PUC to Staff Responses 60-64.tif

CLEARING UP • Dec. 17, 2024 • No. 2189
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‘Challenges Are Real’: Panel Discusses Potential Data Center Load Impacts
by Greg Mason
It’s difficult to forecast how much power the Northwest
will need to develop to meet demand from data centers into
the 2030s, Brian Janous, former vice president of energy at
Microsoft, said during a Dec. 11 panel discussion hosted by the
Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
“But what I can say right now is that there’s no question
in my mind that the demand for computation and [artificial
intelligence] and the demand to plug in [graphics processing
units] exceeds the available power we have by 2030,” Janous said.
Given how rapid load growth from AI and data centers
will factor into the NWPCC’s Ninth Power Plan, the Council
hosted the virtual panel to help broaden the group’s under-
standing of data center energy demand as well as the load
characteristics, including the potential for grid flexibility and
efficiency, NWPCC Chair Jeff Allen told Clearing Up in an
emailed statement.
The panel included Janous, who is now the co-founder
and chief operating officer of Cloverleaf Infrastructure, a
firm that develops ready-to-build sites for large-load users;
Sarah Smith, a research scientist for the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory who specializes in energy use modeling
across end-use, customer and industry-wide scales; and
Robert Cromwell, former vice president of power supply
Umatilla Electric Cooperative.
Cromwell framed the overall discussion against the
reliability issues across the region in January due to extreme
winter weather (Clearing Up No. 2150).
“In my mind, the entire energy ecosystem needs to respond
to that,” he said, citing hurdles with transmission constraints,
planning and hiring the skilled labor needed to build up any
infrastructure. “These challenges are real, but I also believe
they’re solvable. If we can coordinate and make a commitment
across both the regulatory and operational environments,
I think we can get there. But I do want to caution that there is
no single magic bullet.”
The Council’s Pacific Northwest Power Supply Adequacy
Assessment for 2029 forecasts the potential energy impact
from data center and chip fabrication loads in the Northwest
over the next five years, predicting anywhere from 1,800 aMW
to 6,500 aMW added by 2029.
The report’s base forecast of around 2,400 aMW by
2029 is probably too low, said Cromwell, who now serves
as a consultant focused on power supply, risk management,
regional energy markets and decarbonizing data center
power supplies.
Cromwell advised the Council to anticipate adding something
more in line with the report’s high-end scenario, which was
upwards of 3,900 aMW. But with transmission constraints
remaining an issue amid long lead times, Cromwell also
encouraged the Council to work with state leaders toward ways to
encourage streamlined infrastructure development processes.
Allen told Clearing Up that Council staff is working on an
updated load forecast. More information is expected in the spring.
“The risk of overforecasting and the load coming in below
that is vastly lower than underforecasting and having loads
come in that can’t be met,” Cromwell said.
As they seek potential sites for new large-scale facilities
across the country, tech companies are much more concerned
with scale, pathways toward sustainability and access to energy
as quickly as possible rather than factors like cost, market
structure or landing in a particular region like the Northwest.
And even as technology becomes more efficient, the need
for more energy will not be lessened, Janous added. It’s an
example of the Jevons paradox:
increased efficiency leading to
increased consumption.
“If they build a facility with
a certain capacity, they’re going
to fit in as much as they can and
they’re going to use all of that
power,” Smith said, “so you’re
not necessarily going to have a
change in the demand coming
from advancements in the way
that servers are operated.”
Grid flexibility with data
centers will be a topic of a
report the Berkeley Lab will
release by the end of the year
as required by statute, Smith
said. The Energy Act of 2020 tasked the U.S. Department of
Energy with updating a data center usage report prepared and
published by the LBNL in 2016.
Janous and Smith pointed to a Microsoft data center that
came on line in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Microsoft’s agreement
with Black Hills Energy allows the utility to use the data
center’s backup generators—which run on natural gas—as a
secondary resource for the grid.
“This is something data centers can do. They don’t do it
enough, and they’re not pushed by utilities and grid operators
to do it enough,” Janous said. “I think they should be because
there is a ton of potential behind data centers becoming more
flexible—not necessarily on the load and computation side, but
in terms of those behind the meter assets.”
SUPPLY & DEMAND
Aileen Devlin/Jefferson Lab/Flickr
Data center.
CLEARING UP • Dec. 17, 2024 • No. 2189
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PSE Inks MOU for Largest Stake in North Plains Connector
by Stephen Ernst
Puget Sound Energy and NorthWestern Energy have
signed nonbinding memos of understanding for stakes in
the proposed North Plains Connector transmission line that
would connect the Pacific Northwest with the Midcontinent
Independent System Operator and the Southwest Power Pool.
Puget Sound Energy would own the largest share of the
3,000-MW high-voltage direct-current transmission line,
taking 750 MW of capacity, the Bellevue, Washington-based
utility announced on Dec. 9.
NorthWestern Energy announced on Dec. 12 that it was in
for a 10-percent stake, or 300 MW of capacity, on the line that
would stretch 420 miles from near Bismarck, North Dakota to
Colstrip, Montana.
The line would establish the nation’s first HVDC
transmission connection among the three regional U.S. electric
energy markets—MISO, the Western Interconnection and
SPP— providing additional flexibility and resource-sharing
capability across multiple time zones.
The utilities join Avista Corp. and Portland General
Electric in claiming shares of the $3.2 billion project.
In November, Avista announced that it had signed an
MOU to potentially take a 10-percent ownership stake, giving
it 300 MW of transfer capacity on the proposed line.
Portland General Electric announced in May that it was in
talks with Grid United about taking a 20-percent ownership
stake in the project (Clearing Up No. 2160).
Grid United will continue to fund the development,
and the Northwest utilities will invest when project
regulatory approvals and permits are in place, PSE and
NorthWestern Energy said in separate news releases.
Josh Jacobs, vice president of clean energy strategy
and planning at PSE, said in a prepared statement that the
proposed project “will play an important role in enhancing the
reliability and resilience of the western grid.”
“It will be a critical link connecting PSE and its customers
to new markets that can provide needed resource diversity to
aid in the clean energy transition,” he said.
Brian Bird, president and CEO of NorthWestern Energy,
said his utility’s substation in Colstrip will serve “as a critical
endpoint for North Plains Connector, reinforcing Colstrip’s
position as an essential energy hub.”
“The North Plains Connector developer’s collaborative
approach with Montana communities to address concerns
and ensure the footprint reflects local priorities aligns with
NorthWestern Energy’s commitment to our customers,”
Bird said in a prepared statement.
The North Plains Connector will give Northwest utilities
access to nearly 30 GW of wind energy that’s generated in
MISO, which counts for about 20 percent of the energy
generated in the system operator’s territory. Natural gas
fired-generation and coal-fired power make up 29 and
30  percent of MISO’s fuel mix, with solar and nuclear
accounting for 5 percent and 13 percent, respectively.
