Small businesses served by Lake Region Electric Cooperative’s natural gas subsidiary got a nice surprise on their July bill: a 50% drop in their monthly utility fee.

The reduction in the facilities charge from $20 to $10 a month came after the co-op’s innovative gas rate commission examined the subsidiary’s fee structure in response to a rate change request from small businesses.

“After careful analysis, we found that the small commercial rate should just match the residential rate,” said Dylan Aafedt, vice president of business solutions for the co-op, based in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota. “Our goal is to provide the best possible rate for our customers.”

LREC created the commission in 2017 when it launched its gas unit so it could set rates locally to better reflect the needs and usage of its rural customers and keep service cost-efficient, LREC CEO Tim Thompson said.

The gas company, which is expected to top 1,000 customers this year, serves four towns that are outside the co-op’s electric territory. The commission structure effectively creates four separate three-member boards, one for each town made up of Thompson, Aafedt and the town’s mayor.

LREC won approval for the arrangement from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, arguing that a local commission was necessary for the gas service and its ratepayers to avoid the costly rules and rates that regulate the state’s large gas providers.

“Without this unique structure and approval from the PUC, this small gas company would not be able to afford the high costs of state regulation,” Thompson said. “If we had to file and support rate cases in St. Paul seeking rate adjustments over the course of time, the expense of doing so would be cost prohibitive.”

The co-op commission must submit its rate book to the PUC every year, among other requirements, but state regulators “don’t oversee us in any way as long as we complete our annual compliance filing,” Aafedt said.

“Our gas rate is to recover the cost of the physical plant, the pipe, the meters and the commodity price,” said Thompson. “In addition to homes and businesses, we serve churches, nursing homes and schools. If we can save them some energy dollars to redirect to education and benefit the kids, that’s a huge win.”

Convenience and savings of $300 to $500 per heating season for residential customers helped drive a steady flow of customers to the co-op’s natural gas business, he added. Other customers, such as grain dryers, turkey farmers and businesses, are seeing an even greater savings.

Darrick Moe, president and CEO of Minnesota Rural Electric Association in Maple Grove, said LREC’s gas enterprise—the only one of its kind in the state—represents the core co-op principle of “concern for community.”

“LREC built the whole thing by partnering with folks in their communities,” he said. “The whole thing is fantastic, and the homegrown commission is one piece that exemplifies that.”

Cathy Cash is a staff writer for NRECA.

Findings in a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology about decarbonization of the electric industry are raising concerns for one electric cooperative leader about the reliability of the nation’s electricity supply.

“We are alarmed by a rush to renewables without technologies available today to ensure reliable power at affordable prices,” said David Tudor, CEO and general manager of Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., a generation and transmission cooperative headquartered in Springfield, Missouri.

“First, generation and storage technologies do not exist today to responsibly decarbonize our country 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2035. Second, the transmission system in our country will need costly and time-consuming upgrades that face significant obstacles in that timeframe.

“Our mission is to provide an affordable and reliable energy supply; that’s what our member-owners want and expect,” Tudor added. “The people who depend on electricity at the end of the line shouldn’t be forgotten as policymakers debate the impacts of these current proposals. Paying higher bills for unreliable electricity is not an outcome that benefits them or anyone else.”

The study, “Challenges and Opportunities for Decarbonizing Power Systems in the U.S. Midcontinent,” was published this month by MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research.

The report, which looks at transmission capacity, dispatchable generation and electricity use across 18 regions in the Midwest, comes as the Biden administration has committed to decarbonizing the nation’s power system by 2035.

“This ambitious goal will require an accelerated substitution of fossil fuel with renewable generation over the next decade,” the report states.

The study details challenges associated with early retirement of coal and natural gas generation; the impact of various renewable energy standards; and the costs and deployment rates for new and emerging renewable and energy storage technologies, among other developments.

“Our results suggest that by 2030, based on widely used price forecasts, demand projections and planned electricity resources, gas- and coal-based technologies still prevail in the system,” the report notes. However, “coal and fuel oil are expected to be displaced by wind and solar as long as decarbonization is stimulated through further policies. [Natural] gas resources are still needed to help accommodate the significant amount of renewable generation.”

More aggressive carbon policy is needed to reach the administration’s goals, which will require significant capital costs and, ultimately, agreement by a fragmented Congress.

“Policymakers need to choose among policies with an eye to these costs, and address who should pay them—taking into consideration, for example, the impact on low-income households, on industrial competitiveness, among other things,” according to the report.

AECI supplies electricity to six transmission and 51 distribution co-ops, serving 2.1 million consumer-members in Missouri, Iowa and Oklahoma. It uses a diversified portfolio of electric generation resources to meet demand, and AECI increasingly is concerned about pressures to limit or eliminate fossil fuels from that mix. “We cannot sacrifice reliable electric supply or affordable rates,” Tudor said.

He cautioned that the technical means to use renewables to meet 100% of energy demand for the studied area does not exist, and achieving that goal affordably is unlikely for several reasons. Tudor cites the pace of technology development; the current and projected condition and deployment of transmission assets; and the timeframe outlined in public policy initiatives among the disruptive impacts of rapid decarbonization.

“Development that maintains reliable and affordable energy and the ability to move large volumes of renewable energy via transmission system investments will take significant time,” said Tudor.

Derrill Holly is a staff writer for NRECA.

With electric cooperatives leading the way, Minnesota recently passed landmark energy policy reform that benefits consumers with reduced costs, greater efficiency and incentives to meet greenhouse gas goals.

The new Energy Conservation and Optimization Act replaces the state’s Conservation Improvement Program and its outdated requirement that co-ops and other utilities spend 1.5% of their annual revenue to reduce their electricity sales by at least 1.5% each year.

It also embraces beneficial electrification, which promotes the use of electric-powered devices that boost consumer savings and reduce pollution while improving grid resiliency and quality of life.

“Our energy savings goals are no longer measured by how much we spend,” said Darrick Moe, president and CEO of the Minnesota Rural Electric Association. “ECO allows us to grow our load, but because it’s beneficial electrification, you reduce total energy use.”

The law allows co-ops and other utilities to offer incentives for consumers to switch from carbon dioxide-emitting devices to electricity-based ones like electric vehicles, heat pumps and commercial and agricultural equipment.

“Minnesota’s stakeholder-driven update to its flagship energy efficiency programs is a milestone of national importance,” said Keith Dennis, NRECA vice president of consumer member engagement in the Business and Technology Strategies department.

“By harnessing the benefits of electrification, the environment will benefit and the energy system will be more efficient.”

ECO also provides for three-year plans to deploy programs and measure progress, replacing an annual process.

MREA made state energy policy reform a priority in 2017 and gathered a multi-stakeholder, bipartisan coalition to advocate for change. The resulting legislation passed the Democratic-controlled state House and the Republican-led Senate this spring. Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, signed the bill into law May 25.

Walz heralded the bill for its energy conservation and “beneficial fuel switching” that will allow “homes and businesses to run more efficiently and have a lower impact on our environment” while creating good-paying jobs.

MREA praised Rep. Zack Stephenson, a member of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and Republican Sen. Jason Rarick for guiding the legislation through their respective chambers to the governor’s desk.

“This is the most significant energy efficiency legislation to pass in Minnesota in many years, and for that we are thankful for the bipartisan work and leadership of Rep. Zack Stephenson and Sen. Jason Rarick,” said Joyce Peppin, director of government affairs and general counsel at the statewide association.

To ensure widespread support for the legislation, MREA partnered with Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association, investor-owned utilities and the Center for Energy and Environment, a clean energy advocacy group.

“MMUA enjoyed working with MREA to get ECO across the finish line,” said Kent Sulem, director of government relations for the municipals’ organization. “The partnership created a formidable force on behalf of consumer-owned utilities in passing this important modernization of our state’s CIP statutes.”

“We didn’t always see eye to eye as we developed the policy,” said Mike Bull, the center’s director of policy and external affairs. “But the trust that was built … allowed us to work through those differences and led to a much more robust legislative initiative.”

Cathy Cash is a staff writer for NRECA.

As the energy sector continues a rapid transformation, Congress has a vital role in ensuring rural and low-income consumers have access to reliable, affordable and clean energy, a North Dakota generation and transmission co-op CEO told a Senate panel Wednesday.

Mac McLennan, president and CEO of Minnkota Power Cooperative, urged members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy to prioritize reliability and resiliency in the wake of power stability issues across the country.

“It is an exciting time for our industry, but it can also be daunting,” he said. “We all want to push for it to be a better product—more reliable, more resilient, affordable for every household and as clean as possible.”

Co-ops, policymakers and regulatory agencies need to work together to achieve those goals, McLennan said.

“If we make mistakes or missteps during the energy transition, they can prove extraordinarily difficult to reverse,” he said.

More than 40% of Minnkota’s power comes from carbon-free sources such as wind and hydropower, but coal continues to be a crucial part of the mix, McLennan said. The G&T supplies power to 11 distribution co-ops and several cities in North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota, serving about 160,000 consumers.

“Although we have added a significant amount of renewable energy over the last 15 years and have been recognized nationally as leaders in renewable energy development, coal remains a critical resource to ensure the reliability of the electric grid,” McLennan said.

“Harsh winters in the Upper Midwest can and do severely limit the ability of renewables to operate for extended periods of time. During the recent polar vortex events in 2014, 2019 and 2021, Minnkota received almost no production from our wind facilities for multiple days. At temperatures of negative 30 degrees, the absence of reliable power is life-threatening.”

Minnkota recognizes the need to continue to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, McLennan said. The co-op is evaluating Project Tundra, an effort to install carbon capture technology at its coal-fired Milton R. Young Station power plant near Bismarck, North Dakota.

“Project Tundra is designed to capture 90% of CO2 emissions from the flue gas—which equates to 4 million tons per year and is the equivalent of permanently taking 800,000 gasoline-fueled cars off the road,” he told the senators. “The CO2 would be safely stored more than one mile underground near the plant’s site.”

Congress can help support Project Tundra and other carbon capture technologies through passage of the Carbon Capture Modernization Act, McLennan said. The bill would make it easier for electric cooperatives to access incentives to retrofit coal plants with technologies that capture carbon dioxide emissions.

He also asked senators to back the Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Tax Credit Amendments Act, which would allow co-ops to receive direct-pay incentives for installing carbon capture systems.

“Congress could further support carbon capture projects around the country by funding CCUS deployment, particularly power sector carbon capture commercialization and demonstration projects, at full levels authorized in the Energy Act of 2020,” McLennan said as he testified virtually from Grand Forks.

Lawmakers also could boost carbon capture projects by approving the Storing CO2 and Lowering Emissions (SCALE) Act, which would help overcome barriers to CO2 pipelines, storage and permitting, he said.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.

Over the past 10 to 15 years, the electric utility industry has moved dramatically in the direction of renewable generation. Solar has enjoyed particularly widespread success, with a broad mix of residential, community and utility-scale installations. Wind power has seen equally strong adoption, but nearly all at utility scale, while local and residential installations have been less robust.

But a new program from the Department of Energy called Rural Area Distributed Wind Integration Network Development (RADWIND) is working to change that, enlisting the help of electric cooperatives to broaden the use of wind as a distributed generation resource. In this episode, we talk about the broad potential of wind power with Michael Leitman, NRECA’s system optimization director and the RADWIND project manager, and Aaron Ruschy, vice president of operations and engineering at Iowa Lakes Electric Cooperative.

Listen to the episode below:

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Find out more about NRECA’s podcast. Questions or suggestions? Email us at AlongThoseLines@nreca.coop.

Efforts to provide electric cooperatives with direct federal payments to develop renewable energy and battery storage projects advanced in the Senate as a key committee agreed to include the incentives in a broader energy bill.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he plans to place the Clean Energy for America Act directly on the Senate calendar for a vote by the full chamber later this year.

Committee members split 14-14 on the legislation as members divided along party lines on May 26. But Senate rules allow the chairman to advance the bill to the full Senate when there’s a tie.

The bill includes language proposed by Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., that would provide direct-pay investment and production tax credits to co-ops, publicly owned utilities and tribal governments for clean energy projects. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the provision could result in $50 billion in payments over the next 10 years.

A similar bill being considered in the House, the GREEN Act, also includes direct-pay incentives for co-ops and publicly owned utilities.

For-profit utilities have long received federal tax breaks for providing power from solar, wind and other renewable energy sources and for using carbon-capture technologies. But not-for-profit co-ops and public power utilities haven’t been able to get those incentives because they are exempt from federal income taxes.

“We should make these tax incentives accessible to electric co-ops, public power companies and tribes,” Bennet said before the committee vote. “They are doing yeoman’s work to transition to clean energy and drive opportunity in rural America and we should support them.”

NRECA CEO Jim Matheson, American Public Power Association President/CEO Joy Ditto and Large Public Power Council President John Di Stasio wrote a letter to Bennet supporting his amendment.

“(This bill) allowed some utilities to immediately receive the benefit of certain energy tax credits,” they wrote on May 26. “With the inclusion of your amendment, it now also would allow public power utilities, rural electric cooperatives and Indian tribal governments to do so. That would mean more local projects, with local jobs, under local control. Having direct ownership as an option also will help our members develop a generation mix that best suits the needs of the customers.”

The overall goal of the bill is to consolidate 44 separate tax breaks into incentives for clean energy, clean transportation and energy efficiency, Wyden said.

“It will level the playing field because the same rules will apply to any and all who want to compete, from the biggest fossil fuel companies on down to the smallest renewable startup,” he said before the committee vote.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.

The Chevy Corvette has been “America’s Sports Car” for nearly 70 years, and it will soon be manufactured with solar power served up from electric cooperative lines.

“Bowling Green, Kentucky, has been the only place Corvettes have been built for more than 30 years, and they are one of our leading commercial and industrial accounts,” said Dewayne McDonald, president and CEO of Warren Rural Electric Cooperative. “So, when General Motors made a commitment to renewable power, we were happy to help make it happen.”

Many of the GM assembly plant’s nearly 1,400 employees are members of the Bowling Green-based distribution co-op. Meeting the energy needs of the 1.7 million-square-foot plant is vital to the co-op-served community. That provided ample incentive for Warren RECC to work closely with the Tennessee Valley Authority to help meet GM’s goal of going carbon-neutral by 2040.

A nearly 175-megawatt solar and storage project under development about 25 miles away from the plant has the surplus capacity to meet the automaker’s needs, and the energy produced will start flowing through the co-op’s distribution lines in 2023.

“The Warren RECC service territory is an industry hub, and we continue to take bold steps to help make our community a competitive location for businesses, like GM, that are pursuing environmental goals,” said McDonald.

The solar and storage project, being developed by NRECA associate member Silicon Ranch, is part of TVA’s Green Invest initiative. The public power provider has pursued several power purchase agreements to enhance the availability of renewable energy resources across its service region to help meet the evolving demand for new and sustainable resources powering homes and businesses.  

“TVA’s Green Invest program is bringing together customers and renewable energy partners who are all investing in our communities,” said Chris Hansen, TVA vice president for origination and renewables.

GM is committed to using 28 MW of the solar array’s output. The remaining 145 MW of its power and much of its 120 megawatt-hours of energy storage capacity is earmarked for Facebook’s regional facilities.

“This solar and storage facility, less than 50 miles from our Gallatin [Tennessee] data center, will be Facebook’s first renewable energy project in Kentucky,” said Urvi Parekh, head of Facebook’s renewable energy operations. 

The Silicon Ranch project is Facebook’s fifth renewable energy project with TVA, representing an investment of more than $1 billion in the region. It’s part of a trend toward diversifying energy resources that co-ops and other utilities are pursuing to help meet consumer expectations and national policy goals.  

“Renewable energy is something that more of our businesses want and something that makes Kentucky more competitive for jobs and investments,” said Gov. Andy Beshear. “Green Invest shows the benefits of TVA’s public power model as we transition to a cleaner energy future.

Construction of the 1,600-acre Logan County project is expected to involve about 450 workers beginning in 2022. Once completed, it will help GM meet its goal of 100% renewable energy for its domestic operations, a full decade before its worldwide commitment.

“This project not only supports the automotive industry, but it also will help meet the needs of a growing digital communications industry and expand regional availability of renewable energy,” said McDonald. “General Motors is one of the best corporate citizens. Over the years, they have invested at least $2 billion in infrastructure here and we’re very proud to have them as a member.”

Derrill Holly is a staff writer for NRECA.

An unprecedented Arctic blast and winter storm that hit the Midwest and the South in February caused widespread power supply issues, rolling blackouts and sustained outages. The event impacted multiple states, but Texas was hit the worst with several days of outages, crippling power supply shortages and nearly 200 deaths attributed to the storm. What happened in Texas, and why was it so much worse there?

Hear from Mike Williams, CEO of Texas Electric Cooperatives, as well as Mark Jones, a Rice University fellow who was part of a University of Houston research team that surveyed Texas power consumers in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

Listen to the episode below:

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Find out more about NRECA’s podcast. Questions or suggestions? Email us at AlongThoseLines@nreca.coop.

NRECA is urging congressional leaders to provide electric cooperatives with direct payments to develop clean energy projects—giving them incentives comparable to the tax breaks granted to investor-owned utilities.

For-profit utilities have long received federal tax breaks for providing power from solar, wind and other renewable energy sources. But not-for-profit co-ops and public power utilities haven’t been able to tap into those programs because they are exempt from federal income taxes.

In a letter to top congressional leaders, NRECA, the American Public Power Association and the Large Public Power Council asked for direct payments to member-owned and community-owned utilities to help employ technologies such as battery storage, carbon capture and electric vehicle charging networks.

“Allowing public power utilities and rural electric cooperatives to receive these tax credits in the form of direct payments for building clean energy infrastructure would ensure that all utilities serving all Americans would have equal access to these federal resources,” said the May 14 letter, which was signed by NRECA CEO Jim Matheson, APPA President/CEO Joy Ditto and LPPC President John Di Stasio.

“The direct payments would be used to help offset project costs—increasing the incentive for further investments—and would enable public power utilities and rural electric cooperatives to own these facilities directly. It would also mean more local projects, with local jobs, under local control.”

The issue is one of NRECA’s top legislative priorities for this session of Congress.

The letter points out that co-ops and community-owned electric utilities together serve nearly 30% of all retail electric customers.

“The President and Congress have ambitious climate goals that cannot be met by leaving nearly 30 percent of the nation’s electric utility customers without access to incentives and support,” the three association leaders wrote.

President Joe Biden has set a goal of eliminating carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector by 2030 to help slow climate change. Matheson and the other association leaders called that “a daunting challenge” with a hefty price tag that must be borne in part by co-op consumer-members and public power customers.

“As such, we cannot afford inefficient or ineffective policies,” they wrote.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer at NRECA.

Corn, rye and barley have always played big roles in producing Tennessee whiskey, and solar energy will soon be added to the mix at one well-known distillery with a decades-long connection to its electric cooperative, Duck River Electric Membership Corp.

“Jack Daniel’s has been in Metro Moore County for over 150 years, and they have been a valued member of DREMC for more than 80 years,” said Scott Spence, the co-op’s president and CEO. “As they have grown and modernized, Duck River EMC has been there to support them in achieving their energy goals.”

Early projects included co-op advice on wiring plant buildings for electric lighting, followed by consultations on upgrading plant equipment for electric machinery. When Jack Daniel’s began searching for ways to support renewable energy, it again turned to its Shelbyville, Tennessee-based distribution co-op. The result is an agreement with Duck River and the Tennessee Valley Authority that’s expected to meet nearly 75% of the electricity needs at the iconic Lynchburg distillery.    

“When the Jack Daniel’s team reached out to DREMC regarding their sustainability goals, we immediately began work to find a solution that made sense for their business,” said Billy Tiller, Duck River’s vice president of engineering.

That led to talks with TVA and Nashville-based solar power producer Silicon Ranch, an NRECA platinum associate member, regarding the 200-megawatt solar array under development in Moore County, Tennessee. Silicon Ranch will construct the facility over the next two years on land once owned by the Motlow family, which has ties to distillery founder Jack Daniel.

The 2,500-acre site, once known as Motlow Range, was an artillery training base during World War II. The Motlows were among the earliest members of the co-op, and their descendants are among its consumer-members today. The family owns the Cumberland Springs Land Co., and Silicon Ranch partnered with them to develop the project. 

The land has lain fallow for several years, so development of the solar farm will actually have a net positive impact on the region’s agricultural production, as Silicon Ranch will restore the land to a functioning grassland ecosystem through managed sheep grazing.

Silicon Ranch will design, fund, build, own, operate and maintain the facility, and Metro Government of Nashville is expected to take the largest amount of power produced at the site, along with the Knoxville Utilities Board and Vanderbilt University. About 20 MW of its capacity is included in a power purchase agreement with TVA and reserved for distillery use.

“TVA, Jack Daniel’s and Duck River are excellent neighbors who are valuable assets to our community,” said Mayor Bonnie Lewis of Metro Lynchburg-Moore County. “Each year, hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world tour the distillery, and this solar farm from our newest corporate citizen, Silicon Ranch, will be another attraction as they provide additional construction jobs and tax revenue to Moore County.”

Dubbed the Moore County Solar Project, it is part of TVA’s Green Invest program, which leverages the public power model by matching customer sustainability needs with new, renewable energy projects through a competitive bid process.

“We’re excited to be the first distillery to sign a Green Invest deal that will provide nearly three-quarters of our electricity needs,” said Melvin Keebler, the distillery’s vice president and assistant general manager. “Now the world’s most iconic whiskey is even greener.”

Besides being one of Duck River’s leading commercial-industrial accounts, the area’s major employer and a top regional tourism destination, the distillery has also hosted community events. 

“We have witnessed great things happen over the years through Jack Daniel’s investment in the Metro-Lynchburg, Moore County community, and this is no exception,” said Spence. “Duck River is thrilled to be a part of this project.”

Derrill Holly is a staff writer for NRECA.

In Colorado, the intrepid spirit that led discoverers to conquer the state’s highest peaks lives on in the frontier of energy innovation.

This time, it’s a development of 27 smart homes that’s doing the pioneering. The all-electric, net-zero residences also provide a path to home ownership for the local workforce near the pricey ski town of Aspen.

“It’s an immigrant’s dream to own a house in the U.S., and I like that I can come home after work and live in a home of the future, where everything is powered by the sun,” said Ana Quiceno. The kindergarten teacher originally from Colombia has lived in a townhome in the Basalt Vista housing development served by Holy Cross Energy for almost two years.

Outfitted with rooftop solar panels and on-site battery storage, these ”homes of the future” are also innovative because of the far-reaching and varied partnership led to their construction, said Adaora Ifebigh, who heads NRECA’s Advancing Energy Access for All initiative.

That initiative emphasizes “the power of partnerships and works to identify and help establish partnerships to advance community solutions for NRECA’s co-ops through various research projects,” said Ifebigh. Holy Cross Energy’s partners in the Basalt Vista project include Habitat for Humanity, the Roaring Fork School District, Pitkin County, the Basalt town government and various solar manufacturers.

The Glenwood Springs-based co-op donated 8-kilowatt rooftop solar panels and other energy-efficient equipment, including smart inverters, EV charger hookups, hot water heaters and smart appliances and controllers. Member rebates are also part of the package, and co-op staff meet regularly with homeowners to incorporate the technology into their daily routines.

