RenewNewEngland.com

New England Governors Release Renewable Energy Blueprint

On Tuesday, the New England Governors' Conference released its Renewable Energy Blueprint. The Blueprint is based in part on a draft study conducted by ISO New England at the Governors' request, the New England 2030 Power System Study (pdf),which explored a range of different renewable energy development scenarios for New England.  The Governors' Blueprint is intended to identify strategies to "help bring new renewable resources to market within the current market structure." To that end, it identifies three main opportunities for New England states:

1) Synchronize states' power procurement and contracts -  Each New England state has authority to procure renewable energy, capacity, energy and RECs, usually in the form of long term contracts with generators selected through a competitive solicitation process.  The blueprint reviews these laws, and proposes synchronizing these approaches to obtain the most cost-effective renewable resources.  This makes some sense: the wind developments needed to meet the domestic wind generation totals envisioned in the ISO-NE study (from 2,000 to 12,000 MW) dramatically exceed the scale of any single state's existing procurement program.  Given the costs and uncertainty involved, offshore wind in particular (the ISO-NE study considers as much as 4,500 MW of offshore wind) will rely on state-mandated long term contracts in the foreseeable future. But state procurement authority is typically tied to in-state development of renewables:  coordinated procurement would not address states' interests in fostering their own in-state renewable energy industries.

2) Coordinate siting of interstate transmission facilities - The Blueprint offers an overview of state transmission siting laws, and explores the possibility of coordinating these processes to facilitate building large interstate transmission lines.  Right now, there aren't any existing plans to build any such lines in New England (at least onshore: there are a number of proposals to link Maine and Massachusetts underwater), but the ISO Report states the need for a lot of new interstate transmission lines to support New England's renewable energy goals.  For example, the 12,000 MW wind case contemplates "a new three-subloop, dual circuit overhead 500 kV or 765 kV backbone transmission system overlaying most of the interior of New England."  The cases involving expanding interconnections with Quebec and New Brunswick propose two lengthy +/- 450 kV HVDC lines, including a 400 mile line stretching from the Maine-New Brunswick border to Millbury, Massachusetts.

3) Strengthen federal support for state and regional renewable development - This last category is more a hodge podge of things that New England would like the federal government to do, including prioritizing and expediting federal permitting for off-shore wind projects in state and federal waters, and providing additional funding for development of renewable resources and transmission infrastructure.  Most important, though is a general plea that the federal government:

Respect regional system planning processes and consider the results of regional transmission system plans and renewable resource scenario analysis as guidance in connection with interconnection wide analyses and any federal financial support for renewable energy infrastructure development

This hints at what's really driving the blueprint: New England governors' concerns about federal intervention forcing New England ratepayers to contribute to massive transmission projects needed to bring the huge amounts of wind planned in the Midwest to New England markets.  (For an example of what this might look like, see the Joint Coordinated System Plan (pdf), released by MISO, PJM and other regional entities in February, or our previous post on the subject.) In addition to the costs, those projects, backed by federal subsidies, could crowd out renewable energy investment in New England.  The Blueprint, along with the ISO-NE study, represent New England's latest efforts to show that New England can meet its renewable energy goals with intra-regional solutions.

New Rhode Island law resolves state renewable energy disputes

On Friday, Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri signed into law a bill that will require National Grid to enter into long term contracts for renewable energy.  Rhode Island is the latest New England state to supplement its renewable portfolio standard with a long term contract requirement. The law also includes rules tailored to bring Deepwater Wind's proposed offshore wind farm closer to fruition.

The law requires National Grid, the state's distribution company, to solicit and enter into ten to fifteen year energy contracts for 90 MW of new renewable generation located in Rhode Island, of which at least three MW must be solar photovoltaic.  The company has four years to enter into these contracts, which are subject to approval by the state Public Utility Commission. The law also lays out the procedure for a separate Commission proceeding to require National Grid to enter into long term contracts for energy from a "utility scale offshore wind farm" of up to 150 MW.  In both cases, National Grid received authority to charge an additional 2.75% bonus from ratepayers on sale of the electricity from the renewable sources.

The law resolves two thorny issues involving the state, National Grid, and renewable energy development in Rhode Island. The first involves National Grid's electricity supply.  In March, the PUC rejected National Grid's 2010 electricty supply plan for lacking any long term contracts for renewable energy sources, a ruling the utility appealed to the Supreme Court.  Both sides blinked: the PUC backed off its requirement, and National Grid withdrew its appeal.  The new law appears to resolve the dispute, though some PUC commissioners have expressed displeasure, particularly with the incentive rate.  The second involves a proposed offshore wind farm that could bring the state as many as 800 new jobs. Last September, Rhode Island selected Deepwater Wind to build a 150 MW, $1.5 billion wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island.  The developers had been unable to find a buyer to commit to purchasing power from the massive project, which made the project impossible to finance.  By guaranteeing a purchaser for the power, the new law enables the developers to move forward with the permitting process. 

On that front, this week the Department of Interior issued its first exploratory leases for offshore wind projects, the result of a compromise with FERC we've discussed previously.  Offshore wind in the US may soon be a reality.

When Does A Permit Mean Squat?

Lately, the announced resolution of the overlapping claims by FERC and the MMS to jurisdiction over the permitting of offshore wind projects has been much in the news.  The dispute breaks down like this: EPAct 2005 gave the Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) the status of lead federal regulator over offshore renewable energy projects, but under the Federal Power Act, FERC is responsible for licensing most hydro projects.  Without clarity, many were concerned that development of offshore renewable energy resources would be brought to a standstill.

Everyone’s pleased that this dispute appears to be resolved, but that doesn't mean ocean renewables are out of the woods yet.  Earlier this month a group of lawmakers, including Senator Collins of Maine and Senators Whitehouse and Reed of Rhode Island, wrote (pdf) to their former colleague – now Secretary of the Interior – Ken Salazar, on a related problem: the risk of developers taking advantage of the regulatory uncertainty to stake claim to large swaths of ocean under competing regulatory schemes. Comparing this problem to the cybersquatting of the “early days of the internet”, the lawmakers implored Secretary Salazar to develop a workable plan for offshore developers as fast as possible.  For those who take a somewhat longer view, try this analogy:  the Outer Continental Shelf is the new Wild West!

But at least one alleged squatter, Grays Harbor, strikes a more pragmatic note than might be expected of an outlaw slinging six-shooters or ill-gotten domain names.  As Grays Harbor describes its decision to seek permits from FERC: when one regulator (MMS) doesn't have a permitting process, you seek a permit from the regulator (FERC) who does.

Whatever the intent of Grays Harbor in obtaining permits from FERC, at least there’s transparency: all Preliminary Hydrokinetic Permits issued by FERC are available on its website. 

No doubt cybersquatting is a powerful cultural reference, but perhaps a better analog here would be the debate over the official Maine State Tartan.  As with permits for offshore hydro projects, for Tartans claiming to represent the State of Maine there are multiple places to register: the International Tartan Index of the Scottish Tartan Authority, the Scottish Tartans World Register of the Scottish Tartans Society, and the United States Copyright Office.

Hopefully these conflicts between the offshore permitting processes will soon be resolved.  For its part, MMS has announced four stakeholder meetings (pdf) to develop a “comprehensive plan for conventional and renewable energy resources of the [Outer Continental Shelf]”.  If we learn of any opportunity to submit public comment on the selection of an official Maine State Tartan, we’ll be sure to post that information here.