Transmission workgroup传输工作组.doc

National Wind Coordinating CommitteeBusiness Meeting Summary #34January 19, 2005Tempe, ArizonaWelcome and Purpose:Abby Arnold, RESOLVE, welcomed attendees to the National Wind Coordinating Committees Business Meeting #34 and provided an overview of the agenda for the day. The meeting attendees went around the room and introduced themselves and described their interest in or past experience with the NWCC. (See attachment A for participants list.)The Potential and Challenges of Wind Energy Contributing to Water Resource Management in the WestIn addition to the usual NWCC business (including reviewing and discussing recent workgroup activities and work plans for near-tern directions) the Business Meeting also provided an opportunity to have an informational briefing on a topic of interest to the NWCC members. For Business Meeting 34, this topic was the issue of water resources management in the Southwest, and a discussion of the relationship, impacts and opportunities for wind energy. Ron Lehr of the American Wind Energy Association provided moderation for this session, which featured five speakers and discussion. The first presenter was Larry Flowers, of the Wind Powering America program, who provided a situation analysis of wind energy and water resources in the West. The Wind Powering America program has traditionally focused on the economic development and economics arguments, but is now also investigating how water is used to cool power plants and provide services to residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural uses. There is a limited supply of water, particularly in the West, and over the long term the problem becomes more pronounced due to population growth, increased demand, and limited supply from drought and climate change. Wind Powering America has been investigating these issues and held briefings for Department of Energy and National renewable Energy Lab personnel in November 2004. Noting that agricultural uses dominate water use in the west, with over 70% being used for this purpose, Larry demonstrated supply pressures from population growth, urban growth, and climate change. Total water withdrawals differ from consumption, in that it is returned to the source. However this still has an effect on riparian zones and can cause problems for supply. By exploring sustainable withdrawal, it is clear that in the West water is being withdrawn faster than natural processes replenish it. Faced with this issue, the DOE National Labs got together experts in water resources management and energy to see how they are linked and an interlab group has been formed to develop a plan to find solutions. Wind Powering America will also be releasing a report the wind energy nexus with water in February. Areas that have been explored include integration issues with hydropower, desalinization, irrigation, stock watering for farms, oil and gas resource extraction, and Municipal water use. Susan Innis from Western Resource Advocates next gave a presentation on wind energy & fossil power production and water resources in the West. Working with NREL and the Hewlett Foundation, WRA explored some of the implications for water use at fossil fuel power plants. Power plants with water cooling systems can comprise 40% of water withdrawals in some areas of the country. About half of the thermal plants in the West use once-through cooling methods, though newer plants recirculate water or use dry cooling. Inefficient water-cooled plants can use as much as 50 gallons of water per kWh. There are also concerns about water quality after discharge, temperature of discharge, and the difference between the temperatures of the released water and the body it is released into. Wind Energy plays a role in that it does not use water for cooling, and as such provides an attractive alternative in water-constrained areas. Can wind make up for some of the generation needed for cooling, expecting some of the power need to be reduced by use of combined cycle plants. By diversifying the energy mix of the generating portfolio, a utility can manage its water supply risks. R. Nolan Clark of the USDA Agricultural Research Service provided perspectives on wind energy in irrigation. Besides the creation of fertilizer and application of pesticides, irrigation is the largest use of energy in growing crops. Over 50% of production is irrigated, representing 67 million acres of irrigated land, with California, Nebraska, and Texas as the top three states using irrigation. Arizona is also a big irrigator, with 1.2 million acres of irrigated farmland. Fifty percent of irrigation water comes from wells, 40% off farm (canals), along river basins in the west, 11% surface. In great plains, the Ogallala Aquifer is the largest freshwater aquifer in the world, covering seven states. Mr. Clark showed the states where agriculture has led to more dewatering of the aquifer. The trend in total irrigated acres has not changed much from 1970s to today, but salinity control, historical water use rights, and new irrigated areas contribute to creating pressure to use more water and to increasing the energy needed for irrigation. Methods for irrigation vary by geography and have different levels of efficiency. In addition, different areas tend to use different energy sources to power irrigations systems: electric power is often used, but in Texas, Colorado, and Kansas, irrigation systems developed in the 1950s leveraged supplies of natural gas that were free. When wind energy began finding a niche it was for the irrigation market. An NREL program helped develop this application in the 40-50 KW range. One problem is that there is a mismatch in wind profile vs. when needed, wind lower in summer, irrigation high, but this can be balanced out by deploying wind for crops that better take advantage of the timing of wind resources. In addition, electric pumps