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HB 1414 coal bailout bill has 9 proposed amdts; Watch on-line 2/27

Posted by Laura Arnold / February 26, 2020 / Posted in Uncategorized / No Comments

Above photo of Indiana State Senate Chambers

IMPORTANT UPDATE: HB 1414 the so-called coal bailout bill is scheduled for a hearing following the adjournment of the Commerce and Technology Committee.

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As of 4:00 pm 2/26/2020, nine (9) proposed amendments for HB 1414 have been filed. The Proposed Amendments are listed below with links to the mark up documents. Additional documents can be found at: http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2020/billpacket/08fd07a6-56c0-4f48-88d9-17b7ca008f2d/committee_utilities_3800/

PROPOSED AMENDMENT HB 1414 # 2

DIGEST Reliable capacity resources. Requires a public utility that owns and operates a reliable capacity resource to operate and maintain the unit: (1) using good utility practices and reasonable business judgment; and (2) in a manner reasonably intended to support the availability of the unit for providing reliable service to customers of the public utility. Provides that the bill's requirement for notice to, and a public hearing by, the Indiana utility regulatory commission (IURC) before a utility may retire, sell, or transfer a reliable capacity resource with a capacity exceeding 80 megawatts does not apply to a reliable capacity resource's retirement, sale, or transfer set forth in a public utility's preferred portfolio in an integrated resource plan submitted to the IURC before January 1, 2020.

PROPOSED AMENDMENT HB 1414 # 3

DIGEST Electric generation. Changes the effective date of the bill to July 1, 2020.

PROPOSED AMENDMENT HB 1414 # 4

DIGEST Various changes. Changes the effective date of the bill to July 1, 2020. Deletes the bill's requirement that a public utility that owns and operates a reliable capacity electric generation resource must operate and maintain the unit in a manner reasonably intended to secure the availability of the unit for dispatch and for providing reliable service to customers of the public utility. Provides that a public utility may not retire, sell, or transfer a reliable capacity resource with a capacity exceeding 80 megawatts unless: (1) the retirement, sale, or transfer is consistent with the public utility's preferred portfolio in the public utility's most recent integrated resource plan; and (2) the public utility has made a reasonable effort to comply with specified Indiana administrative rules regarding integrated resource plans. Deletes the bill's provision allowing a public utility to recover as a fuel adjustment charge the cost of not more than 90 days of reserve fuel supply. Provides that provisions that expire May 1, 2021, in the current version of the bill instead expire December 31, 2020.

PROPOSED AMENDMENT HB 1414 # 5

DIGEST Fuel cost recovery. Deletes the bill's provision allowing a public utility to recover as a fuel adjustment charge the cost of not more than 90 days of reserve fuel supply

PROPOSED AMENDMENT HB 1414 # 6

DIGEST Coal transition workers. Replaces language giving priority to dislocated coal mine employees in the awarding of high value workforce ready credit-bearing grants with language giving priority to coal transition workers. Defines a "coal transition worker" as an individual who is laid off or terminated from the individual's employment: (1) at a commercial coal mine in Indiana; (2) at a coal-fired electric generating unit in Indiana; or (3) in an Indiana based manufacturing or transportation supply chain serving: (A) a commercial coal mine; or(B) a coal-fired electric generating unit; in Indiana

PROPOSED AMENDMENT HB 1414 # 7

DIGEST Dislocated coal employees. Deletes all provisions of the bill except provisions concerning dislocated coal employees

PROPOSED AMENDMENT HB 1414 # 8

DIGEST Various changes. Changes the effective date of the bill to July 1, 2020. Deletes the bill's requirement that a public utility that owns and operates a reliable capacity electric generation resource must operate and maintain the unit in a manner reasonably intended to secure the availability of the unit for dispatch and for providing reliable service to customers of the public utility. Provides that a public utility may not retire, sell, or transfer a reliable capacity resource with a capacity exceeding 80 megawatts unless: (1) the retirement, sale, or transfer is consistent with the public utility's preferred portfolio in the public utility's most recent integrated resource plan; and (2) the public utility has made a reasonable effort to comply with specified Indiana administrative rules regarding integrated resource plans. Deletes provisions requiring the Indiana utility regulatory commission to: (1) hold a public hearing; and (2) issue findings and recommendations; regarding the retirement, sale, or transfer of a reliable capacity resource with a capacity exceeding 80 megawatts. Deletes the bill's provision allowing a public utility to recover as a fuel adjustment charge the cost of not more than 90 days of reserve fuel supply. Provides that provisions that expire May 1, 2021, in the current version of the bill instead expire December 31, 2020.