“Interregional transmission facilitates a more resilient
grid by increasing the availability of diverse energy sources
to help serve demand for electricity during critical periods.
By investing in a bidirectional high-voltage direct-current
(HVDC) transmission line, PSE is supporting the development
of a more modern and efficient grid that can better integrate
renewable energy sources and help reduce greenhouse gas
emissions,” the utility said in a prepared statement.
In August, the project was awarded $700 million from
the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid
Resilience and Innovation Partnerships
Program. Avista, PSE, PGE and
NorthWestern Energy as part of a group
of eight utilities—the North Plains
Interregional Innovation Consortium—
supported the GRIP grant awarded to the
Montana Department of Commerce.
In October, the project entered the
National Environmental Policy Act process
for federal permitting. It is expected to be
operational in 2032.
Grid United and ALLETE are jointly
developing the North Plains Connector.
“PSE is committed to meeting the
rapidly growing energy needs of our
customers while also supporting the
region’s transition to a cleaner, more
sustainable energy future,” Jacobs said.
Courtesy: Grid United
Proposed route for the planned North Plains Connector transmission line.
CLEARING UP • Dec. 17, 2024 • No. 2189
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OPINION & PERSPECTIVES
Got Ideas for the F&W Program? Watch This NWPCC Session First
by K.C. Mehaffey
In January, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council
will invite the region to weigh in on how to amend its Fish and
Wildlife Program. This amendment process—which is required
under the Northwest Power Act—happens every five years.
During the Council’s Dec. 10 meeting, Patty O’Toole,
director of the NWPCC’s Fish and Wildlife Division, talked
about a draft of the letter that will go out in mid-January
calling for recommendations. State and federal agencies,
Native American tribes, nonprofit groups, regional scientists
and others will have three months to tell the Council how
this program—paid for by Bonneville Power Administration
ratepayers and designed to “protect, mitigate and enhance” fish
and wildlife impacted by the Columbia Basin hydro system—
could be improved.
Over the last six months, O’Toole and her staff have
updated Council members on the process. They’ve discussed
why it’s important, the legal requirements, and what to expect
once recommendations are made.
And over the last four years—since the 2020 addendum to
the Fish and Wildlife Program was adopted—Council staff has
worked on a much larger project to prepare for this moment.
That project was a concentrated effort to develop a way to track
the performance of the program.
A four-hour staff presentation to the Council on this effort
is well worth a listen, especially if you’re planning to make
recommendations on how to amend the F&W Program. If
you’re short on time, you can watch it at double speed and
then slow down when you get to your topics of interest.
The Council’s Program Tracker was developed to allow
you to see for yourself how the Fish and Wildlife Program has
performed, based on the goals and objectives outlined in this
dynamic document.
The Independent Scientific Advisory Board commended
the Council’s effort in a recent evaluation of the program. Two
of the Fish and Wildlife Program’s major accomplishments,
according to the ISAB, were the development of quantitative
objectives and an online tool that can be used to assess
progress toward meeting those objectives.
On Dec. 10, Kris Homel, the Council’s biologist for
program performance, and Kate Self, a Fish and Wildlife
Program scientist for the Council, explained this work and
provided examples of how the tracker can be used.
In an overview, Homel said the story of the Fish and
Wildlife Program can now be told through the program itself,
for which the Council developed a two-page retrospective;
through measures calling for actions to be taken through
the Council’s categorical assessments; and through goals and
objectives, which can now be assessed through the Program
Tracker. Links to each of these can be found on the Council’s
main Fish and Wildlife webpage.
Homel pointed out that there is no finish line that comes with
achieving the program’s goals and objectives. “These are condi-
tions that we want to continuously reach and maintain,” she said.
The tracker can be used to get a sense of where the
program appears to be succeeding, and where it needs
improvement.
It’s a tool the region has never had before. It’s well
organized, methodical, and relatively easy to use.
The assessment tool separates the program’s goals into five
categories: salmon and steelhead, other native aquatic species,
wildlife, ecology and habitat, and communication.
Each category includes a goal with a series of objectives,
which can then be assessed through specific performance
indicators. There are data gaps, but Council staff said they’re
working to fill in missing information.
For example, one of the Fish and Wildlife Program’s
objectives is to have all BPA-funded hatcheries meet hatchery
mitigation goals as described in each facility’s hatchery genetic
management plan (HGMP). This objective contributes to the
goal of having an average of 5 million salmon and steelhead
return to the Columbia Basin annually.
One of the performance indicators is that every
program-funded hatchery has a final HGMP and a reviewed
and approved master plan, along with specific objectives to
track its performance.
The Program Tracker just says that hatchery strategy perfor-
mance indicators are in development through a regional process.
It provides links to the program’s 2020 addendum; to a hatchery
Jason McKnight/Flickr
Bonneville Fish Hatchery.
CLEARING UP • Dec. 17, 2024 • No. 2189
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story map; and to a hatchery tracker that provides information
about each hatchery, but not whether hatcheries have final
HGMPs, master plans, and objectives tracking their performance.
Hatcheries are a complex topic, and there’s no easy way
to determine whether they’re meeting their own goals. It’s an
extremely important question if you care about recovering
wild salmon and steelhead because when too many hatchery
salmon or steelhead are allowed to spawn with wild fish, their
offspring are less fit to survive and come back to spawn again.
There’s clearly work to be done filling in the gaps.
But in general, the Council’s effort provides a way for
people commenting on what should be included in the next
Fish and Wildlife Program to more easily formulate their
thoughts and have the Council’s own information that can be
used to show their reasoning.
In areas where there is enough data, reviewing these goals
and using the Program Tracker to see how well they are being
met offers a clear and methodical way to participate in the next
Fish and Wildlife Program amendment process, regardless of
your perspective.
BPA ROD Supports Transmission RDC Being Used for Debt Reduction
by Stephen Ernst
The Bonneville Power Administration will apply the
$82.8 million from its Transmission reserves distribution
clause towards paying down debt, John Hairston, CEO and
administrator of BPA, confirmed in a record of decision
released Dec. 13.
The ROD closes the book on the debate over how to
disburse surplus revenues collected from BPA’s transmission
customers in fiscal year 2024. Several BPA transmission
customers argued that the money should go for immediate
rate credit because BPA has not provided an estimate of
incremental revenues associated with its planned transmission
upgrades that are a part of the agency’s Evolving Grid projects.
BPA’s Power Services division ended the year with net
revenues of negative $157 million, missing agency targets by
$257 million due to dry conditions, high market prices and
low water availability for power generation.
However, Transmission Services ended the year with
net revenues of $28 million, exceeding agency targets
by $32  million. Increased cost pressures were offset by
higher-than-expected operating revenues and lower expenses,
the agency said during its quarterly business review in
November (Clearing Up. No 2185).
