Congress must heed recent warnings about grid reliability to ensure that electric cooperatives can continue to provide rural Americans with reliable, affordable power, an Arkansas co-op leader told a Senate panel Friday.

“Electric cooperatives are committed to keeping the lights on across rural America at a cost that families can afford,” said Buddy Hasten, president and CEO of the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp., in testimony before the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee at a field hearing at Arkansas State University.

“As we look to the future, we worry that federal and state policies, as well as market changes, are causing an imbalance of electric supply and demand that jeopardizes our ability to fulfill this commitment.”

He noted that the North American Electric Reliability Corp. warned in its 2022 Summer Reliability Assessment that parts of the Midwest could face outages during periods of peak demand.

“Put simply, this is because generation capacity has been reduced while peak demand is projected to increase—decreasing supply while increasing demand,” he said. “A concerning pattern is forming in which baseload generation such as natural gas, coal and nuclear energy is prematurely retired and then replaced primarily by intermittent generation like wind and solar.”

It will take a diverse energy mix to provide the power that Americans depend upon, Hasten said.

“To be clear, this is not about prioritizing one energy source over another,” he said. “Our focus is whether we will have the diverse tools needed to keep the lights on for American families and businesses.”

When the electric grid fails, “it almost always results in financial catastrophe and loss of human life,” Hasten said. “It’s important for lawmakers to understand the pivotal role they play in this conversation.”

Hasten also urged Congress to streamline the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect Loan and Grant Program, which provides funding for electric co-ops and others to bring high-speed internet to rural communities with little or no broadband service. The Senate agriculture committee is looking to reauthorize the program in the 2023 Farm Bill.

In Arkansas, 14 of the 17 electric co-ops provide broadband service to their members and greatly appreciate the funding provided by ReConnect, Hasten said. However, he said the program is unwieldly and is designed for a traditional telecommunications company, failing to take into account the co-op business structure that has been used successfully for more than 80 years. He said the ReConnect requirements can be especially difficult for small co-ops to navigate since they don’t have large staffs to administer the program.

“As Congress begins to think about the next Farm Bill, ensuring that these programs are flexible and streamlined will allow electric cooperatives to deploy fiber resources as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Hasten testified.

Congress could also help electric co-ops reduce costs for rural Americans by passing key legislation to refinance federal loans and provide direct payments for energy innovation, Hasten told the senators.

In Arkansas, almost every co-op borrows from USDA’s Rural Utilities Service to build and maintain their infrastructure, he said.

“Unlike a private business loan or typical home mortgage, these RUS loans are unable to be refinanced to current market rates without facing a significant prepayment penalty,” he told the senators.

Without relief, co-ops will have to pass expensive debt costs along to their members, Hasten said. He urged senators to support the Flexible Financing for Rural America Act, which would allow co-ops a one-time rate adjustment to current market rates without penalties.

“For electric cooperatives in Arkansas, this would yield over $100 million in future savings for our member-owners,” he said.

Hasten also asked senators to support direct federal payments to not-for-profit co-ops as incentives to help pay for developing new energy resources and technologies, including renewable energy, battery storage projects, nuclear energy facilities and carbon capture and storage.

“Many newer, cleaner technologies are attractive to rural utilities,” he said. “We serve the areas where you are most likely to see expansive solar farms or clusters of wind turbines; however, we are handcuffed by the tax code and the significant capital expenses required to deploy innovative technologies.”

Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.

Two wind turbines that provided a wealth of utility-scale renewable energy and hands-on experience to Basin Electric Power Cooperative were toppled in March, 20 years after they first became curious new features on North Dakota’s landscape.

“They were at the end of their useful life, and parts to keep them running are no longer available,” said Joe Fiedler, Basin Electric’s manager of distributed generation.

Commissioned in November 2002 and affectionately dubbed “Willy” and “Wally,” the two Nordex wind turbines were designed to produce 1.3 megawatts of electricity each and were the first two constructed for the Bismarck-based generation and transmission cooperative. Over their lives, they produced nearly 135 million kilowatt-hours of electricity and provided key experience and training for technicians supporting Basin Electric’s renewable energy operation.

The March 14 demolitions used a “chop and drop” technique, felling the structures like giant trees.

“A contractor ran two lines up to apply pressure to [each] tower and then used cutting torches to cut the bases so they could be pulled over,” said Patrick Hurt, supervisor of operations and maintenance for Basin Electric’s Prairie Winds generation facilities. “They made a heck of a boom when they hit the ground.”

Basin Electric’s initial foray into wind energy was considered ambitious and even risky at the time.

