The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities cleared National Grid Plc, Eversource Energy, and Unitil Corp. to enter into a combined ten contracts to buy renewable energy and credits from nine solar projects and one wind project, totalling about 370-megawatts of capacity, over 20 years, according to a June 15 order. The projects are expected to start in 2019 or 2020. The state’s distribution companies are required to solicit long-term contracts for supplies of renewable energy under the state’s Green Communities Act. The project developers are Deepwater Wind LLC, Ameresco Inc., NextEra Energy Resources LLC, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc.; EverPower Wind Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Trireme Energy Holdings Inc.; RES America Developments Inc., a subsidiary of Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc; and Enel Green Power North America Inc., a subsidiary of Enel Green Power SpA.

Georgia Power Company announced a solicitation to procure 100 megawatts of distributed solar generation as part of its integrated resource plan, according to a June 21 filing with the Georgia Public Service Commission. The company is seeking contracts for 15 years to 35 years for projects with capacity of between 1 megawatt and 3 megawatts with a completion date in 2019. The company said that the price of the solar output and interconnection costs are not to exceed the avoided cost, which is the cost that would be incurred to produce the generation. Georgia Power is a subsidiary of Southern Company.

The New York State Assembly approved legislation on June 19 that would keep net metering in effect through 2021 until a new pricing structure is established to replace the controversial “value stack” pricing structure that was adopted last year. The bill would require the Public Service Commission to craft a new pricing mechanism that accounts for a broad array of benefits from distributed generation including grid security and resilience, emission reductions, and lower risk of fuel price volatility. That compensation scheme would supplant the value stack pricing method, which seeks to pay distributed generation in a more granular manner and which has drawn the opposition from solar advocates over the lack of long-term certainty for solar rates. (A 10474)

Governor Christopher Sununu announced he rejected legislation to expand the size of customer-sited renewable projects eligible to collect payments for power exported to the grid, and another measure to boost incentives for the state’s six biomass plants. Sununu, a Republican, said June 19 that the bills combined would cost New Hampshire ratepayers $100 million over the next three years, adding to the state’s energy costs, which rank among the highest in the nation. (SB 446, SB 365)

The Energy Department issued a final report on the recovery of Puerto Rico’s hobbled power sector. The department recommended that the Puerto Rico Energy Commission work with Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to put in place rules for microgrids to ensure they are designed to support the reliability and resilience of the broader electricity system. The report found that regulators should conduct a study to determine the potential applicability and optimal locations of the systems, with consideration of remote mountainous areas that had lagging recovery efforts. The agency supported a push for a more diverse energy system, away from the largely fossil fuel one in place, to lower costs for consumers and to capitalize on the shorter lead times for adding solar power and using energy efficiency. Hurricane Maria battered Puerto Rico in September 2017, becoming the second strongest storm on record to hit the island. The category 4 storm destroyed most of Puerto Rico’s power system, causing between $65 billion and $115 billion of damage, leading regulators and lawmakers to push for a more resilient electric system.

New Jersey state Assembly member Nancy Pinkin, a Democrat, introduced legislation on June 18 that would exempt properties with a commercial renewable energy system from property taxation and provide a uniform assessment. The bill would limit the municipal fee for non-commercial systems to the cost of review and construction permit issuance. (A 4193)

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found that New Jersey-based Footprint Power LLC violated market rules and should pay fines and disgorge profits after making false and misleading power supply commitments in the summer of 2013 for its natural gas-fired Salem Harbor Power Plant in Salem, Massachusetts. Footprint Power submitted supply offers in ISO New England’s capacity market that the plant couldn’t meet as a lack of fuel had lowered the generator’s output, and it failed to inform the grid operator of the plant’s operational status, according to the Office of Enforcement’s June 18 notice. Footprint has 30 days to respond to the show cause notice.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approved a settlement imposing a civil penalty of $30,000 on American Power & Gas of Pennsylvania LLC, a licensed electric generation supplier, for engaging in deceptive marketing practices in 2015, according to the commission’s June 14 press release. The settlement stems from an inquiry by the commission’s investigation and enforcement bureau over allegations that the company used misleading business tactics. The company is required to revise its marketing practices and sales training programs. Retail choice has come under greater scrutiny in recent years by regulators from New York to Massachusetts amid rising customer complaints over unfair sales practices.

FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. criticized the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for failing to take action to address the consequences of losing fuel-secure generation, renewing its request for interim relief to preserve its nuclear and coal-fired generators. FirstEnergy said that the New England grid operator’s recent request for waivers to seek an out‐of‐market contract to retain certain generation units comes as the commission has failed to take steps to ensure adequate compensation for generation. The company said that such measures to keep uneconomic generators operational for fuel security purposes serve as “Band Aids” and not permanent solutions to the risks posed by premature retirements. FirstEnergy warned that such waivers will start flooding in absent swift action by the commission. The company asked FERC to reject the notion that preserving these plants for resilience will “blow-up” the regional wholesale markets, arguing that the original market mechanisms designed for competitive outcomes have already been “trampled by interventions.

Vote Solar and the Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy asked the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission to reject Southwestern Public Service Company’s distributed solar rider, called “Rate 59.” The groups argue that it unlawfully recovers costs that are unrelated to interconnection of distributed generation facilities and has caused a 37 percent fall in the economic benefits of solar, according to a June 14 filing. The clean energy advocates said that the rider was meant to recover costs of ancillary and standby services from interconnecting distributed generation to a utility system and the only category that might fall under the rider is voltage support. They argued that the company has been collecting fixed costs such as direct costs of production plants, transmission and distribution system, regulatory expenses, and bad debt on customer accounts, under the “rubric of standby services.” Southwestern Public Service is a subsidiary of Xcel Energy Inc.

CXA La Paloma LLC on June 20 filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission arguing that the California Independent System Operator Corporation’s continued dependence on “stopgap mechanisms” for resource adequacy has led to insufficient revenues and has caused new and efficient generators to go bankrupt or exit the market. The petitioner said there is an increasing need for flexible resources to smooth the variable output of renewables, but their growing entry at subsidized rates is lowering prices, causing premature exits while prompting the need for short-term, out-of-market procurements to retain existing resources. The petitioner asked the commission to order a transparent centralized resource adequacy process with flexibility requirements to ensure price signals for efficient entry and exit. CXA La Paloma owns the 1,124-megawatt natural gas-fired La Paloma generating facility in California.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission announced the unanimous approval of a settlement calling for Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. to extend a one-time rate cut of $18.70 in July followed by subsequent reductions averaging $4.40 to account for savings by the utility accrued under the Trump administration’s landmark tax reform. The rate cuts, the largest by an Oklahoma utility, come just when power prices typically reach their highest as sweltering heat ramps up demand for electricity to run air conditioning. The Trump administration slashed the corporate income rate to 21 percent from 35 percent under the federal tax overhaul passed into law in late 2017. Oklahoma Gas & Electric is a unit of OGE Energy Corp.

New York electric utilities proposed a joint tariff providing four options to compensate projects pairing clean energy and storage to ensure that the “value stack” pricing components are available only when it is clear that energy exported to the distribution system originates from the eligible generating equipment, according to a June 19 filing with the New York Public Service Commission. Last March, the commission adopted the pricing mechanism to provide a more granular compensation method that takes into account locational and environmental benefits that were previously not quantified. The commission sought to compensate storage paired resources in a way that avoids inappropriate compensation for “non-green energy” that may be stored and discharged, and prevents uneconomic arbitrage while reflecting actual storage value. The utilities said that the first two options would require the system to exclusively charge from the generating equipment or precluding discharges when exports occur. The third and fourth options offer a metering solution when exports are not exclusively from the generating equipment, by subtracting the discharge from exports or reverting to monthly netting to compute the credits. The utilities are Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation, Consolidated Edison Company of New York Inc., New York State Electric & Gas Corporation, National Grid, Orange and Rockland Utilities Inc., and Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation.