BPA closed FY 2024 with financial reserves of $823  million,
and Transmission Services year-end reserves were $316  million,
which was high enough to trigger the reserves distribution
clause for Transmission in the amount of $82.8 million.
The Public Power Council, Western Public Agencies Group,
Powerex, Northwest and Intermountain Power Producers
Coalition (NIPPC), Renewable Northwest (RNW), and Alliance of
Western Energy Consumers (AWEC) urged Bonneville to return
the surplus revenue to customers, arguing that agency would be
paying down debt on projects that have yet to be funded.
NIPPC and RNW argued that the collection of funds
to pay for new investments must be tied to final decisions
to move forward with those capital investments, not merely
done in anticipation of those decisions, and that overcollecting
customer funds in current rates in anticipation of future invest-
ment is inconsistent with financial policies—and statutes—that
tie customer rates to the actual level of BPA’s investment.
Applying the RDC to flexible debt reduction is consistent
with BPA’s financial plan and will make incremental progress
towards the policy goal in the sustainable capital financing
policy, Hairston said in a letter to the region that accompanied
the ROD.
“It also will produce long-term benefits in terms of
reducing interest expense. Transmission interest expense is
projected to roughly double from BP-24 to BP-26, due to the
combination of increased capital expenditures and slightly
higher interest rates. Applying the RDC amount to reduce
debt is expected to reduce interest expense by approximately
$3.7 million per year, starting in FY 2026,” Hairston wrote.
Transmission is now projected to have a debt-to-asset ratio
of approximately 74 percent in 2040. This forecast reflects
Evolving Grid 1.0 projects. Evolving Grid 2.0 projects are
SUPPLY & DEMAND (cont.)
Tonyglen14/Flickr
Bonneville Power Administration power lines.
CLEARING UP • Dec. 17, 2024 • No. 2189
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estimated to add an additional $3 billion in capital spending,
the agency said.
AWEC said immediate rate reduction would be directly
responsive to BPA’s statutory mandate to provide electric
power at the lowest possible rates.
“RDC funds represent an overcollection from customers
that occurred during the BP-24 rate period, so it is appropriate
to return the benefit of these dollars during that same rate
period rather than spreading the benefits across potentially
decades,” AWEC said.
The ROD follows the recommendation of BPA staff, which
said putting the surplus revenue toward debt reduction supports
BPA’s strategic goal to sustain financial strength and the agency’s
ability to provide competitive rates over the long term.
“Applying the FY 2024 Transmission RDC to flexible debt
reduction is reasonable given the forecasts for significant
expansion to Transmission’s capital program and resulting
debt-to-asset ratio. However, even if the precise forecast does
not materialize, BPA and customers will benefit from interest
expense savings,” BPA said.
1.2-GW Solar Project in Oregon Scheduled to Start Construction in 2026
by Greg Mason
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2026 in Morrow
County, Oregon, on what’s said to be the largest solar project
in the United States, project developer Pine Gate Renewables
announced on Dec. 6.
The 1.2-GW Sunstone Solar Project is expected to occupy
approximately 9,442 acres of private farmland in Morrow
County. The solar-plus-storage project was granted site
certificate approval by the Oregon Energy Facility Siting
Council on Nov. 14.
Pine Gate Renewables, which is based in Asheville, North
Carolina, will conduct engineering and procurement work
starting in early 2025, according to the announcement.
Developers are in discussions with customers and local
utilities regarding the sale of Sunstone’s generated energy and
environmental attributes.
Construction is expected to be done in six phases, with
completion anticipated in around 2030. The energy facility will
consist of up to 20 separately fenced solar arrays organized
into six 200-MW blocks.
Once complete, Sunstone’s battery energy storage system
is expected to provide up to 7.2 GWh of storage capacity,
according to the project’s site certificate. Located near Portland
General Electric’s natural gas-fired Carty Generating Station
and the former Boardman coal-fired power plant, the project
will interconnect to the grid via Umatilla Electric Cooperative’s
existing 230-kV Blue Ridge transmission line.
“Oregon’s energy facility permitting process is one of the
most rigorous in the entire country,” Pine Gate Renewables
CEO Ben Catt said in the announcement. “The recent
unanimous permit approval is a testament to the way our team
worked with stakeholders to provide a win-win for Oregon
and the Morrow County community.”
Pine Gate Renewables acquired the Sunstone Solar Project
from Gallatin Power Partners in 2022, adding to its portfolio
that includes 17 other solar projects in Oregon.
In August 2023, Maggie Sasser, Pine Gate’s vice president
of government and external affairs, told Clearing Up that the
developer had secured leases with property owners within the
project boundaries. Pine Gate also secured a 17-year payment-
in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with the county, promising fixed
payments of $7,000 per megawatt in lieu of taxes staggered
based on the year each phase comes on line (Clearing Up
No. 2119).
Energy Northwest Selects Engineer for SMR Project
by Stephen Ernst
Energy Northwest has selected Montreal-based
AtkinsRéalis Group Inc. as the owner’s engineer for its small
modular reactor project planned for land near Richland,
Washington.
Under the owner’s engineering services contract,
AtkinsRéalis will support the design, licensing, construction
and commissioning of the SMR project. Work will be
supported by the company’s $20 million state-of-the-art 32,000
ft. AtkinsRealis Technology Center testing facility in Richland,
which opened in April. The center is a fully integrated
engineering and technology facility dedicated to advancement
and testing of technical innovations.
“AtkinsRéalis possesses extensive technical expertise on
developing complex energy projects, which makes them an
ideal partner,” Greg Cullen, vice president for energy services
Colleen Lane/Flickr
Richland, Washington.
CLEARING UP • Dec. 17, 2024 • No. 2189
7An Independent News Service From NewsData • © Copyright NewsData LLC 2024
and development at Energy Northwest, said in a prepared
statement. “This collaboration not only supports the proposed
development of next-generation nuclear technology, but will
bring lasting benefits to our region, including job creation,
economic growth, and clean, firm and reliable energy.”
Energy Northwest, which owns and operates 1,027-MW
Columbia Generating Station, the Pacific Northwest’s only
nuclear generating facility, recently announced an agreement
with Amazon and X-energy Reactor Company to develop four
to 12 SMRs (Clearing Up. No. 2180).
The SMRs will be the Xe-100 design, a high-temperature
gas-cooled reactor developed by Maryland-based X-energy.
Each Xe-100 module can provide 80 MW of f ull-time electricity.
Energy Northwest and X-energy have been developing plans for
an Xe-100 facility in the Northwest since 2020.
The Richland, Washington-based public power agency has
just begun the feasibility phase of the project, which will focus
on comprehensive environmental, safety, permitting, licensing
and risk analyses. If the project is approved, the next phase
will lead to submission of a construction permit application
to build the SMRs, Energy Northwest said in a prepared
statement.
