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MMEA Currents Page 1

December 2015Lawmakers Approve Resolutions That Would Overturn EPA Plant Rules

House Energy Bills Would Help State Meet Needs Long Into Future

Michigan Agency for Energy/MPSC Facility wins Leaders in Efficiency Award

MMEA CurrentsPage 2 Cover Photo: Squirrel in a tree

CURRENTS contents

Current Developments:6 BWL Delivers Final CRT Report

8 Consumers Commemorates Final Freighter Delivery to B.C. Cobb Plant

December 2015

Page 3

House Energy Legislation Would Help Michigan Meet its Needs Long Into Future

Energy and Utility News:4 Michigan Agency for Energy/MPSC FacilitywinsLeadersinEfficiency Award

12 Lawmakers Approve Resolutions That Would Overturn EPA Plant Rules

12 Nanogrids: Coming to a Neighborhood Near You?

16 Senator Murkowski: Energy Innovation is Key to Economic Growth, National Security, International Competitiveness

17 Clean Energy Technologies are Accelerating in the U.S. Marketplace

18 FERC Releases 2015 Report on Enforcement

19 Employment

20 Public Power Calendar

House Rep. Aric Nesbitt (R), Chair, House Energy Policy Committee

10 DTE Energy Upgrades Power System

10 WESCO Announces the Acquisition of Needham Electric Supply

11 Utility of the Future May Be a ‘Super Integrator

James R. Barker Great Lakes coal freighter


APPA Legal Challenge

(See, Energy Plan, continued on page 5)

Governor Rick Snyder: House Energy Legislation Would Help Michigan Meet its Needs Long Into FutureBills support proposals in Governor’s Special Message on Energy

The Michigan House Energy Policy Committee has passed two amendments to energy legislation, including a 30% renewables goal by 2025 and a compromise that would keep the state’s energy choice law at 10%. The renewables goal is

voluntary; the energy choice decision takes a softer stance on retail providers’ gaurantees they can serve customers, and marked a significant compromise.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder expressed his support for the package of legislation. “I commend the House Energy Policy Committee for its important work on bills that will lead Michigan toward a more adaptable, affordable, reliable, and environmentally protective energy future,” said Snyder. This is a great step in the process and I’m hopeful we can build upon the good work being done in both chambers to get this done by the end of the year.”

Michigan’s current choice law allows up to 10% of a utility’s customers to take service from third party suppliers. Utilities would prefer a return to total regulation, saying if choice customers suddenly returned, they could not guarantee service to them. In response, Gov. Rick Snyder (R) proposed maintaining the cap, but requiring alternative suppliers to guarantee they can provide service for five years.

“I commend the House Energy Policy Committee for its important work on bills that will lead Michigan toward a more adaptable, affordable, reliable, and environmentally protective energy future.”

MMEA CurrentsPage 4

EnergyEfficiency

In recognition of significant energy waste reduction investments and proven energy cost savings at facilities throughout the state, the Energy Service Coalition-Michigan Chapter has

announced five recipients of the Leaders in Efficiency award.

The honorees at the Energy Service Coalition Fifth Annual Awards event included the City of Roseville; the Michigan Agency for Energy Michigan Public Service Commission; Monroe Metropolitan Wastewater Facility; the Village of Grosse Pointe Shores; and Wayne State University.

“Michigan’s government is leading by example by actively seeking cost-effective ways to cut energy waste. It is only fitting that the state’s energy experts demonstrate the effective use of multiple innovative tools for energy waste reduction,” said Valerie Brader, MAE’s executive director. “The Michigan Agency for Energy and the Michigan Public Service Commission are proud to be among this year’s award recipients.”

Collectively, the recipients have invested nearly $18.7 million as a result of setting in place energy efficiency improvements through performance contracting. The investments are saving more than $1.05 million annually.

The performance contract allows the customer to make energy and water cost-saving improvements to facilities and equipment, and pay for the improvements using future avoided energy costs.

Some of the common improvements include upgrades, repairs and/or replacement of HVAC

Michigan Agency for Energy/MPSC Facility wins Leaders in Efficiency Award

equipment and building controls, building envelope, interior and exterior lighting, pumps and motors, and other deferred maintenance items. Improvements can also include renewable energy.

