Monthly Archives: July 2013

A Geological Field Trip in Cuba

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416270070_370The Association for Women Geoscientists sponsored yet another of their remarkable geological field trips. This time it was a March 2013 trip to Cuba. I detail the trip in the August 2013 issue of Earth magazine (published by the American Geosciences Institute), in “Travels In Geology: Journeying Through Cuba’s Geology And Culture”. As I explained in the article’s introduction:

It’s not every day that you get the chance to go to Cuba, so when I found out that the Association for Women Geoscientists (AWG) was offering an organized trip there in March 2013, I jumped at the opportunity. The excursion — nearly two weeks of exploration of our southern neighbor’s geology and culture — did not disappoint.

Cuba is truly an extraordinary place – both geologically and culturally – and as I said at the end of the article:

I look forward to returning and seeing even more of Cuba’s geology.

As noted above in this post, AWG puts together some great geological field trips. The next one will be in September 2014, and it will be a geological field trip through the Canadian Rockies. More details on that will be uploaded to Geopostings as they become available.

Power Companies Losing Out To Rooftop Solar??

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—by John Vincent, former Montana Public Service Commissioner

America’s utility industry, “Big Power,” is, by their own admission, scared.  Made up of large corporations with huge and profitable investments in centralized generation and long distance, high voltage transmission (profits mostly guaranteed by monopoly status and government regulation), they are facing what their own industry calls a “death spiral,” – the likelihood that the loss of demand (need) for the power they sell will put an end to “business as usual,” (the old energy paradigm).

“On Rooftops, A Rival For Utilities”, a 7.28.2013 NY Times article by Diane Cardwell, details the industry death spiral, and ties the spiral into net metering and its strong appeal to potential rooftop solar users:

Net metering right now is the only way for customers to get value for their rooftop solar systems,” said Adam Browning, executive director of the advocacy group Vote Solar.

Mr. Browning and other proponents say that solar customers deserve fair payment not only for the electricity they transmit but for the value that smaller, more dispersed power generators give to utilities. Making more power closer to where it is used, advocates say, can reduce stress on the grid and make it more reliable, as well as save utilities from having to build and maintain more infrastructure and large, centralized generators.

But utility executives say that when solar customers no longer pay for electricity, they also stop paying for the grid, shifting those costs to other customers. Utilities generally make their profits by making investments in infrastructure and designing customer rates to earn that money back with a guaranteed return, set on average at about 10 percent.

“If the costs to maintain the grid are not being borne by some customers, then other customers have to bear a bigger and bigger portion,” said Steve Malnight, a vice president at Pacific Gas and Electric. “As those costs get shifted, that leads to higher and higher rates for customers who don’t take advantage of solar.”

Whether it’s on-site solar (the main focus of this article), conservation, efficiency, distributed on-site or locally distributed power from other alternative energy sources, smart grid and micro grid technology or more efficient home appliances (the new energy paradigm), “Big Power” sees the day coming when sufficient need and market demand for the power they sell will no longer exist. Of course, they will do all they can to prevent that from happening, and that fight will be coming soon to a legislature and public utility/service commission near you.

One of the huge benefits of the new energy paradigm will be the rapidly decreasing need for any new high voltage, long distance transmission lines. Every day the new energy paradigm gains strength and momentum is a day that further diminishes the need for projects like NorthWestern Energy’s MSTI line and all the environmental, financial and private property rights problems it raises.

So, whether it’s rooftop solar in California or energy efficiency programs and small scale, on-site solar, wind or micro hydro projects in Montana, it all pushes the new energy paradigm forward. And that’s a good thing.

Energy Conservation And Efficiency….. Good For People, Business, And The Environment

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- By John Vincent, Former Montana Public Service Commissioner

It’s recently become all too clear that “big power” is “waging war” on energy efficiency and conservation because it reduces the amount of power they sell and cuts into their profits. But for others (residential consumers, private businesses – both large and small, and corporations), energy efficiency is saving energy, saving money, and improving bottom lines. And it’s good for the environment, too. Less generation, especially, but not exclusively, coal fired generation, reduces CO2 emissions (natural gas produces about half the CO2 of coal but also emits high quantities of methane,  a “green house” gas 20 times more potent than CO2).

IDAHO’S J.R. SIMPLOT COMPANY LEADS THE WAY ON ENERGY EFFICIENCY

The J.R. Simplot Company shows the way to energy conservation and efficiency. This is a great example of the conservation/efficiency ethic being taken to heart by a major American business. With more than 10,000 employees, the J.R. Simplot Company is one of the nation’s largest privately owned companies. And, it’s no secret that the Simplots are a politically conservative family and business. They have fully embraced (dare it be said) a good, old fashioned conservative ethic; saving money……….. by using less energy and consequently also cutting costs.

