Sustainable FERC Project

Engineer friends - come work with the Sustainable FERC Project team at Natural Resources Defense Council! We're hiring a Power Grid Engineer to support our work across the country on the energy transition. This is a critical time to focus on the power grid as load growth, renewable energy deployment, and extreme weather lead to a complicated (and interesting!) set of issues. We're looking for someone with an engineering (or similar) degree, 4+ years of experience, and specific experience in transmission system planning. Preference for candidates based in #NYC, #DC, or #Chicago. #JobAlert. P.S. Not only is the work interesting and important, but we have a really great team. https://lnkd.in/gHbBy4RP

Earlier this week, Governor Shapiro announced that he brokered a historic agreement with PJM that will establish a new, lower price cap that will save Pennsylvanians billions of dollars over the next two years. Today, the Governor, in Pittsburgh, to announce his new energy plan for the 2025-26 legislative session, dubbing it the “Lightning Plan.” Taken together, this package represents a sweeping, ambitious plan to address rising costs and produce more clean, reliable power. Read more about it from Robert Routh:

Governor Shapiro's historic agreement with PJM protects Pennsylvanians from billions of dollars in electricity price gouging. This deal buys Pennsylvania, neighboring states, and PJM time to deal with the real problems – PJM’s six year delay connecting new power plants and the risks of blackouts from wintertime gas plant failures. We hope the work of the Shapiro administration marks the beginning of a new era of coordination between PJM and the states. We look forward to working with all stakeholders to ensure PJM's rules protect consumers, bring new clean, reliable generation online, and deliver a more affordable economy for all. https://lnkd.in/eiSfRUYb

Governor Shapiro's historic agreement with PJM Interconnection protects Pennsylvanians from billions of dollars in electricity price gouging. This deal buys Pennsylvania, neighboring states, and PJM time to deal with the real problems – PJM’s six year delay connecting new power plants and the risks of blackouts from wintertime gas plant failures. https://lnkd.in/e5qm55mX

PJM Interconnection’s inability to get wind, solar, and batteries online will cause utility bills to rise for 65 million customers from the Great Lakes to the mid-Atlantic. Because PJM hasn’t been proactive, solar, wind, and batteries — cleaner and cheaper alternatives to its incumbent generation fleet — can’t hope to be brought online quickly enough to respond to rising capacity prices, Rutigliano said. The projects that are beginning construction in PJM’s region this year first applied for interconnection about five years ago, he said. “If somebody saw those prices and had something shovel-ready and applied right now, they’re not going to be in service until 2028.” https://lnkd.in/e6g9XDgv

💡New report: Coal plants operating uneconomically are driving up costs and pollution while kicking cheap, renewable energy off the grid. The analysis, conducted by HCI grantee Sustainable FERC Project in partnership with Grid Strategies LLC, analyzed uneconomic coal over 2021-2023 in MISO, the Midwest regional grid. Key findings include: 🏭  Consumers paid $1 billion to lose out on 3.8 million megawatt hours (mWh) of wind power. That's enough clean energy to power all residential households in Des Moines for more than three years--displaced by overpriced coal. ⚡ Nearly a quarter of all wind curtailment was driven by money-losing coal plants skewing the markets and cutting the line. If that sounds ridiculous and wasteful, that's because it is. Read more from Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC):

Over 90% of the current projects awaiting approval from PJM Interconnection are from renewable sources such as solar and wind. PJM has to be able to get these new power plants connected much, much quicker than they are and they’ve proven unable to keep pace with getting the new plants on in turn to keep up with the retirements. https://lnkd.in/gWMb8UUj

We're having a heatwave in PJM Interconnection - As extreme weather accelerates, PJM needs to fix interconnection and allow new, clean resources to come online. When it comes to adding new electricity sources, the nation’s largest grid operator, which serves 13 states from Illinois to Virginia, is stuck in the mud. Solar, wind and battery projects can’t get connected to the grid, and that poses are severe threat to reliability when extreme heat (or cold) hits. https://lnkd.in/ea3tKpvZ

Four Democratic governors are pressing the largest U.S. electricity market to create a “robust process” for working with states to plan for more zero-carbon power as electricity demand goes up. In their letter to PJM Interconnection — the wholesale power market stretching from the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic — governors from Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland said close coordination is essential to accomplishing a “collective vision.” https://lnkd.in/epwFpqRk

The Southeast is facing a spike in electric load growth projections. Utilities such as Tennessee Valley Authority, Georgia Power Company, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy Corporation are proposing a massive gas buildout to meet it—we can do better. #cleanenergy #reliablegrid #transmission https://lnkd.in/esrwf46x