“The performance contract is a great solution for public organizations that don’t have the financial resources to implement energy saving technologies,” said Jim Arwood, ESC executive director. “It is an investment in our public buildings that not only pays for itself, but it provides a strong catalyst for job growth in local communities.”

The annual awards event attracts energy efficiency experts from around the state and this year the event was held at the offices of Michigan Agency for Energy/Michigan Public Service Commission –an award recipient. The event included presentations by Brader, and Cheri Holman, executive director U.S. Green Buildings Council – West Michigan Chapter.

Below is a list of project size and savings for each of the honorees at Energy Service:Coalition (Michigan Chapter) Fifth Annual Awards:• City of Roseville: $3.4 million and $98,000 in

annual savings,• State of Michigan Agency for Energy and the

Michigan Public Service,• Commission: $437,729 and $25,000 in annual

savings,• Monroe Metropolitan Wastewater Facility: $10.3

million and $355,060 in annual savings,• Village of Grosse Pointe Shores: $3.2 million and

$200,810 in annual savings,• Wayne State University: $1,4 million and

$368,581 in annual savings.


Energy Plancontinued from page 3

House Rep. Aric Nesbitt (R), who chairs the energy policy committee, put forth the latest compromise. The amendment would maintain the 10% choice limit, and put in a three-year review and an annual assessment for third party suppliers.

“I feel I’ve provided a good compromise between those that want to further go to retail open access and those that want it eliminated,” Nesbitt said.

Earlier this year, the Midwest ISO reported Michi-gan’s lower peninsula faced an energy shortfall and would dip below reserve margins by about 3,000 MW in 2016. While the shortfall isn’t expected to lead to outages, many tied it back to the state’s choice program, which utilities say makes planning difficult.

“The bills now headed to the House floor would be a victory for Michiganders and a positive step in the long-term direction of our state,” said Governor Snyder. “The package helps us continue with the progress we have made on competitiveness and af-fordability. It also addresses our goal of controlling our own destiny on energy. Decisions about our state’s energy should be made in Michigan and not in Washington, D.C. Reducing energy waste, on-bill financing, and having at least 30 percent of our energy come from our cleanest sources -- renew-ables and energy waste reduction -- are all things that were in my March special message, and I am excited to see support for them.”

The Energy Services Coalition is a public/private partnership promoting the benefits of, providing education on, and serving as an advocate for the widespread use of energy performance contracting in public and private facilities.

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MMEA CurrentsPage 6

Member News

Current Developments

BWL Delivers Final CRT ReportImprovements will help customers get power back faster during outages

The Lansing Board of Water & Light held a community meeting in November to deliver its final report on improvements made from recommendations by the Community Review Team (CRT) following the December 2013 ice storm.

“If an ice storm hit the Lansing area today, the BWL has made a multitude of emergency preparedness, operational, technology and communication improvements that will help customers get power back faster,” said General Manager Dick Peffley. “While this may be our final CRT report, rest assured that our across the board upgrades will continue so our customers will receive the reliability they deserve.”

Peffley and other BWL officials, who were joined by CRT Chair General Michael McDaniel, gave a PowerPoint presentation which outlined the numerous improvements in the following areas:

Emergency preparedness• Hired first Director of Emergency/Risk

Management and Security,• Created a Metro Lansing Public/Private

Partnership creating collaboration, planning and coordination to build a disaster resilient community,

• Worked jointly with local and county emergency management officials to identify facilities for restoration efforts,

• Trained liaisons to work closely with regional emergency operation centers

• Fully integrated Nixle into crisis communications,• Key BWL employees attend emergency

preparedness training exercises.

Operational• Expanded the number of line crews and spotter

crews available during emergencies to assist in restoring power,

• Expanded the number of tree trimming crews that adhere to a more robust tree trimming cycle to prevent outages,

• Expanded the number of mutual aid agreements and contractors available to restore power in an emergency.

