Johannes Pfeifenberger

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) released their new report, Collaborative Enhancements to Unlock Interregional Transmission, providing an assessment and solutions to challenges faced by regulators and other energy stakeholders. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eyV-8Q72 #interregionaltransmision #transmissionreform

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Interregional transmission can provide many benefits -- yet power markets and grid operating practices are not set up to fully capture these benefits. This new report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for the DOE Grid Deployment Office lays out the barriers that need to be addressed to realize the full value of existing and new interregional transmission: https://lnkd.in/ekzximcU One of the necessary steps to improve seams-related inefficiencies is "intertie optimization," which we addressed here: https://lnkd.in/ew3QtcpQ and here: https://lnkd.in/dptXMG3t Great work by Christina Simeone, PhD and Amy Rose! #gridmodernization

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Unintended Consequences of Well-Intended Regulations: In this recent article for Energy Marketing Conferences (EMC) Insider, I explain in very simple terms how carbon #capandtrade systems can undermine the #voluntarymarket for #cleanenergy if regulators do not set-aside allowances to account for #voluntaryprocurement. If you want your clean energy purchases to have greater impact , this is just another example of why you should look to Center for Resource Solutions and its Green-e© certified renewable energy.

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PJM has published an addendum to its paper, Energy Transition in PJM: Flexibility for the Future, to provide supporting information and context for the assumptions used in the study’s analysis. The addendum was developed as a companion to the fourth phase of PJM’s ongoing effort to assess the impact of the energy transition, including the escalating integration of renewable resources on the grid. It provides details on the scenario development used in the study, including generation expansion drivers and siting, generation deactivation drivers, load forecast, transmission topology, and external interchange. Read more at PJM Inside Lines. https://lnkd.in/ecYBbzxx

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Our publication presents new perspectives the market dynamics of cross-border power trade, whereby the participants not only vastly differ in size, but also regulatory structure and market conditions, and focuses on type of market risks that the smaller can encounter as a result of interfacing with a considerably more liberalised power market than its own. We present the case of Belize, on which academic research is limited, and it's interconnection with the Mexican power grid. *Open access available* https://lnkd.in/gS5AP4W2

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File under: energy regulatory observations, #RTO #complaints / #waivers when there are #tariff issues that don't make sense. I read a fair number of daily orders from / filings with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and this granting of a complaint against PJM stood out as a quick one to highlight for a few reasons. First, the level of tax-codification (like Shakespeare, I'll invent the words I need) that RTO tariffs have undergone. Read the intro paragraph of the order capturing the crux of the issue. My goodness. I cover issues across ISOs/RTOs from PJM, to NYISO, CAISO, and of course ISO-NE as well non-888/2000 regions like BPA and public utility districts and everyone has their own rules. For companies doing business in the US (which, for example, is common with generation, transmission developers, and large loads), it's like needing to be fluent in several languages. Observation: no wonder #FERC has some aspirations to more standardized language to at least create a bit of standardization in the tariff tower of Babel. Second, the complaint as a consensus tool. It's human nature to want to be right. Evolutionary, it's a mark of power. And power means safety. Humans are wired that way for survival, and it takes some self-awareness and reflection to engage the rational cortex over the non-verbal and much older limbic system and to hit the pause button to a challenge. The term "complaint" doesn't always help and neither does the "party v. party" case caption. The whole structure connotes conflict. Here, Dominion filed a waiver with a complaint in the alternative because PJM interpreted its tariff to not allow for a resource submission given a change in entity type. But instead of simply defending the tariff, PJM acknowledged the issue and supported a fix if the also supported waiver wasn't granted. FERC granted the complaint to fix the issue generally rather than a one off. While the stakeholder process - and all the interests that are encompassed therein - can make agreement to a change like this more difficult, the complaint and waiver processes are paths that can and should be used especially where time matters. One of the most critical things for those administering the rules to understand is: a delay is not harmless, a "comeback next time" is not without victims. Many projects have to have all elements align to move forward. Other issues may be more durable but can add needless costs to consumers, and those add up. This "how can we work with parties" approach is great to see and hopefully we'll see more of it. From capacity markets to interconnections, there is a lot of room for win-wins. Also, great to see Commissioner Rosner's name on these. #energy

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At Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s December open meeting, the Commission accepted NERC’s Five-Year Performance Assessment, highlighting our efforts to ensure a #reliable, #resilient grid and advance standards for integrating new #energy resources. Read our full statement: https://lnkd.in/geHRMKYn

