The Energy News Digest for December 23, 2020

The Energy News Digest is sponsored by the Northwest Public Power Association. 

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HOT SHOTS – TODAY’S TOP FIVE STORIES

FBI: White Supremacists Plotted Attack on U.S. Power Grid (Associated Press)

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2020-12-22/fbi-white-supremacists-plotted-attack-on-us-power-grid

Christmas Eve Blackout May Leave Southern California in the Dark (Bloomberg News)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-21/christmas-eve-blackout-may-leave-southern-california-in-the-dark

 

Power Out at Oregon Prison Amid COVID-19 Outbreak (Associated Press)

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/oregon/articles/2020-12-23/power-out-at-oregon-prison-amid-covid-19-outbreak

New Washington State Whale Watching Rules to Take Effect in 2021 (Associated Press)

https://www.opb.org/article/2020/12/23/washington-whale-watching-new-rules/

Survey Shows Considerable Glacier Loss in the Mountains of Oregon (Oregon Public Broadcasting)

https://www.opb.org/article/2020/12/23/climate-change-oregon-mountains-glacier-loss/

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS (See Stories Below)

1.      FBI: White Supremacists Plotted Attack on U.S. Power Grid

2.      Christmas Eve Blackout May Leave Southern California in the Dark

3.      Power Out at Oregon Prison Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

4.      Oregon: NW Natural Offers Hotel Rooms, Blankets to Hood River Customers During Outage

5.      Portland General Electric Energy Trading Losses Will Cost Top Execs

6.      Lawsuit Seeks Reports on Willamette River Dams’ Structural Integrity

7.      Oregon Regulators Turn PacifiCorp Rate Hike Request into a Cut

8.      WA State: Schuyler Burkhart Named Next Grays Harbor PUD General Manager

9.      Seattle’s Move to Electric Heat Won’t Kill the Gas Stove, Yet

10.   British Columbia: First Peace River Dam Turbines Expected to Arrive Here Next Month

11.   Energy Department: Idaho Top Choice for New Test Reactor

12.   A Teen & a Cat Knocked Out Power to 1,000 Pasco Customers

13.   Starlings’ Aerial Antics Behind Mystery of Scots’ Power Outages

14.   Researchers Identify Which West Coast Regions Hold Greatest Wave Energy Potential

15.   Pacific Northwest Poised to Test 100% Renewables as Utilities Weigh Gas Vs. Storage

16.   Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission Issues Policy Statement on Renewable Natural Gas

17.   Green Home-Renovation Firm Bankrupted by Tougher Rules, Lawsuits

18.   New Washington State Whale Watching Rules to Take Effect in 2021

19.   Op/Ed: States Need Federal Cooperation to Save Salmon

20.   New Blue Whale Population Discovered after Scientists Hear Unknown Song

21.   Congress Passes Bill on Navajo Nation Water Rights in Utah

22.   Flint Agrees to Pay $20 Million in Water Crisis Settlement

23.   Survey Shows Considerable Glacier Loss in the Mountains of Oregon

24.   Warmer Winters Causing More Ice-Free Lakes in Northern Hemisphere, Study Finds

25.   Senator Cantwell Pushed for Tribal Broadband & FCC Telehealth Program in COVID Relief Bill

26.   Millions of Low-Income Americans Will Receive Internet Access Rebates Under New $7 Billion Broadband Stimulus Plan

27.   Industry Groups Ask FCC to Raise Broadband Speed Definition to a Gigabit

28.   FERC Proposes Incentives for Voluntary Cybersecurity Investments, in Race to Secure Nation’s Electric Grid

29.   Grammar Mistakes That Medium’s Copy Editors Really Don’t Want You to Make

30.   BP Joins Gas-From-Cow-Manure Push with Joint Venture in U.S.

31.   President Trump Threatens COVID Relief, House Speaker Pelosi Urges ‘Sign the Bill’

32.   In Massive Energy Investments, Some See Just a Start

WORD OF THE DAY

Frenetic /fruh-NET-ick/ Adjective – Marked by excitement, disorder, or anxiety-driven activity: frenzied, frantic.

