The Energy News Digest for March 1, 2021

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

The News Digest on Facebook and Twitter will bring you breaking news throughout the week.

Subscribe to The Energy News Digest.

HOT SHOTS – TODAY’S TOP FIVE STORIES

Snake River Dams Proposal Looms over Governors’ Group (Lewiston Tribune, ID)

https://lmtribune.com/northwest/dams-proposal-looms-over-govs-group/article_54f6412d-bc51-5b66-bced-cd62e454eef3.html

Texas Electric Cooperative Hit with $2.1 Billion Bill Files for Bankruptcy (Bloomberg News)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-01/a-texas-power-firm-files-for-bankruptcy-after-historic-outages?srnd=markets-vp

Oregon’s Cheap Power, Undersea Cable Lure Five New Data Centers (Pamplin Media Group, Portland, OR)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/oregons-cheap-power-undersea-cable-lure.html

Energy Company to Breed Endangered California Condors to Replace Birds Killed by Turbine Blades (Los Angeles Times, CA)

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2021-02-28/wind-power-company-will-breed-endangered-california-condors

The Debate over Electric Vehicle Charging at Interstate Rest Stops (Utility Dive)

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/NATSO-commercialization-interstate-rest-stop-electric-charging/595838/

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS (See Stories Below)

1.      Texas Electric Cooperative Hit with $2.1 Billion Bill Files for Bankruptcy

2.      As Texans Went Without Heat, Light or Water, Some Companies Scored a Big Payday

3.      Griddy Is Being Sued for $1 Billion for Allegedly Price Gouging During Texas Winter Storm

4.      WA State’s Franklin PUD Explains Measures to Prevent Texas-Like Outage

5.      Energy Secretary Granholm: Texas Outages Show Need for Changes to U.S. Power Systems

6.      Snake River Dams Proposal Looms over Governors’ Group

7.      Q&A with Architect of Proposal to Breach Lower Snake River Dams: ‘I’m Conservative, & I Also Value Conservation’

8.      New Website Imagines the Snake River without Dams

9.      Oregon PUC Extends Disconnection, Late-Fee Moratorium for Pandemic-Hit Utility Customers

10.   Oregon: Northeast Portland Residents Fear They’ll Be Stuck with Bills after Ice Storm Power Surge Fries Appliances

11.   British Columbia Will Complete $16 Billion Peace River Dam Project by 2025

12.   British Columbia: Indigenous Input Key to Columbia River Treaty Negotiations

13.   Puget Sound Energy Plans Dramatically Increases Distributed Energy Resources, But Sets Conflict over Gas

14.   National Academies Call on Congress to Address ‘Persistent Under-Investment in Electric Innovation’

15.   Op/Ed: Utilities Need to Harden the Grid as They Green It. Consumers Aren’t Ready for the Cost

16.   California: Edison’s Aggressive Tree Trimming Rankles Mission Viejo Neighbors

17.   Northwest Natural Reports Fourth Quarter Profit

18.   2021 State of Western Area Power Administration’s Assets Released

19.   Pacific Northwest Rated – How Reliable Is Your Utility?

20.   WA State: Tri-Cities Area Wind Farm Project Draws Criticism from Some Residents

21.   Wyoming Coal Mines Eyed for Disposal of Old Windmill Parts

22.   WA State: Washington State Cooperative (OPALCO) Installs First of Many Microgrids Planned for Orcas Islands

23.   WA State: Skagit PUD Installing Small-Scale Hydroelectric Turbine

24.   The Hydropower Industry’s Sustainability Conundrum

25.   WA State: Chelan PUD Program Boosts Power-Saving Upgrades

26.   Energy Company to Breed Endangered California Condors to Replace Birds Killed by Turbine Blades

27.   Biden Administration Won’t Defend Trump-Era Relaxation of Bird Protections

28.   Seattle City Light Agrees to Study Fish Passage over Dams on Skagit River

29.   Scientists: Removing Snake River Dams ‘Necessary’ to Restore Idaho Salmon Population