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NERC recommends adding 35,000 MW of interregional transmission capacity as "prudent additions" to address grid resiliency needs! Note that this assessment solely focuses on energy adequacy and the level of assistance likely available from neighboring regions during resiliency challenges, such as winter storms. The study does not, for example, consider: 1️⃣ Resilience support available from regions beyond the immediate neighbors (such as PJM's exports to SPP during winter storm Elliot). 2️⃣ A multi-value perspective that takes into account the added economic and public-policy benefits of interregional transmission, which often justify expanding interregional transmission beyond these NERC results (as DOE's National Transmission Planning Study has most recently shown). NERC report: https://lnkd.in/e_GuKkAk Utility Dive summary: https://lnkd.in/eW3U_E34 North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) #gridmodernization

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Capacity market prices for energy in PJM surged, signaling a crucial demand for additional generation. PJM Interconnection's footprint is set to allocate $14.7 billion for capacity in the 2025/26 delivery year, a substantial rise from $2.2 billion in the previous auction. Stay informed about the energy sector's evolving landscape: [Link to the article] #EnergyMarket #CapacityAuction #PJMInterconnection

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Excellent article by Jeff St. John! Even though US transmission owners have been investing more than ever in grid infrastructure (over $25 billion annually), bottlenecks in the power grid are preventing the US from meeting surging demand and interconnecting the necessary new resources. Good news is that we do have tools to address these challenges: more proactive planning, grid enhancing technologies, and improved generator interconnection processes! (See, for example, https://lnkd.in/d-BhHaXF, https://lnkd.in/e8vSr4V7, and https://lnkd.in/e7VpYVvj) https://lnkd.in/e7BaRV7S

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💡If you get as amped up as Jonathan does about the future of #energy #technology, ARPA-E's 3-day event is for you! Hear from our co-founder Jonathan Scott about energy innovation in Dallas, Texas, later this month.   #keynote #solar #PowerTrip #ARPAE24

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Current power grids don't have the flexibility to support the energy transition and updating them will take years. National Grid and LineVision have found a faster solution unlocking unused potential in power lines. Hudson Gilmer, Co-Founder and CEO at LineVision, says: “With accelerating load growth and congestion, a diverse set of solutions is crucial to enhancing grid capacity, starting with maximising the potential of the existing grid.” Have a read to find out how they've done it in New York #Sustainability #Energy #US Brian Gemmell John Pettigrew Jon Marmillo Stephen Smith

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Presenting today at NPSC 2024, Track 5: Electricity Markets and Grid Resiliency, Paper ID 4: "Benefits of Integrating Indian Electricity Market Segments and Regulated Dispatch Stacks". The focus is on unlocking significant arbitrage opportunities between regulated tariff generators and competitive power exchange participants through Integration, or Coupling. While a theoretically ideal, mandated, fully centralised market may be utopian for India's federated power system, the current decentralised and fragmented approach leaves much economic potential untapped. Keeping the freedom, choice intact, a balanced, progressive integration of layered stacks in India's interconnected grid is practical, technically sound, feasible & economically advantageous.🇮🇳 🙏 #India #NPSC2024 #PowerSystem #ElectricityMarket #Economy

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I’m excited to see a real solution to the mounting generation retirement dilema in PJM move forward. PJM has acknowledged that new entry of resources has not kept pace with the amount of MWs lost due to rapid retirements. What the Stakeholder Coalition is trying to accomplish is at least “maintain the same level of resource adequacy” and MWs in critical locations historically relied on to undergird the system so that we continue to have a reliable and operable system and market. And beyond the technical and system need, there is the human need and element here. Elevate and other Coalition members are trying to keep generating facilities operating so that jobs aren’t lost and the economic tax base remain in these cities and locales where retiring power plants sit. Transferring Capacity Interconnection Rights (CIRs) from an existing generator to a replacement resource in an expedited interconnection review process of 9 months or less is more efficient and timely and allows for a deactivating unit to deenergize and its replacement resource (any technology type) to energize at around the same time frame to avoid mass closures and impacts to energy communities that have already paid for the network upgrades and existing infrastructure. We have a true reliability need in PJM and this Stakeholder Coalition proposal is one tool in the tool kit that can address the need and was closely designed based on 9 previous generator replacement processes already approved by the FERC. We look for continued member support at the MRC.

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This article discussion flies in the face of the market PJM has created. A market that only supports short term assets like wind and solar backed up by gas or batteries. In short it confirms the market flaws that have been claimed by utilities over many years, and should encourage support for creating market signals to create long lived assets like baseload generation plants.

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🔍 Curious about Distributional Equity Analysis (DEA)? MEEA is currently participating in a case study in Illinois to demonstrate the use of a DEA by assessing the distributional equity impacts of electric and gas resource investments on priority populations. Our most recent blog details our collaboration with community stakeholders and the progress we've made so far. Discover more: https://lnkd.in/gZay3zKU

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Thanks to PJM Interconnection teams for this insightful #RTEP report showcasing your strategy towards: ➡ optimizing infrastructure investment ➡ fostering transmission and #interconnection planning ➡ strengthening regional planning to benefit consumers #powergrids Manu Asthana

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