The waiting list for proposed wind energy projects in the state is
612 years. But changes are afoot. To anyone who wants to join the wind
energy movement, Ryan Wolf says: Get in line. Wolf, of Le Sueur, Minn.,
has been waiting almost two years for the go-ahead to build 27 wind
turbines in the southwest part of the state. It's anyone's guess how
much longer he'll be waiting, given a backlog of applications that
technically could take more than 600 years to clear at the federal
agency that stands between him and the renewable energy marketplace.
"The queue is the biggest problem we're struggling with," agreed
Clair Moeller, a vice president at that gatekeeper agency in St. Paul,
the Midwest Independent Transmission System (Midwest ISO). While the
national mood has shifted to embrace renewable energy, and states
including Minnesota have pledged increased usage, conditions on the
ground are not making it easy. Developers point to shortages of the wind
turbines, engineers to run them and transmission lines to carry the
electricity they produce.
But many say the biggest immediate problem is the bottleneck at the
regional agencies of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission -- Midwest
ISO, in 15 Upper Midwest states -- that give projects permission to
connect to existing power lines. And the Midwest is in the worst shape,
they say, because its windy plains are prompting more project proposals
than anywhere else. Moeller's staff has adapted new procedures -- one is
clustering several proposals into a single study -- so they expect to be
able to clear the queue in 50 years instead of 600. And this spring he
will ask federal regulators to approve more adaptations to further speed
the process.
But every passing year drives up the cost of the projects -- which is
passed on to consumers. And the backlog stands in the way of Minnesota's
pledge to get 25 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by
2025.
The agency also vets all the requests by new power projects to
connect to the already congested transmission system. Each request takes
about two years to process, because Midwest ISO's obligations include
locating any point along the grid that's already maxed out -- even
hundreds of miles away. Then it has to put a dollar figure on the work
needed at those points -- something similar to adding two lanes to an
overloaded four-lane highway -- and then give that bill to the
developer. Source: Star Tribune
There are insomniacs in our homes that work late at night and run up the
electricity bill. They are not the classically overworked American who pops
melatonin or Tylenol PM. They are microwave ovens, computers and TVs. They
are half of our appliances, electronic equipment and associated chargers
that suck down power even when they're turned off, in sleep or standby mode.
A typical house hosts around 50 such insomniacs, and though individual
devices use minuscule amounts of electricity, in the aggregate they're an
astonishing and pricey burden.
This "vampire energy loss" represents between 5 and 8 percent of a single
family home's total electricity use per year, according to the Department of
Energy. On average, that's the equivalent of one month's electricity bill.
Source: Salon.com[Read
more]
The gap in industrial retail electricity prices between the deregulated
and regulated states has roughly tripled since 1999, from a difference of
1.09 cents per kwh in 1999 to 3.08 cents per kwh in 2007, according to a
study by the group Power in
the Public Interest (PPI). The study, based on data from the
U.S. Energy Information
Administration, said industrial customers in deregulated states pay
roughly $7.2 billion more annually for their power than their counterparts
in regulated states pay for the same amount of electricity.
Deregulation is not responsible for the entire gap, but the so-called
competitive electricity markets are not good for competitiveness, a PPI
spokesperson said.
Other key findings include:
- Since 1999, prices for industrial customers in deregulated states
have gone from 18 percent above to 37 percent above the national
average, while prices for industrial customers in regulated states have
gone from 7 percent below to 12 percent below the national average.
- Comparing the two groups directly to each other, since 1999,
deregulated industrial prices have gone from 26 percent higher to 56
percent higher than regulated prices.
- The gap in retail prices for all customers —residential, commercial
and industrial—between deregulated and regulated states has more than
doubled, from 2.1 cents per kwh in 1999 to 4.3 cents per kwh in 2007.
The major cause of the increasing gap, according to PPI, is the wholesale
market designs used by regional transmission organizations, where the most
expensive supply, often a natural gas plant, sets the price for all needed
supplies, regardless of the underlying cost.
The
study is available on PPI's Web site. Source:
CFC Solutions News Extra
In Chicago, NRECA CEO Glenn English called the critical need to add capacity,
coupled with the uncertainty, but likely very expensive imposition of carbon
constraint, as a “train-wreck.” Glenn said the poll commissioned by NRECA shows
a perception of a “firestorm.” We need, he said, to communicate to co-op members
that we are fighting on their behalf to identify “costs” associated with carbon
constraint-related legislation. The 80 some participants then heard the results
of an extensive poll (1,000 sampling) and focus groups which collectively
expressed these views:
Talking only about the cost of carbon constraint will create the same
congressional cacophony as an “American Idol” contestant doing domestic violence
to a cover of Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Campaign consultant Tom King
counseled that co-ops must stress, repeatedly, our conservation and green
efforts. You will be ignored he said if you disregard the co-op’s CO2 reduction
contributions with an opening that rates will double. King said co-ops cannot
walk away from global climate change. However, the concerns about costs,
witnessed by polling data, must be factored into any discussion. Source:
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