“There’s a definite learning curve when you move into an all-electric home,” said Chris Bilby, a research engineer at Holy Cross Energy.

“It’s a different beast almost. You can turn everything on and you can end up with extremely high bills, or you can learn how to manage your new home in a way that’s a little bit more grid-friendly and saves money.”

Since the first family moved into the Basalt Vista development in 2019, the project has attracted widespread attention. It’s been the subject of a National Renewable Energy Laboratory study and a finalist for a national magazine’s “solar project of the year.”

Closer to home, the development has served as a learning lab to help the co-op make emerging technologies available to more people as it works toward meeting its goal of 100% green power by 2030. For example, the success of the program’s residential battery component has enabled the co-op to offer all members a chance to buy one through Power +, an on-bill payment program.

“We opened it up March 1, and so far, we’ve had 20 people apply in the last six weeks,” said Bilby, noting that a battery could cost upward of $25,000.

Priced at $250,000 to $345,000, the townhomes have put a dent in Aspen’s affordable housing shortage by being available only to schoolteachers and county workers. Other contributions include $3 million in land from the Roaring Fork School District and $3 million in infrastructure from Pitkin County. Habitat for Humanity provided subsidies to keep the residences affordable.

The focus on public sector employees is a quality-of-life issue, said Jenna Weatherred, the co-op’s vice president of member and community relations. “They come in young and stay when they’re young and when they get a little bit older and start families, very often we lose them.”

Meanwhile, Quiceno has been getting better at “counting and saving kilowatts in the summer and then using them in the winter” for some “sweet” savings on her electric bill. The co-op, she said, has been a big help in the process.

“I feel so lucky and blessed to live in this place,” said Quiceno. “By having this house, I’m doing my part to help the planet.”

Victoria A. Rocha is a staff writer at NRECA.

NRECA’s Achieving Cooperative Community Equitable Solar Sources project, a three-year initiative funded by the Department of Energy, aims to bring the benefits of solar power into low- and moderate-income communities. NRECA is partnering with seven electric cooperatives across the country to deploy solar projects that help LMI consumer-members with the intent to share the lessons they learn with the wider co-op network.

For an in-depth look at ACCESS, we’re joined by Keith Dennis, NRECA’s vice president for consumer member engagement, Deb Roepke, the ACCESS project’s principal investigator and technical adviser, and Nick Shumaker of Oklahoma Electric Cooperative, one of the ACCESS partner co-ops.

Listen to the episode below:

Related Content:

DOE Grant Will Help Co-ops Bring Solar Power to Low-Income Members
Report Sheds Light on Energy Burdens for Low-Income, Minority Households
Small Co-op Tackles Big Issue: Solar Access for Low-Income Households

You can also listen and subscribe to Along Those Lines on your preferred podcast service:
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube

Find out more about NRECA’s podcast. Questions or suggestions? Email us at AlongThoseLines@nreca.coop.

Researchers who made 10,000 modified concrete blocks containing fly ash from a coal-based electric cooperative power plant have won an international competition for turning carbon dioxide emissions into useful products.

CarbonBuilt, a team of researchers affiliated with UCLA, is one of two winners of the $20 million NRG Cosia Carbon Xprize. For the past year, researchers have been working at a test production facility drawing fly ash and flue gases from Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s Dry Fork Station near Gillette, Wyoming, to formulate a profitable concrete product.

“Deploying their technology to avoid and reduce emissions from heavy industry will be a gamechanger for global decarbonization in the fight against climate change,” said Marcius Extavour, vice president of climate and energy at XPRIZE.

The UCLA team, which began researching the technique in 2013, has reduced the carbon footprint of its concrete by more than 50% while permanently incapsulating CO2 in construction-grade concrete injected into cement during the curing process.

Carbon Cure Technologies, a second team working at a facility affiliated with a natural-gas-fueled plant in Canada, will split the $15 million final prize award to fund further research.

The 10 finalist teams shared $5 million to pursue projects directing CO2 toward a variety of products, including food additives and plastics, but both winners were focused on improving concrete.

“Concrete is one of the world’s most abundant materials, and a crucial frontier in the fight against climate change,” said Extavour. “The production of Portland cement, the key ingredient that binds concrete and gives it its strength, accounts for approximately 7% of global CO2 emissions.”

Carbon Cure Technologies produced concrete with reduced water content without compromising its reliability. CarbonBuilt’s concrete formulation is a replacement for ordinary Portland cement. It uses low-cost waste materials, potentially reducing storage and disposal costs.

CarbonBuilt’s work was conducted at Wyoming’s Integrated Test Center, a research facility funded by the state of Wyoming with support from NRECA, Denver-based Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and Bismarck, North Dakota-based Basin Electric Power Cooperative.

“Finding alternative, economic uses of carbon dioxide is paramount to the success of [carbon capture, utilization and storage] in Wyoming and across the nation,” said Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon. “This is just the first of many opportunities for us to work collaboratively to provide technical solutions to CO2 capture challenges in Wyoming.” 

Basin Electric’s coal-based 385-megawatt Dry Fork Station is a lignite-fueled plant in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. That region now accounts for 40% of the coal used domestically.

Controlling CO2 emissions and reducing fly ash waste are among the goals of “clean coal” research and considered key to preserving the value of coal as the world’s most abundant fossil fuel resource.

“When we started this process, carbon utilization and the incredible opportunity of this industry was relatively unknown,” said Jason Begger, managing director of the Integrated Test Center.

Electric cooperatives were among early supporters of the global competition to advance carbon utilization research. NRECA and its generation and transmission co-op members worked closely with the state of Wyoming to establish the Integrated Test Center and secure research projects for the facility.

“As we plan for a future that depends on electricity as the primary energy source for a majority of the economy, strategic investments in energy innovation that support reliability of an increasingly complex resource portfolio are critical,” NRECA CEO Jim Matheson said.

The two G&Ts are working with NRECA to support and advance federally funded carbon capture and storage technology, which includes development of new compounds and materials with potential commercial value.

“Technology advancement drives economic development and cleaner energy,” said Tri-State CEO Duane Highley. “The Carbon XPRIZE enabled the advancement of novel technology solutions to carbon challenges, and as more innovators come to Wyoming to evaluate technologies, the work of the ITC will continue to deliver important results.”  

Basin Electric’s Dry Fork Station, among the most modern coal-based generation facilities in the nation, supports ongoing research aimed at reducing emission and waste concerns related to fossil fuel combustion. “We’re proud to host innovation that could enable a path forward for coal,” said Paul Sukut, Basin Electric Power Cooperative CEO and general manager. “Our cooperative believes an all-of-the-above energy strategy is best for meeting our members’ needs, and coal as a reliable fuel source is part of that.”

In the video below, watch XPRIZE’s Marcius Extavour explain carbon technology:

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

ARLINGTON, Va. – More than 1,500 electric cooperative CEOs and other co-op representatives will take co-op priorities to Capitol Hill April 19-23 for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s (NRECA) Legislative Conference and congressional visits. The conference and meetings with lawmakers will be conducted virtually.

“Because they are built by and belong to the communities they serve, electric cooperatives have a unique perspective on local needs and are strong advocates for the rural families and businesses they serve,” said NRECA CEO Jim Matheson. “Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, NRECA and our members have kept open lines of communication with elected officials to advance our shared priorities and secure critical assistance for co-op consumer-members. We look forward to continuing these conversations next week as thousands of co-op advocates conduct virtual conversations with lawmakers.”

Three electric cooperative priority issues

Co-op leaders will highlight three priorities during the congressional visits:

• Refinancing Rural Utilities Service (RUS) loans: Co-ops are pressing for passage of The Flexible Financing for Rural America Act (H.R. 2244, S. 978). The bill would provide critical economic relief by allowing electric cooperatives to refinance USDA Rural Utilities Service loans at lower interest rates without penalty—just as other businesses do. This change would save co-ops and their consumer-members as much as $10 billion.
  
  
• Rural broadband: More than 200 co-ops provide broadband service to their consumer-members, but an expanded combination of federal grant and loan funding is essential to close the digital divide. Co-ops are calling on Congress to: support sustained broadband financing that prioritizes projects in areas with the lowest population densities, and provide greater oversight of the Federal Communications Commission to ensure winning Rural Development Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I bidders have the financial, technical and operational ability to provide quality broadband service. The FCC estimates that 34 million Americans still lack access to high-speed internet, the vast majority of whom live in rural communities served by electric co-ops.
  
  
• Comparable tax credits for energy innovation: As not-for-profit businesses, electric co-ops cannot access certain clean energy innovation tax incentives that are available to other businesses. Congress should address this by providing comparable access to federal investment and production tax incentives and additional financing options, such as a clean and renewable energy bond program, to support co-op projects that promote clean, affordable, and reliable electricity.

Sen. Grassley wins Distinguished Service Award

Prior to NRECA’s Legislative Conference, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was presented with NRECA’s Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes a lawmaker’s outstanding contribution to the progress of electric cooperatives and the public power program in the United States.

Video: Sen. Grassley receives NRECA’s 2021 Distinguished Service Award

Grassley was recognized for his unwavering support for America’s electric cooperatives throughout his six decades of public service, including his hometown co-op, Butler County REC. He played a leading role in advancing key electric co-op policy priorities, including enactment in 2019 of the RURAL Act, which saved co-ops from losing their tax-exempt status if they received government grants surpassing 15% of their non-member income. This legislation saved electric co-ops millions of dollars in federal taxes that now go directly toward serving co-op consumer-members.

Grassley also championed legislation to repeal the “Cadillac Tax” imposed on health care benefits that cooperatives provide for their employees. NRECA estimated that its member cooperatives would save more than $30 million a year in pension insurance premiums because of this legislation.

“Butler County REC is proud to be Sen. Grassley’s hometown cooperative,” said Craig Codner, the co-op’s CEO. “We appreciate his advocacy for cooperatives. From his support of legislation to his morning run with Iowa Youth Tour participants, his dedication is evident. We congratulate Sen. Grassley on his much-deserved Distinguished Service Award.”

“We are honored that NRECA has recognized Sen. Grassley with this important award,” said Chuck Soderberg, executive vice president, Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives. “Throughout his decades of public service, Sen. Grassley has gone above and beyond to fight for co-ops, their employees, their communities, and the cooperative business model. We are incredibly grateful to have Sen. Grassley serving the state of Iowa and especially grateful that we can call him a true friend of America’s electric cooperatives.”

“Sen. Grassley is an exemplary friend to electric co-ops and understands well the important role they play across the nation,” said Matheson. “He has helped pave the way for co-op priorities on Capitol Hill, always with the goal of improving the quality of life in rural communities. I commend Sen. Grassley for his unwavering focus on the needs of his constituents and his commitment to ensuring the continued availability of affordable and reliable power.”

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national trade association representing nearly 900 local electric cooperatives. From growing suburbs to remote farming communities, electric co-ops serve as engines of economic development for 42 million Americans across 56 percent of the nation’s landscape. As local businesses built by the consumers they serve, electric cooperatives have meaningful ties to rural America and invest $12 billion annually in their communities.

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As extreme cold weather and a series of winter storms continue to impact electricity customers across the country, investor-owned electric companies, electric cooperatives, and public power utilities are working together to ensure that power is restored to customers safely and as quickly as possible.

In Texas, more than 2 million customers are without power as the state’s primary grid operator—the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)—continues to order electricity providers to interrupt power delivery. A historic arctic cold snap across the state has impacted electricity generation, and there is not enough energy supply to meet customer demands.

“Most electricity providers in Texas are transmission and distribution companies and do not generate electricity,” said Edison Electric Institute (EEI) President Tom Kuhn. “The shortage of generation capacity is not something electric companies, electric cooperatives, and public power utilities can directly address. They must follow directives from ERCOT and other grid operators. Our frontline employees who operate the transmission and distribution systems are actively keeping that system operational and in balance, while restoring power to customers as soon as generation resources become available.”

Customers in other states also have experienced outages if their electricity providers have been directed to interrupt power as system operators grapple with an overwhelming demand for electricity and limited supply due to the historic weather that has affected all forms of electricity generation.

“Electric utilities in several states in the middle of the country are facing serious challenges due to extreme cold weather conditions and related power constraints,” said American Public Power Association (APPA) President & CEO Joy Ditto. “The electric power industry is united in responding to this situation in order to protect the grid and get the power back on for everyone as quickly and safely as possible.”

In addition to extreme cold, several states—including Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia, and West Virginia—have been hard hit by devastating ice and winter storms. In these areas, mutual assistance networks are activated, and crews continue to work around the clock to restore power to customers who lost power due to downed wires and other infrastructure impacts.

“Electric co-ops are working as swiftly and safely as possible to restore power in the wake of record-cold temperatures,” said National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) CEO Jim Matheson. “As the arctic cold persists and work continues, the continued cooperation of federal, state and local communities is vital as we work together to protect the electric system and restore outages. This historic storm serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of a diverse fuel supply, robust transmission infrastructure, and effective coordination between grid operators and electricity providers.”

Electricity providers in all impacted areas are encouraging their customers to remain vigilant against scams targeting utility customers and are reminding customers that portable generators and grills never should be used indoors or in other enclosed areas where lethal fumes quickly can accumulate.

With another winter storm in the forecast this week, electric companies, electric co-ops, and public power utilities in the path are preparing and in close coordination with emergency response officials, state leaders, and customers.

“We know that being without electricity creates hardships and presents additional challenges in extreme cold,” added Kuhn. “We greatly appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding.”

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About the American Public Power Association

The American Public Power Association is the voice of not-for-profit, community-owned utilities that power 2,000 towns and cities nationwide. It represents public power before the federal government to protect the interests of the more than 49 million people that public power utilities serve, and the 93,000 people they employ. The association advocates and advises on electricity policy, technology, trends, training, and operations. Its members strengthen their communities by providing superior service, engaging citizens, and instilling pride in community-owned power.

About the Edison Electric Institute

EEI is the association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies. EEI’s members provide electricity for more than 220 million Americans,and operate in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to our U.S. members, EEI has more than ​65 international electric companies, with operations in more than 90 countries, as International Members, and hundreds of industry suppliers and related organizations as Associate Members.

About the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national service organization representing the nation’s more than 900 private, not-for-profit, consumer-owned electric cooperatives, which serve 42 million people in 48 states.

Electric cooperatives are finding ways to quickly develop new sources of renewable energy to help meet member demand for reliable, affordable power.

Distribution co-ops in Kansas are adding more than 20 megawatts of solar power over the next two years through power purchase agreements with a co-op-owned solar developer based in Arkansas, and Minnesota’s Great River Energy has announced a 200 MW agreement with a wind developer.

A dozen Kansas co-ops issued a joint request for bids for development of up to 5% of peaking renewable capacity under the Kansas Cooperative Sun Power Program. The co-ops’ wholesale power supplier recently revised its contracts to allow co-ops to meet up to 15% of their peaking demand with owned or contracted renewable capacity.

The Kansas group accepted proposals from North Little Rock-based Today’s Power Inc. to build, maintain and operate separate projects serving 12 co-ops for a period of 25 years. Construction of the arrays begins in 2021, with all sites expected to be fully operational by late 2022.

“Clean energy will not only reduce our carbon footprint but will help us reach our goal of rate stability by helping the co-op save on the wholesale power bill,” said Steve Foss, CEO of FreeState Electric Cooperative.

The distribution co-op, jointly headquartered in McLouth and Topeka, added a pair of industrial-scale generators at two of its substations in 2018, and co-op management sees the addition of 2 MW of solar capacity as a more economical way of controlling wholesale power costs.

“We look at everything very carefully to determine the feasibly of a project, the investment, and how it will impact our members in a positive way,” said Foss. “This project is about financial savings and rate stability and the solar project will help us achieve that.”

Girard-based Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative is adding 2 MW of solar to help meet member peak demand.

“Everyone in rural Kansas works hard for their money and deserves some of the financial security that these solar projects will provide,” said Heartland CEO Mark Scheibe. “What we do helps feed and fuel America, and this project will help us provide affordable power for our consumer-members.”

Lebo-based 4 Rivers Electric Cooperative is adding two 1-MW solar arrays to serve its 7,000 members. The co-op expects to save money year-round by shaving costs tied to a few hours on the hottest days of the year, because of the influence of peak demand on wholesale rates.

“We have summer peaks, and our highest peak during July and August sets a ratcheted peak for the remaining eight months,” said Dennis Svanes, CEO and general manager of 4 Rivers EC. “A reduction in peak costs translates into lower rates immediately for our members.”

Under the agreements, Today’s Power will monitor production, provide maintenance and upkeep at sites spread across Kansas and guarantee projected output provisions outlined in the contracts.

“For a small co-op like Twin Valley Electric Cooperative, with very few employees, a turnkey agreement is perfect,” said Angie Erickson, CEO of the Altamont-based co-op, which serves about 3,000 meters. She added that the agreement affords the co-op opportunities to provide solar energy to its members without requiring additional training and expertise for its small staff.

Site work is expected to begin within weeks at some locations.

“Engineering and design work are already in progress for these projects,” said Matt Irving, vice president of operations for Today’s Power. “Our technicians can develop and commission a 1-MW solar array within 60 days once land is acquired and prepared and all permits and engineering approvals are in place.”

Today’s Power is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc. Since 2014, the company has built solar arrays for 15 of Arkansas’s electric co-ops and for other co-ops in Oklahoma and Tennessee. Once the Kansas projects are deployed, the company will have more than 70 MW of solar capacity deployed under PPAs in four states.

Meanwhile, Maple Grove, Minnesota-based Great River Energy has signed a PPA for 200 MW of wind energy. The generation and transmission co-op serves 28 distribution co-ops in Minnesota and is committed to meeting 50% of its overall demand with renewable power by 2030.

“Securing beneficial wind energy is a vital component of our power supply strategy,” said Jon Brekke, vice president and chief power supply officer for the G&T. “This project is an important step in our portfolio transition that will benefit our members for decades to come.”

Great River Energy is acquiring the full output from 73 turbines being deployed across South Dakota’s Deuel County by a renewable energy developer. It will begin receiving energy from the Deuel Harvest Wind Farm in 2023.

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s Dry Fork Station is inching closer to adding carbon dioxide storage to its advanced coal technology, an action that could help control emissions and eventually lead to commercial uses for the compound.

The Bismarck, North Dakota-based generation and transmission co-op is working with the Wyoming CarbonSafe Project on Phase 3 of a multiyear research project examining the feasibility of long-term CO2 storage in reservoirs up to 10,000 feet below ground.

“If the Wyoming CarbonSafe project is proven feasible, Dry Fork Station will be one of the cleanest coal plants in America,” said Paul Sukut, CEO and general manager of Basin Electric. The University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources’ Center for Economic Geology Research is facilitating the project, which began in 2016.

Phase 3 of the project includes testing and data collection at the site, which could eventually hold up to 50 million metric tons of CO2 deposited through pumped storage over a 30-year period.

Previous research at the site has included feasibility studies, test-well borings and geological sampling. The current phase involves geological strata monitoring and site evaluation and meeting requirements for permitting essential to construction.

“Phase 3 will be the phase that tees up commercial operation at the study site,” said Scott Quillinan, director of the Center for Economic Geology Research.

Phase 3 work is being funded in part with a $15.4 million grant from the Department of Energy. The university and Basin Electric also contributed nearly $4 million.

Storage technology could eventually lead to commercial uses for CO2, a byproduct to fossil fuel combustion. Research under way at Dry Fork Station and other locations includes use of CO2 for enhanced oil and gas recovery and as an additive in construction materials, plastics and other products, officials said.

Dry Fork Station is one of the most modern coal plants in North America, and the G&T continues to invest in clean coal technology.  Scrubbers collect 99% of the sulphur dioxide produced by the plant, and mercury and nitrogen oxide emissions are controlled with catalytic reduction, said Sukut. “To be able to extract the carbon dioxide and inject it would be the last step to make [Dry Fork Station] one of the cleanest coal plants in America.”  

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded $1 million to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) for research into pathways to make solar energy more accessible for low- and moderate-income (LMI) consumers and communities.

NRECA’s three-year program, Achieving Cooperative Community Equitable Solar Sources (ACCESS), will research financing mechanisms, program designs and engagement strategies to equip electric cooperatives with the tools they need to successfully develop solar projects to benefit LMI consumers.

“Solar energy is an integral part of the electric cooperative fuel mix, but it remains out of reach for many low-income consumers,” said Jim Spiers, senior vice president of Business and Technology Strategies at NRECA. “We’re excited to work towards solutions that address this challenge, particularly because electric co-ops often serve higher percentages of LMI consumers, including 92 percent of the nation’s persistent poverty counties. The ACCESS program will leverage the experience gained through innovative cooperative initiatives to make solar energy accessible to LMI consumers.”

Six electric co-ops will participate in the program, using financing mechanisms and program designs to target the benefits from their solar projects to LMI members in their communities:

Anza Electric Cooperative’s SunAnza project is a 4 megawatt (MW) photovoltaic solar array and battery energy storage system. The project will serve the residents of a tribal community and other low-income consumer-members in the Anza service area.

Oklahoma Electric Cooperative is building a solar farm in partnership with Norman, Okla., public schools that will reduce the school district’s energy costs. When complete, the 15-acre, 2 MW solar farm is expected to generate the equivalent of nearly 30 percent of the school district’s total energy usage. Roughly half of students in the district qualify for free or reduced-price school meals.  

Orcas Power & Light’s project is a 1.25 MW community solar installationconnected to a battery energy storage system. Objectives of the project include reducing barriers to solar energy access and expanding local energy independence and resiliency. A portion of the solar array will be dedicated to benefit low-income members.

Roanoke Electric Cooperative’s SolarShare strategy explores how to leverage the co-op’s energy efficiency upgrades program with its community solar initiative to benefit members who struggle to pay their bills. The cooperative is exploring philanthropic partnerships to help provide access to savings through community solar subscriptions.

BARC Electric Cooperative and Kit Carson Electric Cooperative also have joined the ACCESS project and will identify and launch their initiatives in the coming months.

Supporting NRECA and the six co-ops on the ACCESS team are:

• National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC) and CoBank, which will help identify LMI funding strategies
• GRID Alternatives, a non-profit organization that makes renewable energy technology and job training accessible to underserved communities; and
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which will lend its scientific and technical expertise to the program.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national trade association representing nearly 900 local electric cooperatives. From growing suburbs to remote farming communities, electric co-ops serve as engines of economic development for 42 million Americans across 56 percent of the nation’s landscape. As local businesses built by the consumers they serve, electric cooperatives have meaningful ties to rural America and invest $12 billion annually in their communities.

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Massive storms can ravage the electric grid, leaving tens of thousands of utility meters stalled until distribution systems are repaired. But the damage caused to transmission systems can present far different challenges for the people who restore power.

That’s why more than two weeks after Hurricane Laura made landfall on the Louisiana coast, two electric cooperatives are still telling members they may not have power fully restored for weeks.

The investor-owned utilities that control transmission assets in western Louisiana began damage assessments and the process of rebuilding their systems within hours after Laura came ashore on Aug. 27 near Cameron. 