AtkinsRéalis has about 40,000 employees around the world
and more than 70 years of experience in the nuclear industry.
The company has successfully delivered nuclear projects in
Argentina, Canada, China, France, Japan, Korea, Romania,
South Africa, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United
States. The company is the steward of Canadian CANDU
technology. It supports SMR projects under development in
Canada and the United Kingdom, and the development of
six  proposed sites in Poland, according to the company’s website.
Grant PUD Agrees to Buy Land for Potential Energy Park
by Stephen Ernst
Grant County Public Utility District has agreed to purchase
960 acres of land northeast of Moses Lake, Washington, for a
potential energy park that could be home to a small modular
nuclear reactor project, solar facility or battery energy storage
system.
The PUD will pay just over $1 million to purchase the
land, which is now being used
for dryland wheat farming. The
PUD said the property will remain
in agricultural use until at least
August 2025, allowing Grant PUD
time to conduct detailed planning
and regulatory reviews.
The PUD board of
commissioners approved the
purchase in November.
Funding for the purchase
comes from Washington’s Climate
Commitment Act, which supports projects that advance the
state’s carbon reduction goals. This investment aligns with the
Clean Energy Transformation Act, which mandates a transition
to 100-percent carbon-free electricity by 2045, the PUD said.
This acquisition marks a significant step in Grant PUD’s
efforts to meet the region’s evolving energy needs. The
combination of an SMR, solar farm and BESS at a single site
would create a versatile and resilient energy park capable of
adapting to future demands.
Governor Jay Inslee/Flickr
Solar panels.
MARKETS
of steep growth in rates, both for public and investor-owned
utilities, across the Northwest,” the letter says.
In the letter, the senators asked Hairston to respond to
seven questions by the end of the calendar year.
The senators asked if “BPA’s obligations under its guiding
statutes, including the Northwest Power Act, will in no way be
compromised in any day-ahead market decision?”
“Governance issues appear to be the driving factor for this
preference, but at what point does BPA determine that the
financial cost outweighs any other net benefits from joining
either market?” the senators wrote. “Please enumerate all key
factors and how you are weighing these various factors versus
the financial cost to ratepayers. Is BPA going to do additional
analysis into the viability of not joining either market?”
Other questions include:
“Do you believe that not joining a day-ahead market is a
viable option in the short term?”
“SPP characterized dedicating $25 million as ‘essentially
a market decision’. Does BPA agree or disagree with this
characterization?”
“Is BPA planning to conduct further independent
economic analysis on this decision?”
“Why did you decide not to invest $25,000 toward
developing the Pathways Initiative?”
“What process has BPA set up for engaging in formal
government-to-government consultation with affected
Tribes?”
A delegation of executives from Northwest
consumer-owned utilities was on Capitol Hill last week to talk
about the virtues of Markets+, its independent governance
structure and other issues impacting BPA. The delegation
BPA Markets Choice
Continued from Page 1
CLEARING UP • Dec. 17, 2024 • No. 2189
8An Independent News Service From NewsData • © Copyright NewsData LLC 2024
had no idea the senators were planning to release the letter, a
member of the delegation told Clearing Up.
The Public Power Council responded to the senators’
questions, saying the assumptions used in the E3 and Brattle
study models “do not fully account for the qualitative and
quantitative benefits that Markets+ provides, particularly for
BPA, Northwest utilities, and many utilities in the Southwest,”
according to a letter sent to the senators on Dec. 16 by Bear
Prairie, chair of PPC; Chris Robinson, vice chair of PPC’s
market development committee; and Scott Simms, CEO and
executive director of PPC.
PPC argues that BPA’s most recent study more accurately
reflects the actual costs of potential market seams, which
results in “increased BPA Markets+ benefits by over
$150  million dollars—to levels on par with those stemming
from BPA’s participation in EDAM” (Clearing Up No. 2183).
“A wide range of additional market design choices
embedded in the Markets+ option—
not considered in the E3 and Brattle
studies—creates an incorrect
perception that EDAM is assured to
create materially greater economic
benefits,” PPC said.
Markets+ is designed to fully
optimize the use of BPA’s extensive
transmission network, unlike
EDAM, which limits optimization
to contractual levels and favors
California’s use of the transmission
system at the most critical times, PPC executives said.
Markets+ is structured to provide clearer, more equitable
pricing mechanisms that better reflect the value of transmis-
sion and generation in the Northwest, the letter says.
“The market design embedded in EDAM is intentionally
organized to lower costs to California ratepayers—allowing
them to receive the benefits of these assets without [equitable]
compensation, ultimately harming Northwest ratepayers,”
PPC executives wrote.
PPC’s rebuttal letter says the senators overstated the
benefits of participation in CAISO’s Western Energy
Imbalance Market, saying that “BPA’s actual participation in
EIM is somewhat limited and primarily consists of purchasing
low-cost generation in non-peak hours.”
“The studied results indicate significant benefits from
BPA selling surplus generation into the EIM at relatively high
prices—a trading pattern that is not observed in real world
data,” they said.
PPC executives also said the occurrence of “extreme”
events—including dry hydro seasons, sustained high
temperatures and significant winter storms—is becoming
more frequent.
“These types of events can have significant impacts,
sometimes on a magnitude that would outweigh the
differences in modeled benefits between Markets+ and EDAM
participation,” they wrote. “For example, Northwest entities
faced cost exposures related to ‘congestion’ on the CAISO
system of over $100 million during the MLK day winter storm
last year. Such extreme events are not reflected in the referred
to studies.”
“While EDAM may appear to have lower upfront costs,
the absence of independent governance structures with equal
obligations to serve all participants, particularly those in your
respective states, introduces significant financial uncertainty,”
the executives said.
“Without meaningful independent governance,
participants in EDAM risk exposure to decisions that could
disproportionately benefit California
at the expense of the entire Northwest;
this includes all the states in BPA’s
footprint—Oregon, Washington,
Idaho, western Montana, and portions
of Wyoming and Nevada. This
uncertainty has not been adequately
modeled in financial projections and
has been borne out time and again over
the past decade,” they wrote.
CAISO changed transmission
access rules to benefit California’s
native load over other regions in a limited stakeholder process
right before summer; resisted providing equitable compen-
sation to out-of-state hydro generation on par with its own
internal generation; and reinforced market designs that result
in California receiving a disproportionate share of the value of
the interregional trade that occurs between California and the
Northwest, PPC executives said.
“We continue to affirm that there are unequal
representation and protections in EDAM for entities outside
of California—so much so that if BPA’s only choice of a day
ahead market option is to go with CAISO’s EDAM offering,
then BPA is better off not being in a day ahead market at all,”
PPC executives said. “ CAISO’s governance is fundamentally
tied to the state of California’s regulatory framework, which
limits its ability to operate as a truly independent market.
