ARLINGTON, Va. – National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) CEO Jim Matheson today issued the following statement on House passage of the budget reconciliation bill.

“As electric co-ops work to reliably meet future energy needs at a cost that consumers can afford, they must have equal access to energy incentives and programs,” Matheson said. “The House bill would give co-ops access to direct-pay incentives for energy innovation and create a $10 billion program to support co-ops’ voluntary clean energy transition. This is appropriate recognition of the need to level the playing field for not-for-profit cooperatives, reduce costs and open new doors for innovation.”

The House bill includes two provisions relevant to co-ops:

Direct Pay Energy Innovation Tax Credits: Because electric co-ops are not-for-profit, consumer-owned businesses, they do not pay federal taxes. As a result, co-ops have not been eligible to receive federal tax incentives to promote renewables and other innovative technologies that for-profit utilities have enjoyed for years. The House bill addresses this inequity by providing direct payments to co-ops and municipal utilities to promote investments in new technologies.

USDA Voluntary Energy Transition Program: The bill includes $10 billion that can be used by electric co-ops to help defray the costs of voluntarily retiring coal plants or investing in renewable energy and other technologies that reduce carbon emissions. 

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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The House on Friday passed a $1.85 trillion spending package that includes direct federal payments for electric cooperatives to develop new energy resources and technologies, including renewable energy, battery storage projects, nuclear energy facilities and carbon capture.

The package still must be approved by the Senate.

“As electric co-ops work to reliably meet future energy needs at a cost that consumers can afford, they must have equal access to energy incentives and programs,” said NRECA CEO Jim Matheson.

The direct-pay provision would put co-ops on a level playing field with investor-owned utilities, which already receive federal tax breaks for providing power from solar, wind and other renewable energy sources and for investing in carbon capture.

The bill also provides direct-pay tax incentives for developing electric vehicle infrastructure, which a growing number of co-ops are pursuing.

Electric co-ops haven’t had comparable federal incentives because they are exempt from federal income taxes. NRECA has stressed that the Biden administration’s goals for reducing carbon dioxide emissions cannot be met without the participation of co-ops and municipal utilities, which together make up 30% of the electricity sector.

The legislation also includes $10 billion for a voluntary program in which the federal government provides grants and loans to co-ops that deploy renewable energy systems, energy efficiency or carbon capture, or retire their fossil-fuel power plants.

By retiring debt on fossil-fuel plants that are closing, the government would help ensure that co-ops aren’t stuck with stranded assets that they are still paying for after the facilities have shut down.

“The House bill would give co-ops access to direct-pay incentives for energy innovation and create a $10 billion program to support co-ops’ voluntary clean energy transition,” Matheson said. “This is appropriate recognition of the need to level the playing field for not-for-profit cooperatives, reduce costs and open new doors for innovation.”

Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.

An executive representing generation and transmission cooperative interests is urging Congress to help clear bureaucratic and legal barriers that add burdensome delays and increase costs for transmission projects connecting population centers to new sources of renewable energy.

“There is tremendous opportunity to utilize federal lands for both generating renewable electricity, and moving that electricity to load centers,” said Pius Fischer, Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s vice president of transmission, during Tuesday’s virtual hearing of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.

“We support the role that federal lands can play in expanding the deployment of renewable energy,” Fischer said. “If beneficial electrification is the goal, driving up the cost of electricity due to increased time and costs for transmission is self-defeating.”

Fischer cited Basin’s deployment and operation of 2,500 miles of high voltage transmission and its 1,800 megawatts of owned or contracted wind power as evidence of its support for renewable energy and noted that the G&T now has approximately 300 MW of solar generation under development. He added that systemic challenges complicating transmission design and deployment could be resolved by Congress.

“The federal government should approach transmission development with a coordinated interagency approach,” Fischer said, after recounting the three years it took for Basin Electric to complete the environmental impact statement needed for an essential transmission project serving oil and gas fields in the Bakken Formation.

Fischer said meeting National Environmental Policy Act requirements can take years, in contrast with state siting requirements that can be met in a matter of four to six months. He also cited Basin’s experience with permitting challenges brought under the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act as factors complicating vital transmission projects.

“The additional time and cost of constructing transmission on federal lands becomes a measure of last resort for electric utilities and transmission developers,” he said.