“Wind was met with a fair amount of skepticism in the beginning,” said Basin Electric Member Services Specialist Jeremy Woeste, recalling how some industry veterans questioned whether even demonstration projects were a waste of time and money. 

“It’s an intermittent resource, but we had member co-ops that had an interest in finding out if this would work. Those turbines gave us an opportunity to determine if we could add wind to our generation portfolio and what we needed to learn to make the technology viable and affordable.”

The G&T now owns 189 wind turbines in North Dakota and South Dakota and contracts for production from nearly 950 additional turbines located in four Upper Midwest states, where some of the nation’s most reliable conditions exist for utility-scale wind operations.

“We have definitely been able to rely on the wind development within our service territory,” said Becky Kern, Basin Electric’s vice president of resource planning and rates.

“Wind technology has significantly improved and matured during the last decade, and we work with developers when it makes good economic sense for our members.”

Being wind power pioneers has given Basin Electric crews unique opportunities to build their skills maintaining turbines, which run on an array of gears and sensors that must be constantly monitored and calibrated.    

“We have about one technician for every 10 turbines,” said Joe Fiedler, Basin Electric’s manager of distributed generation. “We don’t do any of the major repairs like dropping a blade or doing a gearbox exchange, but our crews do all the other troubleshooting and maintenance on the wind turbines and collectors.”

Basin Electric has worked with some of its purchase power providers to repower some older turbines, refitting them with newer systems to increase their efficiency and prolong their use.

But as some of its oldest units are taken out of service, the G&T plans to return the land to its original use. That includes removal of the turbine and blade assemblies plus the 25,000 pounds of steel and 188 cubic yards of concrete used to support each structure.

“Basin Electric advocated responsible reclamation practices long before it was required by law, and our commitment to a clean environment continues today,” Fiedler said. “This project, like all of our others, includes a decommissioning plan that supports returning the land it was built on to its traditional use.”

Most of Willy and Wally’s original structures are now gone, cut down and hauled away for refurbishment or scrap. But the knowledge and experience they helped provide live on as the foundation of Basin Electric’s ambitious renewables program.

“Our commitment to wind dates back 20 years. Since then, wind has grown to be nearly a quarter of our entire resource portfolio, and we’ve been able to meet a 50% load growth largely with renewable resources,” Kern said. “That wouldn’t have been possible without the knowledge we gained from those original two turbines.”

Derrill Holly is a staff writer at NRECA.

Hydropower plants produce up to 100,000 megawatts of zero-carbon power for America’s homes and businesses. They are marvels of engineering that have helped bring development and prosperity to the many regions they serve. But they’re also in the crosshairs of interest groups that say they should be closed because of their environmental impacts and others who want to sell the facilities to private industry.

In the latest episode of Along Those Lines, hear more about hydropower’s benefits and challenges from Kurt Miller, head of Northwest RiverPartners, a not-for-profit based in Vancouver, Washington, that advocates for the region’s hydropower users; Troy Berglund, community development and member relations manager at Benton Rural Electric Association in Prosser, Washington; and Ashley Slater, NRECA’s vice president of regulatory affairs.

Listen to the episode below:

You can also listen and subscribe to Along Those Lines on your preferred podcast service:
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Find out more about NRECA’s podcast. Questions or suggestions? Email us at AlongThoseLines@nreca.coop.

Updated: May 2

WASHINGTON, D.C.–Hundreds of electric cooperative leaders converged on Capitol Hill for NRECA’s Legislative Conference this week to urge Congress to help co-ops take advantage of energy incentives, reduce their federal debt and access billions of infrastructure dollars.

“We have a 100% consumer focus on everything we do, particularly in the context of a discussion about policy priorities,” NRECA CEO Jim Matheson said at an April 27 news conference previewing the conference, which began Sunday and continues through Thursday.

NRECA has identified more than two dozen different components in the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress last year that may be of interest to electric co-ops, Matheson said.

NRECA is helping co-ops band together in consortiums to seek funding for projects in five categories: electric vehicles, microgrids, cybersecurity, natural hazards, and smart grids and data. The association is also working to help its member co-ops get broadband funding that will be distributed by state governments.

NRECA has been meeting with federal agency officials as they make decisions about how to distribute funding from the bill, Matheson said.

“We continue to be actively engaged to look for the best ways for our not-for-profit, community-owned organizations to participate in this process,” he said.

Co-op leaders are also asking members of Congress to help pass two additional bills this year, Matheson said.

The first would provide direct federal payments for electric co-ops to develop new energy resources and technologies, including renewable energy, battery storage projects, nuclear energy facilities and carbon capture and storage.