Here’s what they’ve accomplished through energy efficiency and conservation since 2009:

–  saved 1.3 trillion btu’s of natural gas (enough to take 29,929 cars off the road and keep 95,056 tons of co2 out of the air),

–  reduced electrical use by 390,821,028 kilowatt hours (enough to take 35,400 homes off the grid),

– saved millions of dollars*.

Of course, when individuals and businesses save energy it also reduces the need for new and extremely costly centralized electrical generation plants and long distance, high voltage transmission lines – both of which would cost (not save) electric customers billions of dollars, pose a threat to the loss of private property rights through eminent domain, and harm the environment. When asked recently by the Idaho Statesman newspaper why they undertook their energy saving efforts, the Simplot family fell back on the words of the company’s founder, J.R. Simplot: “do well by doing good.”

Good advice.

*actual dollar amount of savings to be posted soon

Energy Efficiency and Small-Scale Solar Power Threaten Utilities’ Bottom Lines

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Power company revenue is under siege by energy efficiency and small-scale solar power, says a Fitch ratings analyst in a recent BloombergBusinessweek article:

Rooftop solar power and energy-efficiency programs will eat into utility revenue and profit margins and discourage investment in new transmission projects within five years, a Fitch Ratings analyst said.

Utilities in stagnant or low-growth markets in the Midwest and Northeast face the biggest losses as more businesses and homeowners install their own generation systems and upgrade to more efficient appliances, said Glen Grabelsky, Fitch’s managing director of utilities, power & gas. Retirees flocking to southern states may offset some losses for local utilities.

This is serious business for utilities as Bill Howley of The Power Line notes:

Fitch is issuing this report as a warning of downgrades to come if power companies don’t step and squash rooftop solar power soon.

The demand loss for grid electricity will be significant as further remarked by Grabelsky of Fitch Ratings:

Loss of demand from customers that go solar or reduce consumption in other ways will shift more and more grid costs onto customers that do nothing. Power supplied by U.S. utilities declined 3.4 percent last year, largely from energy efficiency and on-site solar generation, which reduces demand for electricity from the grid, Grabelsky said.

Unless utility rate structures change, that will reduce utilities’ abilities to invest in major new projects and upgrade their transmission systems, Grabelsky said.

“It will have a negative impact on their ability to raise capital,” Grabelsky said. “Regulators will ask, ‘Do you really need all that new transmission when there’s no demand growth?’ There’s the potential for stranding assets.”

A recent study by the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), “Disruptive Challenges – Financial Implications and Strategic Responses to a Changing Retail Electric Business”, basically reiterates Grabelsky’s view of the threat to utilities by energy efficiency and distributed energy generation. The report details corporate utilities’ angst regarding their customers’ shift to go solar and reduce demand for grid electricity.

How will utilities compensate for the loss of demand?  Howley, in his “The Power Line” blog, gives a good response:

This translates into: do away with net metering and charge higher rates to people who install solar panels and invest in efficiency.

John Vincent, a former Montana Public Service Commissioner (PSC), in a recent op-ed in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, calls the shift away from using corporate grid electricity the “new energy paradigm”. As Vincent explains:

A new paradigm is grabbing hold in the residential, commercial and public sectors of our economy. That is: local distributed or “on site” electrical generation and consumption (wind, solar, small scale hydro, biomas, geothermal, micro turbines, combined heat and power systems etc.) conservation, efficiency and smart-grid technologies (to increase the efficiency and capacity of existing electrical transmission systems rather than of building costly new ones at rate payer expense).

But, as Vincent cautions us:

The new energy paradigm is, for obvious reasons, being met with strong resistance by those who benefit from the status quo. Unfortunately, these self interests still carry a lot of political clout, witness recent Montana legislative sessions.

The “new energy paradigm” is a model that we must embrace. We need to get people and politicians to move on this.

Blog Postscript – Former PSC Commissioner Vincent adds the following clarification on the EEI study mentioned above:

The Edison Electric Institute is Big Power’s number one ally and voice (funded and supported by Big Power) and so their own consultant has: 1. Clearly identified Big Power’s dilemma and, 2. Recommended ways to beat back the new paradigm and maintain the status quo…… at rate payers expense.  I think the recommendations cited in the consultant’s report can be boiled down to raising rates (one way or another) to offset the loss of revenue brought about by on site, distributed generation and improved efficiency.