Technology• The outage management system (OMS) was fixed

and is fully stress tested with regularly conducted tabletop exercises and system reviews on other outage tools,

• Created web-based Outage Center (www.lbwl.com/outagecenter), outage map, smartphone app and outage text service for improved customer communications,,

• Expanded phone system capacity and resiliency, by hiring additional call center staff to handle call volume and contracted with a third party call center to supplement the BWL staff during outages and emergencies,

• Began advanced meter pilot initiative for real-time outage detection and quicker restoration service, with system-wide implementation expected by 2021,

Communications• Created crisis communications plan that includes

protocols and message templates following a review of best practices of utilities across the United States,

• Expanded constituent groups for messaging to include the media, governmental officials, neighborhood leaders, faith community, schools and emergency responders,


• Hired first social media specialist who has created a robust social media presence, posting daily social media messages and responding to customer social media inquiries,

• Communicates proactively before and during storm events to social media platforms, the Outage Center, the mobile app and the media, and around the clock during emergencies.

MMEA CurrentsPage 8


Consumers Energy Commemorates Final Freighter Delivery to B.C. Cobb PlantConsumers Energy highlighted nearly 70 years of service and looked ahead to continued commercial shipping for the Port of Muskegon as the final Great Lakes coal freighter arrived at the B.C. Cobb Plant.

The 1,000 foot M/V James R. Barker docked at the plant late Sunday afternoon, following a ceremonial escort across Muskegon Lake and a hearty welcome by Muskegon area residents lining the Muskegon Channel as the Interlake Steamship Company vessel completed its two-and-a-half day voyage from Superior, Wisconsin.

The freighter delivered more than 59,000 tons of low-sulfur Western U.S. coal, which provides the Cobb Plant enough fuel to continue operations until its scheduled shutdown in mid-April 2016. The Cobb Plant has been providing reliable, affordable electricity to Michigan residents since 1948.

“This is a bittersweet occasion for Consumers Energy and the hundreds of current and retired B.C. Cobb

James R. Barker Great Lakes coal freighter

Associate Member News


employees who have worked safely to provide power to our customers,” said Timothy Sparks, the company’s vice president of energy supply operations.

“Today we mark nearly 70 years of safe fuel deliveries but also look to a promising future for the Port of Muskegon,” Sparks said.

Among the local leaders in attendance was Terry Sabo, chairman of the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners. Sabo is among a group of leaders from the public and private sector, including Consumers Energy, who have researched and promoted efforts the past several years to increase commercial shipping into Muskegon Lake.

“Great Lakes shipping has been a Muskegon economic staple for generations, even before the Cobb Plant was built,” Sabo said. “We’re working with Consumers Energy and others to make sure the Port of Muskegon continues to grow and thrive for many years to come.”

Sparks said the event underscores the importance of a Michigan-first energy policy. The two units at Cobb are among nine generating units closing in Michigan in 2016. A total of 25 Michigan generating facilities are expected to close by 2020 because of environmental regulations.

“To ensure all Michiganders continue having access to reliable electricity, it’s essential that our Legislature adopts a Michigan-first energy policy this year,” Sparks said, adding he’s pleased by passage last week of two bills in the House Energy Committee.

Meanwhile, Consumers Energy is planning for closure of the Cobb Plant and five other coal-powered generating units. It has reduced plant employment through attrition, and affected employees have been offered a job within Consumers Energy when the plants close.

MMEA CurrentsPage 10


DTE Energy Upgrades Power System to Improve Electric Reliability DTE Energy is replacing power poles, stringing new electric lines and adding new equipment, all to improve power reliability for families and businesses in the Belmont neighborhood of northwest Detroit.

In areas where similar work has been completed, power reliability has been improved by an average of 44 percent.

The work in the Belmont neighborhood of Detroit began in late August and was completed in November. It is one of 114 reliability projects undertaken this year alone. Since 2013, the company has completed more than 400 reliability improvement projects.

“Over the last few years we have worked to improve service reliability for our customers, taking a careful look at outages and equipment to ensure we are investing in projects that will provide the greatest benefits for customers,” said Heather Rivard, Vice President, Distribution Operations. “This year, we are seeing our best overall reliability performance in eight years.”

Reliability improvement projects typically include new power lines, poles and other equipment that are more resistant to storm damage, all essential to keeping the power on. Projects may also include installation of components that minimize the number of customers impacted when outages do occur and advanced controls that identify potential equipment problems before they happen and automatically re-route electricity around trouble spots.

