Author Archives Laura Arnold

Indiana Senate Utilities Committee Agenda for 1/14/16; Presentations ONLY

Posted by Laura Arnold / January 12, 2016 / Posted in 2016 Indiana General Assembly / No Comments

TO: Senate Utilities Committee Members

FROM: Senator Jim Merritt

DATE: January 12, 2016

RE: Senate Utilities Committee Hearing

Senate Utilities Committee Hearing

January 14, 2016 - Upon Adjournment

Indiana Statehouse Room TBD

What does an "All of the Above" Strategy to Serve Indiana's

Electric Customers Look Like in the Coming Years?

The Committee will have an opportunity to hear from and ask questions of national experts as well as state organizations about options which may exist to meet the electric needs of Hoosiers in the coming years. Many changes are impacting these options, not the least of which is the increasing number and stringency of EPA rules. Over the past few years, this Committee has focused heavily on the critical role played by energy efficiency and renewables in serving customers in the future. These are both important components of serving customers now and will remain important in the future. However, other options exist and maybe considered in the future.

Presenters:

Karen R. Obenshain; Senior Director, Fuels, Technology & Commercial Policy at the Edison Electric Institute (EEI).

Dr. Obershain will provide an overview of the wide range of approaches to serving electric customers. She will address the benefits of different technologies, the need for different types of technologies and how they can be built into a portfolio to serve customers.

Christine Csizmadia; Director for State Outreach at the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI).

Ms. Csizmadia will provide a more focused look at nuclear energy, its role in energy supply at the moment and the options which might be available in the future.

Richard Benedict; Project Developer with AES United States.

Mr. Benedict will provide a focused look at energy storage, especially batteries, which can be incorporated into a strategy to serve electric customers. These technologies are particularly important as more renewable resources are added because they can help with the intermittent nature of certain renewable resources (in particular with wind and solar resources). However, these technologies provide other important benefits which will benefit customers.

Jesse Kharbanda; Executive Director with the Hoosier Environmental Council.

Mr. Kharbanda will provide insights into how Indiana should approach serving electric customers including how the current mix of generation, energy efficiency, renewables and other options should evolve here in Indiana.

Jennifer Terry; attorney with Lewis & Kappes representing the Indiana Industrial Energy Consumers (INDIEC).

Currently, 42 electric customers in Indiana operate over 2,300 MW of generation owned by these customers. And, this capacity is being expanded. Ms. Terry will provide perspectives on how industrial energy customers in Indiana could be an even larger part of meeting the needs of Indiana's electric customers in the future.

Download a copy of the agenda HERE> Senate Utilities Committee Agenda, 1-14-16

NREL/LBNL Study on State RPS Policies Show Big Benefits; Join Webinar on Study Results 1/13/16

Posted by Laura Arnold / January 12, 2016 / Posted in Uncategorized / No Comments

New Study: Renewable Energy for State Renewable Portfolio Standards Yield Sizable Benefits

January 7, 2016 - 4:44pm

A new study estimates that $2.2 billion in benefits come from reduced greenhouse gas emissions and $5.2 billion from reductions in other air pollution for state renewable portfolio standard (RPS) policies operating in 2013.

Steve Capanna

Director, Policy and Analysis, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

A new report from the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) finds that state renewable portfolio standard (RPS) policies reduced greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, while also reducing water use, creating renewable energy jobs and suppressing wholesale electricity and natural gas prices. The greenhouse gas and air pollution benefits alone saved the United States society $7.4 billion in 2013. Although not directly comparable, a previous report by the same lab team found average annual costs of RPS policies of only $1 billion: in other words, the benefits of these policies have vastly outweighed their costs.

RPS policies, which require utilities or other electricity providers to meet a minimum portion of their load with eligible forms of renewable electricity and currently are in place in 29 states and Washington, DC, have been a key driver for the renewable energy boom we’ve seen in the U.S. over the last several years. Roughly 60% of new U.S. renewable generation and capacity additions since 2000 were driven by these policies. So it’s no exaggeration to say that our incredible burst in renewable energy deployment has been made possible by these policies, along with technology cost reductions and federal tax incentives for renewable energy investment and production.