Fischer offered the committee several recommendations to minimize barriers to linking renewables with energy-hungry population centers:

• Provide clear guidance and analysis timeframes for NEPA compliance and encourage the use of categorical exclusions for projects with minimal impact.
• Provide regulatory protections for utilities engaging in lawful activities, such as power transmission for bird strikes subject to endangered species or migratory bird regulations.
• Ensure that the costs of transmission development are borne by users commensurate to the benefits from development of renewable energy projects and the transmission connecting the projects to those areas.

Derrill Holly is a staff writer for NRECA.

Renewable energy technologies pose both opportunities and challenges for rural America, the president of Georgia’s Green Power EMC told a House panel Tuesday.

“Georgia’s rural communities have reaped financial benefits from solar projects, which have created thousands of construction jobs and boosted tax revenue for local governments,” Jeff Pratt testified at a House Agriculture Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy and Credit hearing on the renewable economy in rural America.

Despite the economic benefits brought by the growing number of solar projects, “some communities have been challenged to find a balance between the competing interests of solar land use and traditional farming operations,” Pratt said.

To help remedy that, Green Power EMC and its members are employing regenerative agriculture practices, Pratt said.

“Herds of sheep reside part-time at the solar farms and graze beneath the solar panels,” he said. “As sheep bite off the tops of plants, keeping vegetation from shading the solar panels, they fertilize the soil, causing more plants to grow. This agricultural practice is designed to improve soil health, sequester carbon, and boost water quality on land used for solar power generation.”

Green Power EMC is a not-for-profit cooperative founded 20 years ago to help 38 of Georgia’s electric co-ops secure renewable energy resources.

“In the past six years, Georgia’s cooperatives have grown their solar portfolio by 8,000%, utilizing approximately 15,000 acres of land in rural Georgia,” Pratt testified. “These solar projects will collectively produce enough electricity to serve more than 270,000 households each year.”

There are inherent challenges in relying on the sun for power, Pratt said.

“While solar is among the lowest cost of energy in Georgia, its intermittent nature presents technical and economic challenges as it becomes a larger percentage of our electricity generation portfolio,” he said.

The growing volume of solar power means that more investment is needed in technologies such as battery storage and energy management control systems to maintain reliability, Pratt said.

“To manage intermittency, Georgia co-ops maintain reliable base load energy, such as nuclear generation, to serve as a foundational resource necessary for periods when sunshine is not available—such as night hours or during cloudy conditions,” he said.

While Georgia’s co-ops continue to expand their use of renewable energy, they need access to direct-pay incentives from the federal government to reduce the cost of energy innovation, Pratt told lawmakers.

“As not-for-profit businesses, current law does not allow electric co-ops to access the full value of clean energy tax incentives available to taxable businesses,” Pratt said. “Electric cooperatives need access to direct-pay tax incentives to reduce the cost of energy innovation projects, including the deployment of renewables, nuclear energy and other emerging technologies; the expansion of energy storage projects; and installation of electric charging infrastructure.”

NRECA worked to ensure that direct-pay incentives for co-ops are included in the current draft of the Build Back Better Act, which awaits a vote in the House. If passed, it would go to the Senate for approval.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.

As electric cooperatives contend with global supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, they’re working with their suppliers, vendors and logistics providers to meet demand for parts and other key components essential to keeping power flowing.

“We’re facing long lead times for pad-mounted transformers and PVC pipe used for conduits for underground distribution,” said Tim Gibson, purchasing agent for Wauchula, Florida-based Peace River Electric Cooperative. “Digital meter availability has also been a big problem due to the worldwide shortage of microchips, so we’ve projected six-month demand and ordered them for staggered delivery to meet our needs.”

Long lead times for some parts, like polyvinyl chloride pipe and fittings, have been extended due to feed stock shortages or curtailed operations at petrochemical plants in Texas and Louisiana caused by weather or staffing challenges. Pandemic-related concerns and shipping delays have also prompted some warehouse managers to increase reserves on hand by doubling and even tripling up on their inventories.

“We’re routinely looking at the usage history of our customers so we can anticipate their actual demand for 2022 and the following year,” said Bret Curry, sales manager at Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc. The Little Rock-based logistics and service arm of the Arkansas statewide association serves as the principal parts and equipment supplier for about 400 utilities, including co-ops in five Mid-South states.

AECI also regularly consults with members of the Electric Utility Distribution Association, which includes nine member-owned logistics suppliers serving member-owned and public power interests. Several members of EUDA are reporting similar concerns across their client bases.