operate at 40-50 kW, consequently there is a need for turbines with a nameplate capacity of 80-100 kW and a market for the wind during off-season periods when not employed irrigating. Jan Theron from Northern Arizona University discussed wind energy for desalinization applications. He noted that California uses the most desalinization in the US, but that half of the worlds desalinized water is in the Middle East, with Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, using a large portion of this. To date, no site is powered by wind. Desalinzation needs a constant power supply and this has resulted in most installations using hybrid diesel-wind or systems, often island based, desalinizing sea or brackish water. The technology is still in an early state of development and will need another 20 years before wind can do it alone. Technology options for desalinization include mechanical desalinization , electrical desalinization, chemical desalinization (including ion exchange), heat-flash distillation ( often used in the middle east). The most-often used are multi stage flash desalinization and reverse osmosis, depending on the salt concentrations. The relative cost of desalination depends on the concentration of salt and the pressure needed to push the water through the membrane, as well as on the plant size. Electricity is the major cost for these plants: for brackish water, electricity use is 11% of total cost, for seawater it is 44% of operating costs for the plant. For wind energy applications, there are a number of demonstration plants deployed, particularly in the EU using hybrid applications. In addition to technology advances for desalinization, technology to help address the intermittency of wind, and a successful business model that leverages the benefits of both technologies will be needed. Transmission workgroupWorkgroup ActivitiesCharlie Smith led a description of the activities of the transmission workgroup over the previous six months. The workgroup has held meetings and provided expertise in the hope that this will help facilitate further wind energy development in key areas, including the West, the MISO-region / Midwest, and the Southwest Power Pool region. In addition, members of the transmission workgroup have been engaged with FERC, who, through recent dockets on wind energy interconnection and on the status of wind energy in wholesale markets, have demonstrated an awareness of some of the regulatory challenges facing wind. FERC CommentsThe business meeting participants discussed the possibility of filing the February 2004 Transmission Planning principles as a comment in FEC docket AD04-013-000 assessing the state of wind in wholesale markets. Previous discussions with the NWCC Steering Committee had exposed an interest among many of the members in doing so, but reservations raised by WAPA and NARUC resulted in the addition of language to better delineate the non-binding character of the Principles and to make explicit the right of individual members to file separate comments that may conform to or differ from these principles. Having agreed to this language, the Business Meeting participants, including representatives of Public Utility Commissions, expressed support for filing the comments after working with those members whose organizations had concerns. Charlie Smith alerted the group to a new FERC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking covering the interconnection of wind energy. Based on the German utility EONs standard, the NOPR covers requirements for low voltage ride-through capability and addressed other regulatory barriers to the grid interconnection of wind energy. Regional Developments and NWCC ActivitiesCharlie also led a discussion of major developments in the regions. In the West, GridWest continues to make incremental progress towards its establishment as a Western RTO. WECC has adopted the EON standard for low-voltage ride through, and there have been developments at PacifiCorp and at CAISO with regards to the implementation of flexible / firm tariffs for the delivery of energy from wind. PacifiCorp is moving towards implementation at the Business Practice level instead of by the usual administrative routes. Transmission planning has been heavily underway in all regions of the West that has exposed gaps between transmission development and potential wind energy resource development. Several states, including New Mexico, South Dakota, North Dakota, and others, are introducing legislation that would establish independent Infrastructure Authorities as has been done in Wyoming. Charlie noted that planning is well underway for the February 1-2 2005 Western Wind & Transmission Workshop planned for Sacramento. In the Midwest, those in the transmission community are hard at work preparing for the launch of the Day One market mechanisms in MISO. Other hot issues in the Midwest include transmission planning activity related to capacity expansion and regional transmission expansion through the CAPX and MTEP processes; and a task force drawn from members of the Organization of MISO States that is looking at transmission cost allocation issues. Charlie noted that the NWCC is planning a Midwest Transmission meeting for June 2005 in St. Paul, MN. The NWCC has also been engaged in the SPP Region. Now its own RTO, the SPP has recently adopted proposals for reliability expansion and is developing the rules for economic-based expansion. The Regional State Committee (RSC) of the SPP has been at work on Cost Allocation, and in the Spring of 2005 plan to implement a real-time imbalance market. The meeting participants discussed the October 2004 NWCC meeting in the SPP and adjoining meeting with the RSC the following day. Meeting participants were informed that there remain challenges for the NWCC in the region following this meeting. Abby Arnold explained that the NWCC got drawn inadvertently into