30.   U.S. House Passes Wild Olympics Bill with Public-Lands Package

31.   President Biden Is Hiking the Cost of Carbon. It Will Change How U.S. Tackles Global Warming

32.   Comcast Announces Rural Broadband Expansions in Snohomish & Spokane Counties

33.   New York: Regulators Stifle Broadband Expansion with Exorbitant Pole Attachment Fees

34.   FCC Votes to Finalize Rules for New Temporary Low-Income Internet Subsidy

35.   Oregon’s Cheap Power, Undersea Cable Lure Five New Data Centers

36.   Utilities United Against Scams Focuses on Education During National Consumer Protection Week

37.   The Debate over Electric Vehicle Charging at Interstate Rest Stops

38.   Dairy Farmers Advised to Stop Adding Palm Oil to Feed as Butter Controversy Heats Up

39.   WA State: Spokane Valley Demands Say in Debate over Utility Tax

WORD OF THE DAY

Gormless /GORM-luss/ Adjective - Chiefly British: lacking intelligence: stupid.

Worthless, inert mass

The mob’s gormless intellect

We’re watching “Cop Rock”

DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS

1.      Texas Electric Cooperative Hit with $2.1 Billion Bill Files for Bankruptcy (Bloomberg News)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-01/a-texas-power-firm-files-for-bankruptcy-after-historic-outages?srnd=markets-vp

2.      As Texans Went Without Heat, Light or Water, Some Companies Scored a Big Payday (Washington Post)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/27/texas-power-winners-losers/

3.      Griddy Is Being Sued for $1 Billion for Allegedly Price Gouging During Texas Winter Storm (Gizmodo)

https://gizmodo.com/griddy-is-being-sued-for-1-billion-for-allegedly-price-1846368435

4.      WA State’s Franklin PUD Explains Measures to Prevent Texas-Like Outage (KVEW-TV, Tri-Cities, WA)

https://www.yaktrinews.com/franklin-pud-explains-measures-to-prevent-texas-like-outage/

5.      Energy Secretary Granholm: Texas Outages Show Need for Changes to U.S. Power Systems (National Public Radio)

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/26/971840872/energy-secretary-granholm-texas-outages-show-need-for-changes-to-u-s-power-syste

ENERGY & UTILITY ISSUES

6.      Snake River Dams Proposal Looms over Governors’ Group (Lewiston Tribune, ID)

https://lmtribune.com/northwest/dams-proposal-looms-over-govs-group/article_54f6412d-bc51-5b66-bced-cd62e454eef3.html

7.       Q&A with Architect of Proposal to Breach Lower Snake River Dams: ‘I’m Conservative, & I Also Value Conservation’ (Oregonian, Portland, OR)

https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2021/02/qa-with-architect-of-proposal-to-breach-lower-snake-river-dams-im-conservative-and-i-also-value-conservation.html

8.      New Website Imagines the Snake River without Dams (Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA)

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/feb/28/new-website-imagines-the-snake-river-without-dams/

9.       Oregon PUC Extends Disconnection, Late-Fee Moratorium for Pandemic-Hit Utility Customers (Portland Business Journal, OR)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/oregon-puc-extends-disconnection-late.html

10.    Oregon: Northeast Portland Residents Fear They’ll Be Stuck with Bills after Ice Storm Power Surge Fries Appliances (Oregonian, Portland, OR)

https://www.oregonlive.com/weather/2021/02/northeast-portland-residents-fear-theyll-be-stuck-with-bills-after-ice-storm-power-surge-fries-appliances.html

11.   British Columbia Will Complete $16 Billion Peace River Dam Project by 2025 (Victoria Buzz, BC)

https://www.victoriabuzz.com/2021/02/bc-will-complete-16b-site-c-damn-project-by-2025/

12.   British Columbia: Indigenous Input Key to Columbia River Treaty Negotiations (Kimberly Bulletin, BC)

https://www.kimberleybulletin.com/news/indigenous-input-key-to-columbia-river-treaty-negotiations/

