Integration of Wind Energy into BPA Power Grid - ICIE's Saturday Summary 3/28/09

This is a weekly roundup of some of ICIE’s activities in and around the Idaho Legislature. Staffing limits mean we can’t cover every meeting. If there’s an item of interest to you at an upcoming meeting of one of the environment or agriculture committees, let us know and we’ll try to cover it. Agendas are available at www.state.id.us. Click on “Legislative” and click on “Calendars and agendas.”

Note from ICIE: Committee meetings are slowing down but I wanted to forward this report by John Williams to the Senate Resources & Environment Committee earlier this month. We had a brief discussion of it in an earlier Saturday Summary; however, alternate energy is such a hot topic, I thought you would like to see John’s entire report.

“Integration of Wind Energy Into BPA Power Grid”
John Williams, Idaho Constituent Account Executive, BPA

I. BPA strongly supports wind power: since the 2007 NW Wind Integration plan, BPA has been working with regional stakeholders on various solutions to integrate large amounts of wind power in a reliable and cost effective manner.

Within BPA’s balancing authority (BA)/Transmission control area, wind power has increase from 25 mw 10 years ago to more than 1,500 mw today. This may double by the end of 2009.

Several factors are driving the need to develop renewables in the NW: 1) increase demand for power, 2) state renewable portfolio standards, and 3) climate change concerns. There are challenges in meeting RPS and climate concerns.

II. Renewable Portfolio Standards: California, Oregon, and Washington have mandated a portion of their utilities resources to meet load must come from carbon free generation. Majority of the wind development is in BPA’s BA (Lower Columbia region). This is a supply demand for renewable resources.

III. Transmission/Generation: BPA has integrated over 1,500 mw of wind power. During the last few years, BPA have built five new substations and tap lines. BPA will continue to invest in transmission to integrate renewable resources. Also federal hydro have supplied reserves to back-up and support wind generation while maintaining system reliability.

However, wind development is moving so quickly that it’s out pacing BPA’s ability to integrate this resource with the Federal hydro-system (1,500 mw wind is about 15% of our 10,500 mw peak load). We are experiencing large ramping events – several hundred megawatts of unscheduled changes in wind output occurring within an hour!

Wind power requires generation inputs (reserves) to maintain balance between scheduled output and actual generation. BPA must increase or decrease it’s generation in like amounts immediately to maintain the constant balance of generation and load to keep the transmission system stable.

The hydro system’s limits are being reached. Excessive wind generation imbalance is beginning to impose real consequences on power system operation that could affect both system reliability and protection of Columbia and Snake River salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act.

IV. Wind Integration challenge: reliability and cost
BPA is working aggressively with the wind and utility communities to develop new wind forecasting tools and market mechanisms to better manage wind and other variable resources in the transmission grid.

Until these tools are sufficiently mature, BPA will have to rely on the federal hydropower system. For the last several weeks, BPA has worked intensively on a way to continue to add wind farms to its existing system without jeopardizing system reliability or fulfillment of its hydro operation requirements under the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act. We are sharing the resulting solutions with the wind and utility communities and interested parties.

Solutions: 1) Protocols will limit wind operation to stay within balancing reserves - shifts the responsibility for balancing for under-generation of wind to the transmission contract holder and its balancing authority (utility’s transmission control area) and to the wind power customers, 2) Interconnection Agreements that define the responsibilities of BPA and each generator that connects to BPA’s transmission system, 3) Balancing reserves (to back-up wind) will be forecast in rates. However, BPA cannot reduce hydro generation to compensate for wind over-generation if doing so would increase nitrogen saturation in the river above legal limits (Clean Water Act and ESA listed fish impact).

V. Summary

BPA will need additional power reserves, thus last November we sent out a Request for Information on potential sources (generation inputs and/or load interruption) to be used for load following and regulation capabilities. We received 18 responses that will be used to develop one or more pilot projects.

As mentioned earlier, BPA is working aggressively to help the industry develop new forecasting tools and market mechanisms to enable new supplies of integration services (system regulation, resource following, and generation imbalance – all in real time except the third point that is after the fact correction used in billing)

BPA is working with its customers, wind developers, regulators, and interested parties to find practical, equitable and viable ways to meet the technical requirements of integrating wind power in the NW.

Report by John Williams, Idaho Constituent Account Executive, BPA

Converting working Ranches, Farms, Forests to other uses - ICIE's Saturday Summary 3/7/09

Rep. Rich Wills presented HCR 18 to the committee asking for its support. This concurrent resolution requests the Natural Resources Interim Committee to study the impacts of conversion of working ranches, farms and forests to other uses. It also asks for an examination of the need for new state policy initiatives to protect the values that such landscontribute to local economies, agricultural heritage, wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities. The Senate committee sent HCR 18 to the floor with a “do pass” recommendation.

Wolf Delisting Decision - ICIE Saturday Summary 3/7/09

Clive Strong, Idaho Attorney General’s office, reported to the Senate Resources and Environment Committee on the decision by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to delist the gray wolf in Idaho and Montana. The decision will be printed in the Federal Register and will final 30 days after printing. The state is expecting a lawsuit to be filed because the delisting does not include Wyoming. Idaho has over 800 wolves documented which are far in excess of what was required for delisting.