ongoing discussions in the SPP about capacity accreditation and cost allocation for transmission expansion, and while the overall result of the meeting was positive, there are some in the region who left the meeting with an inaccurate and potentially unfavorable picture of the NWCC. The NWCC meeting participants discussed methods for remaining engaged in the region. Updates on Other Organizations ActivitiesThe group discussed the new Transmission Planning Committee that had been formed by AWEA, and participants agreed to keep informed about its activities in order to create synergies instead of duplication. NCSL commented that more can be done by the NWCC at the State level, noting that its recent Energy Leaders Forum covered regional action items, policy options, and state committee issues. The group finished with a discussion about how to provide accurate information to state legislatures about transmission issues related to wind energy. Arizona State Wind Working GroupAmanda Ormond, The Ormond Group The Workgroup was founded by Wind Powering America. Currently, it is co-chaired by Amanda on the policy side and Tom Aker, Northern Arizona University on technical issues. The workgroup held its first workshop, attracting 125 attendees to discuss general wind issues, defining the wind resources of the state and how to get transmission to where the wind development will be in the future. The state has a Renewable Portfolio Standard of 1.1% by 2007 of which 60% has to be wind. The Arizona Public Utility Commission is working on developing a higher standard. However, there have been push backs from utilities and without a project in the ground, it is difficult to explain the benefits. Therefore, one of the workgroups priorities for 2005 is to get an actual project in developed. Another potential barrier is the competition with the active solar promoters, which view wind as a threat to their own growth. Instead of fighting for financial and policy support, the wind industry is striving to work together for all renewables. In terms of potential support for wind, New Mexicos Governor Richardsons push to build transmission and renewables for transport of electricity to California may benefit Arizona. Another benefit for wind is that the Arizona Public Service Company (its largest utility with a 5,000MW base) recently settled a rate case in which they are now required to bid for renewables and are precluded from building their own generation. The competitive bid process will benefit renewables which can beat the current high natural gas prices. Current efforts in the transmission areana include an integration study for Arizona to estimate the impacts to the grid. And based out at NAU, the Sustainable Energy Solutions Group is working to help develop business models for wind projects. As Arizona has a large Tribal population and reservations have some of the best wind in the state, the representatives from the Navajo nation are participating in the working group.Member Updates:Tom Gray, AWEA: AWEA is holding its second Siting Workshop, March 8-9 in Boston, MA. The agenda includes experts on birds, bats and non-widlife siting issues. The Annual WindPower Conference is May 15-18th in Denver, with for the first time, there is a session track specifically for the utilities in order to reach out to them.Steve Ponder: FPL Energy FPL Energy is working in Altamont Pass on repowering. 164 old turbines have been removed and the plan is to replace them with 35-40 newer turbines (equaling the same megawatts total). A research plan has been developed to look at the effect of the newer turbines on avian issues, hopefully resulting in a solution to the bird kills. If the project is successful, FPL may try to reproduce the effort in Palm Springs. PG&E has not objected to the repowered turbines qualifing for the ferdearl Production Tax Credit. In 2005 FPL Energys goal is 700-800 MW. This large number is possible because some projects waited until the PTC was in place. The annual estimate for installations this year is 2000-2500 MW. The limiting factors include the amount of turbines available (as prices of steel have gone up).Charlie Smith: UWIG In the past couple of years, UWIGs members ship has jumped from 15 members to 55.The upcoming year includes more technical meetings, continued outreach to utilities, and the general meeting. . Matthew Brown: NCSLMatthew enumerated a couple of trends seen in legislatures around the country. 1) There are a number of states looking at or asking if they can develop a state energy policy.2) Look at increasing tax credits or creating sales tax incentive for renewables. 3) Many states are looking at instituting or raising their RPS. 4) Five to seven states are looking at creating a transmission infrastructure authority and to make it easier for states to work with other states by included it in state statues (UT, ND, SD, AZ, and MT)NCSL staff is working on developing a “transmission primer” with sample legislative language for collaboration on transmission issues. Another issue needing examination for new transmission is that to build a new line, the project must demonstrate a “certificate of need” within the state, not taking into account regional considerations, thus making it more difficult to get new transmission approvedSteve Clemmer: Union of Concerned Scientists National LevelUSC prepared comments for the hearings in DC, the week of January 24th, on natural gas.The comments raised renewables as an option to help reduce gas demand and prices. In terms of siting and wildlife issues, UCS has tried to be proactive in pointing out trade offs and that many of the kills were isolated incidents and dont tend to be trends. UCS is focusing on analyzing issues on northeast siting, because of the current contradiction between high RPS requirements and little installation of renewables, including the Cape Wind Project. UCS is also