Energy News Network reports on the growing gap between Virginia and its neighbors in clean energy manufacturing, quoting United's Kim Jemaine on the unlikelihood that Governor Youngkin will be able to support Virginia in catching up to other states in the Southeast.
Topics: State Policy, Virginia, United In The News, Kim Jemaine
In an interview, WVTF Virginia Public Radio talks with Advanced Energy United Director Jon Gordon about PJM's low grade on United's 2024 Interconnection Scorecards.
Advanced Energy United... recently ranked all seven of the nation’s regional grid operators and gave the one serving Virginia a grade of D-minus. Policy Director Jon Gordon says PJM – which covers 13 states – used to add a few new power plants a year.
Topics: Virginia, United In The News, Transmission, Jon Gordon
H.B. 862, a bill to advance grid-enhancing technologies, passed out of the General Assembly on Thursday and now heads to the governor’s desk
RICHMOND, VA – A bill that will help Virginia’s electric transmission grid be more efficient and help keep the lights on passed the Virginia General Assembly on Thursday.
H.B. 862, proposed by Del. Phil Hernandez and endorsed by national business association Advanced Energy United, will improve grid reliability and increase the capacity of the existing grid to keep up with the Commonwealth’s growing energy needs. The bill requires that electric utilities in the state consider grid-enhancing technologies (GETs), a suite of technological upgrades that could add 30-40% more capacity to the current grid and save the Commonwealth money on grid congestion costs, in the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) process.
Topics: State Policy, Virginia, Press Releases, Kim Jemaine, Transmission
Voters Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a nearly $10 billion fund for gas generation in Texas, while handing Democrats victories in legislative elections in New Jersey and Virginia that have implications for energy policy there.
Texas’ Proposition 7 passed by a vote of 1,641,453-886,991, gathering nearly 65% of the votes. (See $10B Fund for Gas Plants on Texas Ballot.)
The proposition sets up the Texas Energy Fund (TEF), a $7.2 billion low-interest loan program intended for the development of up to 10 GW of natural gas plants. Some $5 billion will be set aside for 20-year, 3% interest loans to build new generation with at least 100 MW of fully dispatchable capacity. Power plants that come online before June 2029 are eligible for bonus payments.
Topics: State Policy, Virginia, United In The News, Texas, New Jersey
Virginia is on track to meet short-term carbon-free targets laid out in the sweeping Clean Economy Act of 2020.
And advocates agree that’s remarkable considering almost 44,000 megawatts of wind, solar and energy storage projects proposed across the state are still waiting in PJM’s interconnection queue.
Still, they question whether the region’s grid operator is prepared for the massive influx of clean energy mandated over the next three decades. That includes more than 5,000 MW of wind off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina.
Topics: Virginia, United In The News, Jon Gordon
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.
Topics: Virginia, United In The News, Kim Jemaine
RICHMOND, VA, June 7, 2023 – Today, Advanced Energy United, the national association of businesses working to achieve 100% clean energy and electrified transportation, expressed its disappointment in the Air Pollution Control Board’s decision to approve a regulatory repeal of Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (“RGGI”).
“This Initiative is working to reduce energy costs for Virginians, and withdrawing from it undermines the Commonwealth’s economy," said Kim Jemaine, Director at Advanced Energy United. “In the first two years of participation, RGGI generated $252 million for weatherization and energy efficiency projects, chiefly for low-income Virginians. RGGI has been particularly impactful for the over 200,000 low-income residents who pay a disproportionate amount of their income toward the cost of energy.”
Topics: Virginia, Press Releases, Kim Jemaine
Fauquier Times runs an article published by Virginia Mercury, quoting Kim Jemaine's perspective on Dominion Energy's decision to continue building power plants to meet the utility's energy needs in that area.
Topics: Virginia, United In The News, Kim Jemaine
New IRP not a “good faith decarbonization plan,” says national business group Advanced Energy United
[editor's note: this press release originally stated this was Dominion's first IRP since the VCEA was signed into law. It is Dominion's first IRP since the law went into effect.]
RICHMOND, VA, May 2, 2023 – This week, Dominion Energy Virginia filed its first Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) since the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), Virginia’s landmark energy law, went into effect in July of 2020. Today, Advanced Energy United, the business association that supported passage of the VCEA, criticized Dominion’s new approach for meeting the law’s requirements.
“We have seen this play from Dominion before. Its latest resource plan is yet another example of this utility picking a forecast that suits its business interests,” said Kim Jemaine, director at Advanced Energy United (formerly AEE). “Dominion chooses a questionable energy load forecast as justification for cherry-picking preferred technologies, preserving existing fossil-fuel facilities, and calling for new investment in gas fired resources. In our view, Dominion has not developed a good faith decarbonization plan that fully aligns with the Virginia Clean Economy Act, Virginia’s landmark energy law.”
Topics: State Policy, Virginia, Press Releases, Kim Jemaine
Energy News Network interviewed Kim Jemaine on Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's new energy plan. Read snippets below and the full article here.
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin caused a stir early this month when he released an Energy Plan that doesn’t mention climate change in its 35 pages, an about-face from the carbon emissions-cutting pillars initiated by his Democratic predecessor.
Topics: Virginia, United In The News, Kim Jemaine