A direct-pay incentive 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.

“Over the last several years, you had billions of dollars of tax credits go toward renewable energy, for example,” Matheson said. “We’re on the outside looking in.”

NRECA is pushing lawmakers to include a direct-pay incentive for co-ops in any tax bill that Congress takes up this year.

“We’re going to be really aggressive in advocating for direct pay to be part of any tax legislation that moves because we think this is a really important step for our members,” he said.

The other major priority is passage of the Flexible Financing for Rural America Act, which would allow co-ops to refinance their loans from the Rural Utilities Service at lower interest rates without prepayment penalties.

The bill was originally estimated to cost the U.S. Treasury about $4 billion over a 10-year period, according to the Congressional Budget Office, but the cost is likely to go down now that interest rates have gone up, Matheson said.

“I know interest rates are on an upward trajectory right now,” he said. “The value of this to our members may not be what it was when we were talking about this a year ago. But, in the long run, this is the right policy for our members.”

Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.

Electric cooperatives are increasing their investment in renewable energy, but baseload resources like coal and natural gas must continue to be part of the mix to ensure reliable, affordable power for rural America, the leader of Central Iowa Power Cooperative told a House panel Tuesday.

“As we look to the future, intermittent resources such as wind and solar must continue to be complemented and supported by always-available baseload energy resources like coal and natural gas,” Bill Cherrier, executive vice president and CEO of the generation and transmission co-op, testified before the House Agriculture Committee. “System reliability depends on the ability to blend intermittent sources like wind and solar with firm, flexible and dispatchable electric capacity.”

CIPCO, which serves nearly 300,000 residents and more than 13,000 commercial and industrial accounts, has a diverse portfolio that includes wind, solar, hydropower, landfill gas, natural gas, coal and purchases on the market.

“CIPCO’s generation portfolio has evolved significantly, with wind growing from 4.1% in 2010 to 29.9% in 2021 and coal dropping from 58.4% to 29.3% during that same time period,” Cherrier said at a hearing reviewing the 2018 farm bill’s impact on renewable energy opportunities in rural America.

Moving ahead, the co-op recently deployed the 100-megawatt Wapello Solar LLC and the 54-MW Independence Wind power purchase agreements. CIPCO is investing in an additional 100-MW solar project. At the same time, CIPCO recently invested $85 million in its existing Summit Lake generation plant, adding efficient reciprocating natural gas engines that serve peak electric demand, Cherrier said.

“This investment complements our intermittent wind and solar resources while ensuring the baseload generation necessary to meet the 24/7 power needs of Iowans and businesses in CIPCO’s service territory.”

As co-ops add more renewable energy, it’s “critical that policymakers work constructively with industry to achieve these objectives while maintaining the exceptional reliability and affordability that American families and businesses expect and deserve,” Cherrier said.

He urged Congress to approve direct federal payments to co-ops to put them on a more equal footing with for-profit utilities, which have long received tax incentives to invest in renewable energy projects. Co-ops cannot access those incentives because they do not pay federal income taxes.

“The federal tax-credit structure prevents not-for-profit electric cooperatives like CIPCO from taking advantage of the tax benefit to directly build and own wind and solar generation assets,” Cherrier testified. “For cooperatives to reap any benefit for this transition, we must work with third parties that develop and own these assets.

“Direct-pay tax incentives would level the playing field for all electric providers, allowing co-op-member systems and member-owners down the line to have equal access to a diverse power supply mix.”

Congress could also boost rural America’s economy by passing legislation to allow electric cooperatives to refinance federal Rural Utilities Service loans at lower interest rates without penalty, he said.

NRECA and its member co-ops are calling on lawmakers to approve the Flexible Financing for Rural America Act, which permits co-ops to refinance their RUS electric loans without facing costly prepayment penalties. An average co-op with typical RUS debt could save $2 million per year in interest payments at today’s interest rates.

“This essential step will give co-ops the flexibility to best manage their financial circumstances while focusing on cooperatives’ long-term stability and that of the communities they serve,” Cherrier said.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.

A series of thunderous explosions over the central Ohio River Valley signaled a new beginning for a long-dormant coal-fired power plant owned by a Kentucky generation and transmission cooperative as it works to revive a prime industrial site for redevelopment.

Contractors hired by Henderson-based Big Rivers Electric Corp. brought down a trio of 300-foot-tall exhaust stacks and one 450-foot-tall stack as part of the ongoing reclamation of its Kenneth C. Coleman Station in Hawesville. The series of controlled blasts occurred over 90 seconds.