Today, many state RPS policies are approaching or eclipsing their final statutory targets, and stakeholders around the country are debating the relative benefits and costs of continuing or expanding these policies. To better inform these decisions, DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy partnered with LBNL and NREL to undertake a multi-year project examining the costs, benefits, and other impacts of state RPS policies.

The previous report in this series, A Survey of State-Level Cost and Benefit Estimates of Renewable Portfolio Standards, found average net RPS compliance costs in 2012 and 2013 of less than 2% of average retail electricity rates, or about $1 billion per year. The report relied largely on cost estimates developed by utilities or state regulatory agencies or on the cost of renewable electricity credits. Researchers determined many states had not considered benefits, and those that had used widely varying methodologies and different scopes.

To address this gap, LBNL and NREL’s new report, A Retrospective Analysis of the Benefits and Impacts of U.S. Renewable Portfolio Standards, for the first time uses established consistent methodologies to assess potential societal benefits of the renewable energy deployed to fulfill RPS policies in 2013. Besides the greenhouse gas emission and air pollution reduction benefits – which, again, were worth $7.4 billion in 2013, or roughly 7.5 cents per kilowatt-hour of renewable energy generated – the report also shows national water withdrawal and consumption reductions of 830 billion gallons and 27 billion gallons in 2013. Nearly 200,000 gross domestic renewable energy jobs were also created as a result of these policies in 2013, and consumers were able to enjoy lower natural gas prices and the effects of lower wholesale electricity prices.

EERE is now working with LBNL and NREL to develop a new study that will examine future costs, benefits and impacts of RPS policies using consistent methodologies. This will be especially timely as states develop plans to comply with the Clean Power Plan, and consider what role renewable energy should play. States can also use this report’s methodology to generate state-specific benefits analysis.

>>Please join NREL and LBNL for a webinar summarizing the results of this most recent study on January 13 at 1 p.m. Eastern.

Indiana Senate Utilities Committee Will Meet on 1/14/16 for Energy Presentations ONLY

Posted by Laura Arnold / January 11, 2016 / Posted in Uncategorized / No Comments

On Thursday, January 14, 2016

Indiana Senate Utilities Committee

will meet Upon Adjournment

in Room 233 of the State House

NOTE: We expect the Indiana Senate to convene at 9:00 am on Thursday, therefore, "upon adjournment" will likely be sometime late morning.

Senate Utilities Committee Members: (click on names for more information)

Chair: Merritt, Ranking Member: Buck, Delph, Head, Houchin, Leising, Tomes (Republican members)

R.M.M.: Breaux, Broden, Randolph Lonnie M (Democrat members)

** NOTE: Energy Presentations ** ** NOTE: NO BILLS HEARD **

At this time it is not clear what will be presented and by whom. More details forthcoming.

Indiana Prepares to Move Wind Energy Across Nation; NIPSCO and Pioneer to Build Powerline

Posted by Laura Arnold / January 07, 2016 / Posted in Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), wind / No Comments

Indiana Prepares to Move Wind Energy Across Nation

INDIANAPOLIS – Two of Indiana's utility companies are going to start putting in new power lines so they can ship energy created by wind farms across the state.

NIPSCO and Pioneer will build a 100-mile line from White County to LaGrange County, then a new 65-mile route from the Indianapolis area to Reynolds, and then on to the East Coast.

Kerwin Olson, executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition, says even with this, Indiana isn’t trying very hard to make clean energy a priority.

"We have utility companies who are continuing to invest billions of dollars in aging coal plants that really should be retired and replaced with clean energy, so Indiana isn't doing so well,” he points out. “We seem to be doing everything in our power to maintain our addiction to coal."

Olsen says his group wants to make sure that these new transmission lines are actually going to be used to move the wind farm energy, and not to ship out excess electricity from coal plants.

Olsen says Pioneer, which is a joint venture by Duke and American Electric Power, is too addicted to coal.

"We have concerns,” he states. “When we see a large transmission project being constructed by Duke and AEP that's connected to all of their coal-fired power plants in southwest Indiana, that leads us to believe potentially that these lines will be used to sell surplus coal-fired power."

Olsen says Citizens Action Coalition is working hard to drive policy toward clean energy, and change the investment pattern of Indiana utility companies so they'll think green instead of coal.