This creates inherent risks for non-California participants,
as decisions may prioritize California’s interests over those
of regional stakeholders. We care too much about Northwest
electricity customers to put them second in line behind those
in California.”
‘These types of events can have
significant impacts, sometimes
on a magnitude that would
outweigh the differences
in modeled benefits.’
CLEARING UP • Dec. 17, 2024 • No. 2189
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Wyoming Energy Regulators Finalize Reduced ECAM for PacifiCorp
by Greg Mason
Wyoming energy regulators on Dec. 3 finalized an
$80.6  million rate increase effective Jan. 1 for PacifiCorp
stemming from the company’s 2024 energy cost adjustment
mechanism.
PacifiCorp in April initially filed for an $86.4 million rate
increase to recover deferred net power costs from 2023. An
errata filing in June, however, pared that down to $81.8  million,
which the Wyoming Public Service Commission approved on
an interim basis effective July 1 subject to further review.
Commissioners on Dec. 3 finalized an even lower rate
increase in approving a settlement agreement between
PacifiCorp, Wyoming Industrial Energy Consumers and the
state Office of Consumer Advocate.
The settlement identified additional reductions to the
company’s 2024 ECAM deferral stemming chiefly from
contingent liability costs associated with litigation over
a  royalty payment dispute between Rocky Mountain Power
affiliate Bridger Coal Company and Wildcat Coal.
The rate increase is effective through June 30, 2025.
In addition to the rate adjustment, the settlement
agreement also called for PacifiCorp to collaborate with
WIEC and the Office of Consumer Advocate on developing a
process to review and audit market purchases. Commissioners
requested a status report on the process by March 2025.
COURTS & COMMISSIONS
Oregon State University/PacifiCorp/Flickr
Wind farm near Glenrock, Wyoming operated by PacifiCorp.
ENVIRONMENT
Salmon Returns to Columbia Basin Improving, But Still Far From Goal
by K.C. Mehaffey
In 1987, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council
set an interim goal of doubling the total number of adult
salmon and steelhead produced by the Columbia Basin from
2.5 million to 5 million fish.
Now, for the first time, Council staff has developed a way to
track annual production of fish. The total calculation includes
the number of salmon and steelhead that pass Bonneville Dam;
those that return to tributaries and the main-stem river to
spawn below the dam; and those that are caught in commercial
and recreational fisheries in the lower river or ocean.
On Dec. 10—with new information that adds in numbers
from harvest and lower-basin spawning—the Council learned
that as of 2023, the 10-year rolling average is still only half
of its goal—at 2.3 million total salmon and steelhead. That’s
similar to the average of 2.4 million fish between 2004 and
2013, according to Kate Self, a Fish and Wildlife Program
scientist for the Council.
But the average in 2023 represents a positive trend in total
abundance since the 1990s, when the average dropped to
1.3 million adult fish, she said. The most current average does
not include this year’s salmon returns—2024 saw a near-record
number of total salmonids pass Bonneville Dam since it was
built in 1938 (Clearing Up No. 2183).
“This goal has been fairly consistent over the history of the
program with little things being added here and there to clarify
or specify parts of it, but [it] hasn’t changed in major ways
since it was first adopted as an interim goal,” Self noted.
But the goal is more than just a number.
More specifically, it’s “to increase the total adult salmon
and steelhead runs of Columbia River origin to a 10-year
rolling average of 5 million annually by 2025 in a manner that
emphasizes increases in the abundance of populations that
originate above Bonneville Dam,” Self said.
It also includes several principles, such as rebuilding weak
upriver stocks, causing no appreciable risk to biological diver-
sity, and recognizing the importance of fulfilling tribal treaty
obligations to provide fish for harvest.
The purpose of the goal is to compensate for losses caused
by the basin’s hydroelectric dams.
Self said that regional estimates for the number of salmon
and steelhead that returned to the Columbia Basin historically
range from about 6 million fish to about 35 million fish.
In 1986, the Council set its historical return estimate
at between 10 million and 16 million fish, she said. It also
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estimated that losses from all sources were between 7 million
and 14 million fish, and that losses caused by hydroelectric
dams alone were between 5 million and 11 million fish.
Part of the reason for setting the 5-million-fish goal was to
emphasize increases above Bonneville Dam, where the heaviest
losses occurred and where impacts from the hydro system
were expected to be greater.
The Council is much closer to achieving this part of the goal.
Since the 1980s, the percentage of salmon and steelhead
that pass the dam has increased relative to annual returns
to the mouth of the river, Self said. A news release from the
Council said that the percent of adult salmonids passing
Bonneville Dam from 1984 through 1989 exceeded 50 percent
only once—in 1985—and it reached a 40-year low in 1986,
when only 32 percent of the returning fish passed Bonneville
Dam. But in every year since 2004 except two—2022 and
2023—more than 60 percent of returning adults have migrated
past Bonneville Dam. In four of those years, 70 percent or
more passed the dam, the Council reported.
In addition to the relative percentages, the average
number of salmon and steelhead counted at Bonneville Dam
has also steadily increased. From 1938 to 1966, an average
of 602,000 fish passed the dam. That increased to 648,000
fish from 1967 to 1994; and to 1.18 million fish from 1995
through 2023, with the most recent 10-year average at
1.23 million fish.
Calculating the total number of adult salmon and steelhead
produced in the basin each year was no easy task.
Self noted that numerous groups—including NOAA
Fisheries, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Columbia
River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, the Oregon and
Washington departments of fish and wildlife, the Fish Passage
Center, and other councils and technical teams—were
consulted to help with the totals.
She said the total number of returning adults does not
include adult salmonids consumed by marine mammals,
Bureau of Land Management Oregon and Washington/Flickr
A coho salmon jumping.
since it is not currently being reported in a way that can be
easily added into the total. But it does include Chinook and
coho that are caught in ocean fishing seasons set by the Pacific
Fishery Management Council, and during fisheries in south-
east Alaska, Canada, Puget Sound, and coastal Washington,
Oregon and California.
The goal of producing 5 million adult salmon and steelhead
in the Columbia Basin is just one of five goals and 37 objectives
in the Fish and Wildlife Program. Each objective describes
measurable ways to reach the goals.
For example, improving smolt-to-adult return ratios,
juvenile salmonid passage survival, and adult passage survival
all contribute to boosting abundance. Other objectives
related to increasing the abundance of adult salmonids
include expanding distribution of salmonids into blocked
areas, ensuring that hatcheries meet mitigation goals, and
maintaining genetic diversity.
“These fish still face severe stresses from climate change,
pressures from human population growth in the Basin, and
other environmental impacts,” Louie Pitt, Council member
from Oregon and a member of the Confederated Tribes of
the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, said in a prepared
statement. “Some stocks are struggling right now. We cannot
ease up in our collective efforts to help these fish populations
grow stronger and larger everywhere we can—including in
blocked areas of our Basin such as above Chief Joseph and
Grand Coulee Dams.”