While the Louisiana distribution co-ops are not involved in rebuilding the regional transmission system, two generation and transmission cooperatives have had recent experiences with widespread damage, prompting emergency system reconstruction well beyond the scope of routine storm repairs.

When a derecho swept across the Midwest on Aug. 10, Central Iowa Power Cooperative reported outages affecting 58,000 homes and businesses. The storm’s 130-mph winds cut a path of destruction across the state estimated at 70 miles wide and 200 miles long.

“We found miles of line strewn over highways and pole after pole blocking roads,” said Dan Burns, vice president of utility operations for the Cedar Rapids-based G&T. “You couldn’t get trucks in to begin rebuilding the lines, so the first thing we had to do was clear all of that out.”

About 600 of CIPCO’s transmission structures were knocked down, said Burns. “We had damaged infrastructure in 11 counties, and more than 100 of our member co-ops’ distribution substations were offline.”

The damage was comparable to losses experienced by Andalusia, Alabama-based PowerSouth Energy Cooperative during Hurricane Michael. The G&T lost 264 transmission structures after Michael made landfall as a Category 5 storm on the Florida Panhandle in 2018.

“Michael came through the Panama City area, and the devastation was complete,” said Gary Smith, PowerSouth’s president and CEO. “The path of destruction was about 60 miles wide, centered right at Tyndall Air Force Base, and extended about 120 miles deep.”

Specialized Help

The electric power grid is a sophisticated system of complex parts, deployed and installed over many decades.

The basic parts include generation assets like power plants, solar arrays and wind farms; transmission systems that carry high-voltage electricity along conductors supported by tall poles, steel towers or wood-framed structures; and distribution systems that include substations that reduce and divide high-voltage electricity into lower-voltage amounts to safely distribute power to homes, farms and businesses.  

Each element of the grid requires personnel with specific skills. Those involved in building, repairing and maintaining them have their own work procedures, as well as specialized tools, vehicles and equipment.

That can become particularly challenging when major disruptions prompt emergency rebuilds. The pool of available workers who can safely and quickly respond to a transmission provider’s needs is relatively small compared to those trained to help a distribution operator.

“Our guys work on high-voltage lines, and they do it a certain way,” said Smith. “There are not a lot of co-ops in our region of the country that build and maintain their own transmission, so we got help from Cooperative Energy, a G&T out of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and we used contractors.”

PowerSouth divided personnel so that a representative of the G&T, familiar with its systems and procedures, was paired with each contract or mutual aid crew.

With 20% of PowerSouth’s transmission system down, it quickly became clear that damaged segments could be rebuilt faster than they could be repaired.

“With a normal storm, like a tornado, you can straighten structures, replace cross arms and straighten and rehang conductor and keep moving,” said Smith. “This was all destroyed, so we just rolled it up and put everything back new. That made it a total rebuild.”

CIPCO was in a position to harness more mutual aid when the derecho tore through Iowa, so when preliminary damage assessments turned up widespread problems, CEO William Cherrier contacted his counterparts at four other G&Ts to begin coordinating a collective response.

Iowa’s Corn Belt Power Cooperative and Northwest Iowa Power Cooperative, Northeast Missouri Electric Power Cooperative and Wisconsin’s Dairyland Power Cooperative were happy to help.

“We had not called for mutual aid help before, and we were wondering exactly how that worked as far as having agreements and such, but that turned out to be the easiest part of the entire event,” Burns said. “We just called them and said we need help, and they came, with crews, trucks and any materials they had on hand. By the time they got here, we knew where we needed them most. But the hours required for an emergency rebuild when everybody’s power is out can be tough on crews. They worked 16 to 17 hours a day for 12 days in a row, which is far more intense than a normal rebuild.”

Managing Movements and Many Parts

Big projects always require a lot of planning, and when that’s undertaken in response to major system failures, engineers and logistics planners look for ways to quickly meet the challenges.

“The first three days are complete chaos, and then things start coming together,” recalled Smith, describing the rebuild required after Hurricane Michael.  “There are photos and mapping data gathered from helicopter and drone flyovers to analyze, parts inventories to compile and review, basecamp locations to plot, and lodging and meal services to arrange.”

“You are always prepared for the smaller repair jobs, but you are never fully prepared when systems have to be totally rebuilt,” said Smith.

To expedite restoration, work plans are plotted to allow reconnection to less damaged sections of the grid that often restore service to the most densely populated areas.

“When your crews and contractors get stretched out, they’re moving quickly and putting up a number of structures simultaneously,” said Smith. “You’ll have two or three crews on the same line working on structures. When they get finished, they’ll leapfrog, often moving right behind the crews laying out the matting and cribbing needed to support heavy equipment in wet cross-country areas.”

Keeping those crews moving requires a supply chain designed to work with military precision.  That means starting with what’s on hand and then identifying sources that can guarantee fast resupply and delivery to temporary yards often set up at 50-mile intervals.

“We had some planned rebuild projects that were just about to begin construction, and so we robbed a lot of that material,” said Burns, recalling the first few days following Iowa’s derecho.

CIPCO’s vendor management team contacted suppliers, who shipped more poles, insulators and other components. But, at times, there never seemed to be enough.

“We ran short on most materials, because our needs were 10 times greater than the inventory we had,” said Burns. “On a normal planned rebuild, you know from the plan and profile designs the exact quantities needed of each pole class and length. In an emergency response situation, you need to expedite delivery of poles, and you can’t always be specific. You often shoot from the hip just to keep the rebuild going.”

CIPCO restored transmission service to all distribution substations within 12 days of the derecho, but crews will be involved in follow-up work for months. 

Emergency rebuilds present ongoing maintenance challenges that can impact operations for years. New parts and poles are comingled with assets deployed decades ago, and all the changes and updates must be noted and confirmed in the transmission asset database. More visual inspections than would take place under a scheduled rebuild may also be needed.

“We decided to defer some things in order to get power back on as quickly as possible,” said Burns. “For example, we put up the poles, insulators and conductor, but we decided to defer the pole grounds until a later date. That sped up restoration time considerably. Now that the system is back to normal, we can go back and install them without interrupting service to members.”

Just as every storm presents unique challenges, emergency rebuilds are seldom routine.

“You cannot comprehend the devastation and the chaos,” said Smith. “I’ve been CEO 21 years and, for me, Michael was the worst storm we have seen, and you’re never prepared for your worst storm.”

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

The Senate has approved legislation that would help co-ops develop technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions from coal and natural gas-fired power plants and turn them into useful products.

Senators on July 23 passed the bipartisan USE IT Act as part of a sweeping national defense bill. The bill would speed federal approval for carbon capture, utilization and sequestration projects and simplify permitting for CO₂ pipelines.

Senate and House negotiators must now craft a final bill. The House-passed version of the National Defense Authorization Act did not include the USE IT Act, but senators say they plan to press for it as part of a final compromise.

“The best way to make American energy as clean as we can, as fast as we can, is through innovation, not government regulation,” said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “The bipartisan USE IT Act … will do just that without raising costs for Americans.”

He said the bill holds “the key to significant carbon emissions reductions.” Barrasso is the lead sponsor of the bill, along with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who said the bill will help slow climate change.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative CEO Paul Sukut told the Senate committee last year that the bill would spur new strategies to remove CO₂ for reuse or storage.

Companies are researching ways to turn carbon dioxide into products such as carbon composites that can be used to make everything from wind turbine blades to bicycles. Work has also been done on “carbon upcycling” that mixes CO₂ with industrial waste such as coal ash to create nanoparticles that can be used as additives in concrete.

Basin Electric, which is based in Bismarck, North Dakota, is a partner with Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and NRECA in the Integrated Test Center at Dry Fork Station in Wyoming. The test center provides a place for researchers to “explore new and innovative solutions” to reduce CO₂ emissions.

“The USE IT Act is important legislation to advance carbon capture and sequestration technology,” Sukut said. “Basin Electric has long sought solutions for cost-effective carbon dioxide reduction while providing low-cost and reliable power for our membership. The USE IT Act would provide additional support for research—such as that being done by the Wyoming Integrated Test Center located at our Dry Fork Station near Gillette—as well as streamline permitting of the infrastructure needed to permanently store carbon dioxide underground.” 

Last year, NRECA and the Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides power to co-ops, became project partners with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Carbon Capture Center to research the latest carbon-capture technologies.

In Texas, the University of Texas at Austin is conducting a carbon capture study at the natural gas-fueled Mustang Station of Golden Spread Electric Cooperative in Denver City.

The defense bill passed by the Senate also includes the bipartisan Nuclear Energy Leadership Act, which would direct the Department of Energy to increase support for research, development and demonstration of advanced reactors.

“For too long, the United States has lagged woefully behind on innovative nuclear energy technologies, which comes at great cost to our economy, our global leadership, and the environment,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

“Nuclear energy can … provide safe, clean, and affordable power to homes, schools, and businesses that traditionally rely on more costly energy sources,” said Murkowski, the lead sponsor of the bill along with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.

Kentucky co-ops and a global distiller are taking the order “Whiskey, neat” to a new level.

Inter-County Energy Cooperative, headquartered in Danville, Kentucky, recently announced arrangements with international beverage-maker Diageo to power the company’s new 72,000-square-foot distillery, dry house and warehousing facilities in Lebanon with 100% renewable energy.

Winchester-based G&T East Kentucky Power Cooperative has also entered power purchase agreements with the company to deliver renewable energy to the $130 million distillery, which will produce up to 10 million proof gallons of American whiskey, including Bulleit bourbon, a year. 

In addition, Diageo will lease panels from Cooperative Solar Farm One, which is owned by Inter-County Energy and 15 other Kentucky electric cooperatives and run by EKPC.

Diageo expects to complete construction of the distillery and begin production in 2021.

“Inter-County Energy is proud to work in partnership with Diageo and East Kentucky Power Cooperative to understand the energy needs of this facility and to develop innovative ways to meet the sustainability goals of one of the largest renewable energy consumers in Kentucky,” said Jerry Carter, president and CEO of Inter-County Energy.

The Diageo Lebanon Distillery is expected to be one of the largest carbon neutral distilleries in North America, according to the company, whose portfolio contains more than 200 brands, including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal and Guinness. Among its innovations will be electrode boilers and an onsite fleet of only electric vehicles, including forklifts, Diageo said.

Cathy Cash is a staff writer at NRECA.

Utility-scale solar power is coming to Montana’s Big Sky Country, and the energy produced will help meet the needs of electric cooperative consumer-members.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative and Clēnera Renewable Energy have signed a power purchase agreement for the Cabin Creek Solar Project, which will consist of two 75-MW projects in southeastern Montana. According to Clēnera, the project will eliminate 265,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year and power 30,000 homes.

“Adding solar further promotes our all-of-the-above energy solution as we generate energy using a diverse resource portfolio including coal, natural gas, and other renewable resources,” said Paul Sukut, Basin Electric’s CEO and general manager.

The Cabin Creek Solar Project will be Basin Electric’s second contracted utility-scale solar project.

“Cost-competitive energy like the Cabin Creek Solar Project will be part of the energy mix we purchase from Basin Electric for our member systems,” said Claire Vigesaa, general manager of Upper Missouri Power Cooperative. The Sidney, Montana-based generation and transmission cooperative is one of 10 G&T members of Basin Electric.

The two new solar arrays will be built on 1,100 acres five miles west of Baker, Montana, in the service territory of Ekalaka-based Southeast Electric Cooperative.

Under the terms of the 15-year contract, both arrays are expected to be completed by 2023. Developers worked with Basin Electric and the local co-op to coordinate siting and transmission needs.  

“This project is one more example of cooperatives working together to use economies of scale to add affordable generation for all their members—similar to what was done 70 years ago when cooperatives were first built,” said Jack Hamblin, Southeast EC’s general manager.

According to the Department of Energy, Montana is home to about 30% of the United States’ recoverable coal reserves. Bakken Range oil and gas reserves also extend into the state. Wind generation currently meets about 7% of the state’s energy demand.

“This project underscores the efforts by Montana’s electric cooperatives to continue to embrace more carbon-free technology,” said Gary Wiens, CEO of Montana Electric Cooperatives’ Association. “It also demonstrates Basin Electric’s commitment to seek development of renewable energy projects in our state.”

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

Keeping tens of thousands of hogs fat and happy takes a lot of electricity, but Reicks View Farms has found a way to reduce its monthly electric bill while improving the environment.

The Lawler, Iowa, hog farm, which has 50,000 breeding sows and ships 25,000 hogs to market each week, is now earning money from selling solar energy to MiEnergy Cooperative, an electric co-op based jointly in Cresco, Iowa, and Rushford, Minnesota.

The 664-kW Reicks View solar array has reduced the farm’s carbon footprint, cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 333 tons. And the renewable power generated by the farm benefits the hogs, according to farm operators.

“We’re constantly changing the environment to keep it comfortable for the pigs,” said Mark Kipp, the farm’s purchasing manager. “As it gets warmer, we’ve got to move a lot of fresh air through our buildings. That helps the pigs stay healthy and, when they’re healthy, they eat better and they gain more weight.”

When farm managers began exploring renewable energy, they considered biowaste generation and wind turbines. But the farm’s maintenance staff and electricians had experience with small solar applications, so utility-scale solar quickly won out.

The array of static solar panels, constructed on pastureland located near MiEnergy’s three-phase distribution feeder line, began producing electricity 10 months ago. Six sheep grazing at the site consume enough vegetation to help minimize upkeep.

“In this situation, it benefits both the member and the cooperative by building one large utility-scale system rather than several small ones,” said Brian Krambeer, MiEnergy’s president and CEO.

He credited the co-op’s power supplier, Dairyland Power Cooperative, with paving the way for the deal by allowing its distribution co-ops to add locally generated renewable energy to their portfolios.

“This arrangement has allowed us to add Reicks View Farms’ system, as well as add four future arrays totaling 9 MW situated in specific areas of our service territory where distribution lines make for efficient delivery of power locally,” Krambeer said.

Farm operators are studying the possibility of adding more renewable energy, including battery storage, to help control energy costs as part of future modernization efforts. Meanwhile, they continue to monitor the performance of the solar components.

“I was surprised to learn how much solar technology has improved in the last five years,” said Kipp. “I didn’t know what to expect going into this, but from what I know now, I think we’ll see even more solar energy as technology evolves.”

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

Great River Energy has announced that it will close a coal-fired power plant, repower a second coal plant with natural gas and dramatically increase wind power while reducing costs for its distribution cooperative members and their consumers.

“We are building a power supply portfolio that will serve our member-owner cooperatives for decades,” said Great River Energy President and CEO David Saggau. “We are taking advantage of cost-competitive renewables and reliable access to market energy while fostering innovation as the technology of our industry evolves.”

The Maple Grove, Minnesota-based generation and transmission cooperative released details on May 7 of the measures it will take to reduce the co-op’s carbon footprint and slash wholesale electric rates.

They include closing its 1,151-megawatt Coal Creek Station in late 2022; modifying its 99-MW Spiritwood Station plant to use natural gas exclusively; and adding 1,100 MW of renewable wind capacity through power purchase agreements by late 2023. Coal Creek Station is one of the biggest power plants in the upper Midwest.

Expansion of Great River Energy’s renewable portfolio reflects an investment of more than $1 billion in new clean energy resources in the region.

“Our power supply plans deliver on our member-owners’ three highest priorities: affordability, reliability and environmental stewardship,” Saggau told reporters. The cooperative’s power supply resources will be more than 95% carbon dioxide-free.

Minnesota already has a 25% renewable energy mandate, and the state’s governor last year proposed a deadline for eliminating emissions from electricity production altogether by 2050.

GRE directors voted to shut down the co-op’s remaining coal-fired generation during a board meeting held on May 7, said Saggau, citing economic considerations and the availability of alternative sources of energy.   

GRE is also installing a 1-MW, long-duration battery demonstration system and will support re-powering the Blue Flint biorefinery with natural gas. Blue Flint is currently fueled by process heat from Coal Creek Station.

The conversion of Coal Creek Station to natural gas was not economically feasible in Great River Energy’s analysis, said Jon Brekke, the G&T’s vice president and chief power supply officer.

Saggau added that all GRE member cooperatives have been consulted throughout the process leading up to the changes, and the G&T’s directors have agreed to continue economic support of affected communities for five years after the closure of Coal Creek Station.

Most of the 260 staff positions currently assigned to Coal Creek Station are expected to continue through its closure, and jobs could be maintained through the decommissioning period at the site, Saggau said.

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

A $15 million federal grant to advance carbon capture and storage technology research will be used for preliminary work on a storage facility near Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s Dry Fork Station in Wyoming. 

Basin Electric is hosting the project, which is a joint venture with the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources (SER).

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory grant is a major step toward advancing commercial-scale carbon capture and storage technology. It will help fund a geological storage project located near Basin Electric’s 385-megawatt lignite coal-based plant north of Gillette, Wyoming.

The project could store as much as 50 million tons of CO₂ underground.

“We have successfully demonstrated the feasibility of safely, permanently and economically storing CO₂ in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin,” said Scott Quillinan, SER’s director of research. “We’re moving forward with final testing to confirm our findings and the pursuit of necessary state and federal permits to move to the final stage.”

Construction and permitting for the project are expected to be completed between 2025 and 2030. Dry Fork Station is a lignite-fueled plant in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.

The region, which accounts for 40% of the coal used domestically, is also home to CO₂ pipelines servicing oil and gas fields, including sites with potential for enhanced oil recovery methods using carbon dioxide.

The three-year, $19.1 million project is in the third phase under the Energy Department’s Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) initiative, which seeks to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions from the use of fossil fuels. No CO₂ will be injected during this stage.

“CarbonSAFE has exciting potential to find permanent storage for CO₂ through this geologic testing,” said Paul Sukut, Basin Electric CEO and general manager, citing the technology’s potential to preserve and enhance coal-fired facilities. “This work is an important step in keeping our baseload (energy) viable in a carbon-constrained environment.”

The grant will support commercial-scale surface and subsurface testing, data assessment and modeling, and documentation work needed to pursue the necessary permits. The work is among the efforts Basin Electric is supporting to help ensure that coal remains a valued energy asset.

“Basin Electric has always been passionate about coal because of its ability to remain reliable whether or not the sun is shining or the wind is blowing,” Sukut said. The regional co-op generates and transmits electricity to 141 member systems in nine states.

Dry Fork Station, commissioned in 2011, is among the most modern coal-based generation facilities in the nation with several decades of remaining use. It is also home to Wyoming’s Integrated Test Center, where academic and commercial research into new uses for carbon dioxide is underway.

The federal government is offering tax credits to support CO₂ storage and oil exploration, improving the project’s commercial viability by controlling costs, SER’s Quillinan said.

In addition to the $15.2 million in federal funding, Basin Electric is contributing $1.5 million, and the University of Wyoming is contributing $2.4 million toward the project.

Other partners include: Energy and Environmental Research Center; Advanced Resources International Inc.; Carbon GeoCycle Inc.; Denbury Resources Inc.; Los Alamos National Laboratory; and Schlumberger.

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

President Trump’s 2021 budget proposal would sell off transmission assets that provide affordable hydropower from federal dams to hundreds of electric cooperatives, eliminate the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and slash funding for energy research and development.

In more positive news for co-ops, the president’s budget would maintain the current $5.5 billion level for the Rural Utilities Service Electric Loan Program. However, it would cut $305 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Broadband ReConnect Program. It would set ReConnect funding at $250 million, down from the $555 million that Congress provided in the 2020 fiscal year.

The budget plan would eliminate funding for all USDA Rural Business and Cooperative programs, including the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant Program, Rural Energy for America Program and the Rural Cooperative Development Grant Program. Co-ops use these programs to help fund rural development and renewable energy projects.

The international affairs budget would be cut by 22% from last year’s appropriated level, including the elimination of U.S. Agency for International Development’s economic and development assistance programs. The programs fund some of NRECA International’s efforts to bring electricity to developing nations.

The president’s budget is largely a wish list from the administration, giving insight into  its priorities. Congress, which has the power of the purse, is responsible for funding the government and typically sets its own spending priorities.

“Underinvestment in rural communities, especially in infrastructure, continues to be a challenge,” said Louis Finkel, NRECA’s senior vice president of government relations. “Though the budget proposal provides some thoughtful support that would benefit the communities served by electric cooperatives, it also includes some troubling provisions.  With a rapidly evolving energy market, it is concerning that the budget under-invests in energy technology development.”

The budget includes two new infrastructure programs: a $25 billion Revitalizing Rural America grant program to help bring transportation, broadband, water and other projects to rural communities, and a $60 billion building infrastructure grant program to finance large-scale projects in a range of sectors, including roads, bridges, rail, transit, pipelines, energy and broadband. The proposal doesn’t provide details about how these programs would be carried out.

Deep cuts are proposed for the Department of Energy’s core energy research and development programs, including the applied R&D programs focused on nuclear, fossil fuels, renewables, efficiency and electricity. However, the budget proposes $190 million for a new energy storage initiative focusing on the development, commercialization and utilization of storage technologies. 

The president’s budget also would slash funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency Disaster Relief Fund, bringing it down to $5.1 billion from $12.3 billion last year. Co-ops often accept FEMA grants to restore power after natural disasters.

Congress is likely to reject many of the administration’s proposed cuts. Lawmakers are especially fond of the LIHEAP program, which helps low-income co-op members with their heating and air-conditioning bills.

Lawmakers also have rejected, on a bipartisan basis, previous attempts by the Trump administration to privatize the transmission assets of the Power Marketing Administrations.

This is the fourth consecutive year the president has proposed to privatize the assets held by the Tennessee Valley Authority, Bonneville Power Administration, Southwestern Power Administration and Western Area Power Administration.

In a joint statement with the American Public Power Association, NRECA said it “will adamantly oppose any effort by the federal government to privatize TVA and PMA assets that have been paid for by electricity customers.”

The president’s budget proposal also would increase PMA rates by changing the cost-based rate structure to make it comparable to rates charged by investor-owned utilities.

“Raising electricity prices on rural Americans to send more money to Washington has been a bad idea each and every time it has been proposed,” said NRECA CEO Jim Matheson.

Trump’s budget proposal declares that “it is long past time for the Federal Government to divest infrastructure that can be more efficiently maintained by the private sector or local partnerships.” It also says that it would “mitigate risk to taxpayers.”

However, none of the PMA costs are borne by taxpayers, NRECA said in its statement with APPA.

Instead, PMA rates are set to cover all generation and transmission costs of the federal investment in the hydropower projects. Similarly, TVA provides affordable electric power to public power utilities and co-ops serving 10 million people in seven states at no cost to taxpayers, the associations said.

“Proposals like the ones included in this budget request are solutions in search of problems,” said APPA President and CEO Joy Ditto.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer at NRECA.

Two recent orders issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission threaten electric cooperatives’ ability to innovate, NRECA CEO Jim Matheson said Thursday at the 16^th annual State of the Energy Industry Forum.

The first order directs PJM—the nation’s largest wholesale competitive electricity market—to adopt a new design for capacity markets that creates a broad minimum offer price rule that applies to most new capacity investments by co-ops. The result, Matheson said, is that co-ops that invest in new generation, storage, efficiency or other resources to meet their members’ future needs may not get credit toward meeting their share of the region’s needs.