The program goal is to complete upgrades on 1,300 circuits throughout southeast Michigan by 2020, at a total projected cost of about $415 million.

“We’re continuously working to make the electrical system stronger, to better withstand storms and extreme weather and help get our customers’ lives quickly back to normal again after outages occur,” Rivard said.

DTE expects to invest at least $6.6 billion in its electrical distribution system over the next 10 years.

WESCO International, Inc. Announces the Acquisition of Needham Electric SupplyWESCO International, Inc., a leading provider of electrical, industrial, and communications MRO and OEM products, construction materials, and advanced supply chain management and logistics services, has announced that WESCO Distribution, Inc. has acquired Needham Electric Supply.

Headquartered in Canton, Mass., Needham generates approximately $115 million in annual revenues with 24 locations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Needham is an electrical distributor focused on the commercial construction and lighting national account markets.

Mr. John J. Engel, WESCO’s Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, said: “Needham Electric Supply is a well-established wholesale electrical distributor with long-standing customer and supplier relationships in New England and includes a national lighting business that serves customers across the United States. We welcome the Needham team to WESCO. This acquisition is expected to be accretive to earnings by approximately $0.04 per diluted share in the first year of operation.”


Utility of the Future May Be a ‘Super Integrator,’ Not Just the Wires CompanyBy Paul Ciampoli News Director

Distribution utilities will no longer think of themselves as “simply the wires company” and instead view their role as a “super integrator” once New York State’s “Reforming the Energy Vision” plan to reform the state’s power market is implemented, said Audrey Zibelman, chair of the New York Public Service Commission.

“The regulatory changes that we’re making around REV and the vision I have is that the distribution utility no longer thinks of itself as simply the wires company and their entire economic benefit is driven by building more substations and more lines and things like that,” Zibelman said. “In other words, more capital deployment,” she said when asked at a recent event to describe her vision for the ultimate structure of the New York electricity market once REV is implemented.

“Rather, their economic value is driven by being able to use distributed resources better so that they can integrate them into the system, maximize the value of the distributed resources based on the wholesale price, so that you’re neither over procuring or under procuring,” she went on to say.

She made her comments at an event, “Utility of the Future: Paths Through State Policy and Regulation Toward Collaboration, Innovation, and Market Solutions in the Electric Power Industry,” which was held in New York City by the law firm Covington & Burling and the Bipartisan Policy Center. Several

other officials from the power sector appeared at the event including Steve Corneli, NRG Energy’s senior vice president for sustainability, policy and strategy.

“What we’re really looking to do is think about how we can get the hosting capability of the distribution system so it becomes more of a network,” Zibelman said. “Rather than thinking about an NRG or someone else” that might make distributed energy resource investments as a form of competition, a utility could instead think about that entity as a potential customer.

“Consequently, they provide services to those providers, whether it’s data services or better dispatch information, and then suddenly rather than thinking about their economic future as driven by simply deployment of capital, they think about it as themselves as the super integrator,” driving value “to those resources and in doing so is driving demand,” she said.

The New York PSC staff in 2014 released a report, Reforming the Energy Vision, which called for a shift away from the traditional utility model of centralized generation, toward a more decentralized electric grid that relies increasingly on energy efficiency, demand resources and distributed energy resources.

At the Nov. 13 event, NRG’s Corneli said that distributed energy resources are helping to create a”three-sided market” in the power sector.

APPA News


APPA News

Lawmakers Approve Resolutions That Would Overturn EPA Plant RulesBy Paul Ciampoli News Director

Federal lawmakers this week approved resolutions that would overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from new and existing power plants.

The Senate votes took place on Nov. 17. Senators voted on two disapproval resolutions.

The resolution to overturn the new plant rule, S.J. Res. 23, cleared the Senate by a vote of 52-46. The resolution was introduced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. The existing plant disapproval resolution, S.J. Res. 24, passed by the same vote count. Senators Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Heidi Heitkamp , D-N.D., were the sponsors of the existing plant disapproval resolution.

Meanwhile, the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Nov. 18 approved similar resolutions related to the EPA’s rules to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from new and existing power plants on party-line votes of 28-21.

The resolutions, which were introduced by Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., are expected to be brought to the House floor the week of Nov. 30.

