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Pennsylvania Capital-Star: Shapiro Pitches Carbon Cap-And-Invest Plan To Capitalize on Pennsylvania’s Energy Exports

Posted by Peter Hall on Mar 13, 2024

Pennsylvania Capital-Star reports on Governor Shapiro's new climate emissions reduction plan, quoting United's Nick Bibby on the proposal's potential to bring more of the economic and jobs benefits of clean energy to the state.

Gov. Josh Shapiro said he would immediately pull Pennsylvania out of a multi-state carbon cap-and-trade program if the state Legislature passes his energy plan, which he said Wednesday would reduce carbon emissions while lowering energy costs and creating clean energy jobs.

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Topics: United In The News, Pennsylvania, Nick Bibby

NJ Spotlight News: Op-Ed: The steps needed to get offshore wind back on track in 2024

Posted by Heather O'Neill on Mar 13, 2024

In an opinion piece featured in NJ Spotlight News, United's President and CEO Heather O'Neill writes about the storm of challenges the offshore wind industry faced in the last few post-pandemic year and highlights four key steps to getting the industry back to full power.

After a turbulent 2023, the new year brought some welcome news for the offshore wind industry. Power started to flow from New York’s South Fork Wind and Massachusetts’ Vineyard Wind soon followed suit, meaning that America’s first large-scale projects are now sending clean electricity to its shores for the first time. Meanwhile in New Jersey, the state granted two offshore wind solicitation awards in January, totaling 3,742 megawatts of capacity, enough to power 1.8 million homes when fully operational. 

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Topics: United In The News, New York, Heather O'Neill, Offshore Wind, Massachusetts, New Jersey

Maryland Matters: Gridlock or grid upgrade? Legislation aims to address grid readiness

Posted by Nick Bibby on Mar 11, 2024

In an opinion piece featured in Maryland Matters, United's Nick Bibby speaks to legislation requiring Maryland’s Public Service Commission and utilities do more toward getting the grid ready to handle the influx of EVs and building electrification. 

Would you be surprised if I told you that the number of electric vehicles (EVs) in Maryland increased by over 3,000% since 2013? EVs are continuing their upward trend in Maryland and around the U.S., marking a record 12% market share in December alone. But with all these new EVs in our state and country, how are we preparing our grid for the needed power?

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Topics: United In The News, Electric Vehicles, Nick Bibby

WVTF: Virginia's regional grid operator ranks last in the nation

Posted by Sandy Hausman on Mar 4, 2024

In an interview, WVTF Virginia Public Radio talks with Advanced Energy United Director Jon Gordon about PJM's low grade on United's 2024 Interconnection Scorecards.

Advanced Energy United... recently ranked all seven of the nation’s regional grid operators and gave the one serving Virginia a grade of D-minus. Policy Director Jon Gordon says PJM – which covers 13 states – used to add a few new power plants a year.

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Topics: Virginia, United In The News, Transmission, Jon Gordon

Utility Dive: Gas utility planning processes should be more like their electric utility counterparts

Posted by Sarah Steinberg and Brad Cebulko on Mar 4, 2024

In an opinion piece featured in Utility Dive, United's Sarah Steinberg and United member company Strategen's Brad Cebulko speak to the outdated gas planning process that allows infrastructure spending to go largely unvetted. The piece highlights a recent  report , authored by Strategen and United, that provides guidance for states looking to improve transparency into or oversight of gas utilities.
 

In business, the only constant is disruption and change. We’ve seen this truth manifest across all industries, from telecommunications to retail to computing and manufacturing. The energy industry is no exception. Both gas and electric energy systems are becoming increasingly complex, with more dynamic supply and demand-side market forces instigating a profound evolution in how our power is sourced, priced and delivered. Change has come quicker to the electric side, but recently we have begun to see how the gas delivery system used to heat and cool homes and businesses is primed for change, and it should challenge the business-as-usual strategies currently used to regulate these essential services for ratepayers across the country.

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Topics: United In The News, Energy Efficiency, Building Decarbonization

Utility Dive: Nevada regulators set to approve NV Energy’s $2B IRP amendment, including new gas resources

Posted by Robert Walton on Mar 1, 2024

In an interview, Utility Dive talks with Advanced Energy United Director Brian Turner on how the Nevada PUC is set to approve NV Energy's 5th Amendment to its 2021 Integrated Resource Plan. 
 

Nevada regulators could vote today to approve about $2 billion in spending for NV Energy, including new gas, solar and battery resources which critics say should have received more scrutiny and could have been cheaper.

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Topics: Regulatory, United In The News, Nevada, Brian Turner

NJ Spotlight News: Interconnection Issues at PJM Threaten Reliability and Clean-Energy Goals, Warns New Study

Posted by Tom Johnson on Feb 27, 2024

NJ Spotlight News reports on a recently released Generation Interconnection Scorecard, authored by Grid Strategies and the Brattle Group and released by Advanced Energy United, that ranks PJM the lowest amongst the seven regional grids. United's Jon Gordon and Kristina Persaud spoke to the massive backlog PJM faces and lack of planning for such scenarios.
 

PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest electrical power grid operator, is struggling to connect new electricity projects to its system, threatening power reliability and clean-energy goals, according to a study.

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Topics: Wholesale Markets, United In The News, New Jersey, Jon Gordon, Kristina Persaud

RTO Insider: Advanced Energy United Grades ISO/RTO Queues as Order 2023 is Implemented

Posted by James Downing on Feb 26, 2024

RTO Insider reports on United's recently released Generation Interconnection Scorecard, authored by Grid Strategies and the Brattle Group, that evaluates and grades the seven regional transmission organizations. United's Caitlin Marquis spoke to the challenges presented by flawed interconnection systems and the importance of urgent improvements.
 

Advanced Energy United has released a scorecard that ranks the seven domestic ISO/RTOs on their generator interconnection processes, finding room for improvement in every one. 

Brattle Group and Grid Strategies prepared the Generator Interconnection Scorecard for United, as they did for a similar project on transmission planning last year. (See Transmission Report Card Grades MISO “B,” Southeast “F”.) 

The scorecard, released Feb. 26, comes after FERC issued Order 2023 and is meant to help track how those and other reforms are implemented, Grid Strategies President and report co-author Rob Gramlich said in an interview. (See FERC Updates Interconnection Queue Process with Order 2023.) 

“We’re hopeful that those reforms happen and further reforms get done,” Gramlich said. “And we’re hopeful that in a year or two, if and when we do this again, all of the grades will improve. But the idea was just to kind of take a snapshot at this time.” 

The flawed interconnection processes have more than 2 million MW of renewable power and storage waiting to connect to the grid, said Advanced Energy United Managing Director Caitlin Marquis. 

“This scorecard confirms what we know about the interconnection process, that grid managers have moved too slowly to adapt to changing market conditions, allowing the process of connecting new electricity to the transmission grid to become dysfunctional,” Marquis said. “Without urgent improvement, the U.S. grid may struggle to keep up with growing energy demands, threatening our ability to keep the lights on and reach our climate goals. Strong implementation of FERC’s recent reforms will be an important first step toward improving the interconnection process, and it’s also clear that additional reforms will be needed.”  

None of the ISO/RTOs managed to get an A, but both CAISO and ERCOT got Bs, with Gramlich saying one reason they did better was that they’ve proactively planned their transmission systems to add new resources. 

“That has been a little bit less of a case recently in ERCOT,” Gramlich said. “And so ERCOT used to be great from a developer perspective, but they got marked down a little bit because of a lack of transmission. Because you can connect, but there’s a lot of congestion once you connect. California has always done proactive transmission planning pretty consistently … so the grid has been prepared in advance to accommodate more generation.” 

Both also scored highly on giving developers a sense of certainty, with ERCOT assigning limited costs to interconnection customers and CAISO being credited with good transparency. 

No other market scored above a C- on United's scorecard, which highlights the need for changes to meet rising demand from new large loads, electrification, and state policies and customer demand driving more renewables onto the grid. 

“Currently, most of the regions are undergoing significant efforts to reform their interconnection practices and policies in response to stakeholder concerns and FERC Order No. 2023,” the report said. “The scorecard is not an assessment of those ongoing or recently adopted reforms that have not yet impacted the generator interconnection processes.”  

The growth of wind, utility-scale solar and storage has resulted in interconnection projects popping up everywhere, Gramlich said.

The scorecard measures six categories, the first of which is interconnection process and results, which measures an interconnection’s success rate, cost reasonableness and uncertainty. It also grades prequeue information, queue design, assumptions and criteria, availability of interconnection alternatives, and whether transmission planning takes future generation needs into account. 

That final category is the only one where the graders looked at rules now in place, which have not impacted the queues yet.  

Read the full article here. 

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Topics: Wholesale Markets, United In The News, Caitlin Marquis

Reuters: US Efforts To Restore Offshore Wind Pipeline Spur Factory Investments

Posted by Eduardo Garcia on Feb 15, 2024

Reuters reports on new investments in offshore wind manufacturing from company US Forged Rings, quoting United's Jeremy McDiarmid on the budding U.S. offshore wind supply chain.
 
US Forged Rings, a new company created by piping group Canadoil, announced plans last week to invest $700 million in a tower fabrication facility and a steel forging plant on the East Coast to supply components to the offshore wind industry.
 
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Topics: United In The News, Offshore Wind, Jeremy McDiarmid

RTO Insider: Biden Drops ‘Acting’ from Phillips’ Title; Clements to Leave at End of Term

Posted by James Downing on Feb 11, 2024

RTO Insider  reports on the official naming of Willie Phillips as FERC Chair The article quotes United's Caitlin Marquis, who welcomed the news and stated that Advanced Energy United hopes to see the nomination of new FERC commissioners who share interest in tackling the challenges faced by the energy sector.
 

President Joe Biden on Friday removed “acting” before FERC Chair Willie Phillips’ title, as Commissioner Allison Clements announced she would not seek a second term.

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Topics: United In The News, Caitlin Marquis, FERC