13.   Puget Sound Energy Plans Dramatically Increases Distributed Energy Resources, But Sets Conflict over Gas (Utility Dive)

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/puget-sound-energy-irp-dramatically-increases-ders-but-sets-conflict-over-g/595833/

14.   National Academies Call on Congress to Address ‘Persistent Under-Investment in Electric Innovation’ (Utility Dive)

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/national-academies-call-on-congress-to-address-persistent-under-investment/595776/

15.   Op/Ed: Utilities Need to Harden the Grid as They Green It. Consumers Aren’t Ready for the Cost (Utility Dive)

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/utilities-need-to-harden-the-grid-as-they-green-it-consumers-arent-ready/595719/

16.   California: Edison’s Aggressive Tree Trimming Rankles Mission Viejo Neighbors (Orange County Register, Anaheim, CA)

https://www.ocregister.com/2021/02/25/edisons-aggressive-tree-trimming-rankles-mission-viejo-neighbors/

17.   Northwest Natural Reports Fourth Quarter Profit (Vancouver Columbian, WA)

https://www.columbian.com/news/2021/feb/26/northwest-natural-reports-q4-profit/

18.   2021 State of Western Area Power Administration’s Assets Released (Western Area Power Administration)

https://www.wapa.gov/newsroom/NewsReleases/2021/Pages/2021-state-of-the-assets-released.aspx

SPECIAL: DOES YOUR UTILITY KEEP THE LIGHTS ON?

19.   Pacific Northwest Rated – How Reliable Is Your Utility?

Alaska

https://patch.com/alaska/anchorage/how-reliable-your-alaska-electric-supplier

California

https://patch.com/california/lajolla/how-reliable-your-california-electric-supplier

Idaho

https://patch.com/idaho/boise/how-reliable-your-idaho-electric-supplier

Montana

https://patch.com/montana/missoula/how-reliable-your-montana-electric-utility

Nevada

https://patch.com/nevada/reno/how-reliable-your-nevada-electric-supplier

Oregon

https://patch.com/oregon/hillsboro/how-reliable-your-oregon-electric-supplier

Utah

https://patch.com/utah/salt-lake-city/how-reliable-your-utah-electric-supplier

Washington State

https://patch.com/washington/redmond/how-reliable-your-washington-electric-supplier

RENEWABLE ENERGY & SELF STORAGE

20.   WA State: Tri-Cities Area Wind Farm Project Draws Criticism from Some Residents (KEPR-TV, Tri-Cities, WA)

https://keprtv.com/news/local/wind-farm-project-draws-criticism-from-some-residents

21.   Wyoming Coal Mines Eyed for Disposal of Old Windmill Parts (Associated Press)

https://apnews.com/article/industrial-waste-wyoming-gillette-085d653f2f46a279236b7633a7b6014f

22.   WA State: Washington State Cooperative (OPALCO) Installs First of Many Microgrids Planned for Orcas Islands (Microgrid Knowledge)

https://microgridknowledge.com/decatur-washington-island-microgrids/

23.   WA State: Skagit PUD Installing Small-Scale Hydroelectric Turbine (Skagit Valley Herald, Mount Vernon, WA)

https://www.goskagit.com/news/local_news/skagit-pud-installing-small-scale-hydroelectric-turbine/article_33d575df-7250-5f34-b775-742e693b5426.html

24.   The Hydropower Industry’s Sustainability Conundrum (Power Magazine)

https://www.powermag.com/the-hydropower-industrys-sustainability-conundrum/

CONSERVATION & EFFICIENCY

25.   WA State: Chelan PUD Program Boosts Power-Saving Upgrades (Wenatchee World, WA)

https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/wvbusiness/lacy-stockton-pud-program-boosts-power-saving-upgrades/article_051f7f2c-7230-11eb-96c4-1f53ef783252.html