PJM, not the co-ops, would decide the price for them to offer any new resources into PJM’s annual capacity market auction. If the price of a co-op’s power resource is too high to clear the market, the co-op would have to pay PJM for duplicate energy capacity.

“Capacity comes from a resource that offers other values besides just capacity,” Matheson said during a speech at the National Press Club in Washington. “A portfolio of resources can help manage a range of risks, meet environmental goals, ensure system reliability and resilience, support a community and more. The Regional Transmission Organizations’ markets don’t recognize any of those values.”

The second FERC order integrates energy storage technologies, such as batteries, into wholesale markets. NRECA strongly supports storage but believes the FERC order goes too far by mandating that state and local regulators allow storage on local distribution facilities and behind the retail meter to be aggregated by third parties into the regional markets.

“The goal of electric cooperatives is to integrate storage into the system in a way that optimizes the value of that investment,” Matheson said at the event, which was hosted by the United States Energy Association. “If third parties can cherry-pick those investments solely for their wholesale market values, it undercuts co-op programs and undercuts the potential for broader system values.”

He said NRECA hopes FERC “will do the right thing” on a rehearing of the issue by granting states and co-ops local control over storage.

Matheson stressed the importance of flexibility when elected officials or regulators develop policy.

“Such an approach will maintain energy diversity for electric co-ops, protect reliability and resiliency, and minimize undue economic impact for consumers,” he said. “And it’s going to encourage more innovation.”

Co-ops need to have the ability to respond to unique regional and local factors to “meet the energy needs of their communities in the best way.”

Matheson also reviewed the success that electric cooperatives had last month in passing key policy priorities as part of the 2020 budget package, which included the RURAL Act. That legislation preserved the tax-exempt status of not-for-profit co-ops when they accept government grants to restore power after natural disasters or bring broadband service to rural areas.

He said NRECA’s legislative and regulatory priorities for 2020 include challenging the FERC orders, reforming the National Environmental Policy Act, improving the accuracy of broadband data and mapping, securing more broadband funds, passing comprehensive energy legislation, reforming the Endangered Species Act and changing tax policy to allow not-for-profit co-ops to more directly participate in the benefits of tax incentives.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer at NRECA.

Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association is pursuing new member-driven initiatives to help meet renewable energy demands for its electric cooperatives and public power districts while advancing clean power public policies and supporting electric vehicle technology.

As part of its Responsible Energy Plan, the G&T is committed to meeting half of its electric demand with renewable energy by 2024 and providing member distribution utilities with greater flexibility to independently pursue local or self-supplied renewable energy projects

“Our cooperative and its members are aligned in our transition to clean power,” said Rick Gordon, chairman of Tri-State, which is based in Westminster, Colorado. “With today’s announcement, we’re poised to become a new Tri-State; a Tri-State that will provide reliable, affordable and responsible power to our members and communities for many years to come.”

The plan includes expansion of EV support infrastructure across Tri-State’s 200,000-square-mile footprint, which includes portions of Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Nebraska.

“With a cleaner grid, Tri-State will fund electric vehicle charging stations for each member and will work with members to further promote electric vehicle usage,” said Lee Boughey, Tri-State’s senior manager of communications and public affairs. Boughey said the G&T is expanding its commitment to other opportunities for beneficial electrification.

“Membership in Tri-State will provide the best option for cooperatives seeking a clean, flexible and competitively priced power supply, while still receiving the benefits of being a part of a financially strong, not-for-profit, full-service cooperative,” said Duane Highley, Tri-State’s CEO.

Among the projects highlighted in the Responsible Energy Plan:

• The addition of eight long-term projects to its portfolio, collectively adding nearly 1 gigawatt of renewable energy, including 715 megawatts of solar power at six facilities and 304 MW of wind at two facilities in New Mexico and Colorado.
• Ongoing work by a contract committee made up of representatives of the G&T’s membership to evaluate partial requirements contracts designed to provide members with flexible options to pursue self-supply options.

“Our membership has moved quickly over the past six months to advance recommendations for flexible partial requirements contracts,” said Gordon. The Tri-State board will consider those recommendations in April.

Read More:

Tri-State G&T Announces Plans to Phase Out Coal Generation

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

The power supplier for most of North Carolina’s electric cooperatives has something new to cluck about: a state-of-the-art facility on co-op lines that converts poultry waste into electricity.

North Carolina Electric Membership Corp. expects the recently opened Carolina Poultry Power facility to be a major resource to help it meet the state’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard. In addition to power, NCEMC will purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) from the CPP to fulfill the standard’s requirements for in-state renewable energy producers.

The Raleigh-based generation and transmission cooperative must procure and retire enough RECs from renewable energy resources to meet 10% of its prior year retail sales, and a portion of the RECs must come from poultry waste facilities.

“The CPP is going to help us reach our compliance requirement,” said Debbie Britt, NCEMC manager of portfolio management. “It also will benefit the area’s poultry farmers, many of whom are our members, who now are able to supply waste and turn it into an asset.”

The $32 million facility is served by Pitt & Greene Electric Membership Corp. in Farmville, where its developer, Power Resource Group, is also based. Pitt & Greene upgraded its substation and distribution system infrastructure to ensure a successful interconnection between CPP and the co-op’s system.

“It’s exciting to see a unique facility like this take shape within a cooperative community,” said Mark Suggs, executive vice president and general manager of Pitt & Greene EMC. “Agriculture is incredibly important to this region, and we’re proud to support this key industry while also encouraging local job creation, economic development and sustainability.”

At full capacity, the facility will process 200 tons of poultry waste a day from local farms that will convert to about 165,000 megawatt-hours of electricity and steam energy per year.

“It was truly a pleasure to work with Pitt & Greene EMC on this innovative project,” said Richard Deming, Power Resource Group CEO and CPP managing partner. “The close working relationship and focus from the team was critical in getting interconnection done in a timely manner, and NCEMC was a fantastic partner in navigating complex issues. Partnering with the electric cooperatives has been an excellent experience.”

“This is a win-win for North Carolina’s energy and agriculture sectors as we work together to achieve a brighter energy future for our state,” said Mike Burnette, NCEMC’s senior vice president of power supply and chief operating officer.

Cathy Cash is a staff writer at NRECA.

Faced with an abundance of competitively priced renewable energy, increased regulatory requirements from state and federal agencies, and its members’ demand for clean energy, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association will retire the remaining coal generation that it operates within a decade.

The Westminster, Colorado-based G&T announced plans Thursday to cease operations at Escalante Station, a 253-megawatt facility in Prewitt, New Mexico, by the end of this year. 

Tri-State officials also said the G&T would phase out operations at Craig Station, a three-unit, 1,285-MW facility in Colorado’s Moffatt County, by 2030.  The shutdown of Unit One by 2025 was previously announced. Ending operations at the Colorado plant will also lead to the closure of the G&T’s Colowyo Mine, which produces coal for the facility, by 2030.

Nearly one-third of the energy consumed by Tri-State’s members comes from renewable resources, and officials anticipate the G&T will meet half its overall demand with renewables by 2024.

“We are leading to be the cleanest, most flexible and most competitive cooperative power supplier for the benefit of our members, the communities they serve and the states we live in,” said Tri-State CEO Duane Highley. “The low costs of renewable energy and operating cost reductions help to counterbalance the cost to retire our coal assets early.”

Retirement of the coal-based plants as well as the mine is expected to impact about 600 jobs.

“As we make this difficult decision, we do so with a deep appreciation for the contributions of our employees who have dedicated their talents and energy to help us deliver on our mission to our members,” said Rick Gordon, Tri-State’s board chairman.

Gordon, an elected director at Limon, Colorado-based Mountain View Electric Association, cited member demand for clean, affordable electricity and public policy decisions as contributing factors for the action. “The fundamental changes in our industry require the retirement of our coal facilities in Colorado and New Mexico,” he said.

Tri-State said it will work with state and local officials in New Mexico, including providing $5 million to help ease the transition for those communities impacted by the Escalante Station closure. The funding will be used for workforce retraining and other economic development needs.

“Our focus is on making these changes with the care and respect our employees and their communities deserve—easing the transition whenever and wherever possible,” said Highley.

The G&T has been diversifying its generation portfolio for the last decade.  Measures have included expanding wind and solar generation, adding natural gas combined-cycle generation and increasing its participation in regional imbalance markets. Tri-State completed closure of its coal-based Nucla Station in western Colorado in September, more than three years earlier than projected.

“The low costs of renewable energy and operating cost reductions help to counterbalance the cost to retire our coal assets early,” said Highley. “With our not-for-profit cooperative business model and strong financial position, Tri-State is favorably positioned to successfully transition our resources at the lowest possible cost.”

The G&T plans to unveil additional actions as part of its Responsible Energy Plan next week. Tri-State officials said it represents a transformative strategic blueprint to meet the needs of its 43-member distribution cooperatives and public power districts in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Nebraska.

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative reached a key renewables milestone recently, delivering periods of 100% fossil-fuel-free generation for several consecutive days in early December.

“We didn’t use a drop of fossil fuel for a cumulative total of more than 32 hours” during 11 days between Nov. 22 and Dec. 10, KIUC President and CEO David Bissell said. “We believe this is a unique accomplishment for a stand-alone electrical grid relying on small-scale renewable generation.”

Bissell said grid operators have routinely been able to meet 90% of demand and more with renewable assets during midday periods on sunny days for nearly two years, but hitting 100% repeatedly during the November-December stretch was a milestone. The co-op also cracked the five-consecutive-hour mark without fossil fuel generation on Dec. 10.

As Kauai’s only source of utility-scale electricity, KIUC serves nearly 40,000 meters. The island’s 100,000-plus residents and visitors receive renewable power from a combination of distributed and utility-scale solar, a biomass plant and several small hydro generation facilities.

KIUC’s board launched its renewable generation strategy in 2008, with a goal of reducing its dependence on fossil fuels, said Bissell. “Our cooperative is proudly leading the way to a 100% renewable future not just on Kauai but around the globe.” 

This fall, KIUC added several renewable assets into its portfolio in 2019, including solar/storage facilities in conjunction with Tesla and an AES Distributed Energy facility. The projects simultaneously feed power to the grid and to the batteries for storage and use after sunset.

All told, the co-op has 64.3 megawatts of owned or contracted solar capacity, 16.3 MW of hydropower and 152 megawatt-hours of battery storage. Member-owned distributed generation totaling 31 MW, primarily from rooftop solar, is also available.

“We have to be mindful that our primary obligation is to provide safe, reliable power to our members at all times,” Bissell said. “Our operations personnel needed ample time to put all the necessary pieces into place before pushing the envelope to 100% renewable. Now we’re doing it routinely.”

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

An electric cooperative’s renewable energy project carved out of 140 acres of a Department of Defense facility in Hawaii is drawing praise from the Department of Energy as it nears completion.

The U.S. Navy’s Naval Facilities Engineering Command was among the recipients of the 2019 Federal Energy and Water Management Awards for a solar array and battery storage project built at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in partnership with Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative.

The project includes solar panels rated at 19.3 megawatts and 70 megawatt hours of battery storage. While the DOD will have priority to meet sporadic operational demand, the power will flow to the island’s grid under routine conditions.

“Construction of the solar and [battery energy storage system] is completing now, but the substation that is required for full output of the facility will not be complete until the summer of 2020,” said Brad Rockwell, manager of power supply for Lihue-based KIUC.

“Output will be controlled by KIUC and used as needed, typically to help meet morning and evening peak demand, but also to provide firm power throughout the day and spinning reserve,” said Rockwell. “It will provide 7% of KIUC’s annual energy needs and provide microgrid capability for PMRF, improving energy security while taking the facility to 100% renewable power supply.”

DOE officials noted that the project not only aligns with federal goals to pursue renewable energy projects but also supports Hawaii’s renewable energy mandate of 100% by 2045, reducing the need to import diesel fuel from the U.S. mainland.

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

After years of dealing with roller-coaster diesel prices, Inside Passage Electric Cooperative in southeast Alaska is investing in hydropower to lower rates for its 1,300 members and bring cleaner energy to the rural communities it serves.

The co-op’s latest project will turn an unused dam on the remote island village of Kake into a source of power for about 600 people, many of them Alaska Natives. It’s the second hydropower project undertaken by IPEC, which plans another two as it moves toward 70% renewable energy.

But the nearly $7 million in state and federal grants that are helping the Juneau-based co-op reach its goals could also strip the not-for-profit business of its tax-exempt status and thwart its effort to reduce rates.

That’s because a 2017 tax bill passed by Congress redefined government grants to co-ops as non-member income, making it difficult for co-ops to avoid going over the 15% limit on outside revenue to keep their tax-exempt status. If they must start paying taxes, many co-ops will be forced to raise electric rates—often in high-poverty communities that can least afford higher energy costs.

“We’re trying to reduce fossil fuel consumption and reduce rates to our members,” said IPEC CEO Jodi Mitchell. “Now this tax issue is going to undo all the good we’ve tried to do. It’s very unfair that we’re being punished for trying to do the right thing. Congress has just got to fix it.”

Mitchell and leaders at the nation’s electric co-ops are urging lawmakers to vote before year’s end to pass the RURAL Act, a bipartisan bill that would allow co-ops to accept grants without risking their tax-exempt status. The legislation had 280 House co-sponsors and 45 in the Senate as of Nov. 12.

Co-op leaders hope that IPEC’s situation, and the stories that follow, will shed light on the harmful impact of the tax law on rural residents:

Hurricane Recovery in Texas

When Hurricane Harvey slammed into Texas with 130 mph winds and more than 20 inches of rainfall, it knocked out power to all 22,467 meters served by Victoria Electric Cooperative. With help from 300 employees of neighboring co-ops and contractors, the co-op restored electricity to 95% of its service area within 10 days. More than 630 poles and nearly 260 transformers had to be replaced.

The co-op’s recovery efforts after the 2017 storm were aided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provided more than $8 million in disaster relief this year. To qualify for those funds, the co-op had to spend about $890,000 of its own money and take out loans for about $420,000 more, costing members a total of about $1.3 million.

By accepting the FEMA grants to restore its system, Victoria EC is facing the loss of its tax-exempt status and a tax liability that could be as much as $850,000.

At its recent annual meeting, about 150 co-op members signed up to support the RURAL Act, said CEO Blaine Warzecha. But so far, Texas Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz have not signed on as co-sponsors of the bill.

“Without the FEMA grants, we’d still have had to repair the system,” Warzecha said. “We would already have had to have a rate increase, no doubt about it … Now we may have to have one anyway to pay for our taxes. Our members are going to end up footing the bill unless we get help from Congress.”

Broadband Service in Tennessee

Forked Deer Electric Cooperative in Halls, Tennessee, was thrilled to learn in October that it was the first recipient in the nation of a rural broadband grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new ReConnect program.

But the co-op’s joy faded when leaders realized that the $2.8 million grant might cost them their tax-exempt status.

“We’re all excited, and then a week later I get a call from one of my colleagues asking me what we’re going to do about the tax issue,” said CEO Jeff Newman. “I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ When he told me, it was a real punch in the gut.”

Newman said the co-op wants to use the federal grant to bring high-speed internet service to the part of its service area that is the most sparsely populated and the least connected. Now he is trying to figure out a way to draw down the grant money more slowly, so that it won’t push the co-op over the 15% limit for non-member revenue in any one year.

“All of our members have these high hopes for broadband, and we don’t want to let them down,” he said. “A middle-aged woman came into our office the other day and cried because she can now do online schooling and change her lot in life. We’re realizing broadband has life-changing impacts for our members … We don’t need obstacles from the federal government.”

Building a Stronger System in Oklahoma

After a brutal ice storm in 2017, it took 30 days for Northwestern Electric Cooperative in Woodward, Oklahoma, to restore power, with 400 lineworkers from throughout the region working around the clock. More than 6,000 poles and 100 miles of wire had gone down in the storm.

The FEMA aid that the co-op received to help restore power came before the tax law change, so it didn’t affect the co-op’s tax-exempt status. But the co-op is now at risk because this year it began receiving nearly $54 million in FEMA grants for a $72 million, three-year project to strengthen its system so that it will be better able to withstand future storms. CEO Tyson Littau said the grants will put the co-op over the 15% non-member limit.

“Do we rebuild and try to strengthen our distribution system and pay the taxes, or do we delay the mitigation project that would improve 1,200 miles of line throughout our territory?” he said. “I think we have a responsibility to the membership to improve the system for the future.”

Snowstorm Recovery in Oregon

When a record-breaking snowstorm hit Oregon in late February, Lane Electric Cooperative in Eugene sustained $5.6 million in damage to a system that serves 10,000 members.

With the help of FEMA grants, the co-op will rebuild its system and make it more resilient against future threats, said CEO Debi Wilson. But the co-op could also lose its tax-exempt status in the process, she said. Lane is currently working with tax advisers to see what tax liability it might face and whether a rate hike will be needed, Wilson said.

“We need things to go back to the way they were before the 2017 tax law,” she said. “Right now, FEMA funds aren’t functioning the way they were intended. They are supposed to take the burden off of our members, not add to their burden.”

Read more coverage of the RURAL Act:

Co-op Voices, Part 1: How Losing Tax-Exempt Status Would Hurt Rural Residents

RURAL Act: Why Popular, Bipartisan Legislation Can Face Hurdles in Congress

Q&A: Senate’s Lead RURAL Act Sponsors Discuss Their Strategy for Passage

As Majority of House Signs On to RURAL Act, Lead Sponsors Press for Vote

Q&A: RURAL Act’s Lead House Sponsors Say Co-op Voices Are Key to Bill’s Success

Co-op CEO to Congress: Help Expand Rural Broadband by Passing RURAL Act

NRECA CEO Jim Matheson: ‘If We All Stand Up,’ Co-ops Can Save Tax-Exempt Status

Co-op Advocacy Needed to Move Vital Tax Fix in Congress

Bipartisan Bill Would Protect Co-ops From Losing Tax-Exempt Status

Listen to a recent podcast on the RURAL Act:

Erin Kelly is a staff writer at NRECA.

A Minnesota electric cooperative is making its renewable energy projects even more environmentally friendly by adding a pollinator garden that officials say will benefit wildlife for years to come.

Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association has three solar arrays at its headquarters and recently began conversion of a buffer along a portion of its service drive to pollinator habitat.

“This is a demonstration project, covering about 1.25 acres, along the edge of two of the solar arrays,” said Andrea Unger, marketing and member service director for the Rockford-based co-op. “It’s a steep hill and we see this as an opportunity to put it to productive use. This is a great chance to do something better with the land.”

The vegetation being planted on the site includes varieties common to Minnesota’s northern prairie landscape before development, which makes it suitable for bees, butterflies, birds and other wildlife native or migratory to the area, Unger said.

“Members and local community leaders frequently visit our grounds to see our solar arrays,” said Wright-Hennepin CEO Tim Sullivan.  “Like other co-ops across the country, this is one more way we’re showcasing a tangible commitment to environmental stewardship.” 

The co-op has been working with a landscaping firm that’s been involved with naturalization projects on Great River Energy’s main campus in Maple Grove, Minnesota. Contractors began site preparations earlier this autumn before the existing turf grass and vegetation entered dormancy, and they plan to return in early spring to begin plantings on the site.

“Contractors will work with us on weed control and cultivation for a few years to ensure that the plantings get established,” said Unger. “After a few years, we expect the site to be virtually maintenance-free.”

Read More:

Arkansas Co-ops Greening Up the Grid With Sustainable Habitat Projects

Decision on Federal Protection for Monarch Butterfly Pushed to December 2020

Co-op Plantings Host Monarch Butterfly Migrations

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

They don’t look like much. Just a couple of gray, metal, shipping-container-sized cabinets. But locked inside may well be the future of the grid, and a growing number of electric cooperatives hold the key.

Vermont Electric Cooperative is one of them.

The co-op based in Johnson began operating a utility-scale lithium-ion battery in July and has already saved its members $90,000 in peak capacity market costs.

“The first month of operating the battery, we hit the New England peak and got immediate value right out of gate,” said VEC CEO Rebecca Towne. “That value goes directly to the member. It’s all about saving money for customers.”

The 1-megawatt/4 megawatt-hour system allows VEC to discharge 400 MWhs onto the grid when it’s needed most to reduce peak capacity market costs. The co-op’s engineering and operations team forecasts peaks to call on the stored energy.

VEC faces 13 demand peaks a year: one each month in Vermont and a larger, more costly peak charge from the New England ISO in the summer.

“We feel confident we will hit 70% of peaks in 400 hours,” Towne said.

Towne, the business partners in the battery project and co-op members recently gathered to mark the initial six months of service at the battery site in Hinesburg, where VEC has a substation and solar panels.

VEC signed a 10-year lease with Viridity Energy Solutions in 2018 for access to 400 kilowatt-hours of storage. Another company, WEG Electric, did the technical design, permitting and installation.

Towne said working with partners has allowed VEC to avoid the upfront capital costs of buying a battery storage system.

“We’ve proved it is a doable model,” she said. “When other co-ops get comfortable with this model, it will be easy to replicate.”

The project has drawn enthusiasm from co-op members not only for the financial reward but for reducing the co-op’s reliance on the region’s fossil-fuel-based peaking plants.

“It’s been a win-win-win,” said Towne. “Battery storage is going to be an important part of the grid as it continues to evolve to be more distributive and intermittent and focused on carbon reduction. Energy storage, particularly as it drops in cost, will be a critical technology in achieving those goals.”

Cathy Cash is a staff writer at NRECA.

NRECA CEO Jim Matheson told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Wednesday that diversity of electric generation options, including baseload sources, is essential to meeting co-op members’ expectations in a carbon-constrained economy.

Electric co-op members can ill afford energy cost increases during the transition to a lower carbon electric portfolio, Matheson said. That and other factors “make it especially important for co-ops to keep electric rates affordable, maintain reliability and improve sustainability as they explore all ideas to meet the evolving energy needs of their communities.”

Matheson urged lawmakers to recognize that co-ops need a diverse mix of fuels—including coal and natural gas—to provide affordable electricity to rural communities in high-poverty areas. “Knowing that both coal and natural gas will continue to play an important role in providing affordable and reliability electricity in a carbon-constrained future, electric co-ops are actively engaged in carbon capture research and development,” he said.

Testifying before the committee on which he served for eight years, Matheson discussed steps that electric co-ops have taken to expand and diversify their generation portfolios. From 2009 to 2016, the share of renewable energy that electric co-ops provided to their members increased from 13% to 17%.

Carbon dioxide emissions from cooperative-owned generating facilities dropped 12% from 2005 to 2017 as they increased energy efficiency and replaced some coal-fired power plants with lower-emitting natural gas plants or renewable energy, he said. Co-ops’ solar capacity alone has more than quadrupled since 2016.

“Every cooperative’s resource mix is unique to the needs of that co-op and will continue to vary greatly depending on existing resources and assets, the impact on electricity costs for its member-consumers, reliability implications, and the availability of alternative electric generation,” he said.

Matheson was one of six witnesses testifying at a hearing titled “Building a 100 Percent Clean Economy: Solutions for the U.S. Power Sector.” The power sector produces about 28% of America’s total greenhouse gas emissions, making it the second-largest source after the transportation sector, committee leaders said.

