New Media
Texas power grid faces summer having changed little from February freeze
Reuters, Tim Mclaughlin
“This means that it may not be optimal to maintain and weatherize all equipment, if a minor problem that reduces generation by 50% can provide enormous profit potential,” McCullough and his team of analysts said in a report this month.
The last thing California needed: Drought adds to electricity woes as hydro power dries up
The Sacramento Bee, Dale Kasler
Those plants will generate enough electricity to supply local demands but [they] “might not be available during the late afternoon, early evening hours, when California needs it,” said Robert McCullough of McCullough Research, an electricity consulting firm in Portland.
Texas Power Grid, Strained Last Winter, Now Faces an Early Heat Wave
“We’re talking about a fragile system,” Mr. McCullough said, adding “We’re basically seeing the exact same system we were seeing four months ago.” [pdf-embedder...
New Articles
FERC’s MOPR Dissected
Public Utilities Fortnightly, Robert McCullough
The two leading renewable technologies are non-dispatchable intermittent resources. The unsubstantiated assumption that they will lower the value of capacity needs to be examined closely.
Why have PJM capacity markets decoupled from actual capacity bids?
The Electricity Journal, Robert McCullough
We analyze PJM’s Reliability Pricing Model auction in the context of ongoing reform proposals that seek to address the perception that state subsidies for carbon free generation are depressing capacity prices.
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.
New Reports
Fire and Ice: Electric Reliability Failures in California and Texas
This past week saw calls for energy conservation from the two most populous states in the U.S. – Texas and California – as the states’ grid operators were once again faced with the prospect of rolling blackouts. These warnings raise the question as to why the two systems appear so fragile in their effort to meet extreme weather events – both during extreme cold and extreme heat and why published reliability evaluations are so at odds with actual operations.
Reassessment of Site-C Financial Viability – March 21, 2021
Some main points from this edition:
1. After scaling back in March, the cost overrun was 26%. Apparently the staff were sent home with quite an Easter basket last year.
2. Some pretty massive contract renegotiations took place last year about $516 million.
3. It seems like BC Hydro has quietly dropped their interest rate hedge — or at least put it on hold. If so, they may have locked in the $1 billion dollar loss before the recovery of long term interest rates this spring.
4. The author of the report seems uncertain about the scale of the contingency and reserve amounts — usually a large part of the total budget.