Prior to the votes in the Senate and the House committee, American Public Power Association President and CEO Sue Kelly sent letters to several lawmakers voicing support for the resolutions.

Late last month, APPA and the Utility Air Regulatory Group filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals

for the District of Columbia Circuit asking the court to review the final Clean Power Plan rule. Separately, APPA, UARG and several other parties asked the D.C. Circuit to stay the final rule.

The final Clean Power Plan rule was published in the Federal Register on Oct. 23. This cleared the way for parties opposed to the EPA rule to file legal actions challenging it.

Nanogrids: Coming to a Neighborhood Near You?

By Paul Ciampoli News Director

A new report from Navigant Research details how nanogrids are poised to grow across several parts of the globe, including North America, and in an interview with the American Public Power Association, a Navigant Research analyst noted that the United States is one of the top global markets for nanogrids.

The research firm defines nanogrids as typically existing in a single building at 100 kilowatts and below and says that nanogrids can be found at both the commercial and residential levels.

“The business case for nanogrids echoes many of the same arguments used on behalf of microgrids,” the executive summary for the report, “Solar PV plus Energy Storage Nanogrids,” states. The report was published in the third quarter of 2015.

“These smaller, modular, and flexible distribution networks are the antithesis of the bigger-is-better economies of scale thinking that has guided energy resource planning over much of the past century,” Navigant Research said.


Nanogrids “take the concept of a bottom-up energy paradigm to extreme heights,” the executive summary noted. In some cases, the networks “articulate a business case even more radical than that for a microgrid; in other cases, nanogrids peacefully coexist with the status quo.”

The report focuses on distributed solar PV installations in behind-the-meter building-level applications for residential and commercial customers.

“Piggybacking onto the growing support for a more resilient grid infrastructure via aggregation and optimization platforms such as a microgrid, solar PV plus energy storage nanogrids were largely under the radar” when Navigant Research published its first nanogrids report in early 2014, the research firm said. “Since then, partnerships between solar PV companies and energy storage system providers have mushroomed. Due to the synergy between these two technologies, this nanogrid market is developing rapidly in select countries.”

Defining nanogrids

In a Nov. 2 interview with APPA, Peter Asmus, one of the Navigant analysts who wrote the report, was asked to define a nanogrid and explain the key differences between a nanogrid and a microgrid.

Asmus said that “there’s no official definition of a nanogrid, so we created our own definition and, essentially, in terms of this report we have a different definition for a grid-tied system” and an off-grid system “which would be more like small systems in Africa, where there is no grid.”

He said, “for us, a nanogrid is like a microgrid, but it’s usually a single building, so some people call them single building grids, if you will, and they’re 100 kilowatts and below, so we just arbitrarily came up with that size. “ Asmus, who said that there are “a lot of vendors that are focused on that specific market,” added that “in essence a nanogrid is a microgrid,

except it’s limited to one building and it’s 100 kilowatts and below.”

Nanogrids can exist at both the commercial and residential levels. The report compares those to markets and breaks out specific forecasts for commercial and residential, he said.

(See, Nanogrids, continued on page 14)


APPA News

Nanogrids in the United States

Asmus noted that “we’re saying that the top four markets in the world include the United States,” with the other three countries being Germany, Australia and Japan. “So those are sort of the market leaders,” the Navigant Research analyst said. The U.S. “is actually the leader” with respect to commercial nanogrids, he said.

In terms of where nanogrids are located in the U.S., Asmus said that “a lot of them are, for example, in a state like Massachusetts.” A lot of the community resiliency programs that support microgrids “in states like Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Maryland, Massachusetts, et cetera, also support nanogrids,” he said.

Massachusetts “in particular has really focused” more on nanogrids because there are fewer regulatory issues, Asmus said. “I would say Massachusetts is one of the hot spots,” he said, adding that “it’s also big in California.”

Noting that there is a trend in which solar energy companies are adding energy storage, Asmus said “it’s just this trend towards the lower cost of energy storage, pairing that with existing fleets of solar PV, and all of those individual residences – I wouldn’t call them a microgrid, but I would call them a nanogrid.”

Asmus was asked how much of the projected global growth for nanogrids is predicated on the assumption that the price for battery storage devices will continue to fall.