Committee Democrats announced in July that they want to pursue legislation to zero-out all carbon dioxide emissions from the U.S. economy by 2050.

Matheson noted that the Department of Energy recently chose NRECA—in partnership with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory—to research small-scale, community-based wind energy solutions that can be deployed by co-ops.

“Interest among electric co-ops in deploying energy storage is also growing and should accelerate as more experience is gained, costs decline, and battery performance improves,” Matheson said. “Hydropower and nuclear energy also remain an essential source of zero-emission generation for electric cooperatives in certain regions.”

Forcing co-ops to prematurely shut down coal-fired plants or natural-gas facilities would raise rates for consumer-members, many of whom can’t afford to pay more, he said.

Matheson encouraged lawmakers to visit their local co-ops to better understand their unique situations.

“A technology, program or policy that works for one co-op might not work for another,” he said. “Having the flexibility to implement energy solutions across the many regions where cooperatives serve is a critical factor today and for the future of our members.”

Matheson urged lawmakers to “ensure that any proposals that this committee considers provide long-term certainty and flexibility that maintains energy diversity for electric co-ops, supports reliability of the electric grid and minimizes undue harm for consumers.”

ARLINGTON, Va.—Lawmakers should consider the needs of electric cooperative members when exploring ways to continue reducing power plant emissions, NRECA CEO Jim Matheson told the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Energy Subcommittee today.

“America’s electric co-ops are engines of economic development focused on responsibly delivering affordable, reliable electricity in communities across the nation,” Matheson said. “Diversity of electric generation, including baseload sources, is essential to meeting co-op members’ expectations. Consistent with that approach, electric co-ops thoughtfully explore all ideas that promote these core principles as they work to meet the evolving energy needs of their local communities.”

Electric co-ops have and will continue to diversify their energy portfolios, with a majority of their power now coming from low and no-emission resources. Moreover, by electrifying processes in other sectors of our economy, the electric sector can help reduce emissions across the entire economy.

“Having the flexibility to implement energy solutions across the many regions where cooperatives serve is a critical factor today and for the future of our members,” Matheson said. “Electric co-ops have invested in a variety of measures to reduce emissions, such as renewable sources, energy efficiency, storage options, and research on carbon capture technologies.”

Matheson stressed that every cooperative’s resource mix is different and will continue to vary greatly depending on existing energy resources and assets, the impact on energy costs for member-consumers, reliability implications, geographic location, and other local circumstances.

“Policymakers should be mindful of this and ensure that any energy policy proposals provide long-term certainty and flexibility that maintains energy diversity for electric co-ops, protects reliability of the electric grid, and minimizes undue economic impacts for consumers – especially those in rural and persistently poor communities,” Matheson said.

Matheson’s written testimony to the committee is available here.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national trade association representing more than 900 local electric cooperatives. From growing suburbs to remote farming communities, electric co-ops serve as engines of economic development for 42 million Americans across 56 percent of the nation’s landscape. As local businesses built by the consumers they serve, electric cooperatives have meaningful ties to rural America and invest $12 billion annually in their communities.

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Arlington, Va. –The Department of Energy has selected the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) to research small-scale, community-based wind energy solutions that can be deployed by electric cooperatives.

NRECA is partnering with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Hoss Consulting and Mana Group LLC on research to develop business models and technologies for wind projects that can benefit cooperative consumer-members, communities and their electric distribution cooperatives, and rural generation and transmission cooperatives.

NRECA will team with co-ops around the country to evaluate and deploy diverse types of distributed wind projects. The project aims to increase understanding of the potential benefits of distributed wind and reduce market barriers for the adoption of these technologies in rural areas.

“This collaborative research will help support DOE’s effort to accelerate cost-effective and responsible deployment of distributed wind systems across the United States, raise the quality of distributed wind products, and grow the nation’s domestic energy industry,” said Jim Spiers, senior vice president of Business and Technology Strategies at NRECA. “Small-scale wind is a clean energy resource that can provide unique benefits to rural electric consumers.”

Distributed wind solutions can use various wind technologies, ranging from small off-grid or residential scale turbines to one or more multi-megawatt turbines deployed alone or with other distributed energy technologies. As consumer-owned, not-for-profit utilities, electric cooperatives are well-positioned to develop and evaluate wind as a “distributed energy resource” (DER). NRECA and its co-op partners will examine the potential benefits of added resilience, reduced emissions and lower costs.

Like NRECA’s solar deployment project, a similar DOE-funded program that accelerated utility-scale solar at co-ops across rural America, NRECA expects this project to increase the number of electric cooperatives incorporating wind applications into their resource planning.

DOE has identified high technical potential for “hundreds of thousands of turbines” totaling more than 10 gigawatts of electric capacity on rural distribution grids. However, distributed wind deployment may be limited due to the following factors:

• Cost competition from other distributed and large-scale renewable technologies.
• Incomplete understanding of the spectrum of technology options.
• Lack of documented ROI regarding distributed wind services.
• Lack of in-house technical expertise at some cooperatives.

By standardizing business processes, developing feasible financing models and educating co-op personnel, the project aims to improve the cost-competitiveness of small-scale wind projects. NRECA’s project will focus on three types of distributed wind projects:

• Small <100 kilowatt Wind Solutions: Small-scale projects for remote and end-of-the-line customers, where other traditional solutions may be costly.
• Utility or Community Owned, >100 kilowatt Wind Solutions: Shared wind deployments open to participation by consumer-members.
• Behind the Meter, >100 kilowatt Wind Solutions: Customer/owner owned resources properly integrated into a utility service territory.

The tools and resources developed in the project will be made available to more than 900 electric co-ops nationwide, as well as the broader utility industry.

The project is supported by DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office, which seeks to maximize stakeholder confidence in turbine performance and safety and improve project performance while reducing installed cost in order to be competitive with retail electric rates and other forms of distributed generation.

NRECA will build on its track record of DOE-funded research, which includes the Solar Utility Network Deployment Acceleration (SUNDA) project. This project focused on reducing the soft costs, barriers to entry, and risks of implementing co-op utility photovoltaic solar (PV) through educating, raising the awareness of, and scaling within the co-ops through the use of community solar PV.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national trade association representing more than 900 local electric cooperatives. From growing suburbs to remote farming communities, electric co-ops serve as engines of economic development for 42 million Americans across 56 percent of the nation’s landmass. As local businesses built by the consumers they serve, electric cooperatives have meaningful ties to rural America and invest $12 billion annually in their communities.

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When its largest power plant failed over the summer, Hawaii’s only electric cooperative leaned on its renewable energy resources, distributed generation owned by its members, and voluntary conservation.

A July 21 cable failure at Kapaia Generating Station triggered the island-wide power outage. “It occurred while three units at our Port Allen Generating Station were undergoing scheduled maintenance or were under repair,” said Beth Tokioka, Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative’s communications manager.

With the help of battery storage, normally used to help meet peak afternoon demand, crews were able to restore service in less than three hours to the co-op’s nearly 37,300 meters. But with limited generation available, rolling blackouts were needed to maintain grid stability.

Overcast skies the following day didn’t help matters. “The lack of sun was a real challenge,” said David Bissell, KIUC’s CEO. “We had virtually no production from our large solar facilities.”

Residential demand was also up in the hours after the outage because co-op members and commercial accountholders who had rooftop solar arrays were getting limited production.

“Most members experienced a 30-minute outage every three to four hours during the rolling blackout phase of the event,” Tokioka said. Members heeded the co-op’s calls for voluntary conservation, which helped eliminate the need for rolling blackouts beyond the first 24 hours after the initial outage.

The co-op’s recommended conservation measures included reduced use of large household appliances like stoves, ovens and laundry equipment during peak hours and temporary increases in thermostat settings to reduce air-conditioning demand.

Once crews located the burned cable, arrangements were made to ship necessary repair parts from the U.S. mainland by air, and co-op operations personnel worked to return one of three units at Port Allen to service.

Improving weather allowed for more electricity production from co-op-owned or contracted solar arrays and the full charging of its battery storage systems. The co-op also received full output from its contracted Green Energy Team biomass plant and its Wainiha hydropower plant, making more power available.

“While we continued to caution members about the possibility of more rolling blackouts, particularly during peak demand periods, those proved not to be necessary,” said Tokioka.

A second Port Allen generation unit was placed back into service two days after the initial outage, and repairs to the Kapaia Generating Station were re-energized a week later, allowing members to resume regular use.

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

Four electric cooperatives have won Top 10 utility awards from the Smart Electric Power Alliance for adding the most solar or energy storage to the grid in 2018.

“The utilities in the Top 10 are truly spearheading the progress we’ve seen in the electric sector this past year,” Julia Hamm, SEPA’s president and CEO, said earlier this month in announcing the awards. “They are implementing replicable business models and paving the way to a clean and modern energy future, something that won’t be possible without utilities’ leadership and cooperation.”

Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative in Lihue, Hawaii, ranked No. 1 among utilities that added the most watt-hours of energy storage per customer in 2018.

KIUC posted more than 3,000 watt-hours per customer, nearly six times more than the second-ranked utility, Sterling Municipal Light Department in Massachusetts. This is the second year that KIUC topped the list of storage watts per customer.

“The addition of the AES Lāwaʻi solar-plus-storage facility launched KIUC significantly forward in the rankings,” said KIUC President and CEO David Bissell. “Combined with the Tesla facility, which opened in 2017, we are now able to meet 40% of our evening peak with stored solar power.”

Three other co-ops also made that list: Connexus Energy in Ramsey, Minnesota, which ranked fifth; and United Power Inc. in Brighton, Colorado, which ranked sixth.

“We are encouraged by our results,” said Connexus Energy CEO Greg Ridderbusch, whose co-op is the largest in Minnesota and a Midwest leader in battery storage. “In the first eight months of operation, the batteries are performing as we expected.”

KIUC, Connexus and United Power also ranked in the top 10 for energy storage among utilities that added the most annual megawatt-hours. They made the list along with big investor-owned utilities, including Southern California Edison and Florida Power & Light Co. KIUC ranked second, Connexus ranked eighth and United Power ranked 10th.

“Despite being one of the smaller utilities on this list, we continue to be leaders in energy innovation in Colorado, among cooperatives, and when measured against some of the largest investor-owned utilities across the country,” said John Parker, CEO of United Power, which serves about 92,000 meters and operates two Tesla battery storage systems.

Two co-ops also made the Top 10 list for utilities that added the most watts per customer of solar in 2018. Chickasaw Electric Cooperative of Somerville, Tennessee, in partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority, ranked seventh. KIUC also earned a spot on this list, ranking eighth.

SEPA chose its 2019 winners in early August from among more than 500 utilities that provided solar data and more than 200 that provided energy storage data in response to the alliance’s 12th Annual Utility Market Survey. Participants included investor-owned utilities, government-owned utilities and not-for-profit co-ops. They represent more than 82 million customer accounts in the U.S., or about 56% of all accounts, according to SEPA.

Many utilities find the awards helpful in applying for grants to fund other clean energy projects, according to SEPA’s website.

Editor’s Note: This story originally included five co-ops, but SEPA discovered an error in the way it had interpreted some storage data from Randolph Electric Membership Corp. in North Carolina, so that co-op has been removed from the Top 10 list.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer at NRECA.

Kit Carson Electric Cooperative is nearing its goal of 100% daytime solar energy by 2022 as a new state law calls for zero-emission generation for New Mexico utilities by mid-century.

The Taos-based co-op broke ground Aug. 5 on three solar energy farms that will provide 6 megawatts of capacity by the end of this year.

The projects will bring KCEC’s solar portfolio to 16 MW, half the daytime power demand of its 30,000 members.

“Kit Carson is continuing to meet our commitment to our members for a more affordable, reliable, renewable and resilient future,” said CEO Luis Reyes Jr.

A state law enacted this year sets a renewable energy standard for New Mexico investor-owned utilities and rural electric cooperatives of 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2040. The law further mandates zero-carbon standards for IOUs by 2045 and for co-ops by 2050.

KCEC is working with solar developer Syncarpha Capital to build arrays of 1.5 MW in Sunshine, 1.5 MW at the Northern New Mexico College in El Rito, and 3 MW at the Taos Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The co-op is also pursuing solar projects with battery storage integration in Taos and Angel Fire.

Reyes said solar, storage and wind strategies could help the co-op achieve its ultimate goal of a carbon-free energy portfolio more than 20 years ahead of the new law’s requirements.

“We are now focused on storage in our next phase and visiting with wind developers on importing wind by 2025,” said Reyes. “With energy storage combined with solar power and wind energy contracts, Kit Carson will be on track to meet the state law in 2027.”

Cathy Cash is a staff writer at NRECA.

An Oklahoma generation and transmission cooperative will use a power purchase agreement to add 500 megawatts of renewable capacity to its system, and the deal backs up that power with a major investment in battery storage, creating the largest combined wind, solar and energy storage project in the nation.

Western Farmers Electric Cooperative announced the agreement with NextEra Energy in late July, with plans to have all the elements in place within five years. 

“With the price of wind and solar energy lower than ever, we are now able to pair it with battery storage to make more affordable, renewable energy available,” said Gary Roulet, CEO of Anadarko-based WFEC.

The Skeleton Creek systems will be deployed across more than 30,000 acres located in three counties in north-central Oklahoma.

Plans call for 250 MW of wind generation to be operational by year’s end. Solar arrays totaling 250 MW of capacity should be fully operational by 2023. Four hours of battery storage capacity rated at 200 MW (800 MWh) will also be fully commissioned that year.

“Solar obviously generates power during the day and, in our area, wind typically generates power at nighttime. So, they actually complement each other very well,” said Phil Schaeffer, WFEC’s principal resource planning engineer. “Battery storage should smooth out the variability even more. When you have excess generation and not much load, you can actually store that energy.”

The combined wind, solar and battery storage project is the first of its kind tied to the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), which oversees the bulk electricity grid and wholesale power market for the central United States.

“With the large amount of wind the Southwest Power Pool has in its territory, it’s fairly hard on some days of high production to manage all of that wind generation,” said Schaeffer. “Battery storage will help with all of that excess generation at times. It ramps up instantly and there’s no other power generation technology that has this type of capability. It really puts a new tool in their tool bag.”

The three-phase project, once fully operational, will help WFEC achieve about 50% of its nameplate capacity with wind, solar and hydroelectric power. Solar generation will account for 521 MW of supply, and wind generation will top 955 MW. G&T officials have cited competitive costs and successful deployments of the technology as factors contributing to the timing of the agreements.

Under the terms of the power purchase agreement, NextEra Energy is negotiating all land leases and easement agreements and will build and maintain the systems.

“With this combined facility, we can optimize and maximize the amount of low-cost, emissions-free electricity we provide, while helping Western Farmers diversify its power generation portfolio,” said John Ketchum, president and CEO of NextEra Energy Resources.

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

The House has passed a $733 billion defense bill that could allow electric cooperatives that serve military bases to benefit from new infrastructure grants. The action comes about two weeks after the Senate approved a different version of the legislation that makes it easier for co-ops to pursue carbon-capture projects.

A compromise still must be worked out by a conference committee of negotiators from the House and Senate, which will decide which provisions are included in the final National Defense Authorization Act. The bill, which empowers the Pentagon to spend money in fiscal year 2020, will then go back to both chambers for a vote, likely sometime between mid-July and the end of September.

The House voted 220-197 on Friday to pass its version of the legislation, which includes a provision to amend the definition of “community infrastructure” to permit co-ops to participate in the Defense Community Infrastructure Pilot Program. The 10-year program authorizes the secretary of defense to make grants to states and local governments to improve infrastructure that benefits military bases or the communities that support them.

Co-ops serve more than 80 military bases and other Department of Defense facilities in 38 states, according to NRECA research. They also own, operate and maintain the electric distribution grid at 24 military installations through utility privatization contracts. Nearly a third of the Army privatization contracts and 45% of Air Force privatization contracts are held by co-ops.

The grant program has been open only to state or local government-owned facilities, such as municipal utilities, since it was authorized about a year ago. With the House-approved change, not-for-profit co-ops would be on par with those utilities. The pilot program requires grant recipients to contribute at least 30% of the total project cost, but that requirement is waived when the infrastructure improvements are made in rural areas or when the projects are “related to national security.” Rural areas are defined as cities, towns or unincorporated areas with less than 50,000 residents.

“Electric co-ops are a key provider of services to our military installations, esp. those in rural areas like southern NM,” tweeted Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, D-N.M., on June 12. “With my amendment, electric co-ops will now be able to use fed. grants to update their infrastructure & improve our nation’s readiness.”

The Senate version of the bill includes legislation supported by NRECA that would make it easier for co-ops to get federal approval for carbon capture, utilization and sequestration projects. The bipartisan legislation, known as the USE IT Act, also would make it easier to get permits for CO₂ pipelines.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative CEO Paul Sukut told a Senate panel in February that he supports efforts to help co-ops develop technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants and turn them into useful products.

Sukut testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in support of the bill by Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. The bill would spur new strategies to remove CO₂ from the air and store it permanently underground or transform it into marketable commodities.

Basin Electric, which is based in Bismarck, North Dakota, is a partner with NRECA and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association in the Integrated Test Center at Dry Fork Station in Wyoming. The test center, overseen by the state, provides a place for researchers to “explore new and innovative solutions” to reduce CO₂ emissions, Sukut testified.

“The USE IT Act will support the type of great research already happening in Wyoming at the Integrated Test Center and around the country,” Barrasso said in a recent statement.

The Senate bill also would codify an executive order issued in March by President Trump to protect the nation against electromagnetic pulses and geomagnetic disturbances. The House bill simply calls for the elimination of the current EMP Commission since Trump’s order addresses the issue the panel was created to help solve.

EMPs are caused by the detonation of a nuclear device miles above the Earth’s surface and can affect electronics within its impact area. A geomagnetic disturbance can be caused by solar flares hitting the earth, primarily affecting the electric and telecommunication sectors if the flares’ currents travel along the utility wires.

The executive order calls for a government-wide effort to prepare for and mitigate the national security threat from EMPs and GMDs. It also calls for the government to work with electric utilities and other private stakeholders to develop best practices to address the potential threats.

A three-year study by the Electric Power Research Institute, released in April, concluded that America’s electric transmission system would largely survive an EMP caused by the high-altitude explosion of a nuclear warhead.

Electric cooperatives welcomed a final rule issued Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency that regulates carbon dioxide emissions from power plants without forcing the premature closure of coal-fired facilities.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler signed the Affordable Clean Energy rule, which effectively repeals and replaces the 2015 Clean Power Plan. The CPP would have forced some utilities to switch from coal to lower-emitting fuels as a primary means of achieving deep cuts in CO₂ emissions. That rule was stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 and never took effect.

The ACE rule should largely prevent generation and transmission co-ops from being forced to prematurely shut down coal-fired plants, said Ted Cromwell, NRECA’s senior director of environmental issues. It also gives states more flexibility to work with individual co-ops to determine where action still needs to be taken in a cost-effective way, he said.

“The CPP was a broad overreach that we estimated could have resulted in $5 billion in increased costs for Basin and its members,” said Paul Sukut, CEO and general manager of Basin Electric Power Cooperative in Bismarck, North Dakota. “The ACE rule is more consistent with the EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act and recognizes the role of states to work with utilities as they implement the rule.”

Basin Electric operates four coal-fired power facilities and powers other stations with wind and natural gas.

Patrick O’Loughlin, president and CEO of Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives, said Ohio’s co-ops support the final ACE rule, which he called “a return to a technically and legally reasonable approach to emissions reduction standards.”

“The ACE rule balances the need to broadly regulate emissions versus the specific emissions reductions that are possible at each facility by granting states the authority to create and administer rules for controlling coal-fired plant emissions,” he said. 

“Further, the ACE rule will continue to lessen greenhouse gas emissions beyond the 28% by which emissions have already been reduced since 2005. ACE will require coal plants to run more efficiently by submitting and executing plans to improve plant power generation effectiveness. Finally, the ACE rule minimizes rate increases to co-op consumer-members.”

Leadership at Great River Energy, based in Maple Grove, Minnesota, also praised the final ACE rule, which will affect its two coal-fired power plants in central North Dakota.

“Great River Energy believes the ACE rule appropriately focuses on actions that can be taken at coal-fired power plants to improve efficiency and provides states with a key role in developing specific requirements for individual sources, both consistent with EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act,” the co-op said in a statement.

“We also support the flexibility given to the states as they develop their implementation plans. Flexibility is critical in ensuring the lowest costs for complying with the rule and helping to ensure we can respond to market conditions, technology development and industry changes.”

The new rule does not change Great River Energy’s goal of achieving 50% renewable power by 2030, the co-op said.

Cromwell credited co-ops with helping convince the EPA to replace the Clean Power Plan with the more achievable rule.  NRECA and its member cooperatives have been advocating that issue for years.  

“NRECA appreciates the multiyear member advocacy efforts that led us to this point,” he said.

Co-ops have reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 12% since 2005 while increasing generation by more than 12 million megawatt-hours, according to figures by the EPA and the Energy Information Administration.

While co-ops continue to diversify their electric generation through greater use of natural gas and renewables, coal remains the largest source of fuel at more than 40%.

“Electric cooperatives have invested billions of dollars in diverse energy sources and emission-reduction technology to meet the electricity needs of their local communities while protecting the environment,” said NRECA CEO Jim Matheson.

While the new regulation will have a major impact on many co-ops, it won’t have much effect on those that have already moved away from coal, co-op leaders said.

“Our power supply mix has shifted away from coal and towards natural gas over the last number of years and will continue to do so as we start getting power from the new Vogtle nuclear units in 2021 and 2022,” said Ray Grinberg, CEO of Tri-County Electric Membership Corp. in Gray, Georgia.

Similarly, Holy Cross Energy in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, recently sold off the 60 megawatts of power it had been receiving from the Comanche 3 coal-fired plant near Pueblo.

“To the extent that the ACE rule fosters heat rate improvements on existing plants, it will have a positive effect on greenhouse emissions from coal plants in our region, in addition to the steps we have taken to replace our coal power supply altogether with increasingly cheaper wind and solar resources,” said Bryan Hannegan, the co-op’s president and CEO.

The new ACE rule will undoubtedly face court challenges in the coming months, Cromwell said.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer at NRECA.

The Honorable Bobby Rush
Subcommittee on Energy
House Energy and Commerce Committee
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Fred Upton
Subcommittee on Energy
House Energy and Commerce Committee
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman Rush and Ranking Member Upton:

I am writing on behalf of America’s consumer-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperatives to respectfully request you to urge the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (the Commission) to respect state and local regulatory authority when “behind-the-meter” and other distributed energy resources (DERs) located on local utility distribution systems are aggregated for purposes of participating in wholesale electricity markets. I am concerned that the Commission may adopt rules on third-party aggregation of DERs that would further expand Commission regulation under the Federal Power Act into areas that the Act leaves to states and localities. I hope you will agree with the importance of respecting state and local jurisdiction to protect consumers’ access to safe, reliable, and affordable electric service in the communities our members serve.

