New Media
Newsom wants probe of California blackouts, as grid officials suspend volatile power trading
McCullough, a frequent critic of the ISO’s trading system, said convergence bidding lets traders place major bets on electricity prices at hundreds of physical points, called “nodes,” the day before the power is consumed, and then cash in a day later.
Floodwaters Breach Michigan Dams, Forcing Evacuations
The federal commission generally provides better oversight of the dams under its purview than state agencies do, according to Robert McCullough of McCullough Research, based in Portland, Ore. As a result, he said, federally regulated dams generally have performed well.
Corona-induced slowdown hitting solar power industry, long-term impact not clear
“The economic slowdown brought on by the coronavirus crisis has some renewable energy advocates making dire forecasts about the industry’s future.”
New Articles
Oregon natural gas facility could be fuelled by Canadian sources
The Lawyer’s Daily, Robert McCullough
Jordan Cove is planned for Coos Bay. In order to procure natural gas, a pipeline is planned to connect to supplies at Malin, Ore. Malin connects to Kingsgate, Alta., and Opal, Wyo. Overall, Coos Bay is over 909 miles from sources of supply in the east and 841 miles from Alberta.
The end of big hydro
The Lawyer’s Daily, Robert McCullough
From the Tennessee to the Columbia rivers, hydroelectric dams have played a decisive role in making cheap electricity widely distributed throughout the North American economy. From declining fish populations to flooded land, some Canadians and Americans have had to pay a higher price to make hydro power possible.
That social trade-off is making less sense today as the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) from wind and solar generation has now dropped below the LCOE of hydro and most all thermal energy resources. The portion of a U.S. state’s power generation by hydro no longer predicts its electricity prices.
Taking the path less followed
Vancouver Sun, Robert McCullough
A month ago, I had the honour of sitting down with the NDP cabinet and Premier John Horgan. I gave a detailed presentation why proceeding with Site C would be costly and risky. Curiously, after the cabinet meeting the only followup involved questions from specific MLAs — not inquiries from the cabinet or their staff.
New Reports
Blaming the Innocent; Praising the Uninvolved
It is difficult to read the October 6, 2020 report “Preliminary Root Cause Analysis: Mid-August 2020 Heat Storm” from the California ISO, CPUC, and CEC without a sense of humor. The report blames the innocent (global warming) and rewards the uninvolved (Governor Newsom). However, it does shed light on why the best funded balancing authority on the West Coast was the only organization that required rolling blackouts during hot weather on August 14th and 15th.
Reassessment of Site C Financial Viability
After ten months of study, British Columbia Hydro has not addressed a number of seismic and design concerns first reported to management in December, 2019… A careful review indicates that correction of the current problems will delay the in-service date by one year and raise costs by an additional C$2.1 billion dollars.
Exactly How Inefficient Is the PJM Capacity Market?
We find that many LDAs do not operate competitively and have a pivotal supplier with market power, able to set prices unilaterally. In addition, we find that although reserve margins are inordinately high in the PJM market, they are rising along with prices, an outcome that is only seen in monopolistic markets.