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Utility Dive: Moody’s warns of potential power price volatility from renewables oversupply

Posted by Diana DiGangi on Sep 14, 2023

Utility Dive  examines a recently published Moody’s analysis on the link between unsteady energy prices and the influx of renewable energy sources to the market, featuring United’s  Ryan Katofsky  explaining how the U.S. power sector can leverage demand flexibility and battery storage technologies and services to stabilize this transition.
 

Reliability costs associated with backstopping renewables could rise to $435 billion a year around the world by 2030, the company said in a report released Wednesday.

As utilities increase the amount of renewable energy in their fuel supply mixes, the associated need for an increase in resource buffers could lead to oversupply that would increase power price volatility and grid reliability costs, said Moody’s Investors Service in a Wednesday report.

“Because wind and solar power generation depends on weather conditions and is thus not dispatchable, load-serving utilities will likely build in a cushion of supply to enhance reliability and compensate for resource volatility,” the report says.
 
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Topics: Wholesale Markets, United In The News, Ryan Katofsky

The Weather Channel: Extreme Heat and Grid Demand in Texas

Posted by Jordan Steele & Felicia Combs on Sep 12, 2023

In a video interview with The Pattrn Show on The Weather Channel, Matthew Boms of Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance - Advanced Energy United's Texas state chapter - emphasizes that wind, solar, and storage have played a pivotal role in ensuring Texans have reliable power this summer, consistently contributing over 30-40% of the state's total generation. Spotlighting Texas as a leader in advanced energy generation, Boms underlines that renewable energy technologies are mature, cost-effective, scalable, and critical for Texas’ energy future.

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Topics: United In The News, Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance, Texas, Matthew Boms

CommonWealth Magazine: Three steps for turning the power grid around

Posted by Jeremy McDiarmid and Kat Burnham on Aug 22, 2023

In an opinion piece to CommonWealth Magazine, Advanced Energy United’s Jeremy McDiarmid and Kat Burnham stressed the importance of a robust and resilient grid, highlighting the role New England governors have in building on state commitments to clean energy goals by taking a regional, holistic approach to developing the grid.

The utter devastation of summer flooding in New England and New York and the Canadian wildfire smoke that shrouded the Northeast in an orange haze in June shouts an inescapable truth louder than any voice: Climate change knows no geographic boundaries. Like it or not, the climate crisis is a global and regional issue. We’re in it together, and we’ll have to get out of it together.

Most New England states are committed to making progress on climate action, but states won’t meet their goals without a holistic approach. We need a drastic cut in carbon emissions and no amount of solar, wind, or electric vehicles will get us there without a robust, resilient, and dynamic grid across our states. Getting to 100 percent clean energy requires regional solutions, and New England governors should take the opportunity to show how it’s done.

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Topics: United In The News, Transmission, New England

The Hill: One year on, Inflation Reduction Act is bolstering renewables. But Biden’s climate goals remain elusive

Posted by Rachel Frazin on Aug 17, 2023

The Hill provides a comprehensive analysis of the successes and shortcomings of the Inflation Reduction Act one year after the legislation passed, quoting Advanced Energy United's President & CEO Heather O'Neill on the Congressional steps needed to maximize the full potential of the policy.

One year after its adoption, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has resulted in significant strides in the adoption of renewable energy — but the U.S. still has work to do in order to reach President Biden’s climate goals. 

New analyses demonstrate significant growth in the renewables sector as a result of the law, the most significant climate legislation in the country’s history. They also say, however, that the U.S. is not quite on track to meet its climate objectives.

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Topics: United In The News, Heather O'Neill

NPR: A year in, landmark U.S. climate policy drives energy transition but hurdles remain

Posted by Rachel Waldholz on Aug 16, 2023

NPR reflects on the first anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, quoting Advanced Energy United's President & CEO Heather O'Neill on how the landmark legislation and related policy reforms are driving the transition to 100% clean energy.

A year ago, Sonia Aggarwal watched from home as the votes came in on the U.S. Senate floor. Aggarwal was working as a White House aide, advising the Biden administration on climate policy. She'd been up all night, listening as senators debated legislation she and many others had spent more than a year trying to pass.