The Commission is considering a proposal to enable third-party aggregators to bid DER aggregations into the wholesale electricity markets administered by independent system operators (ISOs) and regional transmission organizations (RTOs) under the Commission’s jurisdiction. Because DER aggregation by third parties poses extremely local technical, economic, and policy issues, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) believes that the “relevant electric retail regulatory authority”—which may be the state public utility commission or the local governing board of a consumer-owned cooperative—is best positioned to decide whether to authorize third-party aggregators to transact with retail consumers. A Commission order that expressly reserves that authority to the relevant electric retail regulatory authority would also better reflect the allocation of federal and state jurisdiction laid out in the Federal Power Act.

I am concerned that the Commission may not allow for local decision-making on these questions. In February 2018, the Commission issued Order No. 841, which requires ISOs and RTOs to amend their wholesale market rules to better enable participation by electric storage resources, including storage located on a local utility distribution system or behind the retail customer meter. Yet Order No. 841 does not adopt the language that the Commission previously used when it provided for aggregations of retail customers to participate in RTO and ISO wholesale markets as demand response resources. That language (in Commission Order Nos. 719 and 719-A) expressly allows the relevant electric retail regulatory authority to decide whether to allow demand-response aggregators to participate in wholesale markets.

In May 2019, the Commission issued Order No. 841-A, which explicitly denies requests by NRECA and other parties that the Commission include such language in its electric storage rule. In response, the Commission wrote that it was not required to follow the precedent of Order Nos. 719 and 719-A, and that it would not do so as a matter of policy—ostensibly because only a few states have already adopted programs governing electric storage resources. Rather than leave room for local decision-making on the best ways to use electric storage for the benefit of consumers and local communities, the Commission declared that under Order No. 841, “states cannot directly prohibit electric storage resources from participating in the wholesale market” and the owner of a storage resource “has a choice between participating in the retail market or wholesale market” and “states may not take away that choice by broadly prohibiting all retail customers from participating in RTO/ISO markets.”

The Commission has established a separate proceeding (Docket No. RM18-9-000) to consider similar proposed rule changes to requiring RTOs and ISOs to enable third-party aggregators to bid DER aggregations into wholesale markets. The Commission held a technical conference on April 10–11, 2018, and received supplemental written comments to gather more information before taking final action on this proposal. As amply explained by witnesses at that technical conference and in the written comments, the industry must address many complex technical questions and make substantial investments in supporting infrastructure before third-party DER aggregators can participate in wholesale markets. Such participation will require RTOs and ISOs to coordinate with local distribution utilities in ways never before needed. The ability of local utilities to continue to provide safe, reliable, and affordable electric service to their communities could be diminished. In some states and communities, it may make sense to move forward addressing these questions and making the needed investments; in others, it may not, at least not yet. The key point is to allow local policymakers, not the Commission, to make these critical decisions.

For this reason, NRECA is urging the Commission to follow the wise precedent it laid for demand-response aggregations, and not for electric storage resources, in fashioning its final rule for DER aggregations. We strongly believe that this is the best long-term course to enabling these emerging technologies to benefit the consumers we serve, and we ask you for your support.

Sincerely,
Jim Matheson
CEO
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association

cc:
Greg Walden
Frank Pallone, Jr.

View a PDF of this letter.

ARLINGTON, Va. – The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association today expressed deep disappointment after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission refused to reconsider a critical aspect of a rule governing energy storage resources in wholesale electricity markets.

“FERC has side-stepped the Federal Power Act, which preserves state and local regulatory authority over retail electric distribution service,” said NRECA Chief Executive Officer Jim Matheson. “The commission has dealt a blow to consumers and dramatically expanded its authority by giving itself the discretion to decide which distributed and behind-the-meter energy storage resources can participate in wholesale electricity markets. In doing so, FERC has undermined the ability of local utilities and regulatory authorities to manage these resources for the benefit of consumers.”

Order 841 stands in sharp contrast to FERC’s rules on demand response aggregation, which appropriately allow relevant state and local regulators to decide which aggregators may participate in wholesale markets. NRECA urged FERC to incorporate similar language into Order 841.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national trade association representing more than 900 local electric cooperatives. From growing suburbs to remote farming communities, electric co-ops serve as engines of economic development for 42 million Americans across 56 percent of the nation’s landscape. As local businesses built by the consumers they serve, electric cooperatives have meaningful ties to rural America and invest $12 billion annually in their communities.

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Assistant Energy Secretary Bruce Walker touted the importance of federal dams and transmission lines to electric cooperative leaders Monday despite the Trump administration’s budget proposal to sell off those assets.

“People who put budgets together don’t always understand the components of what they’re putting the budget together for,” Walker said in response to a question about the budget plan from a co-op leader at NRECA’s 2019 Legislative Conference on Capitol Hill. He said the dams are key to providing reliable power to more than 30 states.

President Trump’s 2020 budget proposal calls for selling off federal transmission lines that NRECA believes are crucial for more than 600 electric cooperatives to provide low-cost power to their consumer-members.

Trump’s budget proposal would privatize transmission lines operated by the four Power Marketing Administrations. They would be sold to private, for-profit utility companies under Trump’s plan.

Walker, who leads the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity, said “it’s hard for some people to understand” that the federal government actually owns transmission assets. He said the Energy Department recognizes the need for “articulating the value of PMAs.”

NRECA CEO Jim Matheson has said that selling off federal transmission lines would “jeopardize affordable and reliable power for more than 100 million people and raise electricity prices for rural Americans.”

The administration’s budget proposal also calls for authorizing the PMAs “to charge rates comparable to those charged by for-profit, investor-owned utilities, rather than being limited to cost-based rates, for electricity.”

One co-op leader asked Walker about that plan, noting that not-for-profit co-ops have purchased electricity from PMAs since the 1930s with the understanding that it would be supplied at cost.

Walker said he has been discussing the rate structure with the Office of Management and Budget and the issue remains under review.

Regardless of whether you sell power from the federal dams, the dams still need to be there to provide irrigation, Walker said.

“How do we start recognizing the value that hydro provides?” he said. “That’s an ongoing issue.”

Members of both parties in Congress have expressed opposition to the Trump administration’s proposal to sell federal transmission assets, and the plan is not expected to be approved by lawmakers. Thousands of co-op leaders are lobbying against the proposal in visits to Capitol Hill this week.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer at NRECA.

A bipartisan Senate bill would authorize a total of $25 million in grants over the next five years to help electric cooperatives expand their use of renewable energy by developing storage and microgrid projects.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., introduced the Expanding Access to Sustainable Energy (EASE) Act on April 11. Their goal is to give co-ops and rural communities access to funds and technical expertise from the Department of Energy to identify, evaluate and design storage and microgrid projects that rely on energy from renewable sources.

Individual co-ops and groups of two or more co-ops working together would be eligible to apply for grants to conduct feasibility studies, implement strategies to overcome barriers to energy storage, conduct detailed engineering assessments, perform a cost-benefit analysis and obtain technical assistance from experts. In return, co-ops must implement a public awareness campaign about their projects and report any energy cost savings and environmental benefits to the secretary of energy.

The available grants would be set at $5 million a year for five years, from fiscal 2020 through 2025. The bill includes a cost-sharing provision that could require some co-ops to get 20 percent or more of the funding for their projects from non-federal sources. The exact amount of the cost-sharing would be determined by DOE. The secretary of energy can reduce or eliminate the cost-sharing requirement, according to the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The bill was inspired by the success of the Solar Utility Network Development Acceleration project, which ran from 2013 to 2018 and helped dramatically expand the use of solar energy throughout rural America. The project, created by DOE in partnership with NRECA, helped spur about half of the nation’s 900-plus co-ops to offer solar energy to their consumer-members, according to a 2018 NRECA report.

“We need a comprehensive energy strategy that puts America back in control of our energy supply—one that creates jobs, reduces our dependence on foreign oil, keeps energy costs affordable for all Americans, and responds to the challenges of global climate change,” said Klobuchar, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president. 

“This bipartisan legislation will improve rural community energy resiliency and autonomy, spur economic activity, and improve public and environmental health,” she said.

Moran said Kansas is already a leader in renewable energy and “an increased capacity for energy storage is imperative to grow and capitalize on our renewable energy potential.”

“This commonsense, bipartisan legislation will increase grid reliability and resilience, and help communities in Kansas and across the country—especially in rural areas—access energy supplies during peak usage periods with less burdensome rate hikes,” Moran said.

By storing energy using batteries or other technologies when the demand for power is low—such as in the middle of the night—co-ops can use it to help meet heavy demand during peak hours.

The senators noted that interest in the benefits of energy storage has increased because of the need to improve the capacity and resiliency of the grid and because solar and wind power, by their nature, can only produce electricity intermittently.

In 2017, the U.S. generated 4 billion megawatt-hours of electricity, but had only 431 MWh of storage available, Klobuchar and Moran said in a joint statement.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer at NRECA.

President Trump’s 2020 budget proposal once again calls for selling off federal dams and transmission lines that are crucial for more than 600 electric cooperatives to provide low-cost power to their consumer-members.

The president’s budget would privatize dams and transmission lines operated by the Bonneville Power Administration in Oregon, the Southwestern Power Administration in Oklahoma, the Western Area Power Administration in Colorado, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. They would be sold to private, for-profit utility companies under Trump’s plan.

“Selling PMA (Power Marketing Administration) assets will jeopardize affordable and reliable power for more than 100 million people and raise electricity prices for rural Americans,” said NRECA CEO Jim Matheson.

The president’s proposed budget also calls for authorizing the PMAs “to charge rates comparable to those charged by for-profit, investor-owned utilities, rather than being limited to cost-based rates, for electricity.”

“Reducing or eliminating the Federal Government’s role in electricity transmission infrastructure ownership, thereby increasing the private sector’s role, and introducing more market-based incentives, including rates, for power sales from Federal dams would encourage a more efficient allocation of economic resources and mitigate risk to taxpayers,” the budget proposal states.

But the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association and the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association said that electricity sales, not government appropriations, have paid for the operation and maintenance of TVA’s assets for more than 50 years.

“TVA’s transmission assets have been paid for by the ratepayers of the Tennessee Valley, and we believe they should not be sold to interests who may not place a priority on public power or the Valley’s interests,” the two associations said in a joint statement in which they vowed to fight the plan.

They cited a 2013 study by the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy that showed that TVA had returned more than $3 billion on the federal government’s original investment of $1.4 billion.

Members of Congress from both parties have already signaled their opposition to the president’s plan, which is unlikely to pass. Lawmakers tend to view presidents’ budgets as little more than wish lists since Congress is vested with the constitutional power to write and approve spending bills.

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., warned the administration last year that any effort to sell off the Bonneville Power Administration was “the one … bad idea that unites all of us in the Northwest” in opposition. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., has called the idea of privatizing the TVA “looney.” This is the third time Trump has made the proposal in his annual budget request.

The proposal to sell off the transmission assets was part of what Matheson called “a mixed bag for rural America” in Trump’s budget request to Congress.

Positive items for co-ops in the proposal include $200 million for rural broadband and $5.5 billion for loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service to help upgrade the infrastructure needed to provide electricity to rural areas.

Other negatives for co-ops in the plan include the elimination of funding for the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant program and a 30 percent cut in the administration’s international affairs budget, which Matheson said would likely hurt programs that help fund NRECA International’s efforts to bring electricity to remote villages in developing countries.

Electric cooperatives will be building and upgrading hundreds of miles of power lines to serve thousands of members in Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Oklahoma and South Dakota thanks to $122 million in new loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Modern and reliable electric infrastructure is foundational to building prosperity in rural America,” said Joel Baxley, USDA’s acting assistant to the secretary for rural development, in announcing the loans.

The money, approved Feb. 28 through USDA’s Rural Utilities Service Electric Loan Program, will go to seven co-ops and will help build or improve 964 miles of power lines and benefit more than 6,200 business and residential members.

West River Electric Association in Wall, South Dakota, was awarded the largest loan—$30 million—and will apply the majority of it toward construction of 14 miles of 69-kv transmission line to provide a tie to an existing substation.

The project will deliver power to a planned new substation that will accommodate commercial growth in and around Rapid City and Box Elder, South Dakota, said Dick Johnson, CEO and general manager of the co-op, which celebrates its 80th anniversary this year.

The loan will also help pay for upgrades at West River Electric’s substation in Wall. One third of the money will cover “day-to-day items that incur with new services, service upgrades, meters, transformers, and equipment replacements,” said Johnson.

“I am thankful we have low-cost RUS funding available to continue to provide low-cost power for our member-owners at the end of the line, just like we have over the last 80 years,” he added.

Steven Seibert, president and CEO of Southern Indiana Power Cooperative, said such RUS loans are a critical means for maintaining systems and providing reliable electricity. The co-op in Tell City, Indiana, will use a $10.5 million loan to build and improve transmission infrastructure that serves 600 rural members and install second-generation advanced metering infrastructure.

“Southern Indiana Power values our relationship with USDA and RUS as they assist our cooperative in providing safe, reliable and affordable energy while improving the lives of our members,” said Seibert.

Also receiving loans were Rich Mountain Electric Cooperative in Mena Arkansas, $20 million; Central Florida Electric Cooperative in Chiefland, Florida, $17 million; Verdigris Valley Electric Cooperative in Collinsville, Oklahoma, $20.1 million; Black Hills Electric Cooperative in Custer, South Dakota, $14.8 million; and Bon Homme Yankton Electric Association in Tabor, South Dakota, $9 million.

Cathy Cash is a staff writer at NRECA.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative CEO Paul Sukut told a Senate panel Wednesday he supports efforts to help co-ops develop technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions from coal-burning power plants and turn them into useful products.

Sukut spoke in support of bipartisan legislation by Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., that would spur new strategies to remove CO₂ from the air and store it permanently underground or transform it into marketable commodities.

The bill, known as the USE IT Act, would direct the Environmental Protection Agency to support research on carbon capture, utilization and sequestration; improve the permitting process for projects; and establish guidance for developers and operators of CO₂ pipelines.

“There is no shortage of challenges as we seek solutions that balance the need for affordable and reliable energy with the challenge of reducing CO₂ emissions,” Sukut said in his testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which Barrasso chairs. “However, the cooperative model was established specifically in response to a challenge—to extend electric service at the time to those areas no one else would—and continues to serve us well as the electric industry evolves.”

Basin Electric, which is based in Bismarck, North Dakota, is a partner with NRECA and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association in the Integrated Test Center at Dry Fork Station in Wyoming. The test center, which is overseen by the state, provides a place for researchers to “explore new and innovative solutions” to reduce CO₂ emissions, Sukut said.

Basin Electric, through the Dakota Gasification Company, has already shipped more than 35 million tons of CO₂ via pipeline to Canada for enhanced oil recovery since 2000, Sukut said.

Sukut said his co-op also has partnered with the Plains CO₂ Reduction Partnership in the Department of Energy’s CarbonSAFE program to explore geology in North Dakota and Wyoming with the goal of developing a large-scale injection test well to store CO₂.

“Our region is particularly blessed with the geology for CO₂ sequestration and enhanced oil recovery, but either of those options will require additional buildout of pipeline infrastructure to come to fruition,” said Sukut, who was one of three witnesses at the hearing. “For this reason, we support the Utilizing Significant Emissions with Innovative Technologies (USE IT) Act and its provisions to expedite guidance, permitting and construction of CO₂ infrastructure.”

Basin Electric, a generation and transmission co-op, uses coal, natural gas, oil, wind, recovered energy, nuclear power and purchased power to provide electricity to 141 rural electric co-ops that serve 3 million consumer-members in nine states.

By next year, 25 percent of the energy that Basin Electric delivers to its members will be from renewable sources, Sukut said. He added that wind and other renewables have significantly lowered the co-op’s CO₂ emissions per megawatt hour and he expects that trend to continue.

While working to diversify its energy portfolio, Basin Electric also wants certainty from federal regulators that coal-fueled power plants won’t be forced to close prematurely, Sukut said.

“Our number one priority as a utility, besides providing low-cost and reliable power, is to ensure that our generating facilities do not become stranded assets…which our members still have to pay for yet receive no benefit from,” he told the committee.

Sukut said Basin Electric has “a good story to tell with respect to CO₂ reduction” because of the changes it has undergone in recent years.

“We are well-positioned to serve our members at the end of the line now and well into the future,” he said.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer at NRECA.

A landmark agreement among solar energy developers, environmental advocates and electric cooperatives in Virginia will make way for greater net-metering of renewable energy at a fair cost to all.

The state General Assembly overwhelmingly passed legislation that raises the net-metering cap of 1 percent of a co-op’s peak load to 5 percent, then allows for a transition to 9 percent by 2029. Gov. Ralph Northam is expected to sign the bill soon.

“A few co-ops are up against the cap in Virginia,” including BARC Electric Cooperative in Millboro, said Michael Keyser, its CEO and one of the lead participants in a three-year effort to craft a compromise bill. “And no co-op wants to reach the cap and say ‘no’ to a member.”

Net-metering allows consumers with rooftop solar and other forms of distributed generation to reduce their power bill by selling unused electricity to their provider. When large numbers of homeowners install distributed generation, co-ops can be forced to raise rates to cover their operational costs.

To fix the problem, the new law also creates a three-part rate design for net-metering members only. It includes a fixed charge that all customers pay, plus a variable kilowatt-hour (kWh) charge and a new monthly non-coincident peak (NCP) demand charge.

“It was important to ensure that net-metering customers are not subsidized by other ratepayers as the cap increases,” said Keyser. “We wanted to make sure it’s fair.”

The new demand charge lets co-ops recoup any remaining fixed costs associated with operating and maintaining the distribution system as well as fixed generation costs.

“We had to get the rate structure in the correct place to recover our actual costs,” said Keyser. “If we just increased the cap on net-metering with the current rate structure, it would not be sustainable. Credit is certainly due to the other stakeholders at the table for understanding that.”

The new 5 percent cap is divided into three buckets: 2 percent of residential peak demand, 2 percent for tax-exempt entities and 1 percent of commercial peak demand. The demand charge will be implemented in 2024, or when one of three net-metering caps is reached, whichever comes first.

“The caps are intended to increase in a measured way as we implement demand charges,” said Keyser. “These decisions are going to be largely up to each co-op board’s discretion, with oversight from the State Corporation Commission.”

The new law will allow more third-party renewable energy purchase agreements. It also will boost sizing restrictions on residential renewable energy systems from 100 percent to 125 percent of annual energy consumption.

“We heard from a lot of members that folks are looking to expand, to buy electric vehicles, and they want to put on more solar,” said Andrew Vehorn, director of government affairs at Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives based in Glen Allen, Virginia.

“They can overproduce and grow into it. We buy excess energy as long as that customer pays their fair share of the co-op’s costs to operate and maintain the electric grid. We have to buy power from someone; we might as well buy from our members.”

Cathy Cash is a staff writer at NRECA.

Thanks to strategic planning, progressive engineering and solid negotiating, Kaua’i Island Electric Cooperative is years ahead of schedule in meeting its renewable energy goals and is reducing its annual diesel demand by millions of gallons.

“Renewable generation is meeting close to 99 percent of our demand during midday on most sunny days,” said David Bissell, president and CEO of Lihue, Hawaii-based KIUC.

The co-op launched a strategic goal in 2010 to meet 70 percent of its overall demand with renewable energy by 2030, and it hit the 50 percent mark late last year. KIUC’s renewable assets include co-op-owned solar and hydroelectric facilities as well as power purchase agreements for utility-scale solar and battery storage and biomass generation.

“With a full 12 months of productivity from the Tesla solar-plus-storage facility, nearly 45 percent of KIUC’s fuel needs can be met from renewable sources,” said Bissell, adding that up to 20 percent of evening peak demand can be powered with stored solar energy.

Much of the motivation for pursuit of renewable resources stems from desire to reduce overall dependence on fossil fuel generation. The island has relied on diesel shipped from refineries along the West Coast of the mainland United States. KIUC’s average cost of diesel in 2018 was 15 cents per kWh.

“When we became a cooperative in 2003, our rates were 78 percent higher than rates on Oahu,” the most populated Hawaiian island, Bissell said. That cost difference fell to 17 percent by the end of 2017. “This is a trend that we expect will continue over the next several years as we replace the volatility of diesel pricing with renewables at 11 cents per kilowatt hour or less.”

A new 28-megawatt photovoltaic system coupled with a 100 MW-hour storage system was commissioned in January, and it’s the largest yet developed for utility use in the world. The project’s five-hour energy storage capacity is expected to provide peaking capacity during high demand periods and meet up to 11 percent of the co-op’s overall needs.

The system, owned by AES Corp., is expected to reduce KIUC’s overall diesel demand by about 3.7 million gallons a year.

AES Corp. is building a second solar-battery storage project for KIUC as a joint project with the Department of Defense. The 19 MW of capacity and 70 MWh of battery storage will help meet co-op demand and support the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands when needed.

“We could not achieve our goals without the effort of our dedicated workforce, the governance of a member-elected board of directors, effective partnerships with public and private entities, and the support of our elected officials,” said Allan Smith, chairman of the KIUC board.  “Member support of the investments is among the co-op’s greatest strengths.”

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

NRECA advocates on many public policy issues on behalf of electric cooperatives. As the new Congress kicks off, here’s a look at several electric co-op policy priorities for 2019.

Energy Policy/Infrastructure

The potential for energy and infrastructure legislation presents a significant opportunity as electric cooperatives work to meet the growing needs of their communities. NRECA will work to ensure that any infrastructure package focuses on more than roads and bridges, including opportunities to modernize the electric grid and expand rural broadband access.

Environment

NRECA will promote and encourage bipartisan support for energy research and development programs—including on renewables and programs that focus on finding a viable use for carbon capture, utilization and storage.

Broadband

Expanded rural broadband access remains a priority for NRECA. As electric co-ops engage the new Congress, we will work to ensure that all rural broadband discussions include the electric co-op perspective.

Employee Benefits

NRECA provides benefits to 56,000 electric cooperative employees nationwide. We will continue working to protect electric cooperative employee retirement benefits by supporting legislation to substantially reduce the insurance premiums that co-ops pay to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Tax Policy

The 2017 tax reform law included a provision that treated federal grants as income, threatening the tax-exempt status of some electric cooperatives. NRECA will seek to fix this unintended consequence of the tax law.

Grid Resilience

Protecting our nation’s vast power grid is a national priority and focus for electric cooperatives. Ensuring appropriate information sharing and preserving existing partnerships and structures are essential to these efforts.  We will advocate for resources and technologies that meet the unique cybersecurity and recovery needs of small and medium-sized utilities to help protect our systems.

Listen to our podcast episode on how NRECA works with Congress to advocate for co-op priorities: 

Electric cooperatives in Georgia are making solar energy a reliable part of their power supply mix by pursuing a range of projects designed to help them meet the needs of consumer-members and attract new commercial accounts.

“One advantage of solar energy, compared to conventional energy generation facilities, is that it doesn’t take a long time to develop and construct these facilities,” said Jeff Pratt, president of Green Power EMC. The Tucker, Georgia-based co-op supports acquisition and development of renewable energy projects for 38 distribution co-ops in Georgia.

“With good planning and a little bit of work, we can have a solar facility up and running within two years, and only eight to 10 months after construction starts,” said Pratt. “That compares to five to 15 years for conventional power plants from planning, permitting and design through construction and commissioning.”