Frenetic. See Costco, 5 PM, Sunday, December 23, 2018.

ENERGY & UTILITY ISSUES

1.      FBI: White Supremacists Plotted Attack on U.S. Power Grid (Associated Press)

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2020-12-22/fbi-white-supremacists-plotted-attack-on-us-power-grid

2.      Christmas Eve Blackout May Leave Southern California in the Dark (Bloomberg News)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-21/christmas-eve-blackout-may-leave-southern-california-in-the-dark

3.      Power Out at Oregon Prison Amid COVID-19 Outbreak (Associated Press)

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/oregon/articles/2020-12-23/power-out-at-oregon-prison-amid-covid-19-outbreak

4.      Oregon: NW Natural Offers Hotel Rooms, Blankets to Hood River Customers During Outage (KATU-TV, Portland, OR)

https://katu.com/news/local/nw-natural-offers-hotel-rooms-blankets-to-hood-river-customers-during-outage

5.      Portland General Electric Energy Trading Losses Will Cost Top Execs (Portland Business Journal, OR)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2020/12/portland-general-electric-energy.html

6.      Lawsuit Seeks Reports on Willamette River Dams’ Structural Integrity (Oregon Public Broadcasting)

https://www.opb.org/article/2020/12/22/willamette-river-dam-structural-integrity-lawsuit/

7.      Oregon Regulators Turn PacifiCorp Rate Hike Request into a Cut (Portland Business Journal, OR)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2020/12/oregon-regulators-turn-pacificorp-rate.html

8.      WA State: Schuyler Burkhart Named Next Grays Harbor PUD General Manager (KXRO Radio, Aberdeen, WA)

https://www.kxro.com/schuyler-burkhart-named-next-pud-general-manager/

9.      Seattle’s Move to Electric Heat Won’t Kill the Gas Stove, Yet (Seattle Metro, WA)

https://www.seattlemet.com/home-and-real-estate/2020/12/how-seattles-move-toward-electric-buildings-green-renewable-energy-affects-gas-stoves

10.   British Columbia: First Peace River Dam Turbines Expected to Arrive Here Next Month (Alaska Highway News)

https://www.alaskahighwaynews.ca/site-c/first-site-c-turbines-expected-to-arrive-here-next-month-1.24259375

11.   Energy Department: Idaho Top Choice for New Test Reactor (Associated Press)

https://apnews.com/article/oak-ridge-jim-risch-environment-tennessee-nuclear-power-38c218ef393f3d4cbc5646250109ef4f

12.   A Teen & a Cat Knocked Out Power to 1,000 Pasco Customers (Tri-City Herald, WA)

https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/crime/article248008150.html

13.   Starlings’ Aerial Antics Behind Mystery of Scots’ Power Outages (The Guardian, UK)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/17/starlings-aerial-antics-behind-mystery-of-scots-power-outages

RENEWABLE ENERGY & SELF STORAGE

14.   Researchers Identify Which West Coast Regions Hold Greatest Wave Energy Potential (Mirage News)

https://www.miragenews.com/researchers-identify-which-west-coast-regions-hold-greatest-wave-energy-potential/

15.   Pacific Northwest Poised to Test 100% Renewables as Utilities Weigh Gas Vs. Storage (Utility Dive)

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/pacific-northwest-poised-to-test-100-renewables-as-utilities-weigh-gas-vs/592019/

16.   Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission Issues Policy Statement on Renewable Natural Gas (National Law Review)

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/washington-utilities-and-transportation-commission-issues-policy-statement-renewable

CONSERVATION & EFFICIENCY

17.   Green Home-Renovation Firm Bankrupted by Tougher Rules, Lawsuits (Bloomberg News)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-22/green-home-renovation-firm-bankrupted-by-tougher-rules-lawsuits

FISH & WILDLIFE

18.   New Washington State Whale Watching Rules to Take Effect in 2021 (Associated Press)

https://www.opb.org/article/2020/12/23/washington-whale-watching-new-rules/

19.   Op/Ed: States Need Federal Cooperation to Save Salmon (Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA)

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/dec/23/eric-crawford-state-of-play-for-salmon/

20.   New Blue Whale Population Discovered after Scientists Hear Unknown Song (Gizmodo)

https://earther.gizmodo.com/new-blue-whale-population-discovered-after-scientists-h-1845933456

WATER, WATER, ANYWHERE?

