U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General ’s Post

Basin Electric participated in two public scoping meetings in October in Crosby, North Dakota and Tioga, North Dakota. The meetings, hosted by the U.S. DOE Grid Deployment Office, are part of a federal permitting process for Basin Electric’s proposed project that would include two transmission lines from substations in Williams County to the Canadian border traversing parts of Divide County. Read more: https://bit.ly/4gTfiSF

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

This example of VPPs aiding in disaster recovery in Puerto Rico is an important signal of what's to come, and it can serve as an example for future modernization projects. Read more from my colleague Paul Quinlan

A unanimous vote last month at a Public Utility Commission of Texas meeting resulted in the decision to indefinitely table a proposed $1 billion performance credit mechanism (PCM) for Texas power generators, with commission staff questioning the possible reliability benefits. Although potential market-side policies are important, demand-side measures (e.g., improving our building stock with adequate insulation, upgrading to efficient heat pumps, creating VPPs + microgrids, enacting stronger utility efficiency & residential DR programs) are more cost-effective solutions to stabilize the state’s expanding grid. Read more via Utility Dive: https://ow.ly/aIgm50UIq8M #txenergy

California Community Power (CC Power) conducts assessments on behalf of members for potential projects and/or services that members may pursue jointly through CC Power. In this instance, CC Power is assessing the benefits of a Resource Adequacy (RA) Power Pool which would conduct an optimization of procured RA among CC Power members to inform and support efficient transactions for Resource Adequacy, helping participating members to comply with CPUC RA Slice-of-Day portfolio showings. The approach may involve establishing governance rules of the pool, facilitating ‘match-making’ amongst participating members and/or undertaking incremental procurement by CC Power. Learn more about this solicitation at https://lnkd.in/gGkak9vA.

New research from RMI - Meeting Summer Peaks: The Need for #VirtualPowerPlants (VPPs). Due to unprecedented load growth, increasing extreme weather events, and changing power supply, regulators and utilities need easily deployable, diverse, and affordable solutions to support a more reliable and affordable grid. VPPs' flexibility, affordability, deployment speed, and ability to support grid resilience can optimize existing infrastructure to address near-term and long-term grid needs. Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gCuUV2Tb #distributedenergyresources #cleanenergy #climatetech

PJM Mission Statment: “As the primary task, to ensure the safety, reliability and security of the bulk electric power system.” Over the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of supporting this mission by preparing this season’s OATF study on behalf of PJM Interconnection. Last week at the Operating Committee I presented my final report which was summarized in the attached article by RTO Insider. The OATF study is an in-depth analysis for the entire RTO and its neighbors to represent “the PJM system with the transmission and generation configuration approximating the conditions expected to exist during the study period” These studies are all very similar so here’s a high level explanation from 30,000 feet (or so): -Collect real time PJM data to establish what we already know -Request data from the transmission owners of what their systems will look like 6-8 months from now -Pool that data together into one PSSE case -Mold that case to approximate expected conditions during the winter peak (Jan/Feb) -Run power flow analysis and sensitivities to determine whether there will be any issues from the combination any of the information provided in the aforementioned steps -If there are issues, we either fine tune the case ourselves, or work with the transmission owners to find a resolution -Present findings… For this analysis I am pleased to announce PJM has identified no reliability risk for the Winter 2024/25 season. This 5 month analysis was a great learning oppurtunity for me, which provided a lot of hands on experience with Siemens PSSⓇE and PowerGEM’s TARA. I have to give a shout out to my team for their dedication to training me on this, namely my predecessors Robert Dropkin and Thinzar Aung who were there to answer my questions when needed. Also thanks to great management by Nicole Scott and Chris Pilong for guiding me in this process as well. Looking forward to jumping into the next analysis for Summer within the next few months!! For more info on what we do at PJM and WHY we do what we do check out

On Jan. 28, the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission approved a facility permit for the South Dakota portion of the Big Stone South to Alexandria (BSSA) 345-kV transmission line. Co-owned by Otter Tail Power Company and Western Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, this 100-mile transmission line will enhance electric reliability, increase resilience to extreme weather and expand access to low-cost energy. Learn more about the BSSA project by visiting https://lnkd.in/gJQ8z-22. #GridReliability #PublicPower #TransmissionExpansion #BSSA

FERC has issued Order No. 1920-A, which preserves much of Order No. 1920 but requires transmission planners to file state-proposed cost allocation schemes for regional transmission projects with the Commission for consideration. You can expect transmission planners to submit compliance filings in late spring 2025, and to kick off their first long-term regional planning cycles no later than June 2027. Our breakdown: https://lnkd.in/eu3EPpQj