PROPOSED AMENDMENTHB 1414 # 9

DIGEST 21st Century Energy Policy Development Task Force. Requires the 21st century energy policy development task force to: (1) evaluate the impact of possible shifts in electric generation portfolios on: (A)individuals employed in related industries or trades; and (B) communities in which facilities related to electric generation are located; and (2) develop recommendations for the general assembly and the governor concerning whether existing state policy and statutes enable the state and state regulators to properly consider these impacts and, if not, the best approaches to enable the state and state regulators to consider these impacts

PROPOSED AMENDMENT HB 1414 # 10

DIGEST Coal transition workers. Replaces the contents of the bill with language that provides that in awarding high value workforce ready credit-bearing grants, the commission for higher education, in conjunction with the department of workforce development, shall give priority to an applicant who is a dislocated coal transition worker. Defines a "coal transition worker" as an individual who is laid off or terminated from the individual's employment: (1) at a commercial coal mine in Indiana; (2) at a coal-fired electric generating unit in Indiana; or (3) in an Indiana based manufacturing or transportation supply chain serving: (A) a commercial coal mine; or (B) a coal-fired electric generating unit; in Indiana.

IndianaDG Note: HB 1414 must receive a DO PASS recommendation from the Senate Utilities Committee tomorrow (2/27/2020) and then the committee report must be adopted before the Senate adjourns on Thursday afternoon.

The next steps are then:

Monday, March 2 is the deadline for second reading amendments where any Senator may offer an amendment to HB 1414.
Tuesday, March 3 is the deadline for third reading and final passage of HB 1414.

If HB 1414 is amended in the Senate then it returns to the House for further action--1) a House roll call vote on a concurrence motion to agree with the changes made in the Senate or 2) a dissent motion is filed and a conference committee can be named to work out the differences between the two versions of the bill.

The duel for the future of Indiana’s energy identity

The duel for the future of Indiana’s energy identity

While state legislators decide the fate of a bill aimed at adding restrictions to the retirement of existing generation plants, the state’s second-largest utility has issued the results of an unprecedented solar solicitation.

FEBRUARY 24, 2020 TIM SYLVIA

On February 27th, the Indiana Senate Utilities Committee will hear House Bill 1414, a measure which looks to ramp up the necessary steps for a utility to retire a legacy generation resource.

The bill defines a legacy generation resource as an electric generating facility in the state with a capacity of 80 MW or more. It is founded upon twin pillars that make it especially difficult to retire any such resource, stating:

“Utilities may not terminate a power contacts with any such unit unless the public utility provides the public utilities commission with at least three years advance notice of the termination…utilities shall provide the commission with at least six months advance notice of the public utility’s intention to retire, sell, or transfer a reliable capacity resource if such intention is not set forth in the public utility’s preferred portfolio in the public utility’s most recent integrated resource plan…”

The above policies do not directly prioritize coal over any other generation source. Furthermore, while three years advance notice for any suddenly-realized retirement aspirations seems excessive, that’s exactly why integrated resource plans exist.

The neutral tone of this bill changes in its final policies, putting forth that any high-value workforce ready credit-bearing grants under IC 21-12-8 (an adult student grant fund you can read about here) must give priority to any eligible applicant who is a dislocated coal mine employee. Dislocated in this sense means laid off or terminated from employment at a commercial coal mine in Indiana, as a result of the permanent closure of, or a substantial layoff at said mine.

And yet, at the same time that the state’s legislators consider protections for the coal industry, Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), the second largest electric utility in Indiana, released results from its recent RFPs, which we’ll let Senior Energy Policy Analyst at EQ Research, Ben Inskeep take it from here.

Not only do those 2,3o0 MW represent more solar than all but eight states in the country, they also represent more than six times the amount of solar that has been installed in the state thus far (377 MW). For additional perspective, NIPSCO serves approximately 4 million customers. 2,300 MW is, according to SEIA estimates, enough capacity to meet 10% of that total electricity need.

This type of commitment to renewables in Indiana, while unprecedented, is something that NIPSCO has been taking steps toward for some time. In fall 2018, the company announced plans to close all of its coal facilities by 2028, replacing them with solar, solar-plus-wind, wind, demand-side response and the spot market, which would explain the massive RFP.

