National Grid says “no thanks” to results of 400 MW RFP, selects one project
The utility has chosen to disregard the goals of the State of Rhode Island and only procure electricity from one of the projects that completed a recent solicitation.
July 29, 2019 Christian Roselund
We at pv magazine have seen utilities do a lot of unusual things. But one thing that can usually be counted on is that when a state agency wants a utility to procure a certain capacity of renewable energy, the utility typically procures that capacity.
But it seems that doesn’t apply if the state is Rhode Island, and the utility is National Grid. Last November National Grid released the results of a state-ordered Request For Proposals (RFP), reporting 41 bids from 11 developers for 2.5 GW of capacity, but as it turns out the utility is only choosing one of the 41.
A statement from the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources (OER) has declared that the agency is “disappointed” to learn that National Grid has selected a sole project to buy power from, and alludes to this project representing a “small portion” of the 400 MW of capacity in the RFP.
OER declined to respond to pv magazine’s requests for additional information, so little is known at this time. However, it is not clear if the administration of Governor Gina Raimondo (D) will do anything meaningful to compel National Grid to comply with the 400 MW number.
And the answer here may lie in the terms of the RFP, which on its first page states that National Grid “may, but is not required to” select up to 400 MW of projects........................
Please continue reading here:
https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2019/07/29/national-grid-says-no-thanks...
R.I. says clean energy plan falls short
By Alex Kuffner
Journal Staff Writer
Posted Jul 28, 2019 at 7:44 PM
PROVIDENCE — National Grid is set to negotiate a contract for another batch of renewable energy for Rhode Island, but instead of lauding the move, the state energy office is saying that the selection falls short.
Few details about the decision have been made public because talks are continuing, but the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources says that National Grid chose only one project and that it does not come close to the 400-megawatt capacity in the request for proposals for new renewable energy that was issued last September.
“Today, the Office of Energy Resources was disappointed to learn that National Grid made a conditional selection of just one project for a small portion of the affordable renewable energy that came forward as part of the 400-megawatt procurement,” the energy office said in a statement Friday. “In doing so, the utility has left affordable, clean energy resources and millions of dollars in potential cost savings for local consumers on the table.”
National Grid responded that it is committed to increasing the supply of renewable energy for Rhode Island but that it believes that it’s wiser to ramp up procurements over time as prices come down.
“We disagree with the notion that customer savings were left on the table,” Terry Sobolewski, president of National Grid Rhode Island, said in a statement. “In fact, future costs to our customers were the exact reason we didn’t make any additional selections at this time. Historical trends and other information we have to look at suggests prices for clean energy are going to continue to decline.”
Under the terms of the RFP, National Grid has until Sept. 10 to negotiate and execute a contract to buy power from the project it selected. The contract wouldn’t be made public until it’s submitted to the state Public Utilities Commission for approval on Oct. 12.
The RFP was issued as part of Gov. Gina Raimondo’s push to increase the supply of power from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources to 1,000 megawatts by 2020. That number currently stands at 371 megawatts, up from about 100 megawatts when the governor announced the goal in 2016, according to the state energy office.
The supply includes 30 megawatts from the Block Island Wind Farm, the test project built by Deepwater Wind that in 2016 became the first, and so far only, offshore wind farm in the United States. Deepwater is selling power from the wind farm to Rhode Island electric users through a contract with National Grid.
Another 400 megawatts from an offshore wind farm proposed by Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind — the Danish company that acquired Deepwater last fall — is in the pipeline. Under a 20-year contract released in February, National Grid would pay Orsted 9.8 cents per kilowatt hour for power from the wind farm that would be built in Rhode Island Sound.
If the full capacity of the RFP had been reached, it would have procured more than enough energy to reach Raimondo’s goal. Eleven companies responded to the request with 41 bids. They included additional offshore wind projects from Orsted and its rival Vineyard Wind, as well as land-based wind farms and solar farms in other parts of New England.
Read the rest here:
https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20190728/ri-says-clean-energ...
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Comment
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Comment by Willem Post on July 30, 2019 at 11:31am
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National Grid will pay 9.84 c/kWh for variable intermittent wind that could not even exist on the grid without the help/babysitting of other generators.
The NE annual average wholesale price for electricity has been about 5 c/kWh since 2008, courtesy of low-cost domestic, clean, low-CO2 natural gas and low-cost, near-zero CO2 nuclear.
Please tell me again how that would save money for ratepayers.
The state people with cushy jobs and full benefits have an incentive to maintain and further embellish a carefully constructed pack of lies, because it keeps the RE ball rolling, and it means state worker job security for decades.
Here are the subsidies wind and solar are getting, even though BOTH ARE CRIPPLES that could not exist on the grid without the other generators.
https://www.eia.gov/analysis/requests/subsidy/pdf/subsidy.pdf
2016 To Grid Direct Tax R&D DOE loan Total Generation Subsidy Subsidy share Share TWh $billion $billion $billion $billion $billion % % c/kWh Coal 1208 NG 1431 Nuclear 799 Other 21 Total 3459 8302 84.8 55.4 2.40 RE Biomass 63 18 34 27 79 1.25 Geothermal 16 41 34 10 85 5.31 Hydro 268 2 34 2 38 0.14 Solar 51 771 1251 209 2231 43.75 Wind 220 4 1239 24 1267 5.76 Other 41 34 95 170 Subtotal 618 877 2626 367 3870 15.2 25.8 6.26 Biofuels 33 2690 90 2813 18.8 Total RE 4077 909 5316 456 6681 100.0 Total 14983
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Comment by Long Islander on July 29, 2019 at 11:52am
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Stephen Littlefield - I believe a big part of the answer to your question is when the watchdogs start watching, such as the "environmental" groups and the media. Meanwhile the concentration of media ownership in one person's hands is greater in Maine than anywhere else in the U.S.
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More leftist state government selling out their constituents to the fake 'green energy' contingency! When will these state governments start protecting the citizens from these scam artists?
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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