“I would say that’s a large factor,” he said. “I would say that the assumption is that solar PV continues to drop and that now storage follows a similar pattern,” Asmus said, noting that the main battery technology is lithium-ion. Asmus said that lithium-ion batteries,

of all the new, advanced batteries, “can offer the most amount of services, so in some ways it’s sort of the battery that can do the most things.”

North America projected to be third largest regional market

The report’s executive summary states that North America will be the third largest regional market for nanogrids over the forecast period of 2015 through 2024, installing an estimated 122.2 megawatts in 2015 and 3,918.2 megawatts by 2024, representing a compound annual growth rate of 47 percent.

Asmus was asked whether he could quantify how much of the projected growth in the North American regional market for nanogrids will come from the United States specifically.

“We didn’t break out the U.S. specifically,” he said. “But I would say a safe assumption” would be that between 80 and 90 percent “of that will be in the U.S.”

The report said that the market for solar PV plus energy storage nanogrids is led by the three more developed world market regions: North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

Europe is currently the largest market for solar PV plus energy storage nanogrids with an estimated 185.5 MW of new capacity additions in 2015. This is expected to increase to 4,272.1 MW of new systems annually by 2024 at a compound annual growth rate of 41.7 percent.

Asia Pacific closely follows Europe with an estimated 184.4 MW of new capacity additions in 2015. The region “is expected to take over as the largest global market for these nanogrids in 2016 and it will likely be the largest regional market over the forecast period,” Navigant Research said. By 2024, 5,619.9 MW of new capacity is projected to be added in Asia

Nanogridscontinued from page 13


Pacific, representing a compound annual growth rate of 46.2 percent over the forecast period.

Optimization at the fleet level

The Navigant Research analyst said that the “key to the nanogrids actually working well with the utilities is that they can be optimized at the fleet level,” whether that is done by a utility or “somebody else.”

Asmus said that is “what’s going to become necessary, and that’s what’s going to become necessary for microgrids as well. So the nanogrid could be aggregated into a microgrid or a virtual power plant.”

He believes that the “key is smaller resources sort of organized into larger sub-networks which then interact” with either the utility or a grid operator.

In defining a virtual power plant, Asmus noted that Canada’s PowerStream recently received funding for a small project in Ontario that will involve 20 residential customers with solar PV and storage.

“They’re not going to be located next to each other,” he noted. They will be located “on parts of the grid that actually help the utility and then they’re all going to be operated as if they were one system and that’s what I would call a virtual power plant.”


U.S. Senate Energy Committee

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, recently underscored the importance of innovation to lower energy costs and make energy more abundant and reliable. As she delivered remarks on the Senate Floor, Murkowski used her home state to demonstrate the substantial benefits of innovation, as many remote communities in Alaska are developing their natural resources to generate clean, renewable, and affordable energy.

Murkowski, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, emphasized the committee’s efforts to promote energy innovation through legislation like the Energy Policy Modernization Act – the broad, bipartisan energy bill the committee reported in late July.

“Our energy bill supports innovation in a number of areas: in energy efficiency, in energy storage, and in distribution; for vehicles, for hybrid microgrid systems, and for recycling; for geothermal power, for marine hydrokinetic, and for many other developing technologies,” Murkowski said.

Throughout her remarks, Murkowski pointed to Alaska, where innovative energy research and development are helping to mitigate the high costs of diesel fuel in remote communities. Many Alaska communities are leading the way on energy innovation by working to integrate wind, solar, geothermal into their microgrids.

“Innovation is essential to moving our rural communities off of diesel and onto more sustainable, locally generated, and less expensive energy systems.

Senator Murkowski: Energy Innovation is Key to Economic Growth, National Security, International Competitiveness

And Alaska is bringing these innovative technologies to communities around the state through a variety of state-run programs largely financed by the revenues derived from our oil production,” Murkowski said.

When it comes to advancing energy innovation, Murkowski recognizes that the private sector will play a key role. In October, Murkowski met with Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist, Bill Gates, who has announced his commitment to invest $1 billion over five years to advance new technologies. Murkowski said that efforts to advance new energy technologies in both the public and private sectors “have the potential to transform the way that energy is produced, delivered, and consumed. This, too, will help drive energy innovation in America.”