What’s more is that none of these retirements will be subject to the regulation above. Even if HB 1414 passes, they have been outlined for roughly 17 months now.

The exceedingly low cost of solar-plus-storage at $1.12/W also leans towards proving the utility’s claim that some of the coal facilities could have stayed open past 2035, but would have cost customers billions of dollars more than shifting to new solar power, $4.3 billion, to be exact.

*Image: Indiana Distributed Energy Alliance*

UPDATE: HB 1414 Senate Utilities hearing moved to Senate Chambers

Posted by Laura Arnold / February 21, 2020 / Posted in 2020 Indiana General Assembly, Uncategorized / No Comments

Vectren may seek approval to stop crediting new solar power users at retail rates

Posted by Laura Arnold / February 21, 2020 / Posted in solar, Uncategorized, wind / No Comments

Vectren may seek approval to stop crediting new solar power users at retail rates

Mark Wilson, Evansville Published 5:00 a.m. CT Feb. 21, 2020

One of Vectren's 2-megawatt solar arrays consisting of approximately 8,000 ground-mounted, fixed-tilt solar panels on a 15-acre site near the northwest corner of Oak Hill Cemetery on Morgan Avenue. Each site will supply enough renewable energy to power more than 400 homes a year. (Photo: MaCabe Brown / Courier & Press)

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Vectren officials met with Indiana utility regulators in December to discuss a possible early end to net metering for new solar or wind customers.

If that happens, Evansville area Vectren customers wanting to install solar power might find it will take longer to see a return on their investment.

Net metering is the billing means by which customers generating their own power are financially credited for excess electricity they send back to the electric grid.

Vectren has not filed the request with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission yet but details of the meeting are included in the commission's records. In industry jargon, the request would be for an "excess distributed generation tariff."

Indiana law does allow Vectren to make such a request before 2022 when net metering for new solar installations ends. However, until now, none of Indiana's investor-owned utility companies has made such a request

If it is filed and approved, customers who newly install solar or wind power would no longer receive retail rates for the extra power they generate. That is the same rate customers pay on bills. Instead, they would be credited at a lower wholesale rate plus an additional 25 percent.

This would primarily affect customers wishing to install solar power on homes, businesses and schools by making it more difficult to offset the cost — an argument made by opponents in 2017 when the Indiana General Assembly passed legislation phasing out net metering.

Vectren and Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission representatives discussed this during an hour-long presentation on Dec. 19. That presentation was discovered to have taken place earlier this month through a public records request by the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana.

Although not illegal, the meeting was not known about until CAC made its public records request.

According to Vectren's own presentation, a residential customer with net metering could see their bill increase significantly under the new rate structure. A table included in the document shows a home customer with net metering would have a $21.13 bill now compared to $173.48 with the lower billing credits Vectren wants. That is a 721 percent increase.

"That is a hefty rate increase," said Kerwin Olson, executive director of Citizens Action Coalition. "These are the monopoly utilities protecting their revenues."

A controversial law sought by the state's investor-owned utilities was signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb in 2017, phasing out net metering over a 30-year period. It set July 1, 2022, as the date by which utilities in the state will stop offering net metering for installing solar. Customers who installed solar before the end of 2017 were grandfathered into net metering's retail rates for 30 years. All net metering will go away in 2047 under the current law.

The law also allows for a utility to stop offering net metering for new solar installations earlier if it reaches a certain cap on private generation before 2022. That cap is 1.5 percent of the utility's maximum power demand in a given year.

The law says 40 percent of that capacity has to be reserved for home users. Another 15 percent has to be reserved for biomass-fueled power (although there are none.) The remaining 45 percent is "non-reserved," to be allocated to commercial solar projects.

Vectren told IURC representatives in December that it does not expect to reach its total 1.5 percent cap in 2020. But enough of its residential allocation is used up that it believes commercial projects in the work will exceed the non-reserved capacity.

Importantly, Vectren's presentation stated that any new solar users who come on after the utility reaches its total 1.5 percent cap will be allowed to participate in net metering — but only until the IURC approves its request to start billing them at wholesale rates.

"I don't think that's fair. The deal ought to be the deal," said Laura Arnold, president of the Indiana Distributed Energy Alliance and a renewable energy consultant.