“Long lead times have caused inventory levels to fluctuate greatly—making it very hard to manage stockouts,” said Johnny Andrews, chief operating officer of Texas Electric Cooperatives’ manufacturing and distribution services division.

Among the strategies TEC has employed to address the supply shortage has been meeting demand with reconditioned equipment, like meters and transformers.

“This approach has worked extremely well for TEC due to the support of companies like Emerald Transformer and Allegiant Utility Services, which manufacturers and refurbishes meters,” said Andrews. “Both of these organizations have stock of refurbished equipment, offer product warranties that are similar or better than the original equipment manufacturers and can also refurbish and repair the co-ops’ equipment as well.”

While several EUDA members are advising clients that logistics challenges could linger well into 2023, the end of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season may provide a bit of relief. Storm activity along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts has been less damaging than normal this year, and seasonal reserves of parts and equipment built up since the spring will begin flowing back into inventories in December.

Still, co-ops are being encouraged to work with local developers on major projects to divide larger jobs into several phases, allowing for delivery of essential parts and components over extended periods.

“The key is planning, particularly for large developments or subdivisions slated for construction over the next three to four years,” said AECI’s Curry. “Talk to your builders and developers and tell them just what we’re telling our distribution co-ops. If they tell you they need to build out infrastructure for 100 new homes tomorrow, that’s not likely to be possible in this environment, and there are no hard expectations of that improving anytime soon.”

Derrill Holly is a staff writer for NRECA.

Updated: Nov. 15, 4:45 pm

A bipartisan infrastructure bill approved Nov. 5 by the House will be a major boost for electric cooperatives by providing billions for broadband deployment, electric vehicle charging networks, electric transmission, energy storage, carbon capture and other clean energy technologies.

The Senate passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in August. The $1.2 trillion bill, which includes $550 billion in new spending, was signed into law by President Joe Biden on Nov. 15. Improving the nation’s aging infrastructure has been a major effort by Congress in recent years and a policy priority for the Biden administration.

“This bipartisan bill provides a significant down payment toward meeting critical needs of electric cooperatives and the communities we serve, including funding for priorities such as broadband deployment and electric vehicle charging,” said NRECA CEO Jim Matheson. “This bill recognizes the need to expand these two technologies in rural communities. As policymakers plan for a future that depends on electricity to drive the economy, more work will be needed to build on the groundwork laid by this legislation.”

Among the infrastructure bill’s key provisions benefiting co-ops:

• Broadband: Provides $65 billion to connect rural communities and low-income urban residents with high-speed internet service. This includes $42.5 billion for a broadband grant program administered by the states. Co-ops would be eligible to participate in the program, and funds could be used for deployment and mapping projects to show which communities need service most.

• Electric vehicles: Authorizes $7.5 billion for EV charging infrastructure. The funding would be sent to the states to partner with co-ops and other businesses to create charging networks. The bill also provides $2.5 billion for zero-emission school buses, which could help co-ops partner with local school districts to bring electric buses to their communities.

• Energy research and development: Authorizes billions to explore clean energy technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

• Carbon capture: Provides $3.5 billion for large-scale carbon-capture projects, including two demonstration projects each at coal-fired power plants and natural gas-fired power plants. It also authorizes $2.2 billion to enable the capture of more carbon emissions by building storage infrastructure, including wells and pipelines.

• Wind and solar: Boosts renewable energy by providing $400 million for research and development into wind energy and $320 million for solar energy.

• Energy storage: Provides $355 million for pilot projects that explore the potential of energy storage. An additional $150 million would go toward an initiative that focuses on long-duration storage.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.

When Jimmy Augustine Jr. flicked on a light switch for the first time in his mother’s home, he said it brought tears to his eyes.

“All these years to get lights.”

Augustine’s 73-year-old mother, Dorothy, lives on Navajo Nation land in New Mexico and until recently was one of thousands of residents there whose homes, because of logistical and bureaucratic holdups, have remained unserved by central station power.

Now, thanks to a silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic, electrification projects on Navajo land that have languished for decades are suddenly getting influxes of federal and state funding and renewed prioritization.

In many cases, it’s electric cooperatives that are completing the work. Dorothy’s home is now connected to Continental Divide Electric Cooperative power lines, part of an 11-mile line extension begun in the 1980s and finally completed in October 2020 using federal relief funds.