Green Power EMC and its members have been involved in building or procurement of 245 megawatts of solar power. Pending commitments through 2021 are expected to raise that total to about 1,000 MW. That’s enough electricity to meet the needs of about 180,000 average homes served by the state’s electric co-ops.

Long-Term Growth

Green Power EMC’s solar projects began in 2005, with a series of small demonstration arrays built outside of co-op headquarters and on school campuses. Those led to the development of modest co-op and community solar arrays, either added to the co-ops’ power portfolios or offered by subscription to members interested in renewable energy.

“People are starting to understand that solar energy is not free, and it requires an investment,” said Pratt. “They’re starting to get a sense from exploring rooftop solar that it is expensive, takes some technical expertise and knowledge to design, construct, install and maintain these facilities.”

Green Power EMC’s experience with small solar arrays has allowed it to move quickly in recent years, leading to a series of power purchase agreements involving utility-scale solar projects.

Silicon Ranch, an NRECA associate member headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, has exclusive agreements providing the full output of two solar arrays to Green Power EMC. Eight additional arrays are slated for development in south and central Georgia.

Green Power EMC member co-ops are also pursuing development of other individual arrays. Silicon Ranch and developer Strata Solar Inc. of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, are working with a Georgia co-op to develop three new solar projects to meet the energy needs of a new Facebook data center in Newton County, Georgia.

“We are committed to supporting all of Facebook’s operations with 100 percent renewable energy and these new solar facilities will help us meet that goal for our Newton Data Center,” said Rachel Peterson, vice president of data center strategy for Facebook. “Developing these resources within the same electric grid that supports our data center will bring even more investment to the region.”

Lasting Economic Impact

Utility-scale solar projects typically are built on undeveloped or agricultural land.

“Many times in Georgia we find rural locations that are underused or underutilized,” said Green Power EMC’s Pratt.  “With the installation of utility-scale solar facilities, we use the land in a more productive manner.”

The technology now being used for utility-scale solar is projected to last at least 30 years. Current hardware could potentially be replaced or upgraded to accommodate future advances, prolonging and enhancing the productivity of the projects.

About 800 people, primarily hired locally, will be involved in construction of the three arrays serving the Facebook data center. The projects, totaling $230 million in investment, will contribute to the tax bases of three Georgia counties once they’re completed.

“We want to share this technology, knowledge and the facility with the local community so that they learn more about solar energy and understand the positive and productive asset it can really be for the community,” said Pratt.

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

As the Environmental Protection Agency works to replace its controversial Clean Power Plan, NRECA provided the agency key points to consider on behalf of America’s electric cooperatives and their members.

“EPA has proposed a replacement to the Clean Power Plan that provides electric cooperatives and others with a more flexible approach that can reduce the cost of those measures to our member-consumers,” NRECA CEO Jim Matheson said. “Our comments outline improvements that EPA should make to ensure that the new regulation meets those goals.”

NRECA submitted formal comments to EPA on Oct. 31 as part of the agency’s rulemaking process to supplant the 2015 Clean Power Plan with the proposed Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule. The Clean Power Plan for reducing carbon dioxide emissions at existing coal-based generating units was stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court and never took effect.

NRECA recommended that the agency include the following considerations when writing a final ACE rule:

• Coal-based generation remains essential for many electric co-ops and their members. The final rule should offer flexibility for power generators and not penalize or hinder power plant upgrades aimed at reducing CO₂.
• Electric co-ops serve people in 92 percent of the nation’s persistent poverty counties. Many co-op members rely on electric heat and are disproportionately impacted by high energy prices.
• Electric co-ops are at the forefront of the movement to reduce CO₂. More than 95 percent of co-ops provide electricity generated from renewable sources, and 82 percent offer their members energy-efficiency options.
• A final rule must fall within EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act. In part this could be met by having states evaluate what is cost-effective and feasible at the individual utilities to determine the best plan to meet the emission goals.
• Should EPA propose to require CO₂ emission reductions from existing natural gas facilities, it must do so in a manner that does not delay a replacement for the Clean Power Plan for coal-based generation.

EPA has made completion of the ACE rule a priority for the first half of 2019. NRECA anticipates that, regardless of EPA’s decisions in drafting a Clean Power Plan replacement, the final rule will promptly be challenged in court.

Cathy Cash is a staff writer for NRECA.

Read more:

NRECA, G&Ts Have Their Say on EPA’s Clean Power Plan Replacement

Co-op Leaders React to EPA’s Proposed Clean Power Plan Replacement

Clean Power Plan Replacement: How It Affects Co-ops

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule to reduce carbon from existing power sources provides greater clarity and flexibility for electric cooperatives to meet these goals, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) said in comments filed today with the agency.

“EPA has proposed a replacement to the Clean Power Plan that provides electric cooperatives and others with a more flexible approach that can reduce the cost of those measures to our member-consumers,” NRECA CEO Jim Matheson said. “Our comments also outline improvements that EPA should make to ensure that the new regulation meets those goals.

“Electric cooperatives have invested billions of dollars in power plant development so that they can provide affordable, reliable power for consumer-members and businesses that contribute to the prosperity of their communities. The proposed ACE rule would provide long-term certainty for these investments even as cooperatives diversify their energy portfolios and respond to emerging technology, market conditions and consumer demand.”

The proposed Affordable Clean Energy rule will provide states much-needed clarity and flexibility to tailor the requirements that make sense for each regulated source. NRECA said in its comments that EPA must adhere to its proposal to regulate “within the fence line” of a facility by allowing states to make a unit-by-unit assessment of what additional steps are required.

This approach is especially important to electric co-ops, which built much of their electric generation after a 1978 law directed electric utilities to build coal-fueled power plants, therefore preserving natural gas for other uses. Coal power plants account for 61 percent of co-op-owned electric generation, and it’s important that the ACE rule not force the premature closure of those facilities as the Clean Power Plan would have done.

Electric cooperatives also support EPA’s effort to reform New Source Review permitting requirements, which otherwise could be a serious obstacle to meeting the requirements of the proposed ACE rule. Revision of the NSR program is long overdue and is a linchpin of the success of this new regulation.

“NRECA supports and appreciates EPA’s long-overdue efforts to revise its New Source Review regulations so that they do not unfairly penalize those who comply with the ACE rule or otherwise disincentivize precisely the sort of efficiency-improving projects…that industry otherwise would undertake,” NRECA said in its comments.

Electric cooperatives generally support EPA’s timeline for implementing the proposed regulation, but requested a 36-month period for compliance with state or federal plans, with additional flexibility depending on power plant outage schedules.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national trade association representing more than 900 local electric cooperatives. From growing suburbs to remote farming communities, electric co-ops serve as engines of economic development for 42 million Americans across 56 percent of the nation’s landscape. As local businesses built by the consumers they serve, electric cooperatives have meaningful ties to rural America and invest $12 billion annually in their communities.

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Electric cooperatives want the Environmental Protection Agency to recognize their efforts to protect their members’ wallets, assure grid reliability and reduce carbon dioxide emissions as the agency works to replace the Obama-era Clean Power Plan over the coming months.

The proposed Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, with some recommended improvements, could accomplish this goal, said NRECA CEO Jim Matheson.

“The proposed rule provides crucial flexibility so electric co-ops can respond to market conditions, technologies and industry changes at the same time they continue to contribute to the vitality and prosperity of the communities they serve,” Matheson told the EPA at an Oct. 1 public hearing in Chicago.

Matheson spoke on behalf of NRECA’s 930 member co-ops. Also offering testimony were Tyler Hamman, senior legislative representative for Basin Electric Power Cooperative, and Andy Berger, senior manager for environmental policy at Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc.

Matheson told the panel that the proposed ACE rule improves on the CPP because it moves the industry in a lower-carbon direction. It’s also designed to allow power producers flexibility to recoup the massive financial commitments they’ve made in power plants.

“The billions of dollars co-ops have invested in power plant development represent an investment in certainty of being able to provide power to consumers on a long-term basis,” he said. “The ACE proposal does include that consideration. It could provide electric co-ops with the certainty and flexibility they need to cost-effectively meet their local energy needs.”

The EPA unveiled the proposed ACE rule on Aug. 21. The new regulation would, among other things, allow states to determine the “Best System of Emission Reduction” for each unit and give them three years to devise implementation plans. It also would make it easier for plants to make efficiency improvements without having to go through a prolonged and costly permitting process.

As the EPA prepares to write the final rule, the agency is expected to consider comments from the recent hearing and those sent during the public comment period, which ends Oct. 31. The 2015 Clean Power Plan was stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court and has never taken effect.

Hamman and Berger delivered several recommendations for EPA to consider:

• Ensure new operational performance standards are achievable by individual power plants, that they protect grid reliability and that they will minimize undue economic impact for consumers.
• Affirm that states have the authority to provide additional flexibility to utilities in meeting the new standards such as considering the remaining useful life of the unit when determining if any additional action is warranted.
• Allow states to consider things like operational variability, compliance measurement inaccuracy issues and unit historical emissions.
• Rectify compliance measurement inaccuracy problems to give plant owners greater regulatory certainty.

Headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota, Basin Electric is a wholesale electricity provider to 141 co-ops in nine states. Tri-State is based in Westminster, Colorado, and serves 43 member distribution systems across Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming.

Cathy Cash is a staff writer for NRECA.

Read More:
Co-op Leaders React to EPA’s Proposed Clean Power Plan Replacement
Clean Power Plan Replacement: How It Affects Co-ops

CHICAGO – National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) CEO Jim Matheson today testified during an Environmental Protection Agency public hearing in support of the agency’s proposed Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule.

“[T]he Affordable Clean Energy rule is the best path forward for electric co-ops,” said Matheson. “The billions of dollars co-ops have invested in power plant development represent an investment in certainty of being able to provide power to consumers on a long-term basis. The proposed ACE rule provides crucial flexibility so electric co-ops can respond to market conditions, technologies and industry changes at the same time they continue to contribute to the vitality and prosperity of the communities they serve.”

NRECA will file detailed comments on the ACE proposal at the end of the month.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national trade association representing more than 900 local electric cooperatives. From growing suburbs to remote farming communities, electric co-ops serve as engines of economic development for 42 million Americans across 56 percent of the nation’s landscape. As local businesses built by the consumers they serve, electric cooperatives have meaningful ties to rural America and invest $12 billion annually in their communities.

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It won’t produce a lot of power, but a new cooperative solar project could play a major role for butterflies, bees and bobwhite quail that live or migrate through Arkansas’s Delta region.

Craighead Electric Cooperative has just turned on a 1-megawatt solar array, but the landscaping work just getting under way will give a huge boost to wildlife for years to come.

“We’ve built the array on land that’s been used to grow soybeans and other crops for generations,” said Monty Williams, vice president of marketing and communications for Craighead Electric Cooperative Corp.

Jonesboro-based CECC developed the array on an 11-acre site near Brookland. While it’s only expected to produce enough electricity to meet the needs of 135 average homes in the co-op’s service territory, the site’s habitat management plan could improve conditions for a number of species found in Arkansas’ Delta region.

“The Craighead Electric board of directors and management emphasized that their members must receive economic as well as environmental benefits, and this solar system accomplishes both,” said Michael Henderson, president of Today’s Power Inc.

Little Rock-based TPI, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc., builds and maintains photovoltaic systems, energy storage projects and electric vehicle charging stations.

“Our solar systems are customized around a utility’s wholesale billing [cost factors] and load characteristics specifically to produce maximum value for the customer,” said Henderson, noting that TPI has now built 18 such projects in Arkansas. “We have five more in the planning stage that will be announced soon.”

Craighead Electric and TPI worked with the City of Brookland and the conservation group Quail Forever to meet several environmental goals for the project’s design.  They include sustainable pollinator habitat for bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects, and cover and forage for cottontail rabbits, bobwhite quail and indigenous and migratory songbirds.

Community partners including 4-H, FFA and scouting groups will be assisting with plantings and other improvements at the site in the coming months.

“This project shows Craighead Electric’s commitment to providing a low-cost source of energy to our membership,” said Craighead Electric CEO Brian Duncan, adding that the project underscores the co-op’s commitment to the environmentally responsible use of renewable energy.

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

Electric cooperative leaders say the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to replace the Clean Power Plan would allow them to serve members the cleanest, most efficient and affordable electricity available.

The proposed Affordable Clean Energy rule would provide “the certainty and flexibility we need to meet our member-consumers’ local energy needs,” said Paul Sukut, CEO and general manager of Basin Electric Power Cooperative, a 141-member generation and transmission co-op headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota.

EPA proposed the ACE rule on Aug. 21 as a way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector to about 34 percent below 2005 levels. The ACE proposal differs from the CPP in the following key actions:

• Grants states more authority to make decisions about how they implement the ACE rule at each facility.
• Focuses compliance to “inside the fence” efficiency upgrades at power plants.
• Minimizes triggering “new source review” permit requirements when units undergo efficiency upgrades.

Basin Electric’s nearly 3,700 megawatts of coal capacity was at risk with the CPP. Yet the G&T’s portfolio is evolving with more natural gas and renewables as coal’s share dropped from 85 percent in 2000 to 44.6 percent this year, Sukut said.

“Under the CPP or the proposed ACE rule, Basin Electric has and will continue to investigate all technologies that may show promise in improving…our plant efficiencies, which would result in savings to our member-owners,” he said.

Great River Energy said it is ahead of the curve as five of seven compliance technologies described in the ACE proposal are already installed at its 1,100-megawatt Coal Creek Station. The Maple Grove, Minnesota-based G&T also plans for half of its portfolio to be renewables by 2030.

“Great River Energy makes decisions based on what is best for our member-owner cooperatives while continuing to operate all of our generation resources in an environmentally responsible and economic manner,” said Eric J. Olsen, its vice president and general counsel. “With or without the ACE, Great River Energy is working to make our plants more responsive to market forces and lower in emissions.”

Georgia’s Oglethorpe Power Corp. lauded several improvements in the ACE.

“With this proposal, EPA is recognizing the critical role of states such as Georgia to determine the best way to strike a balance of regulating carbon emissions while maintaining electricity reliability and energy security” said Toni Presnell, vice president of environmental affairs at the Tucker-based power supply cooperative.

Luis Reyes Jr., CEO of Kit Carson Electric, said his co-op is pursuing technologies that will survive the next 10 to 20 years, such as energy storage. The nearly 29,000-member distribution co-op in Taos, New Mexico, is 30 percent of the way toward its goal of getting 100 percent of its daytime generation from solar, and neither EPA rule would hinder its success, he said.

“We have taken the position that all politics is local. What happens in D.C., is not going to affect our ability and desire to give our members what they want, which is solar at the lowest electricity rates possible,” said Reyes. “We have to react to our members and the market, not the policy.”

The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled its proposal to replace the Clean Power Plan with a more flexible rule governing carbon dioxide emissions that is expected to reduce compliance costs for coal-based generation while sustaining reliability.

That’s good news for electric cooperatives.

NRECA CEO Jim Matheson welcomed the proposal as a means to provide electric cooperatives the certainty and flexibility they need to meet their consumer-members’ local energy needs. The proposed rule appears to provide electric co-ops with a more achievable plan, he said.

“It is imperative that EPA recognizes the investment that cooperative members have made in power plants and that there is a prudent path forward for 42 million consumers to benefit from those investments,” Matheson said.

“Co-ops are responding to their members’ needs and market forces affecting the entire electric power sector. The electric cooperative fuel mix for providing electricity is changing, with increased investments in natural gas and renewables,” he said.

The Affordable Clean Energy rule, as proposed by EPA on Aug. 21, would replace the Clean Power Plan, which was never implemented due to a Supreme Court stay of the regulation sought by electric cooperatives and others. NRECA argued that the CPP significantly exceeded EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act and would have mandated significant fuel switching, resulting in stranded assets for many G&Ts.

The new rule would provide states with a definition of the “Best System of Emission Reduction” and give them three years to devise implementation plans that apply these criteria to individual generation plants. BSER guidelines would be focused on so-called “inside the fence line” improvements, such as heat-rate enhancements to improve the efficiency of coal-based plants.

The ACE rule also proposes to modify the EPA’s New Source Review program to make it easier for plants to make efficiency improvements without having to go through a prolonged and costly permitting process.

Based in part on market forces, co-op reliance on coal-based generation declined from 54 percent to 41 percent between 2014 and 2016. During that same period, co-ops increased their use of renewable energy sources from 14 percent to 17 percent.

EPA will accept comments on the ACE rule for 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register. The agency says it plans to hold a public hearing on the matter and release a final rule early next year.

Cathy Cash is a staff writer at NRECA.

ARLINGTON, Va. – The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) today expressed support for the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to replace the Clean Power Plan with a more workable rule.

“The proposed rule appears to provide electric cooperatives with a more achievable plan that adheres to EPA’s historic approach to using the Clean Air Act,” said NRECA CEO Jim Matheson. “This is necessary to provide electric co-ops the certainty and flexibility they need to meet their consumer-members’ local energy needs.”

“It is imperative that EPA’s rules recognize the investment that cooperative members have made in power plants and that there is a prudent path forward for 42 million consumers to benefit from those investments,” Matheson said. “Electric cooperatives are built by, and belong to the communities that they serve. Because of this ownership structure, there are no shareholders to shoulder the weight of early power plant closures. The Clean Power Plan would have resulted in stranded assets and stranded debt, significantly increasing electricity costs for many consumers.

“At the same time, co-ops are responding to their members’ needs and market forces affecting the entire electric power sector. The electric cooperative fuel mix for providing electricity is changing, with increased investments in natural gas and renewables,” Matheson added.

From 2014 to 2016, the use of coal to generate electricity for electric co-ops declined from 54% to 41%, with a corresponding increase in the use of natural gas—from 18% in 2014 to 26% in 2016. Over the same period, the use of renewable energy sources to provide electricity to co-op member-consumers increased from 14% to 17%.

Co-ops own or purchase more than 19 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, with another 1.8 gigawatts planned. Total solar capacity at electric cooperatives is more than four times what is was in 2015, capable of generating more than 860 megawatts of electricity. “Co-ops are diversifying their energy portfolios to provide the greatest value possible to their members,” Matheson said.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national trade association representing more than 900 local electric cooperatives. From growing suburbs to remote farming communities, electric co-ops serve as engines of economic development for 42 million Americans across 56 percent of the nation’s landscape. As local businesses built by the consumers they serve, electric cooperatives have meaningful ties to rural America and invest $12 billion annually in their communities.

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Energy Secretary Rick Perry visited one of the most productive lignite mines in the nation this week to see how the coal it produces helps power the homes and businesses of electric cooperative consumer-members.

“In this renaissance of the energy industry in America, North Dakota is right at the tip of the spear,” Perry said following a roundtable discussion with energy industry leaders on Aug. 13. “You all are playing a very, very important role in a resurgence of America on the global stage.”

Perry was in North Dakota as part of a fact-finding tour focused on modern mining processes and energy production. He visited the Falkirk Mining Company in Underwood and Great River Energy’s nearby Coal Creek Energy Park. That site includes Coal Creek Station, a 1.1-gigawatt power plant, and several facilities that use heat or steam from the plant to process or manufacture products.

“The tour was a great opportunity to share the innovative work we are doing for our member-owner cooperatives,” said Eric Olsen, general counsel for Great River Energy. The Maple Grove, Minnesota-based generation and transmission cooperative buys most of the nearly 8 million tons of lignite produced annually at the mine for use in two of its power plants.

During his visit, the secretary learned about GRE’s patented DryFining fuel enhancement system, a method of processing lignite to remove moisture and impurities, which helps stabilize the fuel, improving overall efficiency and reducing emissions.

“Making our plants more efficient is a great way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions,” said Rick Lancaster, Great River Energy’s vice president and chief generation officer. “We did this in a big way when our engineers invented and then installed DryFining technology, our patented method of drying coal and reducing emissions of mercury, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide.”

While most of the lignite is used to fuel Coal Creek Station’s generators, GRE sends about 610,000 tons of the processed lignite to its Spiritwood Station, where it powers 99 megawatts of coal-based generation.

The tour, initiated by Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., was an opportunity for state officials to highlight the role energy production and export plays in the state’s economy.

North Dakota is second only to Texas in crude oil reserves and is home to the largest known lignite deposit in the world. It is now ranked 10th in the nation for coal production.

“Our state is an important force in advancing our nation’s energy security through our production of both traditional and renewable energy,” said Hoeven.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum accompanied Perry and the state’s elected federal officials on the visit to the Falkirk mine.

“The lignite industry has invested billions of dollars to make great strides in reducing emissions while still producing three-quarters of North Dakota’s electricity,” said Burgum, noting that lignite contributes about $3 billion a year to the state’s economy.

“North Dakota and Texas prove clearly that we’re all-of-the-above energy producers,” said Perry following the tour. “We need the fossil fuels, we need the nuclear energy, we need the renewables that wind and solar bring to the table, and how we manage that in our grid is really important.”

Perry, Hoeven and Cramer agreed that affordable, reliable energy are vital to national security interests and pledged to continue to work to further exploration, production and technology advances in support of energy independence.

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

Editor’s Note: One of the innovations from NRECA’s Solar Utility Network Deployment Acceleration (SUNDA) project is community solar programs benefiting low- and moderate-income consumers. Colorado’s Poudre Valley REA is one such success story.

Its first two community solar projects were very successful, but when it came time for a third, Poudre Valley REA knew something had to change.

“The access to community solar was kind of limited for those that are under-resourced within our membership,” said David White, vice president, member relations, at the Fort Collins, Colorado-based co-op. “Our board wanted us to try to figure out a way to remove the barriers.”

Enter GRID Alternatives, a nonprofit that partners with utilities, government agencies and other entities to bring solar to low-income households and communities. Added bonus: GRID Alternatives was already working with the Colorado Energy Office.

“Their model is very much like a Habitat for Humanity model, where they bring in engineering resources and construction resources through volunteers. They’re able to really drive down the cost of the project, which allows us then to pass on those savings to the under-resourced,” said White. GRID Alternatives also handles the sign-up process.

“It was a really good fit for what we were envisioning for our project, and for their mission.”

Coyote Ridge Community Solar Farm opened in September 2017. Eligibility is determined by income guidelines, which vary based on family size and county of residence. The range goes from an annual gross income of $41,000 for a single person in Weld County to $89,800 for a family of eight in Boulder County.

White said the co-op’s northern Colorado service territory has a good economy, but “the cost of living, particularly housing, is fairly high,” which really hits a number of people.

The traditional subscriber to Poudre Valley community solar makes a one-time upfront investment and then pays a monthly subscription charge. In exchange, the member gets a 100 percent offset on their bill for all energy generated by the panel(s) they subscribe to.

Those who qualify to subscribe through GRID Alternatives get a 30 percent offset but have no upfront or monthly costs.

The numbers are impressive. Eighty-five percent of the panels for income-qualified members are subscribed. That compares to 49 percent of panels for traditional subscribers and 38 percent of panels for nonprofits including schools and firehouses.

“What’s interesting is we haven’t really done a big, paid marketing push on the community solar farm and the subscription rate has been really successful considering,” said Amy Blunck, Poudre Valley’s communications director. “We did a few articles in our magazine last year, a bill insert, and a few paid social media posts, but that’s about it. The earned media on this project has been substantial.”

