Reuters

May 30 (Reuters) - U.S. households that faced challenges in paying for their basic energy needs were billed about 19% more per square foot than the national average in 2020, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday.

On average, households were billed $1.04 per square foot for energy usage in 2020, the EIA said in a Residential Energy Consumption Survey.

By Kavya Balaraman

Experts in California worry that as the Southwest Power Pool’s energy market proposals move forward, California could lose access to renewable energy resources that are critical to the state’s grid.

As the Southwest Power Pool’s efforts to expand its footprint into the West begin to gain traction, some experts in California are concerned that the state could find itself isolated, and potentially lose access to renewable energy resources and power imports that are critical to the state’s electric grid.

By Ethan Howland

The U.S. grid faces major reliability challenges, according to members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission who used the word 34 times in their prepared testimony Thursday at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing.

There is a “looming reliability crisis in our electricity markets,” FERC Commissioner James Danly said.

By Miranda Willson

When several large electric utilities launched a first-of-its-kind energy trading platform in the Southeast last fall, the pitch was simple: Lower energy bills and deliver more solar power to customers.

Now, more than four months after the Southeast Energy Exchange Market began operating, some state regulators and energy analysts are skeptical that those benefits will be realized. Critics say a December deep freeze exposed the platform’s flaws.

By Kristi E. Swartz

The warnings to residents in the Southeast US came right before Christmas: delay washing clothes or running the dishwasher, and curb hot water use until the bitterly cold temperatures eased up.It still wasn’t enough for two of the nation’s largest electric utilities.

As temperatures plummeted to 40F (4.4C) in a few hours and gale force winds swept across the region between December 23 and 24, the pre-holiday preparations were put on pause as Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Duke Energy implemented historic rolling blackouts lasting about 30 minutes to an hour.

By Scott Miller

The recent opinion piece in Utility Dive, suggesting the “sick or dying” regional transmission organizations, transported me back to 1998 when vertically integrated monopoly utilities routinely suggested that a regional grid operated in a bid-based dispatch was going to undermine the reliability of the grid. However, when I read the opinion more closely, I found that the authors not necessarily calling for a return to the “simple, white picket fence days of an imagined better past” (queue the soft music) where your local utility was the only way to deliver electricity.

By Maggie Miller and John Sakellariadis

The Biden administration will pursue a policy of more aggressive regulation to secure critical systems like banks, electric utilities and hospitals against cyberattacks, according to a new national cyber strategy unveiled Thursday.

That approach signals a break from two decades of efforts to get companies in critical sectors to voluntarily strengthen their cybersecurity. It comes as officials are increasingly worried about cyberattacks on U.S. soil from Russia and China, and as cybercriminals ramp up “ransomware” attacks where they hold networks hostage for payments.

By Catherine Clifford

Key Points:

Building large-scale transmission lines that carry electricity across the United States could be extremely cost effective way to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions while also improving reliability.

But the U.S. electric grid is a patchwork network of thousands of utility companies that exist in three separate sections that are independent of each other: the Western Interconnection, the Eastern Interconnection, and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

Because of the history of the electric grid in the US, there is not a functioning system to figure out how to pay for and regulate cross regional transmission lines.

By Katherine Blunt

Physical attacks on the U.S. power grid rose 71% last year compared with 2021 and will likely increase this year, according to a confidential industry analysis viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

By Maggie Miller

Hackers linked to Russia got very close to being able to take a dozen U.S. electric and gas facilities offline in the first weeks of the war in Ukraine, the head of a top cybersecurity company warned Tuesday.

Robert M. Lee, the founder and CEO of Dragos, which helps companies respond to cyberattacks, said hackers with a group Dragos calls “Chernovite” were using a malicious software to try to take down “around a dozen” U.S. electric and liquid natural gas sites.

Department of Energy Grid Deployment Office

Today, the Grid Deployment Office launches the Transmission Siting and Economic Development Grants program, a $760 million investment through the Inflation Reduction Act to support states and local communities in the siting and permitting of interstate and offshore electricity transmission lines. As a first step in the development of this program, DOE is requesting information from stakeholders regarding issues related to the provision of grants to facilitate the siting of interstate and offshore electricity transmission lines, including possible tools and resources that may reduce the time for siting authorities to reach decisions, and opportunities to increase community engagement and reduce conflicts that can stall siting processes.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)

FERC today directed the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to study the effectiveness of the existing reliability standard for physical security of the Bulk Power System and determine whether the standard needs to be improved.

Today’s order cites the need for continued vigilance against physical threats to the Bulk Power System, considering the recent increases in physical attacks on electrical substations that, in some instances, have cut power to tens of thousands of customers.