With that vote, the country's most significant climate legislation made it through the U.S. Senate, a body that had stymied previous efforts for decades. The bill went on to clear the U.S. House, and made its way to President Biden for his signature on Aug. 16, 2022.

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Topics: Federal Policy, United In The News, Heather O'Neill

Canary Media: FERC takes a big step to get more clean energy on the US grid

Posted by Jeff St. John on Jul 31, 2023

Canary Media examines the newest approval of reforms by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to improve the efficiency of interconnection projects, quoting Caitlin Marquis on the anticipated positive and negative impacts of the commission's ruling.

The U.S. has far more clean energy projects seeking to connect to the grid than utilities and grid operators can handle. It’s a crisis that has been decades in the making, but one that must be resolved in the next few years if the country is to meet its climate goals.

Last Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a sweeping set of reforms to address one facet of that crisis: the need to streamline and modernize the rules and processes that govern how power projects interconnect to the nation’s transmission grids.

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Topics: United In The News, Caitlin Marquis, FERC

Richmond Times-Dispatch (Letters): Dominion over-reliant on fossil fuels

Posted by Kim Jemaine on Jul 27, 2023

Richmond Times-Dispatch published a letter to the editor submitted by Kim Jemaine in which she highlights Virginia's Dominion Energy's most recent Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) and advocates for more implementation of clean energy technologies rather than their suggested use of more nuclear reactors.

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Topics: Virginia, United In The News, Kim Jemaine

Las Vegas Review-Journal: NV Energy wants $1.8B to replace Nevada’s last coal plant

Posted by Sean Hemmersmeier on Jul 19, 2023

Las Vegas Review-Journal reports on NV Energy's plans to shut down Nevada's last coal plant by 2025, quoting Sarah Steinberg criticism of the utility's proposal to replace the plant's energy source with natural gas.

NV Energy is committing to shutting down its last coal plant by 2025, the utility announced Wednesday, and will spend nearly $2 billion to do it.

The news comes after questions were raised early this year on whether the state’s largest public utility was going to be able to shut down its coal operations on schedule.

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Topics: United In The News, Sarah Steinberg, Nevada

RTO Insider: Regulators Propose New Independent Western RTO

Posted by Hudson Sangree & Robert Mullin on Jul 14, 2023

RTO Insider examines the possibility of a Western RTO, citing Advanced Energy United's support for this region's hopes to develop a west-wide wholesale market.

PORTLAND, Ore. — The competition for organized markets in the West grew Friday as the Bonneville Power Administration launched a process to choose between day-ahead markets proposed by CAISO and SPP and regulators from five Western states urged the establishment of a new, independent RTO covering the entire West.

“This group proposes the creation of an entity that could serve as a means for delivering a market that includes all states in the Western Interconnection, including California, with independent governance,” regulators from Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington wrote to the chairs of the Western Interstate Energy Board (WIEB) and the Committee on Regional Electric Power Cooperation (CREPC).

The entity “could provide a full range of regional transmission operator services, utilizing a contract for services” with CAISO including eventual “assumption” of CAISO’s proposed Extended Day Ahead Market (EDAM) and its real-time Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM).

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Topics: United In The News, New Mexico, Western RTO, California, Arizona

Spectrum News 13: Texas, California, Missouri among states receiving $207M to modernize power grid

Posted by Reena Diamante on Jul 13, 2023

Spectrum News 13 reports on a hefty federal grant that will be dispersed across nine states and three tribal nations to improve grid resiliency, quoting Matthew Boms' hopes that this be a catalyst for more forward-thinking plans toward advanced clean energy technologies in Texas.

The triple-digit heat baking Texas is pushing demand for electricity to record levels, and to keep the power flowing during extreme weather, the Biden administration is providing tens of millions of dollars to the state — part of a $207 million total grant across nine states and three tribal nations — to improve the resiliency of the state’s beleaguered electric grid.

Operators of the Texas power grid say there is enough capacity to meet the expected demand for electricity during the brutal heat wave that's currently sweeping across the southern half of the United States. But the devastating power outages that struck during the 2021 winter storm, which caused a state-reported 246 deaths, continue to raise questions about the grid’s ability to withstand extreme weather.

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Topics: United In The News, Texas, Matthew Boms