White credits NRECA’s SUNDA project with providing invaluable help for the project. He said Poudre Valley’s first two solar farms were purchase power agreements. They wanted the third to be co-op-owned and operated.

“But we didn’t have much expertise in that. So SUNDA brought us a lot of resources in terms of how to do a community solar project where you’re going to be the owner-operator,” he said. “They had fantastic financial models that we utilized to determine the economics of the project. They also brought technical expertise in terms of engineering and procurement.”

And Blunck said the SUNDA materials “will be great for other cooperatives that don’t have the resources” to undertake a community solar project.

Poudre Valley’s efforts to bring community solar to all recently earned it a couple of honors. It was named 2018 Electric Cooperative Utility of the Year by the Smart Power Electric Association and won a Silver Award for Best Total Communication Program in the 2018 NRECA Spotlight on Excellence Awards.

Read more about the SUNDA project:
The Story of Co-op Solar in Nine Graphics
Full Report: A Solar Revolution in Rural America

Michael W. Kahn is a staff writer at NRECA.

ARLINGTON, Va. –The rapid acceleration of solar development by America’s electric cooperatives is transforming the energy landscape in rural America. According to a new report, electric co-ops today own or purchase more than nine times as much solar energy as they did in 2013.

In 2013, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) received a grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) to help electric cooperatives remove barriers to solar development. Through the ensuing Solar Utility Network Deployment Acceleration (SUNDA) project, NRECA worked with 17 electric cooperatives to develop models and resources for co-ops interested in developing solar energy.

“Electric cooperatives are led by and belong to the communities that they serve. This heightened community focus allows co-ops to quickly adapt to evolving consumer expectations,” said NRECA CEO Jim Matheson. “As solar costs come down, co-ops are bringing the benefits of this renewable resource to local communities and consumer-members across the country, often in places once written off as unsuitable for solar.”

According to the newly released NRECA report:

• Today, the average co-op solar project is larger than 1 megawatt, up from 25 kW in 2013.
• Half of the nation’s nearly 900 not-for-profit, member-owned electric co-ops have solar offerings for their consumer-members through projects they own, electricity they purchase or joint projects with other co-ops.
• Generation and transmission cooperatives (G&Ts) are increasingly leading on solar development.
• Electric cooperatives lead the electric utility sector in the development of utility-sponsored community solar programs. As of July 2018, nearly a quarter of all co-ops offer a total of 196 existing community solar programs.

Increased consumer interest in solar combined with a decline in the cost of installed solar were key factors in the accelerated adoption of solar among electric cooperatives.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national trade association representing more than 900 local electric cooperatives. From growing suburbs to remote farming communities, electric co-ops serve as engines of economic development for 42 million Americans across 56 percent of the nation’s landscape. As local businesses built by the consumers they serve, electric cooperatives have meaningful ties to rural America and invest $12 billion annually in their communities.

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The rural American energy landscape is in the midst of a dramatic transformation thanks in part to a four-year research project spearheaded by NRECA and the Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office. Electric cooperatives are on track to own or purchase more than 1 gigawatt of solar power by 2019, more than a tenfold increase from what it was in 2013, before the project began.

The initiative, known as SUNDA (Solar Utility Network Deployment Acceleration), officially closes this month. As part of the project, NRECA partnered with 17 co-ops in 10 states to develop 22 solar installations totaling more than 30 megawatts. But the impact of that work went far beyond the footprint of those original arrays.

Lessons learned by the SUNDA partners led to a library of guides and tools designed to help other co-ops evaluate whether solar was right for them. These timely, comprehensive resources helped reduce risks, remove hurdles and lower costs, and now, more than 400 co-ops offer solar to their members. Cooperatives even pioneered the community solar model and now lead the industry with 198 programs across the country.

In addition, large solar deployments by power generation cooperatives on behalf of their distribution co-op members helped demonstrate that increasing the size of a system and involving multiple players can further reduce construction costs and risks.

Here’s a look, in charts and graphics, at the surge in co-op solar the SUNDA project helped spur in rural America:

A Solar Revolution in Rural America

Cooperatives own or purchase more than nine times as much solar energy as they did in 2013 prior to the SUNDA project.

Early Solar Adopters Pave the Way

The experiences of 17 electric cooperatives provide guidance for the co-op network; more than 400 co-ops now have a solar energy option.

Co-op Solar Heats Up

NRECA’s SUNDA project catalyzed cooperative solar development by providing tools for every step in the process.

Co-ops’ Solar Costs Plummet

Economies of scale, falling panel prices and new business models dramatically reduced the cost of installed solar for co-ops.

Co-op Solar: From Trial-Size to Super-Size

Over the course of the SUNDA project, the average size of a co-op solar installation grew from experimental-level to utility-scale.

Community Solar Goes Viral

The community solar business model, which offers greater access to solar with lesser risks, is a hit with co-ops and their consumer-members.

A More Diverse Mix of Renewable Resources

During the SUNDA project, solar’s share of the co-op non-hydro renewable energy mix went from nearly nonexistent to 5 percent.

Expanding Access to Solar

Co-ops are bringing solar to communities where the household income is below the national average.

Road to Solar Success

From field manuals to business plans, SUNDA resources paved the way for a surge in co-op solar.

Read more about the SUNDA project:

Full Report: A Solar Revolution in Rural America
SUNDA Solar Project Launches a Legacy of Cooperation, Knowledge and Success
Bringing the Power of Community Solar to the Entire Community

Electric cooperatives are demanding transparency for their members when power marketing administrations pass down costs for compliance with environmental regulations.

George B. Taylor Jr., Oglethorpe Power Corp.’s deputy general counsel, speaking on behalf of the Southeastern Federal Power Customers Inc., took that message to Capitol Hill on July 11.

“Every cost impact on rural electric cooperatives or public power utilities is passed on directly to our consumers—many residents of rural areas who are already struggling,” Taylor told the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans.

“Our responsibility is to do everything in our power to manage these risks and costs.”

Based in Tucker, Georgia, Oglethorpe supplies power to 38 distribution co-ops throughout the state and owns or operates 7,843 megawatts of generating capacity, including nuclear, gas, coal, oil and water. Oglethorpe members also buy about 618 MW a year from Southeastern Power Administration. SEPA gets its electricity supplies from projects owned by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

SEPA’s rates have increased lately in part because of carrying environmental compliance costs incurred by the Corps, said Taylor. Plus, customers face higher costs from purchases of replacement power when electricity from Corps projects is unavailable.

“The precise cost breakdown is missing from the public domain,” said Taylor.

The Southeastern Federal Power Customers Inc. is a group of electric cooperatives and municipal utilities that represent more than 6 million consumers of public power in the Southeast. SEFPC wants Congress to approve legislation (H.R. 5556) to illuminate energy supply transactions and costs involving Corps hydroelectric power projects throughout the Southeast.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., would require SEPA to include in each monthly bill the customer’s estimated share of direct and indirect costs for compliance with federal environmental laws affecting the conservation of fish and wildlife. The Bonneville Power Administration, Western Area Power Administration and Southwestern Power Administration are also covered by the bill.

Customers of these other power marketing administrations also support the objectives of this bill, and the Colorado River Energy Distributors Association has submitted a letter of support.

Taylor noted that the state public utility commission already imposes similar requirements on utilities it regulates and the transparency has been helpful.

“While SEPA staff continues to work with Corps accountants to ensure that only appropriate costs are charged to power customers, in many cases environmental costs must be shared by power customers,” Taylor told the lawmakers. “The proposed legislation would provide valuable insight into an important cost driver that has affected SEPA’s power marketing in recent years.”

Cathy Cash is a staff writer at NRECA.

Electric cooperative members in Hawaii will be getting even more power from the sun, and they’ll be using it at night.

Kauai Island Utility Cooperative is adding 14 megawatts of solar generation to its portfolio and boosting battery storage by 70 MW hours of capacity.

“KIUC’s board of directors set an aggressive goal of reaching 70 percent renewable by 2030,” said David Bissell, CEO of Lihue-based KIUC. “Once this project is complete, we will be very close to that mark a decade early.”

AES Distributed Energy is building the project on Kauai at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility – Barking Sands, leased from the Department of Defense.

“The 19.3-MW solar array and battery storage will produce enough electricity to energize 6,000 homes,” said Bissell. “It also reduces our diesel demand by about 2.8 million gallons a year.”

With no refining capacity in Hawaii, every drop of diesel used by the co-op is shipped in from ports on the U.S. mainland. That’s made boosting renewable capacity and reducing fossil fuel dependence a central part of KIUC’s strategic planning.

The DoD first issued requests for proposals for a renewable energy project at Barking Sands in 2009.  KIUC began looking for ways to participate that not only would meet Navy goals, but also would help it produce reliable, affordable power for its members.

A 25-year power purchase agreement gives the co-op access to all electricity generated at the site by AES at less than 11 cents per kilowatt hour, said Bissell. “It will also be one of KIUC’s lowest-cost power sources.”

The contract allows the DoD to “island” the project’s output for exclusive use under certain circumstances to meet base energy needs. About 1,000 military personnel and civilian employees, including hundreds of co-op members, work on the military installation.

KIUC has established itself as an industry leader for energy storage.  A project developed with Tesla in 2015 was the first utility-scale solar/battery storage project in the world. Since 2017, the 13-MW solar project stores up to 52 MWh of electricity, primarily to help meet peak evening demand but also to provide grid stabilization as needed.

A second 28-MW solar array with 20 MW of five-hour battery storage capacity is now under construction.

The co-op is also developing a pumped-storage project that will use power generated by a solar array to move water to an upper reservoir during the day for release to a lower reservoir at night to produce hydroelectric power. The project will add 25 MW of generation to KIUC’s renewable portfolio. Reservoir development will also improve irrigation options on western Kauai, allowing for agricultural revitalization.

“These storage projects are moving us rapidly closer to our renewable goals,” said Bissell, adding that the co-op should meet 65 percent of its demand with renewable power by late 2019. “Partnerships between KIUC’s engineers and those of some of the best renewable energy companies in the world are making the impossible a reality.”

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

On paper, the concept of “zero net energy” (ZNE) buildings appears ideal: a building or development that produces as much energy on-site as they use every year. It’s an idea that’s gained popularity in the U.S. in recent years, with several municipalities starting or looking into initiatives.

But do ZNE developments really deliver the environmental and cost benefits they purport to?

A new report from The Brattle Group finds that community solar, a concept invented and deployed primarily by electric cooperatives, would have distinct advantages over ZNE developments, which rely on rooftop solar for onsite generation. NRECA and the Natural Resources Defense Council commissioned the study.

“Simple kilowatt-hour netting across a year does not address the true impact and value of production and consumption offsetting,” said Keith Dennis, associate director of strategic initiatives in NRECA’s Business & Technology Strategies group.

“The research shows that community solar, and other approaches that look at broader systemwide approaches to achieving cost savings and environmental goals, can be the more efficient ways to integrate renewable energy on a larger scale.”

Here are some key takeaways from the study:

1. Community solar projects present comparative benefits relative to rooftop per megawatt of installed capacity.
2. A community solar development can serve 200 energy efficient homes at about 30 percent to 35 percent below costs of a comparable ZNE rooftop project.
3. Community solar system serving those 200 homes can provide 50 percent to 60 percent resource cost savings or avoided generation from the power grid.
4. Community solar on average can provide carbon dioxide emission reductions 40 percent to 45 percent greater than rooftop solar. That’s the equivalent of removing 80 to 100 cars from the road compared to removing one car per two ZNE homes.
5. Co-op community solar generates up to 82 megawatts nationwide.

Cathy Cash is a staff writer at NRECA.

With new fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards on the horizon, NRECA wants federal regulators to be mindful of the benefits of electric vehicles and the investments electric cooperatives have made in this clean transportation option.

America’s electric co-ops joined the utility and auto industries in sending that message to the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agencies are exploring a range of proposed Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and greenhouse gas standards for light-duty vehicles.

“NRECA members are excited by the opportunity to provide electricity to their members choosing to purchase electric vehicles. Having a consistent national policy on vehicle standards provides the long-term incentives needed to guide co-op investment decisions for charging infrastructure,” said Dan Chartier, NRECA regulatory director, environmental policy.

“We appreciate the opportunity to join with the broader utility and auto sectors in encouraging incentives in federal standards that include increased deployment of electric vehicles. This is a win for consumers and the environment.”

NRECA, along with the Edison Electric Institute, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the American Public Power Association and the Association of Global Automakers, sent a letter to EPA and the Department of Transportation encouraging the inclusion of EVs as a flexible way to reduce vehicle emissions while meeting consumers’ growing demand for alternative fuels.

At least 150 NRECA member co-ops provide off-peak charging rates for EV users. Dozens of electric co-ops across the country have programs that implement charging infrastructure in their service territory.

NRECA and the trade groups underscored how EVs “play an important role in achieving energy and environment goals for each of our industries.” As of 2017, the electric sector had reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 27 percent from 2005 levels, and the continued deployment of natural gas-based and renewable generation will only further this trend, the groups told EPA and DOT.

“As the Agencies consider potential changes to the standards, EPA should extend and improve the current regulatory mechanisms that provide critical support for EVs and advanced vehicles, including hybrid and fuel cell electric vehicles, for model year[s] 2022-2025,” the groups said.

And, they added, that EVs can play “an important part of the range of technologies and measures needed to reduce reliance on imported fuels, maintain a balanced energy mix, and reduce greenhouse gases and other emissions.”

Cathy Cash is a staff writer at NRECA.

Co-ops want to improve the efficiency of their power plants, but there’s often a big stumbling block: uncertainty over clean air rules.

That uncertainty centers around “New Source Review,” or NSR, which is part of the Clean Air Act. There has not been a clear demarcation between a plant modification triggering NSR and routine maintenance, which is exempt from NSR. That creates confusion and uncertainty for co-ops, which want to see it corrected, so a senior NRECA leader went to Capitol Hill to explain the situation.

“It impedes our ability to make progress on running our power plants as efficiently as we can,” said Kirk Johnson, NRECA senior vice president for government relations.

“We have been seeking reforms to the NSR program for two decades now, and we think the time is now to act.”

Johnson testified May 16 at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, where he told lawmakers that co-ops see NSR as “a barrier to making commonsense efficiency improvements in our power plants.”

Johnson noted that coal-based plants are now required to cycle up and down to accommodate renewables, something they were not designed to do. The result, he said, is more wear and tear on those plants, and, in turn, a change in the type of work needed to keep them running.

“What was considered routine maintenance maybe 20 years ago may be different than what is routine today because of some of those changes in the power sector, and the rules of the road need to recognize that,” said Johnson.

He testified that utilities have performed what they thought qualified as routine maintenance, repair and replacement, “only to be cited for NSR violations years after the fact.”

Johnson praised draft legislation from Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., to simplify the program. Johnson said the bill would amend the definition of a “modification” under NSR so that the “trigger” is based on the maximum achievable hourly emission rate rather than on annual emissions.

“All we are asking, and all we’ve ever asked, is for clear rules of the road,” said Johnson. “We will follow them. We will make sure that we accomplish the objectives laid out in the Clean Air Act. But if we don’t have clear rules of the road, we become very risk averse and we leave opportunities on the shelf.”

Michael W. Kahn is a staff writer at NRECA.

Looking for community solar? Your best bet is in electric cooperative territory.

“In terms of the number of community solar programs, cooperative utilities have been trailblazers,” states a new report from the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA).

The report finds 160 co-ops have a program, though NRECA puts the number at nearly 200.

“This far exceeds the total in investor-owned utilities (31 programs) and public power utilities (37 programs) combined,” SEPA noted.

Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association in Rockford, Minnesota, is among the co-ops offering community solar, and CEO Tim Sullivan said it’s a big hit.

“We have almost 400 kilowatts of community solar in four different arrays and our members love it. They don’t need to accommodate solar panels on their roof, worry about risk to home resale, or find a trustworthy contractor for maintenance,” Sullivan told Electric.coop.

“In fact, community solar is tailor-made for the cooperative model: It allows members to pool their needs to deliver a valuable service at a lower cost than they could do alone.”

It was a banner year for community solar in 2017. SEPA found there’s now 734 megawatts of installed capacity, with more than half of that—about 387 MW—installed last year. That’s a jump of 112 percent.

“For a comparison, the total solar market in the U.S. has grown at an average annual rate of 68 percent over the last 10 years,” according to the report issued May 1.

But it also noted there’s a long way to go.

“Customers in nearly 90 percent of utility service territories do not have the opportunity to subscribe to a program. Additionally, 33 states have not yet enacted a shared solar policy—and of the 17 states with an existing policy, many are considering ways to broaden their existing programs,” the report said.

SEPA also pointed to a 2016 report that found a potential community solar market of 6.5 million U.S. households. As the new report noted, “At this point, less than 300,000 have subscriptions. For the potential to be realized, much greater availability of programs is needed.”

NRECA’s Community Solar Playbook is available to co-ops considering community solar projects.

Michael W. Kahn is a staff writer at NRECA.

A first-place trophy for adding the most new energy storage watts per member goes to Hawaii’s Kauai Island Utility Cooperative. And two other co-ops also had strong showings on a series of new top 10 lists from the Smart Electric Power Alliance.

KIUC easily took the top spot on SEPA’s storage watts per customer/member list by adding a whopping 415.3 watts per member in 2017. That’s more than eight times the figure of the runner-up Tucson Electric Power, an investor-owned utility in Arizona.

KIUC credits the huge gain mostly to a partnership with Tesla on a plant that opened in March 2017. During the day, the sun’s energy is stored in 272 lithium-ion Tesla Powerpack batteries. When the co-op’s evening peak rolls around, it’s able to dispatch up to 52 megawatt hours of power.

“Battery storage is a key part of our cooperative’s push towards 100 percent renewable and we are pleased that KIUC is leading the way in using battery technology to move solar energy into our evening peak demand period,” said David Bissell, KIUC president and CEO. He noted that thanks to the plant, the Lihue-based co-op is now at about 46 percent renewable generation.

Brad Rockwell, KIUC’s supply manager, said the plant is ideal.

“We have so much solar that on most days, when the sun is out, about 80 percent of midday production is coming from solar,” said Rockwell. “You can’t go much higher on an island system. We can’t export; we need to be able to store hours and hours of midday solar.”

KIUC also took fifth place on SEPA’s top 10 list of annual megawatts of utility energy storage, with 13.7 MW.

Two co-ops made SEPA’s top 10 list of utility solar rankings based on annual watts per customer/member.

Anza Electric Cooperative in Anza, California, had 1,455.5 watts per member of utility solar last year, which landed it in the No. 3 spot.

“We’re very excited to receive this recognition by SEPA,” said Kevin Short, AEC general manager.

“It’s an honor to be recognized for our efforts to bring renewable energy generation to our members, an achievement that we could not have accomplished without the tireless efforts of our generation and transmission partner, Arizona Electric Power Cooperative. Their work both here in California and in Arizona towards helping us meet our state mandated renewable goals has been critical to our success.”

Pickwick Electric Cooperative in Selmer, Tennessee, came in No. 5 with 1,195.9 watts per member.

“It’s an honor to help highlight the commitment of cooperatives to add utility-scale solar to the grid,” said John Bowers, PEC president.

SEPA’s top 10 lists were announced April 25. The Utility Solar Top 10 lists are based on data provided by 423 utilities, representing around 114 million consumers. The Storage Top 10 lists come from data provided by 169 utilities, representing more than 70 million consumers.

Michael W. Kahn is a staff writer at NRECA.

As a replacement to the Clean Power Plan appears on the horizon, NRECA is making sure the Environmental Protection Agency understands how America’s electric cooperatives may be especially hurt by regulation aimed at coal-based generation.

“Co-ops’ small size, their consumers served and generation portfolios set them apart in the electric utility industry. These characteristics also present immense challenges for co-ops if forced to comply with theses mandates of the EPA,” said Rae Cronmiller, NRECA environmental counsel.

NRECA recommends that EPA replace the Clean Power Plan with a rule that allows states to determine standards of performance that are achievable considering individual unit economic considerations, remaining use life and other relevant factors.

EPA may propose a replacement rule this summer and finalize it by January 2019.

A lot of co-op coal-based electric generation would be unable to meet the EPA rule targeting carbon dioxide emissions and, as a result, enter early retirement.

In comments filed with EPA, NRECA explains the major obstacles and impediments co-ops faced under the original Clean Power Plan:

Co-ops rely on coal more than other utilities

Federal government mandates between 1978 and 1987 made natural gas uneconomic for electric generation at a time when cooperative electric generation demand rose significantly. Today, coal generates about 60 percent of total G&T megawatt-hour sales compared with around 30 percent MWh sales utility-wide.

Co-ops serve low-income rural America

Electric cooperatives serve more than 90 percent of the nation’s persistent poverty counties within low or sparsely populated geographic areas. Electric co-op revenue per mile of distribution line is only 20 percent of the overall utility average. Co-ops have no equity investors to share the financial burdens that the CPP would cause. Ultimately, the co-op member would bear 100 percent of these costs through increases in electric rates that many rural electric consumers can ill afford.

Co-op members would pay twice to meet CPP

Many of the co-op-owned coal-based power plants forced into retirement would leave outstanding debt obligations that must be serviced by rural electric consumers. While the original loans to construct these units may have been paid, many plants have required additional costly retrofits for emission controls to meet ongoing environmental obligations. This means in many cases under the CPP, co-op members would pay for the scuttled coal plants’ outstanding debt and then pay a second time for the new generation required.

A Utah electric cooperative is producing solar power in one of the most scenic areas of the United States, without detracting from the signature vistas that draw tourists and filmmakers to the region.

And the rooftop array making that possible could be a model for similar projects where aesthetics are important and community resources are limited.

“We’ve helped the city of Kanab create a shaded performance space where people can gather for outdoor entertainment,” said James Clegg, an energy adviser with Garkane Energy, headquartered in Kanab. “It publicizes our commitment to renewable energy without taking up available parkland.”

That’s because the array is over the roof of a 35-foot-by-70-foot pavilion, more than 20 feet above ground. The solar panels generate about 33 kilowatts of electricity for the co-op, which offers it to members willing to pay a small monthly premium for renewable energy.

Kanab, located just north of the Arizona state line, is close to nearly a dozen national parks and natural monuments, including the southern rim of the Grand Canyon. More than 100 feature movies, from iconic westerns to science fiction classics, have been filmed in the area. Locations in the vicinity have also been used for dozens of television series.

“Instead of blocking the view of a national park or taking up space on our high desert landscape, we’re producing power on a site used for community entertainment,” said Clegg.

The co-op built the pavilion and erected the rooftop solar array with assistance from its generation and transmission cooperative, Deseret Power Electric Cooperative, headquartered in South Jordan, Utah.

The city of Kanab provided the space and constructed support facilities related to the project. Garkane Energy has plans to build at least two similar projects in other communities it serves. The $130,000 project took about two years from concept to completion. Co-op officials expect others to be completed quickly.

“Many of our communities don’t have a lot of facilities, so projects like this can provide renewable energy for our members, and also help them make improvements,” said Clegg.

The solar panels were planned right into the design of the amphitheater, allowing the array to enhance the acoustics for the audience, Clegg said. “You can hear conversations on the stage from the hillside with little or no amplification.”

Derrill E. Holly is a staff writer for NRECA.