“I thank everyone who did all the work and effort,” said Jimmy.

The program credited with spurring the drive to serve Navajo Nation homes is the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security or CARES Act, the $2 trillion federal stimulus package aimed at combating the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic.

“The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority received approval of its funding in August and all the work had to be completed by December, so there was a very tight timeline to get these projects finished,” said Deenise Becenti, NTUA’s government and public affairs manager. “All the utilities involved knew we were facing deadlines, so they worked hard to get as many homes connected as possible before the end of the year.”

The NTUA was created in 1959 to serve the Navajo Nation’s 27,000-square-mile territory, covering parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. But land allotment policies administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs since the 1880s often complicate right-of-way and service decisions, and in some instances, approvals to build infrastructure can take decades and involve dozens of property allotment holders.

“We have thousands of homes in the Navajo Nation that lack access to basic electricity, water and natural gas, and wastewater service,” said Becenti. “Our goal is to connect as many people as possible to services every year, and recently we’ve come to include broadband internet service in our projects as well.”

The Navajo Nation Council works to expand utility services using NTUA but also contracts with neighboring utilities, including co-ops with existing lines closer to underserved communities. CARES Act funds have helped finance 60 projects so far, with 49 involving three separate electric co-ops.

Grants-based CDEC, Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative, headquartered in Espanola, New Mexico, and Socorro Electric Cooperative, based in Socorro, New Mexico, have waiting lists of families living on reservation lands with pending applications for electric service.

“Approximately 1,000 Navajo families in our geographic area currently have no service,” said Continental Divide CEO Robert Castillo. “Last December we were able to complete 24 electric projects on behalf of Eastern Agency Navajo families.”

Access to electricity not only means lighting and refrigeration, it also can end the hard work of hauling water and opens the door to telehealth, distance learning and telework. The lack of such modern conveniences often prompt young families to leave the area, said Carmen Campbell, a district manager for Jemez Mountain EC who also serves as the co-op’s liaison to the Navajo Nation.

“I had a phone call recently from a lady that has been trying to get lines built to her and her surrounding families for more than 15 years,” said Campbell. “She pleaded, ‘My grandkids would visit me more if I had electricity.’”

The availability of power can also restore generational ties, bringing families back to land where loved ones have lived for more than a century.

“We’re hearing from younger families once power lines reach their traditional ancestral homestead, ‘This is where we want to raise our children, where our grandparents once lived,’” said NTUA’s Becenti. “Some of them are moving back from the cities and building houses, and we expect to see a lot more of that as access to power and other utilities expands.”

Derrill Holly is a staff writer for NRECA.

Up until recently, when companies approached Billy Marricle about siting a new business or expanding existing operations in San Bernard Electric Cooperative’s service area, he was in the unenviable position of having to pass on the opportunity.

“We’ve actually had to turn down new load because we could not serve them when they came knocking on our door,” said Marricle, the co-op’s president and general manager. “We’ve lost business to nearby utilities because transmission capacity constraints made it impossible to meet industrial load growth demand in their time frame.”

The Bellville, Texas-based distribution co-op serves parts of seven counties west and southwest of Houston and has been experiencing rapid residential expansion and a spike in oil and gas operations impacting the broader southeast Texas region.

But as a relatively small co-op—about 29,000 meters—SBEC had scant leverage in the wholesale energy markets and even less influence advocating for approval of new regional transmission infrastructure.

Such challenges were among the factors that led Marricle and his co-op to apply to become the newest member of South Texas Electric Cooperative.

“G&T membership would lessen our exposure to wholesale market pricing and give us the strength of a much larger collective voice in both regulatory and legislative matters,” said Marricle.

STEC accepted the co-op’s application on July 1.

The Nursery, Texas-based G&T has also seen unprecedented growth over the past decade and has responded with a commitment to expanding transmission, diversifying generation and pursuing long-term power-purchase contracts to meet the needs of its member co-ops.

Its power supply portfolio totals 2,030 megawatts, including ownership of three power plants with a capacity of 600 megawatts and agreements for solar, wind and hydroelectric power, plus lignite and natural gas generation from various sites, including some leased and operated by a subsidiary.