Central Maine Power Company and Emera Maine unveiled a proposal to spur investments in the power grid that are aimed at deferring or replacing transmission projects, known as non-wires alternatives, as part of the state’s drive to modernize the electric system. The utilities said that spending on non-wire projects should be recoverable through rates, similar to traditional transmission and distribution investments. They also called for the adoption of a revenue decoupling mechanism similar to one used by Central Main Power in order to eliminate revenues losses that may arise from the deployment of distributed energy generation. Under the Smart Grid Policy Act of 2009, Maine set a goal to drive investments in advanced technologies, such as energy efficiency, demand response and electric storage, to improve the reliability and performance of the electric system, cut costs for consumers and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Central Maine Power Company is a unit of Avangrid Networks Inc., which is owned by Iberdrola SA. Emera Maine is a subsidiary of Emera Inc.

Canadian regulators should block Manitoba Hydro’s C$350-million Manitoba-Minnesota Transmission Project because supplies of the emission-free power would be put to better use helping the province meet ambitious greenhouse cuts, expand renewable generation, and support the deployment of electric vehicles, according to a June 19 filing of the Council of Canadians Winnipeg Chapter with the National Electric Board. The council called on regulators to perform a study comparing the benefits of domestic electrification to serve climate targets versus exporting the power. The 500-kilovolt AC transmission line will span 130 miles, extending from the northwest of Winnipeg to the Manitoba-Minnesota border, where it will connect with the Great Northern Transmission Line to be built by Minnesota Power, a unit of ALLETE Inc. The project is scheduled to start in 2020, according to the company website.

U.S. electric utilities spent an average of $24 per customer on energy efficiency incentives in 2016 ranging from $0 in Alaska to $128 in Massachusetts, according to a June 20 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The agency said that 43 percent of the spending went to residential customers, 49 percent to commercial customers, and the remainder to industrial customers. Energy efficiency spending led to incremental savings of 27.5 billion kilowatt hours for 2016 or 0.7 percent of nationwide retail electricity sales. The agency projects savings of 354 billion kilowatt hours over the lifetime of the efficiency measures as some measures can yield benefits for many years.

The U.S. Energy Department awarded $64 million to 89 projects for nuclear energy research across the national laboratories, industry, and universities, according to a June 18 press release. The awards provide funding under three programs – Nuclear Energy Universities Program, Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies, and Nuclear Science User Facilities. The projects include development of innovative technologies for civil nuclear capabilities, upgrades to university research reactors, crosscutting technologies for multiple reactor and fuel applications, and infrastructure development. The Trump administration has taken unconventional approaches to raise the fortunes of the nuclear energy sector, an industry reeling from low power prices and weak electricity demand. Unplanned reactor retirements are projected to cut total U.S. nuclear generating capacity to 79 gigawatts by 2050 from 99 gigawatts in 2017, according to a May 8 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The Alabama Public Service Commission ruled that electric vehicle charging stations are not subject to the agency’s regulations, in a win for industry advocates who feared state oversight would chill investments and growth. The commission’s June 22 order sided with the state’s attorney general and other stakeholders who argued that electric vehicle chargers fall well short of utility status under Alabama law, as they provide only limited service to a select group of people. The commission said that exempting chargers from its jurisdiction – an approach seen as favorable to the expanded deployment of the vehicles – aligns with its long-time support of policies that drive economic growth. The commission called on the state’s main utility Alabama Power Company to pursue pricing policies that promote increased system use during off-peak periods and that aid in the creation of a competitive charging market. Alabama Power is a unit of Southern Company.

The New York Public Service Commission approved a plan by Consolidated Edison Company to electrify New York school buses and use the vehicles as energy storage batteries to help meet swings in power demand on the grid. The agency said that the demonstration project will help the utility gain experience in managing distribution-level resources, which will be critical as the state transitions to a de-centralized grid under its landmark Reforming the Energy Vision program. Con Ed’s Electric School Bus V2G project will operate five buses from the White Plains public school district when classes are in session. During the summer, when not used for transport, the buses will stay connected to the grid, ready to dispatch power supplies when demand for electricity spikes, a service known as peak shaving. The 8,000-odd school buses operating in Westchester County and New York City, if electrified, could provide about 450 megawatt-hours of energy storage, helping to lower peak demand on the system by as much as 112-megawatts, according to Con Edison.

