The POWER Podcast

Izzet Bensusan, managing partner and founder of Captona, a North American-focused investment company that specializes in power generation and energy infrastructure, was a guest on The POWER Podcast. He is very bullish on the renewable energy industry for a variety of reasons. For instance, Bensusan said renewable energy is growing at more than 20% around the world because companies behind the technology are making it more efficient, cheaper, and better. He suggested new renewable generation is being added, not because of special incentives or sustainability angles, but rather, because it makes economic sense. When asked about promising opportunities in the renewable sector, Bensusan said the repowering of wind farms makes sense these days because new technology can improve output while using much of the same infrastructure. He was also optimistic about the U.S. offshore wind market in the long-term, but he didn’t expect it to take off in the next three years. Concerning other renewable resources, Bensusan said solar projects are now “mainstream” and financing has become “plain vanilla.” He said, “That means, anyone and everyone can really get capital to build small, medium, or large projects.” Community solar is growing too, and bankers—the people who provide the financing—are becoming comfortable with the investment. Bensusan expects a spike in new solar projects in 2019, mainly because the investment tax credit will have a step-down next year. Nonetheless, he has been in the industry long enough to know that surprises happen regularly. This year, interest rates could provide a shock. When rates go up, the leverage factor in projects could get extremely tight. “It’s going to be very unique to watch when that next step-up happens,” Bensusan said. “I think watching those markets closely is very important for the renewable energy market.”

Optimizing power plant control systems can be challenging, but new tools are available to simplify and improve the process. On this episode of The POWER Podcast, Executive Editor Aaron Larson spoke with Jon Towslee, digital engagement leader for ABB Inc.’s Industrial Automation Power Generation & Water business. Towslee explained how ABB Ability is focused on improving customers’ businesses by optimizing assets and operator effectiveness, and enhancing top-to-bottom performance. Solutions like the company’s loop performance monitor can be used to identify such things as transmitters that are providing bad data, noisy signal lines, and actuators that aren’t working correctly. Once maintenance crews have all equipment functioning properly, technicians can evaluate process control schemes to ensure they are responding appropriately, which then permits loops to be tuned for optimal performance. The loop performance monitor evaluates control loops on 17 different parameters. Once individual loops are optimized, higher-level adjustments can be made. Ultimately, the tools allow plant operators to expand boundaries and operate plants more closely to maximum safe operating limits. This enhances performance and increases profitability.

The Jackson Hole Center for Global Affairs—a bipartisan think tank—will host the “Jackson Hole Global Forum: Climate Solutions, Coal Communities, and Economic Diversification” in Wyoming, November 8–9, 2018. Among the sessions on day one is a panel titled “What Is Coal’s Future?” Charles K. Ebinger, nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council, will be one of the panelists. Ebinger touched on some of the issues facing the coal industry on an episode of The POWER Podcast. He said the question—“What is coal’s future?”—really needed to be answered in two parts: one addressing challenges in the U.S. and the other taking a broader look at coal usage around the world. Although coal faces stiff headwinds in the U.S., demand in Asia is very robust, growing 5% or more per year in some places. The fact is, hundreds of millions of people still do not have electricity in various parts of the world, and hundreds of millions of others don’t have truly reliable sources of power. Furthermore, the industry employs a very large number of people globally and scaling back coal is considered political suicide for government officials in many parts of the world. Ebinger said the U.S. has a major role to play in combatting climate change through the development of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology. He suggested proving CCS technology viable, and exporting it around the world, could offer economic benefits at home, while helping to reduce global carbon emissions. Ebinger said there are challenges, but with the right backing, breakthroughs may be possible. The podcast includes some climate change discussion and briefly touches on the future of nuclear power in the generation mix, including talk about small modular reactors and potential changes needed in the regulatory process. The forum in Jackson Hole offers global perspectives on energy, climate, and economics. A keynote presentation by Han Wenke, former director general for China’s Energy Research Institute of the National Development Reform Commission is sure to be interesting. Other sessions include policy models, climate change and national security, wind and economic diversification, blockchain as an economic growth driver, and more.