Carbon Sequestration - ICIE's Saturday Summary 3/7/09

Mike Hoffman with the Idaho Soil Conservation Commission (ISCC) reported to the House Agricultural Affairs Committeeon on Idaho’s carbon sequestration efforts. The Idaho Legislature established the Carbon Sequestration Advisory Committee in 2002 as part of the legislation asking the Soil Conservation Commission to prepare a report exploring the potential for carbon sequestration on agricultural and private, non-industrial forestlands. The 19-member Carbon Sequestration Advisory Committee is chaired by ISCC. Funds for the accompanying carbon sequestration assessment fund have never been appropriated.

Currently, Idaho has a very small carbon footprint but the ability to sequester carbon from other locations in forested and agricultural lands. Hoffman explained that the committee has an information outreach component as well as pilot projects and technical research. The report and other information can be accessed by going to the ISCC website (http://www.scc.idaho.gov/) and clicking on the carbon sequestration tab.

25x25 and energy - ICIE's Saturday Summary 3/7/09

J. Read Smith, a farmer from St. John, Washington and Co-chairman of 25X’25 explained to the House Agricultural Affairs Committee recently what that organization hopes to accomplish. The organization’s goal is for America's farms, forests and ranches to provide 25 percent of the total energy consumed in the United States by 2025, while continuing to produce safe, abundant, and affordable food, feed and fiber.

Presently, six to seven percent of our power comes from renewables. About half of that amount is from hydropower. The other half is from biomass and other renewables. Increasing our energy from renewables could result in $700 billion in economic development and 5 million new jobs in rural America.

Smith pointed out that we need all the energy we can get. He discussed the option of community wind development that could be a smaller, decentralized compliment to larger projects.

For more information, check out the website at http://www.25x25.org/

Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility - ICIE's Saturday Summary 2/28/09

On Wednesday, Areva Enrichment Services presented an overview of the proposed Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility for Bonneville County to the House Energy, Environment and Technology Committee. Industry representatives say public input for this project has been “unanimously” positive. Of the more than 350 people who attended a recent public meeting on the project, all were supportive, although both Chairman Raybould and Areva have received letters of protest from the Snake River Alliance. The proposed site is a half mile east of the eastern border of the Idaho National Laboratory.

The license application will be up for public review and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will perform a level one environmental impact study, which will take 24 to 36 months, followed by a five year construction process for the complete facility, during which time the plant will be partially operational after the first two years.

Areva’s representative assured the committee that they are still pursuing this timeline despite the economy. During the construction phase of the project, the company projects 1,000 new jobs, with 400 new jobs related to the operation of the facility at an average salary of $66,000 per year.

Areva provides services, equipment and technology for the nuclear services industry. It is the number one reactor builder in the world and number three in electricity transmission and distribution. In addition to the Eagle Rock Facility, the company is looking into wind and biomass generator projects in Northern Idaho. The company presented a video outlining the development of the Goreges Besse enrichment plant in France. The Idaho Falls plant will provide enrichment services to US nuclear plant operators using what Areva representatives note is advanced centrifuge technology which has been successfully deployed in Europe for more than thirty years, and uses 50 times less electricity than a gaseous diffusion process.

Eastern Snake River Aquifer Plan - ICIE's Saturday Summary 2/28/09

At a joint meeting of the House Resources and Conservation Committee and the Senate Resources and Environment Committee, the Idaho Water Resources Board presented a plan for the Eastern Snake River Aquifer (ESRA). The plan is the product of a 2007 House resolution (HCR28). Its long term objective is to address methods of incrementally increasing the ESRA water budget by 600 thousand acre feet annually by the year 2030. The ESRA area produces approximately 21 percent of all goods and services within the State of Idaho resulting in an estimated value of $10 billion annually. Supply of, and demands for, water are out of balance in the Eastern Snake River Plain (ESRP) and the connected Snake River. The plan is aimed at addressing the economic viability, social and environmental health of the ESRP “by adaptively managing a balance between water use and supplies.”

Phase one of the plan is estimated to cost between $70 and $100 million over the course of 10 years by utilizing a range of actions that target managing and increasing aquifer recharge, reducing demand and ground water to surface water conversion. Based upon hydrologic modeling provided by Idaho Power Company and others (which has been peer reviewed), the target for phase one is between 200 and 300 thousand acre feet, and will have the advantage of building institutional confidence. Members of the committee noted that, had phase one been implemented in 1980, the same models show the resulting annual recharge rate would be 327 thousand acre feet today.

The committee touted the utilization of public input throughout the process of developing the plan. Certainly, the committee itself represents a broad range of interests including ground and surface water users, spring water users, municipalities, developers, hydropower, domestic well users, business interests, state agencies, environmental, and conservation interests.

Committee members warned that the consequences of inaction will impact the continued viability of irrigated agriculture, aquaculture, industry, hydropower, municipalities, future development, domestic uses and environmental resources if current water supply trends continue. Continued uncertainty, they maintain, will result in instability for water users, increased vulnerability to changes in yearly supply, and less water for commercial and other expansion.

A full copy of the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer Comprehensive Aquifer Management Plan is available at http://www.espaplan.idaho.gov/