FISH & WILDLIFE

26.   Energy Company to Breed Endangered California Condors to Replace Birds Killed by Turbine Blades (Los Angeles Times, CA)

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2021-02-28/wind-power-company-will-breed-endangered-california-condors

27.   Biden Administration Won’t Defend Trump-Era Relaxation of Bird Protections (The Hill, Washington, DC)

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/540695-biden-administration-wont-defend-trump-era-relaxation-of-bird

28.   Seattle City Light Agrees to Study Fish Passage over Dams on Skagit River (KING-TV, Seattle, WA)

https://www.king5.com/article/news/investigations/seattle-city-light-agrees-to-study-fish-passage-over-dams-on-skagit-river/281-5db68ce9-3102-4c6c-97cf-5e2067c14b7b

29.   Scientists: Removing Snake River Dams ‘Necessary’ to Restore Idaho Salmon Population (Twin Falls Times-News, ID)

https://magicvalley.com/news/local/scientists-removing-snake-river-dams-necessary-to-restore-idaho-salmon-population/article_f0457cfa-d5a2-5d36-9999-bba9e9c08d51.html

ENVIRONMENTAL AFFLATUS – CLEAN UP ON AISLE THREE

30.   U.S. House Passes Wild Olympics Bill with Public-Lands Package (Peninsula Daily News, Port Angeles, WA)

https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/politics/u-s-house-passes-wild-olympics-bill-with-public-lands-package/

CLIMATE CHANGE SEQUESTRATION VAULT

31.   President Biden Is Hiking the Cost of Carbon. It Will Change How U.S. Tackles Global Warming (Seattle Times, WA – Paywall Advisory)

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/biden-is-hiking-up-the-cost-of-carbon-it-will-change-how-u-s-tackles-global-warming/

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

32.   Comcast Announces Rural Broadband Expansions in Snohomish & Spokane Counties (Yahoo Finance)

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/comcast-announces-rural-broadband-expansions-160100012.html

33.   New York: Regulators Stifle Broadband Expansion with Exorbitant Pole Attachment Fees (The Jamestown Post-Journal, NY)

https://www.post-journal.com/opinion/local-commentaries/2021/02/regulators-stifle-broadband-expansion-with-exorbitant-pole-attachment-fees/

34.   FCC Votes to Finalize Rules for New Temporary Low-Income Internet Subsidy (Reuters)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-internet-idUSKBN2AQ075

THE WIZARDING WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY

35.   Oregon’s Cheap Power, Undersea Cable Lure Five New Data Centers (Pamplin Media Group, Portland, OR)

https://energynewsdigest.blogspot.com/2021/03/oregons-cheap-power-undersea-cable-lure.html

36.   Utilities United Against Scams Focuses on Education During National Consumer Protection Week (Daily Energy Insider)

https://dailyenergyinsider.com/news/29322-utilities-united-against-scams-focuses-on-education-during-national-consumer-protection-week/

I SING THE CAR ELECTRIC

37.   The Debate over Electric Vehicle Charging at Interstate Rest Stops (Utility Dive)

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/NATSO-commercialization-interstate-rest-stop-electric-charging/595838/

BARREL O’ GREEN POTPOURRI – SEETHING STEW OF SCIENCE

38.   Dairy Farmers Advised to Stop Adding Palm Oil to Feed as Butter Controversy Heats Up (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-dairy-farmers-palm-fat-hard-butter-1.5927559?cmp=rss

GOVERNANCE & MANAGEMENT

39.   WA State: Spokane Valley Demands Say in Debate over Utility Tax (Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA)

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/mar/01/spokane-valley-demands-say-in-debate-over-utility-/

ALLIGATORS IN THE SEWER – DIVERSIONS

Doctor Appears in Court Video Call While Performing Surgery

https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/weird_news/doctor-appears-in-court-video-call-while-performing-surgery/article_fffa9d16-4b64-54c0-bd18-f9f9726a5b85.html