It is safe to say that all electricity customers want reliable and resilient power service. One way that some end-users are ensuring they get it is by investing in distributed energy resources and building microgrids. But rather than simply using these systems as emergency backups, more and more owners are finding ways to capture economic benefits from them. Distributed energy resources can help shave peak loads, shift time-of-use, and support ancillary services, which all provide value to owners. Nonetheless, utilities generally set the rules; they establish the rate tariffs. As such, utilities have the ability to alter how the game is played. According to Amy Simpkins, CEO of muGrid, there are a number of ways that utilities can influence how large commercial and industrial customers behave simply by modifying the rules. Simpkins will give a presentation at the Distributed Energy Conference in Golden, Colorado, October 15–17, 2018, during which she will offer a few case studies and show some sensitivity analysis. What would happen if demand charges were increased? What if the look-back period was modified? What if time-of-use rates were shuffled? Simpkins’ presentation—“How to Incentivize Your Utility Customers to Do What You Want”—will focus on the “knobs utilities can turn” to sway customer behavior. Attendees may find that power companies have more control than they realize over what customers choose to do in the end. Furthermore, the solution can be win-win.

Roy Palk, president of New Horizons Consulting, will give a presentation titled "The Rise of Distributed Energy — New Challenges Bring New Opportunities" during the Distributed Energy Conference, which will be held October 15–17, 2018, in Golden, Colorado. In this podcast, Mr. Palk gives a brief preview of his talk. He says the power market is changing and suggest utilities must evolve if they want to continue to be a trusted energy provider for customers.

Nevada law has included net metering provisions for more than 20 years. Net metering is an arrangement that allows energy generated by a customer’s leased or purchased solar system to offset monthly power bills. It also permits excess energy supplied to the grid to earn credits, which are then automatically applied to future billing periods in which more energy is consumed than produced. Historically, net metering was a one-for-one transaction in Nevada. For every kWh supplied to the grid, a credit was given to the customer for one kWh in the future. The scheme changed in 2015 when the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC) created a laddered approach that ratcheted down the value of customer-generated energy over a period of years to about 2¢/kWh, which was much less than the retail rate of about 11¢/kWh. The change effectively stopped all construction on new residential rooftop solar systems. Through Assembly Bill 405 (AB 405), the Nevada Legislature modified the net metering rate structure effective June 15, 2017. The bill allows Nevadans who choose to net meter to fall under a rate structure codified in the law. The rate structure applies to renewable energy systems of 25 kW or less, which is typical of a rooftop solar system installed on a home or small business. The net metering rate structure is tiered and will decrease over time as the amount of electricity produced by net metering systems reaches 80-MW benchmarks. The first tier offers a net metering rate that is 95% of the retail rate. As of April 26, 2018, nearly 20 MW of installed capacity had been applied toward the first 80-MW tier. The net metering rate for the second tier is 88% of the retail rate, with tiers three and four crediting 81% and 75%, respectively. Furthermore, on March 14, 2018, the PUC approved numerous new time-variant rates pursuant to AB 405. The rates are designed to incentivize the use of battery storage at residential and small commercial sites. Under the new structure, utility customers with battery storage are allowed to shift their grid usage to times when energy is less costly. The result is a reduced load on the system during peak times coupled with energy savings for the customer. The development provides a natural incentive for customers to deploy behind-the-meter battery storage. Curt Ledford, a Nevada-based attorney with McDonald Carano, who focuses on utility, cooperative, administrative, corporate, and employment law, as well as reliability and general regulatory matters affecting cooperative utilities, spoke in-depth about energy storage, net metering, and other energy matters during an interview for The POWER Podcast. Although Nevada law is his primary expertise, many of the lessons learned in the state can be applied elsewhere.