Congress strikes deal to extend wind, solar tax credits and lift oil export ban

Posted by Laura Arnold / December 16, 2015 / Posted in Federal energy legislation, Uncategorized / No Comments

Congress strikes deal to extend wind, solar tax credits and lift oil export ban

By Gavin Bade | December 16, 2015

Dive Brief:

House Republicans unveiled a broad spending and tax legislation package on Tuesday night that includes multi-year extensions for federal tax incentives for wind and solar generation facilities. The tax extenders legislation would also lift the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports from the U.S.
Extensions for wind energy's $0.023/kWh production tax credit (PTC) and solar energy’s 30% federal investment tax credit (ITC) were pushed by Congressional Democrats in exchange for lifting the ban on crude exports, a policy change long sought by Republicans and the oil and gas sector.
Under the tentative deal, the wind PTC would be extended through 2020 and would decline in value each year after December 2016 until it is phased out entirely. The solar ITC would be drawn down gradually through 2022.
The tax extenders legislation was paired with a $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September 2016. A spokesperson for House Speaker Paul Ryan told Bloomberg that a schedule for floor debate on the bills would be announced this week.

Dive Insight:

While many Democrats and renewable energy adovcates oppose lifting the ban on oil exports imposed in 1975, Greentech Media reports they saw it as an opportunity to secure extensions for crucial tax incentives for wind and solar.

Democratic leaders said Monday they would not support any bill to lift the export ban if it did not include provisions to support renewables as well. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid took to Twitter to draw a line in the sand:

Senator Harry Reid

✔@SenatorReid

We have 2 paths:

1. Pair oil export ban with policies to reduce carbon emissions

2. Pass govt funding without oil/renewables

10:13 AM - 15 Dec 2015

If the legislation passes through the House and Senate and is signed into law, both the wind and solar industries would receive five year extensions on their tax credits, although the structure of the programs would change.

Any wind facility that begins construction before 2020 could be eligibile for tax credits, Ed Einowski, a partner at the law firm Stoel Rives, said in an email to Utility Dive.

"However, if construction begins in 2017, the credit is reduced by 20%, 40% if construction begins in 2018, and 60% if construction begins in 2019," he wrote. "These changes do not apply to any technologies except wind."

Solar facilities that begin construction before 2020 could qualify for the full 30% ITC under the tentative deal, according to Gregory Jenner, the co-chair of the Stoel Rives energy team, but the credits would phase out after that.

"If construction begins in 2020, the facility qualifies for a 26% credit," he wrote. "If construction begins in 2021, the facility qualifies for a 22% credit."

Facilities with construction starting after 2021 — or if construction begins before 2022 but the facility is not placed in service before 2024 — would qualify for a 10% credit. Residential solar systems would receive the same credits, but they would apply when the system is placed in service, rather than when construction began, according to Jenner, a former Treasury Department tax official.

President Obama opposes lifting the oil export ban on its own, but The Hill reports the White House has indicated this week it might support a deal that extended support for renewable energy.

“We oppose legislation that would lift the ban on the exporting of American crude oil,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday. “But we certainly do want to see Congress — and hopefully they will in the context of this budget agreement — make the kinds of investments in renewable and clean energy that are good for our economy and have the potential to create good American middle-class jobs down the line.”

Environmentalists are against lifting the ban at all, warning of the climactic consequences of encouraging more fossil fuel use. The move would be a boon for the U.S. oil and gas industry, which is struggling as crude prices approach seven-year lows.

Extension of the tax credits is expected to have a significant impact on the deployment of wind and solar. When Congress failed to extend the wind PTC in 2013, development fell 92% and 30,000 wind industry jobs were lost. The 2014 restoration brought back 23,000 jobs, according to the wind industry.

For solar, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that deployment would amount to 73 GW by 2022 without the ITC, but a five-year extension would result in 95 GW of installed capacity in that period.

Those numbers are likely to change given the modifications to the ITC in the deal, but Einowski expects the extensions to help eliminate some of the regulatory uncertainty surrounding renewable power.

"From the utilities perspective, it will also assist with the planning process many are involved in to displace fossil fuel loads with renewable power as it would take the pressure off to sign up renewables at favorable prices before the subsidies expire and permits a more measured approach," he wrote.