21.   Congress Passes Bill on Navajo Nation Water Rights in Utah (Associated Press)

https://tucson.com/news/state-and-regional/congress-passes-bill-on-navajo-nation-water-rights-in-utah/article_357dba8f-5846-52d3-ba38-53c330926d82.html

22.   Flint Agrees to Pay $20 Million in Water Crisis Settlement (Courthouse News Service)

https://www.courthousenews.com/flint-agrees-to-pay-20-million-in-water-crisis-settlement/

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

23.   Survey Shows Considerable Glacier Loss in the Mountains of Oregon (Oregon Public Broadcasting)

https://www.opb.org/article/2020/12/23/climate-change-oregon-mountains-glacier-loss/

24.   Warmer Winters Causing More Ice-Free Lakes in Northern Hemisphere, Study Finds (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/warmer-winters-ice-free-lakes-1.5851815?cmp=rss

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

25.   Senator Cantwell Pushed for Tribal Broadband & FCC Telehealth Program in COVID Relief Bill (KPQ Radio, Wenatchee, WA)

https://www.kpq.com/senator-cantwell-pushed-for-tribal-broadband-fcc-telehealth-program-in-relief-bill/

26.   Millions of Low-Income Americans Will Receive Internet Access Rebates Under New $7 Billion Broadband Stimulus Plan (Washington Post)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/22/internet-rebate-coronavirus-stimulus/

27.   Industry Groups Ask FCC to Raise Broadband Speed Definition to a Gigabit (Telecompetitor)

https://www.telecompetitor.com/industry-groups-ask-fcc-to-raise-broadband-speed-definition-to-a-gigabit/

THE WIZARDING WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY

28.   FERC Proposes Incentives for Voluntary Cybersecurity Investments, in Race to Secure Nation’s Electric Grid (Utility Dive)

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ferc-proposes-incentives-for-voluntary-cybersecurity-investments-in-race-t/592591/

PUBLIC RELATIONS, MARKETING & MEDIA

29.   Grammar Mistakes That Medium’s Copy Editors Really Don’t Want You to Make (Medium)

https://medium.com/creators-hub/grammar-mistakes-that-mediums-copy-editors-really-don-t-want-you-to-make-6b9eee0c7e3e

BARREL O’ GREEN POTPOURRI – SEETHING STEW OF SCIENCE

30.   BP Joins Gas-From-Cow-Manure Push with Joint Venture in U.S. (Bloomberg News)

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/bp-joins-gas-from-cow-manure-push-with-u-s-joint-venture-1

GOVERNANCE & MANAGEMENT

31.   President Trump Threatens COVID Relief, House Speaker Pelosi Urges ‘Sign the Bill’ (Associated Press)

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-politics-legislation-coronavirus-pandemic-bills-7d5b7e70e5193e88c6f24e425abbe0af

32.   In Massive Energy Investments, Some See Just a Start (The Hill, Washington, DC)

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/531356-in-massive-energy-investments-some-see-just-a-start

ALLIGATORS IN THE SEWER – DIVERSIONS

Bill Gross Harassed Neighbor with ‘Gilligan’s Island’ Song, Judge Rules

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-12-23/bill-gross-chihuly-sculpture-gilligans-island-laguna-beach-ruling

Chestnuts Roasting on a Dumpster Fire: 16 Extremely 2020 Yule Log Videos

https://mashable.com/article/2020-yule-log-dumpster-fire-video/

Seuss-Star Trek Mash-Up Crashes and Burns at Ninth Circuit

https://www.courthousenews.com/seuss-star-trek-mash-up-crash-lands-with-ninth-circuit/

Two Delta Passengers Open the Door of a Moving Plane & Slide Out (With A Dog) at LaGuardia Airport

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/21/us/la-guardia-delta-flight-passengers-exit/index.html

SONG OF THE DAY

Lobo – Me & You & A Dog Named Boo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fgGNZYR5QM

LINKS & PAYWALL ADVISORY

Links in the news digest lead to current stories. Media organizations update their websites regularly, which may result in broken links. Possible Paywall restrictions are noted in the media attribution.