In remarks ahead of the March 23 detonations, Big Rivers CEO Bob Berry spoke about the G&T’s plans to redevelop the site. “It’s already got water, electricity, sewer, rail access and [navigable] water access, so it’s going to be just a great economic development site.”

The 443-megawatt power plant was taken out of production in 2014 when two aluminum smelters in the area terminated power purchase contracts with Big Rivers. Since then, many components in the plant have been dismantled for use at other facilities, and salvageable equipment and furnishings have been removed from plant buildings.

“These plants have meant good jobs for a lot of people and provided low-cost reliable energy for all the industry and homes,” said Berry, who began his co-op career as a custodian at Coleman Station in 1981.

“It has a little bit of sentimental value to me personally, and that’s kind of what makes it so bittersweet,” Berry said. “The sweet part is, we now have an opportunity to bring another industry in here that will provide jobs for the community.”

Big Rivers has been pursuing diversification of its generation portfolio for more than a decade. It now is producing electricity from coal, natural gas, solar and hydropower and has projects under development on behalf of its member distribution co-ops.

The Coleman plant’s first unit was commissioned in 1969. Two other units were activated by late 1971, and under normal operating conditions, the plants used about 1.7 million tons of Kentucky coal each year. About 150 workers were employed full time at the site.

Long-term contracts for its power were terminated when the aluminum smelters started buying wholesale power produced with relatively inexpensive natural gas. The plant was removed from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s rolls in 2017.

Since then, the G&T has been working with local and state economic development agencies to market the 762-acre site for redevelopment. Besides good highway access and the full range of industrial grade utilities, it also includes warehouse space, barge unloading facilities and mooring cells, supporting Ohio River barge traffic.

Demolition of boilers at the site is expected to be completed later this year. Prior use makes it eligible for brownfield designation, which could provide incentives to help defray site reclamation costs. Big Rivers is continuing with clearance, grading and environmental remediation work at the site.

Derrill Holly is a staff writer for NRECA.

Solar power makes up most of San Luis Valley REC’s renewables portfolio, but the showstopper of its renewable generation mix is a 100-year-old dam with a 90-foot concrete arch in the Colorado wilderness that for the past decade has helped power a remote town through a modern generator.

“It’s probably one of our more unique renewable sources, and it would be hard to imagine that there are more private hydroelectric facilities this size. Think of it as a miniature Hoover Dam,” said Loren Howard, CEO of the Monte Vista-based co-op.

The Humphreys Dam, the co-op’s only hydro source, celebrated its 10th anniversary recently in Creede, the town that it helps power. Fed by Goose Creek, the dam’s output accounts for about 1% of the co-op’s renewables portfolio, said Howard.

For dam operator Ruthie Brown, 65, the milestone also marked her first decade as an independent power producer. She is credited for her tireless efforts to modernize the dam, built by her great-grandfather in the 1920s, into a cost-effective facility with a single-phase generator capable of producing up to 340 kilowatts of hydropower.

“I gave the project a face,” said Brown. “I never hesitated to get to the person who would help me and ask, ‘I don’t understand this. Why do we have to do this? What is this about?’”

San Luis Valley REC just renewed a 10-year power purchase agreement with Wagon Wheel Associates, a company Brown’s family founded to operate the dam.

Brown hit upon the idea to transform the facility in 2008 into a money-making business to pay for the family ranch’s considerable upkeep and create more clean energy.

She navigated bureaucracies, forged alliances with engineers and federal regulators and ultimately won $900,000 in U.S. Department of Agriculture funds to install the project’s unique cross-flow turbine with a single-phase generator and other equipment.

“The experts all came on board,” said Brown. “They really took pride in this woman who really had no idea what she was doing but still took on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.”

At one point, Brown even rolled up her sleeves and joined the crews.

“Ruthie was great to work with and very hands on, stripping concrete forms and out there helping where she could. It’s one of my favorite projects,” said Gary Boring, the retired owner of a construction company that coordinated installation of the facility’s penstock and generator in 2010 and 2011.

Brown transformed herself into an authority on single-phase power systems. Recently, she advised a company in Greenland on a similar setup.

“I’m not a banker. I’m not an attorney. I’m not an engineer,” said Brown. “I’m a citizen who wanted to do what was right for the world we live in now, and bringing more renewables online is definitely the right thing to do.”

Victoria A. Rocha is a staff writer for NRECA.

Achieving 100% carbon-free electricity generation by 2035 is an overly ambitious goal that could threaten grid reliability and requires technology that is not yet available, NRECA CEO Jim Matheson told a Senate panel Wednesday.

The Biden administration has set a goal of a carbon-free electric sector by 2035.

“As our nation works to strengthen energy security and reliability while also protecting the environment, we must realize that it is not an all-or-nothing choice,” Matheson testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “We can address these priorities—but it requires technology and time beyond what is currently available and what many have called for.”

Matheson said lawmakers should focus on three key points as they consider the nation’s energy future:

• A resilient and reliable electric grid that affordably keeps the lights on is the cornerstone of American energy security and the national economy.

• The ongoing energy transition must recognize the need for time and technology and be inclusive of all energy sources to maintain reliability and affordability.

• The bipartisan infrastructure bill made important investments to support an energy transition, but additional actions on tax credits, permit streamlining and coordination on electrification will be required to meet future energy needs.

Matheson urged senators to oppose efforts to “mandate energy sector transformations over unreasonable or unrealistic timelines and that fail to account for regional differences in energy resource availability or the potential for stranded assets.”

He pointed to a recent long-term reliability assessment by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. warning of the risks of energy shortfalls during extreme weather if too much baseload generation is retired prematurely.

“Such policies would have significant impacts on the reliability and security of the electric grid and could have an undue economic impact on co-op consumer-members, particularly as additional costs must be incurred for replacement generation,” he said at a hearing focused on American energy security and investments in clean energy technologies.

Electric cooperatives are accelerating energy innovations and investments in clean energy to reduce carbon emissions, Matheson said. Co-ops lowered their CO2 emissions by 23% between 2005 and 2020—the equivalent of taking nearly 9 million cars off the road.

“As electric co-ops continue to reduce CO2 and other emissions, it is critical that policymakers work with industry in a constructive manner that achieves these objectives while maintaining the exceptional reliability and affordability that American families and businesses expect and deserve,” Matheson said.

The electric sector is poised to play a major role in reducing carbon emissions through increased electrification of the transportation, agricultural and industrial sectors, he said.

“Electrifying other sectors of the economy, however, will require a three-fold expansion of the transmission grid and up to 170% more electricity supply by 2050, according to the National Academies of Sciences,” Matheson testified.

“The increasing role of electrification will place more demands on the electric grid and generation portfolio, and measures to enhance grid reliability are essential to maximize emission reductions and keep costs affordable.”

The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress last November “included significant opportunities for electric co-ops and the communities they serve through programs supporting clean energy deployment, grid resiliency and modernization, physical and cybersecurity, electric vehicles, and rural broadband,” Matheson said.

But he said more must be done to provide tax incentives, streamline the permitting process and coordinate electrification efforts.

“Policymakers must continue to balance realism with aspiration while recognizing that any energy transition will require additional time and technology and must be inclusive of all energy sources to maintain the reliability and affordability that is the cornerstone of American energy security.”

Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.

As the U.S. Supreme Court addresses whether Congress authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to issue rules capable of reshaping the nation’s electric grid through the Clean Air Act, electric cooperatives continue to support the preservation of state authority to set emission levels at fossil fuel generation sources.

“The oral argument presented today was clear that the Supreme Court should preserve the states’ authority to set emission standards at power plants. Federal agencies are not free to rewrite statutory terms to accommodate policy desires that lack clear congressional directive,” NRECA CEO Jim Matheson said Monday.

“The Circuit Court’s decision would unconstitutionally allow EPA to determine the type of electric generation used within the states’ borders. Congress has recognized that every state is different, and the Court’s decision should recognize this fact,” Matheson said.

Matheson’s statement followed oral arguments in West Virginia v. the Environmental Protection Agency. The case pits coal-producing states and mining interests against the agency over an appeals court’s decision to throw out the 2019 Affordable Clean Energy rule, which gave states the right to set emission standards for existing power plants.

The Supreme Court could decide the case by June.

The ACE rule replaced the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which established emission guidelines for states to follow limiting carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated the ACE rule, sending the matter back to EPA.

EPA plans to propose a replacement for the ACE rule late this year and finalize a new rule in 2023, Elizabeth Prelogar, solicitor general representing the agency, told the justices.

Six generation and transmission co-ops and NRECA filed an amicus brief last December stating the position that Congress gave the states, not EPA, authority to set the standards for existing plants, with guidance from EPA, and that those standards must be achievable by each plant.

They said that the Clean Power Plan, which was sidelined by litigation and never took effect, would have forced “generation shifting” away from fossil fuel, harmed the economy and threatened the grid.

The G&Ts also raised the Supreme Court’s “major questions doctrine,” which asserts that federal agencies must have specific authorization from Congress when making policy of vast economic and political significance. Imposing emissions caps on electric generating units nationwide, they argued, would be such an action.

Cathy Cash is a staff writer for NRECA.

Electric cooperatives throughout the nation are poised to reap the benefits in 2022 of legislation passed by Congress last year that includes co-op priorities pushed by NRECA and its members.

The biggest success was passage of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs Act, which will give a major boost to co-ops by providing billions for broadband deployment, electric vehicle charging networks, electric transmission, energy storage, carbon capture and other clean energy technologies.

In 2022, NRECA will continue to advocate for direct federal incentives for co-ops to develop new energy resources and technologies, including renewable energy, battery storage projects, nuclear energy facilities and carbon capture, said Hill Thomas, vice president of legislative affairs.

NRECA will also push for passage of the Flexible Financing for Rural America Act. The bill could save co-ops more than $10 billion in interest payments by allowing them to reprice loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service at lower interest rates.

Here is Thomas’s perspective on this year’s legislative session:

What do you consider NRECA’s major legislative successes for 2021?

Thomas: We did a good job in a Congress that was stalled by COVID-19 in a world where most offices are still virtual and lawmakers are still singularly focused on just one or two items. I think we adapted well to that environment. Looking back, our biggest successes would be carving out what could be once-in-a-generation opportunities for co-ops in the infrastructure bill and, even though it’s not done, positioning ourselves well to defend against bad outcomes in the budget reconciliation bill while creating some new opportunities for financing for clean energy technologies.

What impact will the American Rescue Plan Act, which Congress passed last March to provide COVID-19 relief, have this year on co-ops?

Thomas: One of the most important policy lessons learned during the pandemic was the lack of broadband access in rural America. The American Rescue Plan sent a lot of money to states that can be used for broadband deployment in rural areas. One of the lasting policy opportunities to come from that bill is that many co-ops will be able to use the money to bring broadband to rural communities.

There seems to be enormous interest among co-ops in applying for funds created by the infrastructure bill for broadband deployment, electric vehicle infrastructure, clean energy technologies and more. What are you hearing from co-ops about their intentions, and how is NRECA helping them apply for this money?

Thomas: There’s a lot of interest in the opportunities created by the infrastructure bill, whether that’s broadband, grid resiliency, cybersecurity, electric vehicles or clean energy. In a lot of ways, the process that created these programs is just the beginning. There will be regulatory processes of various lengths that will provide details about what applications for those funds might look like.

Our goal is to provide as much information to our members as possible so they can make good decisions about what opportunities match up with their strategic priorities. NRECA has developed an infrastructure hub on cooperative.com that provides detailed information to our members as these programs and funding opportunities emerge. And we will continue to partner with our members to make sure they get as much value out of these opportunities as possible.

Last year, the House passed a sweeping budget reconciliation bill that included direct-pay incentives for co-ops to develop clean energy technologies and a $10 billion voluntary program for co-ops interested in transitioning away from fossil fuels. What do you see happening with those two legislative priorities this year?

Thomas: I’d start by saying that our efforts on the budget reconciliation bill were both offensive and defensive, including playing defense against potentially overly aggressive and burdensome clean energy targets. We think we did a good job in defending against those unreasonable mandates. At the same time, there are several good opportunities for co-ops included in the House-passed bill and in ongoing Senate negotiations, including direct-pay incentives for energy technology and the $10 billion in clean energy transition funds.

As we begin 2022, we are in much the same place, with uncertainty remaining about the size and the shape of a bill that can pass the Senate. The Senate has committed to try to continue to find compromise on a bill that can pass. We continue to be well-positioned to defend against any bad policy mandates while protecting meaningful opportunities for co-ops.

If the Senate can’t reach a compromise, do you see other legislative vehicles for passing these co-op priorities?

Thomas: If the budget reconciliation process fades, we will look for other opportunities to push these priorities. These are the types of tools that meet co-ops where they are and give them voluntary incentives to implement their unique strategic plans. So, we’ll be looking for ways to advocate for these legislative priorities individually if the broader package fails.

There probably will be fewer opportunities for legislative work to get done as the election approaches, but we think these are strong priorities and we’re going to keep looking for other vehicles.

The Flexible Financing for Rural America Act was reintroduced last year and has attracted a great many co-sponsors in Congress. Do you see a path forward for this RUS repricing bill to pass this year?

Thomas: RUS repricing remains a top priority for us. It enjoys strong bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, so we think there’s still an opportunity to move it this year. It continues to remain an important opportunity for our members.

What are NRECA’s other legislative priorities for 2022?

Thomas: Broadband continues to be an important and ongoing issue among our members and an urgent need across rural America. It’s one of the few bipartisan issues in Congress, and it’s an issue that we will continue to focus on. Even though it doesn’t expire until 2023, the Farm Bill reauthorization process will start in earnest this year, and we will be doing the prework to make sure that the bill is as supportive of electric co-ops as it can be.

Another issue that we continue to watch closely is supply chain problems, so the advocacy team will continue to work with Congress and the administration to develop solutions to speed the availability of equipment for our members.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.

The electric industry is facing one of the most challenging and disruptive times in its history as changes in policy, energy markets and consumer expectations drive fundamental changes in how utilities generate and deliver electricity.  

Electric cooperatives recognized this trend more than a decade ago and have been adding wind and solar to their generation portfolios as well as leading innovation in the development of microgrids and carbon capture and sequestration. Today, increasing social, economic and political pressure to accelerate the timeline for this transition is causing concern among electric co-ops and other utilities over how it will affect their ability to reliably and affordably provide electricity.

To delve into this important topic, we’re joined by Lisa Johnson, CEO and general manager of Seminole Electric Cooperative in Florida, and Pat O’Loughlin, president and CEO of Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives and its generation and transmission co-op, Buckeye Power.

Listen to the episode below:

You can also listen and subscribe to Along Those Lines on your preferred podcast service:
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Find out more about NRECA’s podcast. Questions or suggestions? Email us at AlongThoseLines@nreca.coop.

Updated: Dec. 16, 3 p.m. ET

While electric cooperatives in tornado-ravaged states in the South and Midwest were continuing to repair damage from last weekend’s deadly twisters, co-ops in other Midwestern states reported thousands of new power outages Thursday from destructive winds, thunderstorms and tornadoes that swept from the Rockies to the Great Lakes.

In Iowa, about 6,200 co-op consumer-members were without electricity as of Thursday afternoon, said Erin Campbell, communications director for the Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives. The co-ops reporting the greatest number of outages were Midland Power Cooperative, which had more than 2,100 members without power, Prairie Energy Cooperative, with about 1,000 outages, and Woodbury County Electric Cooperative, with about 900 outages. The total number of outages was down dramatically Thursday from a peak of 22,500 on Wednesday night.

“From what we are hearing, destruction is truly widespread and the damage to electrical equipment has come from various causes: straight-line winds, tornadic activity, flying debris, and trees, branches and limbs,” Campbell said.

“There are reports of many broken and damaged poles—both distribution poles and transmission poles…Electric cooperatives from unaffected areas in the state are sending resources and crews over to impacted co-ops when requested to assist in the restoration effort. IAEC is assisting with coordinating these mutual aid efforts.”

Meanwhile, cooperative crews, mutual aid workers and contractors made significant progress this week in restoring electricity in six states following the deadly tornadoes that swept through parts of the South and Midwest over the weekend.

Damage to distribution and transmission lines, poles and support structures in some areas is extensive, and several co-op-served communities will face months of rebuilding and recovery from the massive tornadoes and powerful winds that ravaged their communities.

More than 100,000 co-op-served meters were out of service in the immediate aftermath of the weekend tornadoes, but local crews and contractors began assessing damage and making repairs as soon as winds subsided enough for them to work safely.

In hard-hit Kentucky, co-ops faced devastation in the communities they serve as they worked to restore power “surrounded by debris, destruction and an uncertain future for the western Kentucky communities they call home,” the Kentucky Electric Cooperatives said in a statement.

“Our hearts are heavy with the loss of life, homes, businesses and livelihoods in our communities,” said Chris Perry, president and CEO of Kentucky Electric Cooperatives and United Utility Supply Cooperative.

At least 75 people have died in Kentucky as a result of the tornadoes, state officials said Thursday.

“The co-op mission is to improve the quality of life in the communities we serve, and co-op crews are doing what they can to try to help our members recover from this disaster,” Perry said. “I want to personally thank the crews for their incredible response within such a short time.”

More than 500 workers were helping to restore power in western Kentucky. Crews from more than 20 co-ops in several states were assisting line technicians at West Kentucky RECC, Warren RECC, Gibson EMC and Pennyrile Electric, the statewide association said.

More than 80,000 co-op consumer-members in the state lost power Saturday. By Thursday afternoon, that number had dropped to about 5,400. However, the pace of restoration is likely to slow as co-op crews deal with the most heavily damaged areas, the statewide association said.