Arnold said once Vectren files its request that her group would urge the IURC to make a blanket decision applying to all utilities since it has not yet addressed the issue.

"That would have a serious negative impact on the (solar) industry," said Will Kenworthy, of Vote Solar, a national advocacy group. "People make the decision to go solar based on economics and whether they can recover their investment. If there is a huge amount of uncertainty a year or so out about that, they will be inclined not to do it."

Brad Morton, owner of Evansville-based Morton Solar, agrees.

"It would definitely set solar back. It's about the return on investment for the customer. It's going to shift that return into the utilities' pockets," Morton said. "It's going to make the customer think twice about installing it."

Vectren declined a Courier & Press interview request but issued a written response:

"Vectren is considering a proposal to implement the excess distributed generation tariff in accordance with Indiana statutory requirements. We are in the process of holding discussions with multiple parties and details associated with a filing are not yet final. Vectren continues to operate under the requirements of Indiana’s distributed generation rules and provisions, and any potential filing would address only future approved investments in accordance with Indiana statute. As a filing has not been made with the IURC, further comment would be procedurally premature."

Click HERE to view the Vectren slides:

Agendas-Handouts Vectren mtg. 12-19-19v2

HB 1414 Hearing in Senate Utilities 2-27-2020 @ 9 am

Posted by Laura Arnold / February 20, 2020 / Posted in 2020 Indiana General Assembly, Uncategorized / No Comments

The hearing on HB 1414 the coal bailout bill was posted yesterday.

Make plans NOW to contact your Indiana State Senators and ask them to oppose HB 1414.

Call your Senator: (317) 232-9400 or (800) 382-9467

Find Your Legislator < Click HERE

For more information see

http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2020/committees/utilities_3800

Things will happen rapidly. After the 2/27/2020 Senate Utilities Committee hearing on HB 1414, next steps are:

Senate Second Reading (2R) Deadline Mon., March 2
Senate Third Reading (3R) Deadline Tues., March 3

2R is when any State Senator may propose an amendment.

3R is final passage in the State Senate.

Need talking points?

IBJ Editorial:

Lawmakers should say no to bill

to prop up coal industry

February 14, 2020

It’s not often at the Statehouse that special interest groups representing utilities, businesses, environmentalists and consumers unite on the same side of legislation—and certainly not on a bill that is controversial.

But Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, made it happen when he introduced House Bill 1414, which would prohibit utilities from shutting down coal-fired power plants without approval from state regulators.

Soliday says the electric industry’s move away from coal—and to natural gas and greener energies like solar—have led coal mines to close at an alarming rate, which he argues puts the reliability and stability of the electricity sector in question.

In 2010, Indiana had 26 active coal-burning power units. By 2016, it had just 13, and plans are in place to phase out some of those. U.S. coal consumption is now at its lowest point in 40 years, and at least six major coal companies have gone bankrupt since 2015.

Soliday says that is a problem.

But the Indiana Energy Association, which represents large utilities; the Hoosier Environmental Council; the Indiana Chamber of Commerce; industrial customers; the NAACP; Citizens Action Coalition and several other groups [including Indiana Distributed Energy Alliance (IndianaDG)] and individuals oppose the bill. They argue it would interfere with market forces, including cheaper costs of fuel and the falling costs of green technology.

We’re with the opponents.

We think HB 1414 is a bad idea, even in its amended form, which will sunset the restrictions in 2021.

For decades, the electricity industry was almost completely dependent on coal—and Indiana even more so than most. In fact, Indiana is among the top five states in the share of its electricity that is generated from coal, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

As recently as 2014, coal-fired power plants provided about 85% of Indiana’s electricity generation. By 2018, that percentage had fallen to 70%, and it is expected to drop rapidly as additional companies take their coal-fired plants offline.

Utilities are making the switch to other alternatives, including natural gas and solar, because they are cheaper and cleaner. Those are positive changes for Indiana economically—in both the sheer cost of power and the potential for improvements in health that come from cleaner air.

We understand the concern about coal mining, once a vital industry in southern Indiana. And we can support programs to help miners who lose their jobs transition to other fields.

We don’t say that lightly. We acknowledge that it is not easy for people who have spent their entire careers earning a good wage working in the mines to suddenly retrain for jobs that will likely provide smaller paychecks in economically struggling rural areas of the state.

But propping up the industry is the wrong move. The market forces that are moving power companies away from coal are understandable and predictable. This is not a place for government intervention.•