Oregon Regulators Turn PacifiCorp Rate Hike Request into a Cut (Portland Business Journal, OR)

Pacific Power customers will pay less for electricity in 2021, partly because of investments in renewable energy, but also because Oregon utility regulators found fault with parent company PacifiCorp’s decision several years ago to install pollution control systems at a coal-fired power plant in Wyoming.

PacifiCorp originally asked for a 6% increase in its base rates, then trimmed the request to 3.5%. But the Oregon Public Utility Commission on Friday ordered a cut of $20.9 million in the company’s revenue requirement, a 1.6% decrease.

Separately, customers will also benefit from nearly $50 million in lower expected energy costs next year, which the PUC attributed in part to new wind power plants that will drive down fuel costs and deliver federal tax credits.

In a news release Monday afternoon, PacifiCorp put the net average rate decrease at 5.2 percent, more than half of which it attributed to the renewable energy investments.

“The commission’s decisions demonstrate the customer benefits derived from years of innovation and system investments the company has made since our last general rate review in 2013 to improve service, give customers more tools to manage their energy use and increase the amount of renewable power available to them through a more resilient transmission system,” Stefan Bird, Pacific Power’s CEO, said in the release.

But the Oregon regulators put off dealing with $27.3 million in coal-plant decommissioning costs pending further investigation, and some amount of those costs will eventually be folded into rates, they noted, perhaps as soon as 2022.

“Decommissioning costs are real and significant costs that Oregon customers will incur as part of the coal transition, and we need to improve Oregonians’ confidence in the cost estimates through additional PUC staff and stakeholder review before we include PacifiCorp’s projected costs in rates,” Megan Decker, the PUC chair, said in a statement.

Customers will benefit, however, from the PUC’s decision to set PacifiCorp’s return on equity at 9.5%. That was at the higher end of what various stakeholders wanted, but well below the 10.2% that the company had requested in its first general rate case in seven years.

It’s typical for regulators to trim utility rate requests, but ratepayer advocates and environmentalists also got a clear win on the hotly contested issue of PacifiCorp’s decision in 2013 to install selective catalytic reduction systems at two units of the Jim Bridger plant.

The investments helped the plant comply with federal regional haze rules in an agreement with Wyoming regulators, and potentially extended the life of the two units by 20 years.

At the time, the Oregon PUC said PacifiCorp hadn’t adequately justified the decision in its integrated resource planning process. That lack of regulatory “acknowledgement” didn’t foreclose cost recovery for PacifiCorp once the systems were operational, but it dug the company a hole in demonstrating the investments were prudent.

The company was challenged on the investments by the Sierra Club, along with the residential ratepayer advocate CUB and the Alliance of Western Energy Consumers, which represents big commercial and industrial customers.

In a filing in the case, CUB called the Bridger upgrades a “significant means to buoy shareholder returns” for PacifiCorp. CUB and the Sierra Club said the company had been warned to explore options that could have led to an early retirement of the plant — and, indeed, it’s now scheduled to be removed from Oregon rates at the end of 2025.

The stakeholders argued PacifiCorp rushed to do the upgrades even as gas prices were falling and coal costs were increasing, shifting the economics against the investment. PacifiCorp said it had tracked those developments, but was under pressure from Wyoming to move fast.

In its order, the PUC said the company was cursory in updating and reviewing its analysis, and “failed to demonstrate that it proactively explored alternatives” to the investments, both early in the regulatory process and leading up to when it made a final decision in December 2013.