Impacts Expected From Treaty Drawdowns at Grand Coulee, John Day
by K.C. Mehaffey
Federal agencies say that new flood risk management
operations under a Columbia River Treaty agreement in
principle between the United States and Canada will result in
deeper and longer drawdowns at Grand Coulee and John Day
dams in moderately wet years.
Overall, impacts from the spring drawdowns are expected
to be relatively minor, officials from the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation said during a recent
webinar on the change in operations that begins in 2025.
The impacts are considerably less than what would happen
without the new flood risk provisions in the agreement,
officials said.
But in roughly one of every three years when snowpack
is moderately high, the new operations could cause minor
flooding in the Portland area, higher costs and more difficulties
for researchers studying the reintroduction of salmon above
Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams, and a delayed irrigation
season for some farmers in the Columbia Basin. It could also
cause higher total dissolved gas levels in the Columbia River,
make some boat launches inaccessible for short periods of
time, and increase costs for shippers navigating in higher
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flows. It will likely make the Gifford-Inchelium ferry on
Lake Roosevelt inoperable more frequently and for longer
periods compared to prior operations. A BuRec official said
the agency is looking at ways to mitigate the downtime for
the ferry.
Under the 1964 treaty, Canada provided the U.S. with nearly
9 MAF of preplanned storage in three reservoirs annually. The
flood risk management provision in the treaty changed to a “called
upon” situation in September. Under the agreement in principle
reached in July, Canada will provide 3.6 MAF of preplanned
storage space in Arrow Lakes reservoir each year—a 60-percent
reduction from previous operations, but more than no preplanned
storage under real-time called upon operations.
To make room for potential floodwaters during spring
runoff, the U.S. will be drawing down Lake Roosevelt behind
Grand Coulee Dam, and Lake Umatilla, behind John Day
Dam. The U.S. also can call upon Canada during real-time
operations to store more water.
“We want to be clear that safety is paramount, and that
we still have a right to access additional space in Canada,”
Brig. Gen. William Hannan, the Corps’ Northwestern Division
commander, said during the presentation.
Aaron Marshall, reservoir control center chief for the
Corps, said that Lake Roosevelt has an operating range of
82 feet and Lake Umatilla has a range of 11 feet.
He said in 60 percent of all years, when water supply is in
the lowest percentile up to the 60th percentile, or in the 90th to
100th percentiles, no changes in operations are anticipated. But
when water supply is between the 60th and 90th percentiles—
roughly 30 percent of the water years historically—drawdowns
will likely be necessary. He said Lake Roosevelt could drop
by an additional 7 feet compared to previous operations, and
Lake Umatilla could be lowered by between 8 and 9 feet more.
The lower elevations at Lake Roosevelt are expected to
occur between March and late May before refill operations
begin, he said, and Lake Umatilla may remain low for a few
weeks between April and June.
Marshall said in previous operations, the drawdown in the
John Day forebay was necessary about once every 10 years, and
now the Corps expects it to occur about once every five years.
While impacts to a study on reintroducing salmon above
Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams are expected to be
minimal, changes in flows out of Grand Coulee dam could
affect salmon, steelhead and Pacific lamprey, according to
Eric  Rothwell, Columbia River hydrology coordinator for
BuRec’s Columbia-Pacific Northwest Region.
Rothwell said the agency is also anticipating impacts to
irrigation water delivery at the Grand Coulee Dam pumping
station. He said the capacity of the 12 pumps and pump
generators could be reduced in moderately wet years, and
pumping costs could increase. The pumps bring water from
Lake Roosevelt to Banks Lake and a series of canals that supply
water to BuRec’s Columbia Basin Project, which irrigates about
671,000 acres of farmland in eastern Washington.
He said the cost of pumping could increase, and there may
be less water from April through May, and more from June
through August in moderately wet years. There may also be
a need to draw down Banks Lake to meet seasonal irrigation
demand in some years, he said.
Drawdowns in the John Day forebay could be drafted
below the minimum irrigation pool more often, impacting
water delivery between April and June, Rothwell said.
Bruce Fingerhood/Flickr
John Day Dam with a train passing in the foreground.
Wyden: PGE Promises to ‘Do Everything Possible’ to Curb Rate Increases
by Greg Mason
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Maria Pope, president and CEO
of Portland General Electric, met recently in Washington, D.C. to
discuss how to keep the utility’s future rate increases in check.
Wyden and Pope exchanged letters in late November,
with Wyden on Nov. 25 seeking answers to constituent
concerns over the level of PGE’s rate increases in recent years.
Pope responded on Nov. 27, elaborating on how increased
power costs and other factors have largely driven rate increases
totaling over 40 percent from 2020 to 2024, including
29.3  percent in the past two years (Clearing Up No. 2187).
Moving forward, PGE has promised to “do everything
possible” to keep residential rate increases beyond 2025 below
the rate of inflation, Wyden said in his Dec. 11 letter, recapping
his and Pope’s conversation.
PGE will also “take every possible step” to ensure
increasing industrial demand does not result in residential rate
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increases. In addition, PGE will send Wyden—who chairs the
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance—information detailing
how federal clean-energy tax credits “have served and can
serve to keep electric rates down.”
Further, Wyden has promised to engage with Bonneville
Power Administration and energy regulators “to identify
further opportunities to ensure Oregon residential ratepayers
have access to the most affordable power possible.”
“Given that Oregon ratepayers have seen their electric bills
go up by more than 40 percent since 2021 and other policies
have created hardships for some Oregon families it is vital
Brief Mentions: News Roundup for Dec. 17, 2024
by Clearing Up
The Province of British Columbia will host a virtual
meeting at 6 p.m. on Dec. 19 to summarize key elements of an
agreement in principle for modernizing the Columbia River
Treaty and the process that remains before a new treaty is
adopted. Members of Canada’s negotiating team will present
information and answer questions about the agreement and
the next steps. Registration is required to attend.
Daniel X. O’Neil/Flickr
Portland General Electric metal emblem.
that we have a shared commitment to do better in the future,”
Wyden wrote.
Reduced risk of cost shifts to other customer classes
was one of the benefits touted in a tariff proposal PGE is
developing to establish transmission demand charges for large-
load customers like data centers and other industrial users.
The utility is planning to submit a regulatory filing by Dec. 20
(Clearing Up No. 2188).
“At PGE, we recognize that rising energy costs are a
burden, and we are committed to serving customers with
reliable, safe, secure, and increasingly renewable energy while
working to keep prices as low as possible,” PGE spokesperson
Drew Hanson said in a statement. “We are actively working
to help ensure that growth in electricity demand does not
unduly impact residential customers. We have a long history
of working with Senator Wyden on issues that are important to
Oregonians.”
POTOMAC
High Court Takes California Tailpipe Limits Case
by Jim DiPeso
The Supreme Court on Dec. 13 agreed to hear a challenge
to California’s limits on tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions.