Murkowski’s concluded her remarks with a commitment to work with her colleagues to promote innovation as a clear path to a future with lower energy costs and cleaner air and cleaner water.

“Our energy bill supports

innovation in a number of

areas...”U.S. Senator Lisa

Murkowski, R-Alaska


Clean Energy Technologies are Accelerating in the U.S. Marketplace

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released the 2015 Revolution…Now report, which details the state of several clean energy

technologies in the U.S. that provide technology solutions to climate change.

The updated report builds upon past Revolution…Now reports that showed a dramatic increase in deployment and a decrease in cost of four transformational technologies: wind turbines, solar technologies, electric vehicles (EVs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

“We are experiencing a clean energy revolution in the United States, and this report confirms it,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said. “Today, clean energy technologies are providing real-world solutions – not only to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming, but they also drive a domestic, low-carbon economy with technologies that are increasingly cost-competitive with conventional technologies. We have the tools for a cleaner and more secure energy future.”

The 2015 update shows that dramatic cost reductions are continuing to drive the adoption of clean energy technologies. The report covers the rapid growth of photovoltaic (PV) solar modules for both large, utility-scale PV plants, and smaller, rooftop, distributed PV systems that have achieved significant deployment nationwide. DOE continues to invest in research and development for these technologies in addition to reducing market barriers in order to make these clean energy technologies even more cost-effective and widely available across the United States.

Between 2008 and 2014, land-based wind accounted for 31 percent of all new generation capacity installed in the U.S., in part due to early investments from DOE that helped drive the technology innovation that has enabled this growth. As of 2014, there were more than 65,000 megawatts of utility-scale wind power deployed across 39 states — enough to generate electricity for more than 16 million homes — with another 13,600 megawatts under construction in 2015.

By 2014, more than 8 gigawatts of distributed solar PV were installed, which is enough to power roughly 1 million American homes. Utility-scale solar PV grew by 68 percent in 2014 to 9.7 gigawatts total—more than 99 percent of which has been installed

“We are experiencing a clean energy revolution in the United States, and this report confirms it.”

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz

(See, Marketplace, continued on page 19)

Energy Report


APPA News

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Enforcement continued to focus on fraud and market manipulation, serious

violations of mandatory Reliability Standards, and conduct that threatens the transparency of regulated markets in fiscal 2015.

The latest Report on Enforcement describes the activities of the Office’s four divisions: Investigations, Audits, Energy Market Oversight, and Analytics and Surveillance. The report, issued annually, provides additional transparency and guidance about the FERC enforcement process for regulated entities and the public, and is available at: http://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/2015/11-19-15-enforcement.pdf

Some highlights of the Enforcement report:

Investigations staff opened 19 new investigations and brought 22 pending investigations to closure with settlement or no action. Staff obtained settlements resulting in almost $26.25 million in civil penalties and disgorgement of $1 million in unjust profits. All settlements included reporting requirements and provisions requiring the subjects to enhance compliance programs. The most significant settlements concerned the 2011 power outage in the Southwest that left more than 5 million people without power for up to 12 hours, and the Commission’s approval of four settlements in fiscal 2015 marked the end of staff’s multi-year investigation related to that outage. Enforcement also tried an anti-manipulation case before an agency Administrative Law Judge and filed three new petitions in federal district court to enforce Commission orders assessing civil penalties. Including those four matters, staff is seeking to recover more than a half-billion dollars in civil penalties and disgorgement through district court and administrative litigation.

Audits and Accounting staff reviewed the conduct of regulated entities through 22 financial and operational audits of public utilities and oil and natural gas pipelines, resulting in 360 recommendations for corrective action and refunds and recoveries totaling more than $26.3 million.

Market Oversight staff continued to analyze market fundamentals, including significant trends and developments, market structure and operations to identify market anomalies, and flawed market rules. As in prior years, Market Oversight also presented its annual State of the Markets report, assessing significant events of the previous year. Market Oversight also continued ensuring compliance with various Commission forms and reports, including filing requirements for Electric Quarterly Reports.