Two Skiers Defy Death in Descent of Yosemite’s Half Dome

https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/weird_news/2-skiers-defy-death-in-descent-of-yosemites-half-dome/article_62c3c8ab-4d62-581a-a0b7-8968a4d0780b.html

This Lego Waffle Maker Lets You Build a Brick Creation with Your Breakfast

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/lego-waffle-maker-lets-build-211700239.html

Arizona Thrift Store Worker Returns Veteran’s Purple Heart to Family

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/03/01/Purple-Heart-Arizona-thrift-store-Teresa-Ferrin/6361614618180/

SONG OF THE DAY

Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor) – Robert Palmer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87hAnSXfMRQ

LINKS & PAYWALL ADVISORY

Links in The Energy News Digest lead to current stories. Media organizations update their websites regularly, which may result in broken links. Media attribution includes information about possible paywall restrictions.

Oregon PUC Extends Disconnection, Late-Fee Moratorium for Pandemic-Hit Utility Customers (Portland Business Journal, OR)

(SALEM, OR) - - Oregon regulators have extended a moratorium on disconnections and late fees for gas and electric utility customers to June 30.

The moratorium, which applies to customers of investor-owned utilities such as Portland General Electric, PacifiCorp, and NW Natural, was set to end on April 1.

“As the economic impacts of the pandemic continue, the extension of the moratorium provides families continued access to essential utility services at a time that so many are struggling to make ends meet and relying on these essential services to attend school and work,” Megan Decker, chair of the Public Utility Commission, said in a statement. “This extension, however, does not mean that utility service can be provided at no cost. Paying what you can now or getting connected with energy assistance programs will help avoid large balances once the moratorium ends.”

Around 97,000 customers were 90 or more days behind on their bills as of December, nearly four times the number before the pandemic, the commission said. Past-due balances totaled $48.3 million, up 631%.

Under an agreement approved by the commission in November, utilities are required to have arrearage management plans in place by April 1. Arrearages could be waived at an initial amount of at least 1% of each utility’s Oregon 2019 retail revenues — $39 million in total; the commission said — under the agreement.

When the pandemic hit last March, the utilities quickly sought deferred accounting of costs related to Covid-19 for future recovery through rates.

 

Oregon's Cheap Power, Undersea Cable Lure Five New Data Centers (Pamplin Media Group, Portland, OR)

(HILLSBORO, OR) - - Data centers are really in the business of selling electricity. Think of them as a large charging brick with lots of outputs.

On Feb. 25, NTT Global Data Centers opened part one of a planned five data center campus on 47 acres in Hillsboro. The first space is a retrofit of the SunPower solar panel factory, but the next four will be new construction.

The companies that need data centers — everyone from the tech giants like Amazon and Intel to mid-sized companies that have outsourced their computing needs to the cloud — need stable power. No spikes, and certainly no interruptions.

Service providers offer the nines of availability, meaning the percentage of time that the network will be up and running. Seven nines or 99.99999% of uptime is better than five nines or 99.999%. (Those annual downtimes would be 3.15 seconds and 5.26 minutes, respectively.)

As well as electricity, a data center provides staff on-site to keep the heating and cooling systems running and fix things. The UPS typically looks like a truck container. It smooths out the power supply and contains a giant battery for five minutes of power back-up while the UPS instructs the diesel generators to kick in.

Undersea Cables

Bruno Berti, vice president of Product Management, told the Business Tribune that Hillsboro was selected for its reliable and moderately priced power. Like Los Angeles, Hillsboro is also one of only two places, or landing stations, where transatlantic data cables come ashore in the United States from Asia. (There are approximately 406 submarine cables in service around the world. One of them comes straight to Oregon and lands in Hillsboro. From here, it is split up and runs up and down the coast bringing data to the west.)

According to NTT, cloud services, content, games, and mobile device communications drive 95% of global internet traffic through subsea cables. Demand is only growing as more people turn to web browsing, e-commerce, online gaming, and streaming video.