Justices, however, limited their review to one issue:
whether fuel producers can show that the Clean Air Act
waiver authorizing California to set its own tailpipe standards
gives them standing to sue. The court declined to hear the
challenge’s argument that the waiver is unlawful.
Petitioners include fuel producers and the American Fuel
& Petrochemical Manufacturers trade group.
Petitioners are challenging an April 9 decision by the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that rejected a challenge
to the Environmental Protection Agency waiver that allows
California to set its own tailpipe GHG emissions limits and
zero-emission vehicle delivery-for-sale requirements.
Seventeen states, including Montana and Utah, were
petitioners in the D.C. Circuit case.
fourbyfourblazer/Flickr
Traffic on Interstate 5 through California’s San Fernando Valley.
The petitioners argue that the waiver harms them by
lowering demand for liquid fuels. They also argue that the
law limits the waiver to standards addressing local air-quality
problems. In their filing to the high court, they said “there are
serious constitutional concerns with a statute that allows only
California to act as a junior-varsity EPA.”
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In a filing urging the Supreme Court to reject the case, the
Department of Justice said the appeals court decided correctly
in finding the petitioners lacked standing.
Utility Resilience Bill Passes House
The House of Representatives on Dec. 9 passed by voice
vote legislation making publicly owned utilities eligible for
additional federal funding for resilience upgrades if they have
received disaster funding to restore power.
Under current law, public utilities that receive Federal
Emergency Management Agency funding to restore power
after a disaster are not eligible for additional federal funds to
upgrade system resilience.
Public power groups praised House passage of the
bill, HR 9541. The legislation “reduces the painful choice
between immediate response and long-term investments,
allowing communities to restore power as quickly as possible,
while also taking steps to mitigate against hazards in the
future,” Scott  Corwin, CEO of the American Public Power
Association, said.
Reps. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.) and Mike Ezell (R-Miss.) are
sponsoring the bill.
In a related action, the House on Dec. 9 passed by voice vote
legislation, HR 2672, to reimburse electric cooperatives’ interest
payments on disaster-recovery loans. The bill applies retro-
actively to loans taken out within seven years of enactment.
Western co-sponsors include Reps. Cathy McMorris
Rodgers (R-Wash.), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) and Kevin Kiley
(R-Calif.).
Both bills were sent to the Senate for further consideration.
NEPA in Supreme Court Spotlight
The scope of project impacts that must be included in
environmental studies was at issue Dec. 10 in a potentially
far-reaching Supreme Court case involving the National
Environmental Policy Act.
Justices heard oral arguments regarding a challenge to a
2023 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.  Circuit.
The ruling remanded to the high court the Surface
Transportation Board’s environmental review of a proposed
88-mile rail line that would carry crude oil produced in
northeastern Utah to market for refining. The case is an appeal
by the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, an entity created
by the state of Utah, and Uinta Basin Railway.
The appeals court characterized the board’s review of
the railway’s potential impacts on greenhouse gas emissions,
wildlife habitat and water resources as “cursory at best.”
In oral arguments, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said
lower-court rulings have forced agencies to draft ever-broader
environmental impact studies.
“It seems to me the problem that has crept in is conflating
what the agency can do and should do from what the role of
the court is here. And by the courts taking an overly aggressive
role, it’s in turn created an incentive for the agencies to do
3,000-page . . . environmental impact statements,” Kavanaugh
said.
Paul Clement, attorney for the petitioners, urged justices
to apply a two-part test that would allow agencies to screen
out study of impacts that are “remote in time and space” and
would fall under another agency’s regulatory jurisdiction.
Clement said rulings like the D.C. Circuit’s decision force
agencies “to lard up these environmental impact statements to
become thousands of pages because they know the challenge is
coming.” He added that “nobody in their right mind would say
that a project in northeastern Utah is the legally relevant cause
or the proximate cause of additional pollution in Shreveport,
Louisiana. Nobody.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, however, raised concerns
that Clement’s proposed test “feels to me to be unmoored from
the purposes of NEPA.”
“What I worry about with your test is that you’re suggesting
that the agency can’t even look at the, you know, effects of the
project outside of the very piece that it has sole responsibility
for, and I don’t know that NEPA was actually designed to be
that narrow,” Jackson said.
William Jay, attorney for respondents including Eagle
County, Colorado, and environmental organizations, said the
rail line’s sole purpose is to carry crude oil, which would result
in “reasonably foreseeable” environmental impacts that he said
should be studied.
“So, the reason that the effects—the refining effects—are
reasonably foreseeable in this case and I think probably would
not be in some others is that the very purpose of this project
is not only to bring a specific type of crude oil to the National
Rail Network but to transport it for refining, and there are only
a few places that have the capacity to do that,” Jay said.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett noted that the 150-page limit
for environmental impact studies required by the 2023 Fiscal
Responsibility Act will make it “impossible for agencies to
consider as many downstream and upstream effects as they did
in this case, just because of the procedural constraints.”
MISO Adopts Transmission Expansion Plan
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator on Dec. 12
adopted a 20-year, $30 billion transmission expansion plan that
includes 488 projects stretching more than 5,000 miles.
MISO said the portfolio is aimed at boosting reliability
as capacity margins tighten, loads grow, extreme weather
occurs more frequently, interconnection requests increase
and variable resources broaden their share of the region’s
resource mix. The plan says project benefits exceed costs, with
benefit-to-cost ratios ranging from 1.8 to 3.5.
The plan says projects submitted through MISO’s expedited
review process “show no signs of slowing down as load-serving
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entities need to respond to large spot-load additions, load
growth and resource retirements.”
More than two-thirds of the projected spending—or nearly
$21.9 billion—would implement 24 regional projects aimed at
enhancing reliability through reductions in thermal overload-
ing, reducing system losses, relieving congestion and increas-
ing transfer capacity, including creating pathways for energy
exports from the Dakotas.
The plan lists 459 local projects, totaling $6.7 billion, for
generator interconnections, baseline reliability, transmission
delivery service, meeting load growth and line upgrades.
Five projects costing more than $1.6 billion would facilitate
28 GW of interconnections along the MISO-Southwest Power
Pool seam, the plan says. Costs will be partially offset by a
$464 million grant from the Department of Energy’s Grid
Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program.
BLM Blocks New Powder River Basin Coal Leases
No new coal leases would be authorized on federal lands
in the Powder River Basin under amended Buffalo and Miles
City resource-management plans that the Bureau of Land
Management released Dec. 5 and Nov. 26, respectively.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said he will call on the
incoming Trump administration “to reverse this and other
midnight regulations.” Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said he
plans to introduce legislation to overturn BLM’s action.
The plans bar new leases on 481,000 acres of subsurface
mineral estate in the Buffalo, Wyoming, area and more than
1.7 million acres in the Miles City, Montana, area. The ban on
new leases would block production of about 48.5 billion tons
of coal.