“The combined scale of our operations enhances our ability to secure financing at favorable rates,” said General Manager Mike Kezar, adding that two-thirds of STEC’s generation resources are now contracted services and assets. “That’s allowed us to reduce our risk while diversifying our generation portfolio. We’re able to hedge against fuel cost volatility by dispatching resources based on price.”

Marricle expects the new G&T affiliation will help SBEC provide much greater rate flexibility, a major incentive to potential new commercial and industrial members.

“When we contracted for wholesale power independently, our costs were largely fixed when markets were high, but when demand and markets were low, we’d wind up dumping excess power back into the market at lower prices,” said Marricle. “We’ve had diversified resources contracted locally, but STEC membership gives us access to resources across a much broader footprint. That will help us hold down costs for our members.”

An Integrated Approach

Since reorganizing in 2015, STEC has made significant structural changes that help the G&T control costs, including the ability to meet 110% of seasonal peak demand with generation it owns or purchases through contracts.

“When market prices are low, we can shut down our peaking plants and buy power from the market, but when prices are high, it is less expensive to run our resources,” he said. “The result is that we are consistently providing the lowest-cost energy to our members.”

In addition, the resources STEC contracts under power purchase agreements are spread across the service territories of its distribution co-op members, which mitigates the financial effects of transmission constraints and improves the co-op’s wholesale revenue performance.

“We’re currently involved in a strategic review of our power supply portfolio,” said Kezar. “We’re working with the board and senior staff to determine whether we should consider adding peaking power resources, battery storage or more renewable energy. We think it’s vital that our distribution co-op managers and their elected boards be involved, so we’ve held numerous workshops on those issues.”

STEC’s integrated approach to planning and operations and its ample experience with expanding transmission and substation capacity given the region’s exponential oil and gas growth were key factors in San Bernard’s decision to join the G&T, said Marricle.

“[Membership] will provide opportunities for us to limit our exposure as we continue to work to meet the current needs and growth of our consumer-members,” said Marricle. “It also gives us opportunities to expand our services and programs to address future member needs with shared resources that might be too expensive for us to provide independently.”

Kezar agreed that “all of our members benefit from the shared costs, risk management and strategic planning. The G&T/distribution cooperative model provides opportunities to tailor service to each member for the benefit of their member-consumers while reducing exposure to the market,” he said. “Anytime you add more members, there are benefits of load growth and diversification to all the members, including better financing, improved credit ratings and more responsive relationships with policymakers than a smaller system might have.”

Derrill Holly is a staff writer for NRECA.

By the end of this decade, up to half of the vehicles produced by Ford Motor Co. will be powered by electricity. And electric cooperatives and their members in the Tennessee Valley will help build, sustain and produce the facilities and components essential to meeting that goal.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker has committed to building a major automotive assembly plant in western Tennessee and will partner with a South Korean manufacturer to develop battery manufacturing plants to support its domestic electric vehicle production.

“We are moving now to deliver breakthrough electric vehicles for the many rather than the few,” said Jim Farley, Ford president and CEO, who announced the projects Tuesday. “It’s about creating good jobs that support American families, an ultra-efficient, carbon-neutral manufacturing system, and a growing business that delivers value for communities, dealers and shareholders.”

Ford’s new Blue Oval City manufacturing complex will be built near Stanton, Tennessee, about 25 miles east of Memphis and 32 miles west of Jackson. The 6-square-mile site will be powered directly by the Tennessee Valley Authority, but surrounding residential, commercial and industrial developments are served by Brownsville-based Southwest Tennessee Electric Membership Corp. and Somerville-based Chickasaw Electric Cooperative.

“The scope of this project is unlike anything Tennessee has ever seen,” said Kevin Murphy, CEO of Southwest Tennessee Electric Membership Corp. and board president of the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association. “This development will have a lasting impact on the communities we serve and all of West Tennessee. We are honored that Ford selected our region for this historic investment, and we are celebrating the exciting opportunities that this will create.”

The $5.6 billion Blue Oval City manufacturing complex is expected to create 5,800 permanent jobs producing Ford’s F-Series electric trucks as well as batteries and other essential components. The facility will anchor an EV industry that’s expected to generate more than 27,000 jobs and add $3.5 billion in annual economic development to Tennessee’s economy.

“The economic opportunities created by a project of this size will benefit Chickasaw Electric, our consumers and all the communities we serve for generations,” said Loyd Muncy, CEO of Chickasaw Electric Cooperative.