The spread of autonomous vehicles is projected to bump up the overall use of light-duty vehicles and in turn the miles driven by light-duty cars by 14 percent to 3.8 trillion miles by 2050, according to a June 18 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The forecast assumes that autonomous vehicles as a share of overall light-duty vehicle sales jump to 31 percent in 2050, from 1 percent in a reference case. Autonomous vehicles are one of the main sources of uncertainty for the transportation sector, according to the report, as their adoption has the potential to change travel behavior, vehicle design, energy efficiency, and vehicle ownership. Light-duty vehicles alone make up 21 percent of U.S. end-use energy.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on June 19 revoking rules passed by the Obama administration in 2010 that were intended to avert catastrophic oil spills like the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The directive also sets an ocean policy that calls for federal agencies to coordinate over activities that reap the economic, security, and environmental benefits of the ocean, coasts, and Great Lakes. The order seeks to promote ocean industries, advance ocean science and technology, and enhance the nation’s energy security, stressing that energy production from federal waters reduces dependence on foreign imports.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission voted 3-2 to allow Sunoco Pipeline LP to resume operations of the Mariner East 1 Pipeline. The ruling follows a finding by the commission that the company has taken all necessary measures to address the risks tied to the occurrence of sinkholes and that the project no longer poses a danger to life and property, according to a June 14 press release. The commission, however, maintained a halt on the construction of the Mariner East 2 and Mariner East 2X pipelines until it clears the Environment Department’s permitting process. State Senator Andy Dinniman filed a complaint in April, leading to an interim emergency order halting all three pipelines. Construction on Mariner East 2, which will boost total takeaway capacity to 345 thousand barrels per day, is scheduled to be finished in 2019. Sunoco is unit of Energy Transfer Partners LP.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on June 19 ruled that the U.S. Interior Department doesn’t need to update a 1970’s-era environmental review of the federal coal program, handing a victory to the Trump administration’s bid to expand domestic energy production. The court held that there is no pending or ongoing major federal action that necessitates such a revision under the National Environmental Protection Act, affirming the decision by a lower court in 2014. Petitioners argued that the department had an obligation to update its analysis of the program in light of the tens of thousands of scientific studies showing that coal combustion is the single greatest contributor to the growing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, making it a leading factor in rising global temperatures. In 2016, the Obama administration issued a pause on new federal coal leases pending a comprehensive review of the program, which President Donald Trump then reversed as part of his sweeping regulatory rollbacks. The case is Western Organization of Resource Councils and Friends of the Earth v. Ryan Zinke, in his capacity as Secretary of the Interior, et al. (15-5294)

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found that Venture Global LNG Inc.’s Calcasieu Pass liquefied natural gas plant would cause some adverse environmental impacts that could be mitigated to less-than-significant levels through recommended measures, according to a draft review by the agency on June 22. The Calcasieu Pass project, to be located in Cameron Parish, consists of nine liquefaction blocks with 1.41 billion cubic feet per day of capacity, or 12 million metric ton per year, and the $344-million TransCameron Pipeline Project, able to ship 1.9 million dekatherms per day of supplies, as well as a 720-megawatt natural gas-fired combined cycle gas generator. Venture Global expects the project to begin commercial operation in 2022.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced June 18 that it authorized Oklahoma to run a permit program for the disposal of coal ash, a toxic byproduct of coal-fired power plants, marking the first time that a state will have complete regulatory oversight of the waste management process. The EPA authorized the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality to process permit applications and enforce violations for new and existing coal-fired generators after finding that its program will be as protective as the federal regulatory one it’s replacing. The EPA said that allowing Oklahoma to set the rules in lieu of adopting EPA’s 2015 coal ash rule brings regulatory certainty, and empowers states, which are best positioned to regulate the industry. In April, the agency proposed changes to the rule to give states more flexibility and save the industry up to $100 million a year in compliance costs.