Berti explained that the global pandemic increased the demand for bandwidth.

"Increases in people working from home, distance learning, e-medicine, video streaming, online shopping and gaming are creating unprecedented data demands," he said. Hillsboro also has no sales tax and an Enterprise Zone Program property tax abatement to new data centers for up to five years.

Meet in the Lobby

Information technology infrastructure has changed at work due to the convergence of computers, storage, and networking. Many companies no longer own computers, instead choosing to rent computing power by the second from data centers and storing files.

NTT provides 10,000 square feet of office space where companies can base their tech workers with access to the servers. The company also offers live, in-house tech support if a remote company needs someone to physically change out a configuration without sending their staff. There's also hoteling space, conference rooms, and break rooms.

Berti said what they do is provide a "hotel" for tech infrastructure. "We provide space for the company's infrastructures. We provide power to make sure their equipment servers network the appropriate power in an uninterruptible fashion. We provide cooling because those computers and equipment get hot. We provide physical security around the environment, and connectivity for the clients."

Companies might choose the public cloud, as provided by Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Oracle, or build their own in data centers. (NTT offers a consulting service that will do that part too, "soup to nuts," as Berti puts it.)

Clouds Continue

"(We'll) put all their equipment, all their servers, all of their applications into a nice package, and put it in one of our data centers. So, although it's a private cloud, it actually is housed in one of our data centers. Some of those companies put some of their applications in a public cloud like Amazon, but they'll also put some of their other applications or maybe their financial system, they'll keep them in a data center themselves and manage that themselves, a hybrid environment."

He likes going into a data center and seeing all the lights flashing.

"It's not just a big box that sucks a lot of power. It's actually providing photos for families, retail for businesses…Uber and those types of companies use data centers to not only manage where the drivers go, but also take orders and do a lot of the interaction that happens."

Hillsboro is a data center-friendly place. Some clients were looking for alternatives to California and Virginia. (Northern Virginia has by far the greatest concentration of data centers in the US.)

NTT also likes Washington County's green power options — the promise from PGE that windmills and hydro plants made the electricity.

"From a cost perspective, it's pennies on the per kilowatt-hour," Berti says. Oregonian businesses usually pay less than a dime. During the Texas power outage in February 2021, some customers were billed at $9 a kilowatt-hour, up from the usual 12 cents.

Fortnite or Teams?

As online gaming and movie streaming has burgeoned, data centers have become less centralized. Ping speed is everything to series online games, and moving centers physically closer to the big cities save milliseconds, even when data travels at the speed of light.

"Some of these gaming companies have distributed their servers across multiple data centers. The ones that are latency dependent, and ping specific, they'll have some in Hillsboro, they'll have some in Los Angeles, they'll have some in Santa Clara, they'll have some in Chicago, instead of just one data center."

Now Hiring

"We sell electricity, basically megawatts of capacity. The conditioned power, the cooling, the security, and the connectivity around that."

NTT is hiring locally for physical security, that is, guards and staff responsible for everything that happens on the campus. Second, critical facilities technicians tend to the mechanical and electrical infrastructure, including the cooling and power systems. And third, trained Information Technology professionals to help customers with their environments called remote hands and eyes. Most of the jobs are college or community college graduate level.

NTT launched two data centers in the U.S. this week, each capable of supporting 36 megawatts of IT load, the energy consumed by servers. One is in Hillsboro, the other in Chicago, Illinois. According to trade magazine DataCenter Dynamic, more are planned for Silicon Valley and Ashburn later in 2021. When finished, the Hillsboro NTT data centers will offer 126 MW of critical IT load. Global Data Centers is a division of NTT Ltd. In the last six years, as part of its global expansion policy, NTT has bought up DPA, e-shelter, Gyron, Netmagic, NTT Indonesia Nexcenter, and RagingWire. It created a standardized product with standardized pricing. It now has over 160 data centers spanning more than 20 countries and is spending about $7 billion in the next five years to expand that portfolio.