BLM said the amendment was approved to comply with
a 2020 federal court order that struck down BLM plans and
ordered reworking of environmental impact studies.
Haaland Proposes Leasing Withdrawal in New Mexico
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Dec. 12 proposed
withdrawing nearly 165,000 acres of federal lands in
New  Mexico from new mining claims and oil, gas and
geothermal leases.
Haaland approved a two-year moratorium on claims and
leases, clearing the way for the U.S. Forest Service and the
Bureau of Land Management to propose a 20-year withdrawal
in the upper Pecos River watershed.
The proposed withdrawal covers 163,483 acres of Forest
Service land and 1,327 acres under BLM management. The
lands are in San Miguel and Santa Fe counties.
The Interior Department said the proposal is aimed at
protecting fish habitat, water quality, cultural resources and
communal irrigation systems.
Senate Confirms Marzano to NRC
The Senate on Dec. 12 confirmed Matthew Marzano as a
member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Marzano’s confirmation fills a vacancy on the five-member
commission.
The Senate voted 50-45 on a mostly party-line vote to
confirm Marzano, a nuclear engineer who most recently
worked as the Idaho National Laboratory’s detailee to the
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
The committee’s leaders have differed over Marzano’s
qualifications. In floor remarks, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), the
panel’s outgoing chair, said Marzano has “extensive technical
experience.” However, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.),
its top Republican and incoming chair, has said he lacks the
background to prod the NRC to work more efficiently.
Treasury Finalizes Investment Credit Guidance
The Department of the Treasury on Dec. 12 finalized
guidance for the 30-percent energy investment tax credit,
including clarifications in single-project rules made in
response to comments that language in the proposed guidance
would have run counter to standard industry practice.
The final guidance’s definition of an energy project “is meant
to protect taxpayers from illogical or impractical outcomes
where different energy properties might inadvertently be treated
as one project—an outcome that could be problematic for a
taxpayer attempting to claim a domestic-content bonus credit or
energy community bonus credit,” according to an analysis by the
Vinson & Elkins law firm.
The final guidance also resolves a “significant ambiguity” in
the proposal by clarifying that a project that includes multiple
energy properties can be considered placed in service when
the last energy property enters service, according to an analysis
by the Stoel Rives law firm.
In other clarifications, the final guidance says the credit
is available for interconnections of energy properties of up
Kimon Berlin/Flickr
Coal trains in Wyoming.
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to 5 MW within a larger project—such as blocks within
a utility-scale solar facility—even if the overall project’s
maximum output exceeds 5 MW. Under the Inflation
Reduction Act, interconnection credits are available to energy
properties with 5 MW or less of nameplate capacity.
In other clarifications, the final guidance says a credit may
be claimed for energy storage co-located and sharing power
conditioning equipment with a project claiming a production
tax credit. Also, owners of offshore wind facilities can claim the
credit for power-conditioning equipment and subsea cables.
Guthrie to Chair House Energy Panel
Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) was elected Dec. 9 to chair
the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the 119th
Congress.
Guthrie, elected by the House Republican Steering
Committee, will succeed retiring Rep. Cathy McMorris  Rodgers
(R-Wash.) as chair of the panel, which has broad jurisdiction
over energy, climate and environmental legislation.
In a statement, Guthrie said, “We must work together to
restore America’s energy dominance and lower energy prices.”
Guthrie has called for “an all-of-the-above energy
strategy.” He is a member of the Conservative Climate Caucus
in Congress, noting on his website that “climate change is
a real and serious threat” and calling for “innovative and
market-based solutions to combat climate change.”
Guthrie has served in the House of Representatives since 2009.
EPA Selects Heavy-Duty Vehicle Grant Awardees
The Environmental Protection Agency on Dec. 11 picked
70 applicants to receive more than $735 million in grants for
buying heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles.
Funding from the Inflation Reduction Act will assist
public agencies, tribes and nonprofit school transportation
associations in buying heavy-duty ZEVs and building charging
infrastructure, EPA said.
Among selected recipients are 13 in California, including
the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which was
picked for two grants totaling $87 million for school buses and
work vehicles. California selectees are slated to receive a total
of $209.9 million.
Six other Western states—Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon,
Utah and Washington—were picked to receive $113.1 million.
House Passes Bill to Curb Washer Standards
The House on Dec. 10 passed legislation to curb the
Department of Energy’s authority to set energy-efficiency
standards for clothes washers.
On a mostly party-line vote of 215-200, the House passed
HR 7673, which would block new standards if they would
result in “any increase in net costs” for purchase, installation,
maintenance, disposal or replacement of an appliance.
DOE Selects Uranium Enrichment Contractors
The Department of Energy on Dec. 10 selected six firms,
including two in the West, for procuring low-enriched
uranium, aiming to spur development of domestic enrichment
capacity.
DOE said it would sign contracts with the firms lasting up
to 10 years and with a minimum award of $2 million.
Selected firms include Louisiana Energy Services, head-
quartered in Eunice, New Mexico, and San Francisco-based
General Matters.
Other selected firms include American Centrifuge
Operating and Orano Federal Services, both headquartered in
Maryland; Global Laser Enrichment, based in North Carolina;
and New York-based Laser Isotope Separation Technologies.
Advanced Meters Increasing, FERC Reports
Penetration of advanced meters surpassed 80 percent
in the Pacific states by 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission said in a staff report issued Dec. 6.
In California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and
Hawaii, 80.7 percent of homes had advanced meters, while
penetration reached 81.5 percent in the commercial sector and
69.1  percent in the industrial class, for an overall penetration
rate of 80.9 percent, third-highest among the nine census
divisions, the report says.
In the eight Rocky Mountain states, penetration increased
by 15 percent between 2021 and 2022, the largest percentage
increase among census divisions, the report says. Within the
eight states, the largest increases were reported by PacifiCorp
in Utah and Idaho and by Public Service Company of
Colorado, FERC noted.
Customer participation in retail demand-response
programs fell by 2.6 percent in the Pacific states, but increased
by 4.1 percent in the Rocky Mountain states, FERC said.
The report attributed the fall-off in Pacific states mainly to
“ utilities in California reporting in aggregate approximately
26,000 fewer customers” in the programs.
Participation in retail dynamic-pricing programs was up
35.6 percent in the Rocky Mountain region and 4.1 percent in
the Pacific region, the report says.
“Southern California Edison reported approximately
1.6 million more customers enrolled in retail dynamic pricing
programs in 2022 compared to 2021,” the report notes.
Within the California Independent System Operator
territory, demand-response participation increased from
7.6 percent of peak demand in 2022 to 9.3 percent in 2023, the
report says.
The report quotes a 2023 Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory study that concluded price-based demand-
response programs “can substantially contribute to load
flexibility but are an underutilized resource.”