In other words, Big Power will do everything they can to make us (rate payers) pay for distributed energy and efficiency……..the new paradigm, not their stockholders.

The Uber Grid Push Is Back

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The push for the uber grid raised its head again in the New York Time’s 7.12.13 edition. Matt Wald plugs the new EIPC (Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative) “hypothetical” nationalized grid as a “step forward”.

As Mr. Wald reports,

When President Obama presented his plans last month for executive action that would cut emissions of greenhouse gases, one item on his list was strengthening the power grid. It was on the lists of President George W. Bush and Mr. Clinton, too. But for the most part, experts say the grid is not being changed, at least not on a scale big enough to make much difference.

Their view is reflected in what they say is a largely hypothetical three-year effort by hundreds of engineers to redraw the grid for the eastern two-thirds of the United States. Engineers in the project, which is now drawing to a close, have proposed a basic redesign for beefing up the Eastern Interconnection, the part of the grid that stretches from Nova Scotia to New Orleans.

You may wonder what is EIPC and what is its function? Here’s how EIPC describes itself:

The EIPC was initiated by a coalition of regional Planning Authorities (see list below). These Planning Authorities are entities listed on the NERC compliance registry as Planning Authorities and represent the entire Eastern Interconnection.

The EIPC will provide a grass-roots approach which builds upon the regional expansion plans developed each year by regional stakeholders in collaboration with their respective NERC Planning Authorities. This approach will provide coordinated interregional analysis for the entire Eastern Interconnection guided by the consensus input of an open and transparent stakeholder process.

The EIPC received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2010 to initiate a broad-based, transparent collaborative process to involve interested stakeholders in the development of policy futures for transmission analysis. Learn more about the DOE-funded project.

The Stakeholder Steering Committee (SSC) is the body of stakeholder representatives that works collaboratively to inform and provide input on the EIPC’s efforts. Learn more about the SSC.

Planning Authorities:

Alcoa Power Generating

American Transmission Company

Duke Energy Carolinas

Electric Energy Inc.

Entergy

LGE/KU (Louisville/Kentucky Utilities)

Florida Power & Light

Georgia Transmission Corporation

IESO (Ontario, Canada)

International Transmission Company

ISO-New England

JEA (Jacksonville, Florida)

MAPPCOR

Midwest ISO

Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia

New Brunswick System Operator

New York ISO

PJM Interconnection

PowerSouth Energy Coop

Progress Energy – Carolinas

Progress Energy – Florida

South Carolina Electric & Gas

Santee Cooper

Southern Company

Southwest Power Pool

Tennessee Valley Authority.

 

As aptly noted in The Power Line blog in response to Mr. Wald’s uber grid writings:

See all that talk about “transparent,” “stakeholders” and “grassroots”?  That is corporate mumbo jumbo of the first order.  Ain’t nothing grassroots about EIPC.  Mr. Wald should go back to reporter school.  You don’t write an article and leave out all the important names.  Unless you are trying to hide something.

I also agree with The Power Line on the clincher to the EIPC’s uber grid vision stated by Christopher Russo, an energy consultant at Charles River Associates (a company that helped with the grid redesign):

“We said, ‘Here’s what we could do,’ ” he said. “We haven’t said how we would pay for it.”

I’ve wondered about that “pay for” part in regards to proposed high-voltage transmission in the western U.S.

Energy Efficiency Can Save Big Money And Greenhouse-Gas Emissions In Urban Transport Systems

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The International Energy Agency just released a new report that shows how energy efficiency of urban transport systems could facilitate savings of up to USD 70 trillion that would be spent on vehicles, fuel and transportation infrastructure from now until 2050.

The report,  A Tale of Renewed Cities, draws on examples from more than 30 cities across the globe to show how to improve transport efficiency through better urban planning and travel demand management. Extra benefits include lower greenhouse-gas emissions and higher quality of life.

The report comes at a critical time: More than half of the world’s population already lives in cities, many of which suffer from traffic jams and overcrowded roads that cost hundreds of billions of dollars in lost fuel and time and that harm environmental quality, health and safety.

“As the share of the world’s population living in cities grows to nearly 70 percent by 2050 and energy consumption for transport in cities is expected to double, the need for efficient, affordable, safe and high-capacity transport solutions will become more acute,” said IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven as she presented the report. “Urgent steps to improve the efficiency of urban transport systems are needed not only for energy security reasons, but also to mitigate the numerous negative climate, noise, air pollution, congestion and economic impacts of rising urban transport volumes.”

The IEA report, A Tale of Renewed Cities, is available for download at: http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/name,39940,en.html

Or – check out the slideshare: