Happy Friday! The EnerKnol Week Ahead brings you another handpicked list of energy policy events and deadlines, made possible by the EnerKnol Platform. Today we feature EPA's fuel efficiency rollback, EDF's feud with the ISOs and Avangrid's winning project, the Clean Energy Connect. We welcome your feedback at research@enerknol.com.
California ISO
D.C. Circuit
EPA
FERC
Maine PUC
Minnesota PUC
New Hampshire PUC
New Jersey BPU
New York PSC
The Environmental Protection Agency will unveil revisions to its greenhouse gas emissions standards for model-year 2022-2025 cars and light trucks, which are widely expected to weaken the rules. EPA is also mulling changes to the greenhouse gas standards established for model year 2021. (EPA-HQ-OAR-2015-0827)
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will meet with stakeholders to discuss the regional system operators’ programs for connecting new generators to the grid, including the assignment of transmission upgrades costs and the process for studying system impacts. The meetings follow a complaint by EDF Renewable Energy Inc. arguing that grid interconnections are too slow and disorganized, causing delays and the abandonment of proposed projects. EDF Renewables is a subsidiary of Électricité de France SA. (AD18-8, et al)
A federal appeals court will consider whether the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was correct to approve a shift in the costs of maintaining the operation of power plants that were slated for retirement but needed to ensure system reliability, to Michigan customers from ratepayers in Wisconsin. Michigan utilities said the agency exceeded its authority. (Case No. 15-1098, et al.)
The New York State Public Service Commission will expand its distributed energy resources compensation program to accept renewable projects with up to five megawatts of generating capacity, up from the previous limit of two megawatts. The compensation method was created to transition beyond net metering to value customer-sited generation in a more granular manner. (15-E-0751)
The New York State Public Service Commission is due to receive projects, programs, and investment plans from utilities to support the expanded use of electric vehicles. Under the state’s Charge NY program, Governor Andrew Cuomo set a goal to deploy 10,000 charging stations by 2021. (16-M-0411)
The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission ordered utilities to submit plans to revise electric rates to reflect the new federal tax law, which lowered the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. New Hampshire is one of dozens of states seeking to ensure customers reap the savings from the reforms. (DE 18-044)
Staff with the New York ISO and PJM Interconnection LLC will discuss the state of reliability for the regions.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission will discuss Avangrid Networks Inc.’s $1-billion New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line, a project designed to import up to 1,200-megawatts of supplies of Canadian hydropower into the Northeast. The project emerged as the sole winner of a long-term contract with Massachusetts to supply renewable electricity to meet the state’s energy goals after the rival Northern Pass power line failed to secure state construction permits. Avangrid is owned by Iberdrola SA. (2017-00232)
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities will review utilities’ response to winter storms Quinn and Riley at the direction of Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, as thousands of residents remained without power, some for more than ten days. The board will examine whether utilities followed the more than 100 protocols that were implemented after devastating storms struck the state in 2011 and 2012.
The California Independent System Operator Corp. will fully connect Idaho Power Company to the western energy imbalance market. The automated system balances electricity supply and demand to find the least-cost supplies to serve real-time demand and is projected to reap up to $5 million in annual customer savings. Idaho Power is a subsidiary of IDACORP Inc. (ER15-861)
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission is due to receive comments on the adequacy of a revised environmental assessment of Enbridge Energy LP’s Line 3 replacement project. The approximately $7-billion line, the largest project in Enbridge history, will replace 1,031 miles of pipeline between Hardisty, Alberta, and Superior, Wisconsin. The project is slated to go into service in 2019, according to the company website. (14-916)