The 3,600-acre campus will include vehicle assembly facilities, battery production facilities and an industrial park to support local logistics and cloud-connected supplier operations. Future development at the site could include renewable energy projects harnessing geothermal, solar or wind power.

“Reliable, low-cost, clean energy attracts world-class companies like Ford to the Tennessee Valley,” said Jeff Lyash, CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority. “Bringing jobs and capital investment to this region is what we do at TVA–it’s a fundamental part of our mission–and by helping to bring companies like Ford to this region, we are creating the jobs of the future.”

More than 32,000 jobs are expected to support construction and development of the site over the next three years, generating about $1.87 billion in salaries annually before the plant begins vehicle production in 2025.

“A major manufacturing facility in this area will transform the economy of West Tennessee and provide high-quality, high-paying jobs for the entire region,” said Tennessee Lt. Gov. Randy McNally.

The Tennessee complex is designed to be carbon neutral with zero waste to send to landfills once it’s fully operational. Wastewater will be treated onsite and scrap generated there will be collected for recycling or processing. Ford has partnered with South Korea-based manufacturer SK Innovations on this project and a second plant slated for development in Kentucky to support its EV battery production and recycling needs.

“West Tennessee is primed to deliver the workforce and quality of life needed to create the next great American success story with Ford Motor Company and SK Innovation,” said Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. “This is a watershed moment for Tennesseans as we lead the future of the automotive industry and advanced manufacturing.”

Speaking in Memphis on Tuesday, Ford and SK Innovations officials also announced plans to develop the $5.8 billion BlueOvalSK battery manufacturing campus in Glendale, Kentucky. The 1,500-acre site is expected to host two plants capable of generating 43 gigawatt hours of electricity each through production of domestically manufactured batteries for Ford and Lincoln EVs. Those facilities are expected to create 5,000 permanent jobs when they open in 2025.

“This is the single largest investment in the history of our state and this project solidifies our leadership role in the future of the automotive manufacturing industry,” said Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.”It will transform our economy, creating a better Kentucky, with more opportunities, for our families for generations.”

Derrill Holly is a staff writer for NRECA.

South Carolina’s electric cooperatives are adding more than 300 megawatts of utility-scale solar to their portfolios through several power purchase agreements to help meet the electricity needs of their members and satisfy their demands for renewable energy.

“Prices for renewable energy have declined to the point where well-planned and adequately capitalized projects make good economic sense,” said Jim Lamb, senior vice president of planning and power supply at Central Electric Power Cooperative, a generation and transmission co-op. “We’ve found our own solar suppliers and designed contracts that give us flexibility in how we meet the energy needs of our member co-ops.”

Five agreements call for design, deployment and construction of new solar arrays in four counties. Commissioning and energy production are slated to begin by late 2023.

The new solar facilities represent a significant expansion of Columbia, South Carolina-based Central Electric’s wholesale power portfolio, and the projects collectively represent a nearly 40% increase in the state’s solar capacity.

“We’ve gone from two wholesale power suppliers to six with these solar contracts,” said Gerry Fleming, Central Electric’s director of power supply operations. “Our main reasons for doing this are technology diversification and economic considerations, and these solar contracts meet both of these goals.”

Nashville, Tennessee-based Silicon Ranch, a platinum associate member of NRECA, will develop two projects totaling 200 MW in South Carolina’s Georgetown County.

The remaining projects are:

• A 75-MW array in Williamsburg County being built by Durham, North Carolina-based Ecoplexus.

• A 75-MW array in Aiken County being built by Charlotte, North Carolina-based Birdseye Renewable Energy.

• And a third 75-MW array in Dorchester County being built by Spartanburg, South Carolina-based Johnson Development Associates.

Co-op officials cite performance, reliability and declining costs as factors driving the G&T’s strategic planning, which could eventually include utility-scale storage as South Carolina struggles with constrained access to natural gas generation due to limited pipeline infrastructure.

“We’re focused on meeting the needs of our 20 member co-ops, and that means we need to be flexible with our investments and prepared to harness technologies that diversify our generation portfolio,” said Rob Hochstetler, Central Electric’s CEO. “Continuous improvement of our portfolios has to be the goal.”

Derrill Holly is a staff writer for NRECA.

Lee Middle School’s Tim Johnson has been a teacher for more than 30 years, but he still gets a charge learning about the world around him—and passing that knowledge on to his eighth-grade students in Sharpsburg, Georgia.