Department of Energy

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), today announced nearly $350 million for emerging Long-Duration Energy Storage (LDES) demonstration projects capable of delivering electricity for 10 to 24 hours or longer to support a low-cost, reliable, carbon-free electric grid. Funded in part by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this funding opportunity will advance new renewable energy technologies, enhance the capabilities of customers and communities to integrate grid storage more effectively, increase grid resilience, and expand America’s global leadership in energy storage. Together with the President’s Inflation Reduction Act, which provided expanded clean energy tax credits for energy storage installation, this new investment will provide businesses the confidence they need to build and deploy innovative clean energy technologies critical to reaching the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of a carbon-free electric grid by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

By Ron Lehr and Misti Groves

The federal Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in August, makes historic investments to accelerate the energy transition, reduce carbon emissions, and spur clean energy development. However, if we are serious about addressing climate change, advancing clean energy is only part of the equation.

To maximize the Inflation Reduction Act’s investments, the West must also explore opportunities to develop organized electricity markets — markets that enable cost-effective, clean energy deployment while maintaining reliability to the benefit of all customers.

Institute for Energy Research

According to the July report of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), batteries are not going to provide the backup needed for intermittent renewables. Director of Reliability Assessment and Performance Analysis John Moura said, “Batteries aren’t going to do it, and we’re going to need a backup fuel for wind and solar. So this is important to invest in.” Moura also indicated more investment in gas infrastructure is needed as natural gas is a bridge fuel needed to backup wind and solar because of their inherent intermittency. According to NERC’s 2022 State of Reliability report, key metrics tracking blackout duration and amounts of unserved energy demand spiked dramatically in 2021. The duration of operator-initiated load shedding events spiked and unserved energy demand reached its highest levels ever. No longer is peak demand the only clear risk to reliability—risks can emerge when weather-dependent generation is impacted by abnormal atmospheric conditions or when extreme conditions disrupt fuel supplies.

Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO)

CARMEL, Ind. — Today, the MISO Board of Directors unanimously approved a significant portfolio of long-range transmission projects. The $10.3 billion investment includes 18 transmission projects in MISO’s Midwest Subregion. This Tranche 1 portfolio is the first of four planned tranches in MISO’s Long-Range Transmission Planning (LRTP) process. These critical projects are needed to begin to integrate new generation resources outlined in MISO member and states plans and increase resiliency in the face of severe weather events.

“We appreciate the spirit of collaboration and the hard work that MISO members and stakeholders have invested in these projects and look forward to continued discussion around future tranches,” said MISO’s Chief Executive Officer John Bear. “We also recognize the effort and strong support for LRTP from various regulators and policymakers in the states – including state utility commissions and governors.”

By David Bobzien and Will Toor

As the Intermountain West experienced record fires and floods in Glenwood Canyon, closing a main interstate highway to traffic for two weeks, and multiple wildfires raged across the Sierra Nevada mountains, forcing entire communities to evacuate, it is impossible to ignore the real and lasting effects of the ongoing climate crisis.

To address this crisis, our states — Colorado and Nevada — are leading the way, adopting ambitious clean energy goals. Specifically, Colorado enacted legislation ensuring at least an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas pollution from electric utilities by 2030 and Nevada adopted an ambitious renewable portfolio standard, requiring 50 percent renewables by 2030. The low cost of wind and solar energy allows our states’ utilities to rapidly decarbonize while maintaining affordable and reliable electricity.

By Miranda A. Ballentine and Todd A. Snitchler

American innovators, entrepreneurs and businesses are constantly evolving, competing against each other to develop groundbreaking technologies and solving our country’s most challenging problems. Similarly, it is time to unleash the power of innovation through competition once again to solve this century’s challenges of modernizing and preparing our vital electricity grid for climate change.

The interstate electricity system is stymied under the same traditional utility design that was established nearly 100 years ago. This outdated structure inhibits competition in the West and southeastern United States and limits clean energy ambitions and options for the businesses and energy consumers we represent. Under the Biden administration, the federal government is serious about tackling the climate crisis and should follow the lead of American businesses and support expanding our nation’s organized wholesale electricity markets.

By Rob Gramlich and Michael Hogan

Competitive wholesale electricity markets are at a turning point, caught between a rapidly decarbonizing resource mix spurred by falling clean energy prices, and market structures designed around fossil fuels. Markets are becoming increasingly ill equipped to handle large amounts of cheap renewable energy and flexible distributed energy resources.

A new research paper series led by Energy Innovation seeks to answer the critical question facing grid managers and regulators: What wholesale market design provides the best framework for reliably integrating clean resources and decarbonizing the power system at least cost?

This two-part opinion series outlines underlying questions about wholesale market reform, and introduces two separate pathways for markets to evolve.