Analytics and Surveillance staff analyzed market and other data in more than 30 investigations and continued to perform and refine its market surveillance capabilities. Staff performed daily, weekly and monthly screening of the wholesale natural gas and electricity markets to identify anomalies. Staff conducted a number of inquiries into anomalous market behavior, reviewed instances of potential misconduct and referred some of these matters to Investigations. Staff also developed a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding collection of connected entity data that, if adopted as a final rule, will enhance its screening and investigative activities and will reduce the number of informal inquiries that staff must make based on false surveillance screen trips.

The report also outlines those investigations that Enforcement closed without action in 2015, an effort intended to provide guidance to the public while preserving the non-public nature of DOI’s investigations.

FERC Releases 2015 Report on Enforcement


EMPLOYMENT

PUBLIC WORKS ENGINEER

The City of Coldwater and Coldwater Board of Public Utilities are seeking qualified candidates for a public works engineer position. The position is responsible for the engineering, design and management of municipal and utility infrastructure systems (streets, water, sanitary, storm, traffic and parcel development). Qualified candidates should have a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering or related field with at least three years related experience. Competitive compensation and benefits while offering the opportunity to live in a progressive Michigan community.

To apply, submit resume to Sue Rubley, Coldwater Board of Public Utilities, One Grand Street, Coldwater, MI 49036. Email: [email protected]. Phone: 517/279-9531.

Equal opportunity employer.

since 2008. The growth of the utility-scale PV market is in part due to significant support from DOE’s Loan Programs Office, which supported the first five projects over 100 MW. As of mid-2015 there were over 17 subsequent utility-scale projects over 100 MW that were financed solely by the private sector.

A total of 78 million LED bulbs have been installed through 2014—a six-fold increase since 2012. In 2014 alone, LED installations prevented 7.1 million metric tons of carbon emissions and saved Americans $1.4 billion in energy costs. Those savings are projected to grow to $26 billion per year in electricity costs by 2030, while cutting America’s lighting electricity use by nearly half.

The transportation sector makes up 27% percent of overall U.S. carbon emissions. An average EV reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 48 percent as compared to a gasoline-fueled car, and with nearly

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300,000 EVs sold in the U.S. through 2014, that is equivalent to taking nearly 150,000 gasoline-powered cars off the road.

In addition to these four technologies, the 2015 Revolution…Now update introduces three technologies that are on the cusp of wider deployment and cost reduction in the coming years, including: smart building systems, fuel-efficient freight trucks, and vehicle lightweighting.


Michigan Municipal Electric Association809 Centennial WayLansing, MI 48917

PRSRT STDU.S. POSTAGE

PAIDLANSING, MIPERMIT # 689

Michigan MunicipalElectric Association809 Centennial WayLansing, MI 48917

517-323-8346e-mail: [email protected]

Board of DirectorsBill Cook, President

Zeeland Board of Public Works

David Koster, Vice PresidentHolland Board of Public Works

Larry HalberstadtSouth Haven Dept. of Public Works

Tom TarkiewiczCity of Marshall

RayAndersonCity of Norway

Tim ArendsTraverse City Light & Power

Greg PierceLowell Light & Power

Erik BoothMarquette Board of Light and Power

Associate MembersTeresa Simpson, President

Power Line Supply

Ted Tuma, Vice PresidentPowerLink Electrical Sales

Dennis HicksCurrents Editor

[email protected]

Calendar of EventsDecember 10, 2015 MMEA Board of Directors Meeting Lansing, MI

January 10 - 12, 2016 APPA Joint Action Workshop San Diego, CA

March 7-9, 2016 2016 APPA Legislative Rally, Grand Hyatt Washington, D.C.

FAST FACTSConsider these money-saving holiday tips to control your energy costs.

Keep oven door closed. Use the window and light to peak at your bird.

Check oven temperature. Test your oven temperature with a oven thermometer.

Use microwave. Microwave cooking is fast and uses less energy than an oven or stove.

Use slow cooker. Although cooking time is longer, slow cookers use less energy than ovens.

Use dishwasher. Dishwashers save your time, energy and water. Save more energy by stopping the heated drying and opening the door for air-drying.

Documents

Resolutions That Would Overturn EPA Plant Rulesmmeanet.org/wp-content/uploads/12-2015-Currents.pdf · Resolutions That Would Overturn EPA Plant Rules ... • The outage management