Kentucky co-op employees were among those who suffered severe damage to their homes. The statewide association has created the nonprofit Kentucky Rural Electric Disaster Fund to help them and the communities they serve.

“Time and time again, Kentucky electric cooperative employees put their personal lives and families on the side to address the needs of their communities and the wider co-op community,” Perry said.

Louisville-based United Utility Supply Cooperative delivered multiple truckloads of materials and supplies to affected co-ops, deploying office staff to join the co-op’s truck drivers and deliver extra loads as needed, said Joe Arnold, vice president of strategic communications for the statewide association.

“Aware of the forecasts for severe weather on Friday night, UUS worked with its transformer vendor, ERMCO, to secure an extra supply of transformers to be able to deliver them where they were most needed after the storms,” Arnold said. “Despite supply chain concerns, UUS has been able to deliver needed supplies to co-ops.” 

In Tennessee, crews from neighboring co-ops worked to help Gibson Electric Membership Corp. restore power to hard-hit areas of northwest Tennessee and southwest Kentucky. The co-op had restored power to all reported outage locations as of Wednesday night.

“Even in the face of tragedy, it is encouraging to see how many rush to provide assistance when neighbors need help,” said David Callis, executive vice president and general manager for the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association.

Gibson EMC employees were shaken by the devastation.

“It hit home,” Jason Mills, line foreman for Gibson EMC’s Tiptonville office, said in a news release. “The loss of life hurts. That makes this one a little different.”

In Arkansas, 8,000 co-op members were out of power initially, but that number had plummeted to about 25 as of Thursday afternoon, according to the outage map on the website of the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas.

In Missouri, crews worked Monday to repair a high-voltage transmission line connecting two power plants owned by Springfield-based Associated Electric Cooperative to the grid. The G&T lost 17 steel structures, and officials have said long-term repairs will be needed on the line. As of Thursday afternoon, the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives’ outage map showed about 500 co-op members without power.

Co-op crews also repaired outages to several thousand co-op meters in Mississippi and Illinois over the weekend, and power had been completely restored by Tuesday.

Erin Kelly and Derrill Holly are staff writers for NRECA.

Ozarks Electric Cooperative only serves portions of Fayetteville, Arkansas, but when local leaders made a commitment to reduce the city’s carbon footprint and improve its overall energy efficiency, it was the co-op that stepped up with ambitious solar and storage solutions. The results have helped Fayetteville earn a spot on a global list of municipalities recognized for their commitments to clean, cost-efficient power.

“We have a reputation of thinking outside of the box and have a solid staff of engineers and technicians to implement and maintain new technologies,” said Troy Scarbrough, vice president of engineering and operations for Fayetteville-based Ozarks EC. “We have a long reputation of looking for win-win opportunities and then being able to execute those plans.”

For this project, the co-op focused its efforts on Fayetteville’s two wastewater treatment plants, located east and west of the city’s center.

“Our engineers saw this as an opportunity to add solar and energy storage to the sites and help the city control its overall energy costs while meeting its renewable energy goals,” said Ashley Harris, vice president of marketing and communications for the co-op.

The Fayetteville city government has set community-wide clean energy goals of 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050. Local officials have been actively pursuing projects to help meet those goals with upgrades and improvements to city infrastructure since 2018. When the co-op presented the solar and storage concepts to city officials, they also suggested pulling in Little Rock-based Today’s Power, a renewable energy design and development subsidiary of Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc.

By late 2019, construction was completed on a $23 million project that built 10 megawatts of solar generation and 24 megawatt-hours of on-site energy storage at the treatment plants.

“This project is a demonstration of how integrated solar and batteries can together deliver dispatchable electricity into the grid when it is needed, whether or not the sun is available at the moment,” Today’s Power President Michael Henderson said at the solar array dedication.

Harris said the facilities are saving Fayetteville about $180,000 per year on electricity costs.

This fall, Fayetteville was recognized by the energy and environmental consulting firm CDP as one of 95 communities worldwide making significant strides in climate change mitigation and environmental impact reduction.

Ozarks EC has partnered on other projects that have enhanced city infrastructure and provided operational flexibility to the co-op and its broadband subsidiary, OzarksGo.

“We have been able to help Fayetteville make significant strides toward their energy action plan in ways that still benefit the general membership of Ozarks,” said Mitchell Johnson, president and CEO of Ozarks EC. “The relationship has given us access to placing conduits through the city’s system of trails, which provide unique pathways throughout our territory and help address operational challenges we might otherwise face with broadband deployment often reducing deployment time and our capital development costs.”

Derrill Holly is a staff writer for NRECA.

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:

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.

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:

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.

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.