QUICK NEWS, May 21: A FIGHT FOR SUN IN TEXAS; NRG LAYOFFS HERALD FADING PTC HOPES; WHAT WORRIES GRID OPERATORS MOST

A FIGHT FOR SUN IN TEXAS Austin Solar Advocates Looking To Find Common Ground On Utility's Plans

Angela Beniwal, 17 May 2012 (Solar Industry)

“Texas formed the Sustainable Energy Development Council (SEDC) in the early '90s to figure out how to maximize the clean energy potential of the state. Texas is now a leader in renewable energy production, due largely to that initiative…[T]he City of Austin, Texas, is following in the footsteps of the SEDC by creating the Austin Local Solar Advisory Committee, which is tasked with issuing recommendations on how to develop more local solar projects…[and] reach a consensus on how best to optimize Austin's solar resources…

“…Austin Energy is owned by the city. Currently, there is a little over 6 MW of installed solar - mostly in the form of systems 20 kW or smaller - in Austin. The utility's Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan includes a goal of reaching 35% renewable energy by 2020, with 200 MW of this coming from solar…However, the plan does not state whether the solar resources have to be local or if they can come from power plants located outside of the city…”

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“…[S]takeholders agree that they want more solar, but there are different viewpoints as to how to reach this goal…[A] U.S. Department of Energy study…[said] Austin could produce approximately 2.3 GW of power if panels were installed on all the unshaded, south-facing roofs in the city…

“The city is also in an unusual position because it owns the utility…Austin Energy supports adding more solar to its generation mix, but the utility does not necessarily think that all 200 MW needs to come from distributed resources within Austin…[Other] solar advocates are pushing for local solar in order to create a sustainable economy. Another goal is to avoid the boom-and-bust cycles that can result from temporary or changing incentives, such as the solar rebate that is offered by Austin Energy…”

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NRG LAYOFFS HERALD FADING PTC HOPES NRG Systems Reduces Headcount For The First Time

18 May 2012 (North American Windpower)

“Due to what it calls ‘ongoing uncertainty and volatility in the global wind energy industry,’ …wind energy assessment provider NRG Systems has laid off 18 workers - the first such layoffs in the company's 30-year history…

“According to NRG, although the U.S. wind industry has always weathered the boom-and-bust cycle of inconsistent federal policy, the stakes today are much higher, given the 400-plus manufacturing facilities and 75,000 employees supported by wind energy.”

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“After a decade of steady growth, the wind industry is being hampered by external forces, including an uneven playing field for U.S. energy subsidies, the looming expiration of the production tax credit for wind and abnormally low natural-gas prices…

“NRG [said] the layoffs - following cuts in company benefits, travel and other expenses - were made based on business need…The company [said] it is now better positioned for success when the market stabilizes.”

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WHAT WORRIES GRID OPERATORS MOST What Is The Power Grid's Most Significant Reliability Issue?

16 May 2012 (Renew Grid)

“The reliability of the bulk power supply in the U.S. remains adequate, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corp.'s (NERC) 2012 State of Reliability report [on ongoing reliability trends]. However, protection-system misoperations remain a significant issue…

“There were few changes to the reliability of the bulk power system between 2008 and 2011. The severity risk index (SRI) and the 18 metrics that measure characteristics of adequate level of reliability (ALR) indicate the bulk power system is within the defined acceptable ALR conditions…An improved ALR definition is being developed…From 2008 to 2011, the number of bulk-power-system transmission-related events - excluding events caused by factors other than the performance of the transmission system - resulting in loss of firm load was relatively flat, with an average eight to 10 events per year.”

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“The 2011 daily severity risk index value that measures events resulting in the loss of transmission, generation and load showed that the majority of the year's performance was improved compared to 2008, 2009 and 2010…However, when weather-initiated events are included, 2011 had more "high-stress days" (eight days with an SRI greater than five) than had been experienced in prior years (two to five days with an SRI higher than five)…

“The availability of the bulk transmission system remains high, with no statistically significant change from 2008 to 2011. The AC circuit availability was above 98%, and the transformer availability was above 96% for both 2010 and 2011…[R]oughly 2% of the events per year (92 events out of 4,185 total events) contained between three and 14 momentary and sustained automatic outages…A recent survey of 133 of these events (from 2008 to 2011) shows that over 60% of the returned survey responses involved abnormal clearing of one or more of the element outages. Nearly half of them involved element outages initiated by protection-system misoperations…”

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