific Integrity.  It updates and expands the 2012 Secretarial Policy Statement on Scientific Integrity issued by then-Secretary Chu to include under covered personnel, all “federal staff, including the heads of departmental elements and heads of field elements, scientists and engineers at DOE laboratories and field sites, other contractors who support the R&D mission, and financial assistance recipients.”

Yesterday Secretary Moniz also announced the release of the first Annual Report on the State of the DOE National Laboratories.  The report—which is organized into six themes:  Recognizing Value, Rebuilding Trust, Maintaining Alignment and Quality, Maximizing Impact, Managing Effectiveness and Efficiency, and Ensuring Lasting Change—provides a history of the 17 National Labs and summarizes key activities and accomplishments of each lab.

On Monday, January 9, 2017, Petra Nova, a 240 MW post-combustion carbon capture facility in Fort Bend County, Texas, became the first electric power related CCS plant to begin commercial operations in the United States.  A joint project of NRG Energy, Inc. and JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp., Petra Nova is located on the site of WA Parish, an existing coal-fired power plant.  According to NRG’s news release, the plant is the world’s largest post-combustion carbon capture system and is designed to capture more than 90% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) from a 240 MW slipstream of flue gas, equivalent to more than 5,000 tons of CO2 per day.  The captured CO2 will be used to enhance oil production at an oilfield jointly owned by NRG, JX Nippon, and Hilcorp Energy Company.  The Petra Nova project received project management support from DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), and $190 million in cost-sharing grants as part of DOE’s Clean Coal Power Initiative Program (CCPI).

And last Saturday, January 7, 2017, Secretary Moniz, FERC Chairman Norman Bay, Mexico’s Secretary of Energy Pedro Joaquin Coldwell, Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) Chairman Guillermo Ignacio García Alcocer, and National Center for Energy Control (CENACE) Director Eduardo Meraz Ateca collectively signed “Principles to Promote the Reliability and Security of the Interconnected Power Systems of the United States of America and the United Mexican States,” a set of 11 non-binding bilateral principles to promote electric reliability of interconnected American and Mexican electricity grids (the Spanish version is available here).  The principles relate to the objectives and challenges for North American energy integration which are described in the second installment of DOE’s Quadrennial Energy Review (QER 1.2).

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As Administration Transitions, President Obama and Executive Agencies Recap Achievements

Posted on January 10, 2017 by Katherine O'Konski

On January 9, Science Magazine published an online editorial by President Obama entitled “The Irreversible Momentum of Clean Energy.”  In it, President Obama addresses the decoupling of economic growth from energy sector emissions, private sector initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, power sector markets in which gas prices are currently—and are projected to remain—cheaper than coal, and global momentum to reduce emissions.  President Obama opines that “the trend toward a cleaner power sector can be sustained regardless of near-term federal policies.”

This editorial follows last week’s release of the President’s letter to the American People which discusses his Administration’s achievements and presents a series of exit memoranda written by his Cabinet members, including the heads of EPA, DOE, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Commerce, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  In those memos, the agency heads present a summary of the agencies’ major actions over the last eight years, “their vision for the country’s future, and the work that remains in order to achieve that vision.”

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy’s exit memo discusses, among other things, steps that the agency has taken to regulate carbon dioxide and other air emissions from power plants—from issuing the agency’s greenhouse gas (GHG) endangerment finding in 2009 to promulgating the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for power plants and the Clean Power Plan.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz’s exit memo highlights DOE’s investments in clean energy research and development, in modernizing the electric power grid, and in wind, large-scale solar, advanced nuclear power, and carbon capture and storage technologies.  He also discusses the growth in clean energy sector jobs.  His vision for the future includes doubling investment in clean energy research and development, continuing to diversify America’s energy supplies, and investing in modernizing America’s energy infrastructure.

Exit memos from the Department of the Interior, the Department of Commerce, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy also address the outgoing administration’s energy-related initiatives.  Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell’s exit memo speaks to the Department’s approval of 60 commercial-scale renewable energy projects on public lands and development of an offshore wind leasing and permitting program.  Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker’s exit memo mentions Commerce’s community-focused Climate Resilience Toolkit, and discusses her belief that “[p]olicymakers can accelerate job growth by providing financial incentives for states to exceed clean energy goals, and by facilitating the creation of new projects, infrastructure, and industries to match regional energy needs and existing industrial ecosystems.”  And Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren’s exit memo mentions the Office’s efforts to advance climate science and information, its $90 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act investment in low carbon energy, and its efforts to address climate change’s impacts on national security.

The 28 Cabinet exit memos can be found here.

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DOE Releases Second Installment of Quadrennial Energy Review

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Jeff Bayne

After almost a year of stakeholder engagement, the DOE released the second installment of the Quadrennial Energy Review (QER 1.2).  While the first installment of the QER focused on modernizing the U.S.’s energy infrastructure, QER 1.2 addresses the interrelated issues of national security, environmental protection, and economic development.

The report explains that the electricity system plays a vital role in shaping the economy, the environment, and national security.  While technological advances and increased digitization of the electricity sector provide meaningful benefits, these developments also bring about new vulnerabilities.

QER 1.2 offers 76 wide-ranging recommendations on how to improve the U.S. electricity system while enhancing economic competitiveness, ensuring environmental responsibility, and providing for the nation’s security.  These include expanding federal programs that support state efforts to incorporate distributed energy resources and promoting clean energy research.  The report also recommends grants for small utilities to prepare for cyber, physical, and climate threats.

The QER was established by a Presidential Memorandum.  It is unclear whether it will continue under the new administration.

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