As the school year gets underway, Johnson is looking forward to sharing insights picked up at Alternative Energy Summer Adventure, a three-day workshop for K-12 educators focusing on STEM education sponsored by Coweta-Fayette EMC and the Coweta County School System. About 30 participants engaged in hands-on activities and took field trips to local examples of sustainable development and energy efficiency, including Georgia Tech’s Kendeda Building.

Johnson says the program will also enhance his curriculum on Georgia studies. “We look at the state from a lot of different angles, and being able to add one more piece to my toolkit allows me to better relate where we came from and where we’re going both economically and career-wise in Georgia.”

Held in mid-July, the teachers’ camp fills several needs, said Chris Stephens, CEO of the Palmetto-based co-op. “The future of the energy industry is changing. Not only will this experience bring new opportunities to the classroom, this partnership will help equip and engage our future workforce.”

The project stems from the co-op’s successful bid in 2018 to serve a new middle school under the state’s “Customer Choice” program. As an added incentive, the co-op proposed an energy innovation learning center at the school that included a solar array, an electric vehicle charging station and curriculum support on STEM from Green Power EMC’s SPARK Energy Education Program.

At the suggestion of the school system’s STEM specialist, the co-op expanded the training and curriculum to include other schools, said Maggie Reenstra, Coweta Fayette’s community and economic development coordinator.

The co-op and school district collaborated on the “teach-the-teacher” program. School officials selected participants, and co-op employees taught the program and led tours. Retired teachers, who had developed the SPARK curriculum, taught the classroom portions.

The co-op plans to offer the camp next summer “for local educators to learn about the importance and growing demand of alternative energy options,” said Reenstra.

Take a look at highlights from the workshop:

Day One: Visit to Georgia Tech’s Kendeda Building

Day Two: Visit to Co-op Solar Plant

Day Three: Hands-On Learning

Victoria A. Rocha is a staff writer for NRECA.

Updated: August 11, 2021

A bipartisan infrastructure bill approved Tuesday by the Senate would provide billions of dollars for electric cooperative priorities, including broadband deployment, electric vehicle charging networks and development of energy storage, carbon capture and other clean energy technologies.

The bill must still be taken up by the House, which is scheduled to return early from recess on Aug. 23.

“Investing in our energy infrastructure is vital to ensuring that electric cooperatives can continue to do what they do best: provide reliable, affordable power to 42 million Americans,” said Louis Finkel, NRECA’s senior vice president of Government Relations. “Passage of this bill is a great start. We’ll continue to work with Congress to press for more co-op priorities to be included in the bigger infrastructure packages that lawmakers are expected to take up later this year.”

The $550 billion bill does not include the Flexible Financing for Rural America Act, which would allow co-ops to save a total of more than $10 billion by repricing their existing Rural Utilities Service debt at current low interest rates without prepayment penalties. It also does not include legislation to provide co-ops with direct federal payments to develop renewable energy and battery storage projects.

Inclusion of those proposals was hampered by the absence of tax or agriculture sections. NRECA will continue to push for those two top priorities to be included in separate infrastructure legislation expected to be considered later this year.

Among the Senate-passed bill’s key provisions benefiting co-ops:

• Broadband: Provides $65 billion to connect rural communities and low-income urban residents with high-speed internet service. This includes $42.5 billion for a broadband grant program administered by the states. Co-ops would be eligible to participate in the program, and funds could be used for deployment and mapping projects to show which communities need service most.

• Electric vehicles: Authorizes $7.5 billion for EV charging infrastructure. The money goes to the states to partner with co-ops and other businesses to create charging networks. The bill also provides $2.5 billion for zero-emission school buses. Some co-ops have partnered with local school districts to help bring electric school buses to their communities, and this money could assist those efforts.

• Energy research and development: Authorizes billions to explore clean energy technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

• Carbon capture: Provides $3.5 billion for large-scale carbon-capture projects, including two demonstration projects each at coal-fired power plants and natural gas-fired power plants. It also authorizes $2.2 billion to enable the capture of more carbon emissions by building storage infrastructure, including wells and pipelines.

• Wind and solar: Boosts renewable energy by providing $400 million for research and development into wind energy and $320 million for solar energy.

• Energy storage: Provides $355 million for pilot projects that explore the potential of energy storage. An additional $150 million would go toward an initiative that focuses on long-duration storage.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.

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.