More and more people are finding distributed energy solutions are the answer for their power resource challenges. Distributed energy comes in many forms. Renewables such as solar and wind are top-of-mind when most people think of distributed resources, but natural gas-fired generation is often a good fit too, because it adds reliability to the system and is a consistent source of backup power. Energy storage is also a logical piece of the distributed energy puzzle. Wind and solar are obviously dependent on nature. You need the wind to blow and the sun to shine in order to generate power from them. But often, those conditions do not match electricity demand. Frequently, renewables generate power when demand is low and die off when demand is high. That can mean power prices are low or even negative when solar and wind are generating most of their power, and prices are high when they are no longer producing. Batteries or other storage mechanisms can help overcome that problem, charging during low-demand hours and discharging when demand is high. Combined heat and power (CHP) is another great way to optimize systems. How CHP works is by using the heat that would otherwise be wasted in exhaust gases from fossil combustion systems, such as flue gases from a coal- or biomass-fueled boiler or exhaust from a gas turbine or reciprocating engine, to produce steam and/or hot water for various industrial or commercial needs. The process can increase efficiency of the combined system significantly, which saves money on fuel and reduces overall emissions. In this episode of the POWER podcast, Dalia El Tawy, director, Thermal Power Solutions Distributed Energy Systems with Siemens Energy, explains some of the work her group is doing to solve customers’ challenges. Born and raised in Egypt, Dalia came to the U.S. in 1999 to finish her education. She knew how disruptive power blackouts could be from her childhood and believed there had to be a way to improve reliability. She found it in distributed energy systems and CHP solutions.

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) CEO Bill Johnson in an exclusive interview with POWER suggested that the power industry continues to face an uncertain future. Johnson said that during his 40-year career, he has seen more change in the last five years than in the previous 35 combined. Several indicators imply that will continue going forward. According to Johnson, one thing driving change is declining demand for power, which has resulted from efficiency improvements, a shift toward a more-service-oriented economy, and lower population growth, among other things. Johnson said customers are interested in cleaner, more-flexible sources of power and information. The challenge for utilities is to figure out how to integrate new behind-the-meter resources after having focused for so long on big centralized power stations. Other power industry changes include a shift away from coal-fired generation. Johnson said TVA generated about 60% of its energy from coal 10 years ago, but by the end of the decade that figure will be down to only 20%. TVA has added nuclear capacity and shifted to more gas-fired generation. In addition, solar is now becoming a more viable option for the corporate agency of the federal government. Johnson was one of three “Thought Leaders,” who spoke and answered questions during the opening day of the ELECTRIC POWER Conference and Exhibition, held in Nashville, Tennessee, in late March. Prior to the event, Johnson sat down with POWER Executive Editor Aaron Larson to offer some insight on happenings at TVA.

Joe Grimes, executive vice president of generation with the Tennessee Valley Authority, gave the keynote presentation during the ELECTRIC POWER Conference and Exhibition, which was held March 19–22 in Nashville, Tennessee. His presentation focused on steps TVA is taking to diversify its generation portfolio in order to reduce risks and keep costs as low as possible for customers. TVA was created by Congress in 1933. According to its website, TVA was “charged with a unique mission—to improve the quality of life in the Valley through the integrated management of the region’s resources.” As the nation’s largest government-owned power provider, TVA sold more than 152.3 TWh of electricity in fiscal year 2017. Its generation portfolio is 37% nuclear, 24% coal, 20% natural gas, 9% hydro, 3% wind and solar, and 7% energy efficiency. TVA sells electricity to 154 local power companies and 54 directly served industries and federal facilities. Its power service territory covers 80,000 square miles, including most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia. In this POWER Podcast extra, Grimes speaks with Executive Editor Aaron Larson about TVA’s generation mix and what the future holds for its fleet.

The Watts Bar 2 nuclear unit has a lengthy and well-chronicled history. Construction began on the unit in 1973. It was suspended in 1985 due to slower electricity demand growth, rising construction costs due to inflation and new regulatory requirements stemming from the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979, and regulatory concerns throughout the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) nuclear fleet. A study was conducted—beginning in 2006—to evaluate energy needs, schedule, cost, environmental impacts, and financial risks for Unit 2. After serious deliberation, TVA’s board decided to resume construction, which recommenced in 2008. Although more delays ensued, the unit was completed and entered commercial operation on October 19, 2016. In this POWER Podcast extra, Mike Skaggs, executive vice president of operations with TVA, explains the process the organization went through to complete the unit. Skaggs was intimately involved in the project as a member of the Watts Bar Operations and Construction group. When it entered commercial operation, Watts Bar 2 was the first new nuclear unit added to the U.S. fleet in more than 20 years.