As a result, the commission ruled PacifiCorp couldn’t earn a return on the equity portion of the $56.9 million in investment costs attributable to Oregon ratepayers, who make up about nearly a third of its 1.9 million customers in six states. The Sierra Club, in a preliminary estimate, said that would cost the company — and save Oregon ratepayers — about $24 million over the depreciable life of the investment, which runs to 2038.

“This decision sends a clear signal to utilities — coal plants are no longer a cost-effective way to produce electricity, and they shouldn’t expect ratepayers to shoulder the costs of propping them up,” Cesia Kearns, deputy regional director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, said in an emailed statement. “By denying Pacificorp the ability to charge its customers for tens of millions in ill-advised investments in the 45-year-old Jim Bridger coal plant, this decision saves Oregon families money on their monthly electricity bills and makes it clear that Pacificorp needs to move its aging coal plants towards an orderly retirement that supports community transition.”

A spokesperson for PacifiCorp said the company continued to believe the investments were the most cost-effective options for ratepayers at the time. He noted that most states in its territory have allowed full recovering of the investments, “including California, which approved the SCR investments in 2020.”

Under Oregon law, PacifiCorp can’t include coal power in its Oregon rates beginning in 2030. Shifting energy economics are fast making that an easy pill to swallow for the company, particularly as its piles up investments in new wind and solar power, energy storage and associated transmission.

In its latest resource plan, PacifiCorp outlined several early coal retirements, along with a renewable energy expansion, following fast on the heels of its $3 billion Energy Vision 2020 initiative, likely to cost billions of dollars. And in the rate-case order Friday, the Oregon PUC backed exiting Oregon from 12 generating units by the end of 2027 at the latest.

But the move away from coal is bitterly opposed by most Wyoming politicians, where mining the fossil fuel and generating energy from it have long been economic mainstays.

That complicates how the cost (and benefits) of the transition from coal are allocated throughout the utility’s six-state system, and played a role in the PUC’s decision to hold off on putting a price tag on the decommissioning costs that lie ahead.

Portland General Electric Energy Trading Losses Will Cost Top Execs (Portland Business Journal, OR)

(PORTLAND, OR) - - After an internal investigation, Portland General Electric said Friday that wholesale energy trading losses it suffered this summer were the result of “ill-conceived” positions — the same term CEO Maria Pope used when the losses that ultimately totaled $127 million were revealed.

The company said from the get-go that the losses would be borne by shareholders, but top executives from the company will also pay a price, PGE said after a board-appointed “special committee” probe: Pope, retiring CFO Jim Lobdell and an unnamed third executive won’t receive any incentive-related compensation for 2020.

PGE had immediately placed two employees involved in the trades on administrative leave, and it said Friday that those employees are no longer with the company.

PGE’s news release and communications to employees shed just a little new light on the losses, which came during a Western heat wave and power shortage in California that forced that state’s grid operator to order rolling blackouts. Here’s what PGE said:

“The energy trading positions resulting in these losses were short in the desert Southwest and California power markets and long in the Pacific Northwest power markets. In August 2020, wholesale electricity prices increased substantially in the desert Southwest and California power markets due to extreme weather conditions, constraints to regional transmission facilities, and changes in power supply in the West. As a result of these market disruptions and the company’s exposure to these positions, the company’s energy portfolio realized significant losses.”

Changes it began putting in place in August would protect against a repeat, PGE said. Those include controls on “the ability of personnel to enter into wholesale energy transactions to the extent that PGE does not have physical or financial delivery capability.”

The company also noted it had added risk-management personnel, and that unit will report to Pope through a new risk and compliance team. PGE also replaced its power operations general manager.

“As I said in August, this situation did not reflect who we are as an organization, and we used this as an opportunity to learn and made necessary changes to prevent this from ever happening again,” Pope said in an email to employees.

Pope had received non-equity incentive compensation of more than $850,000 in each of the last two years. Lobdell, whose retirement was announced in October, had received bonuses of around $304,000 both years.

The trading losses have led to a proposed class-action shareholder lawsuit against PGE.