Tag: PJM

December’s Freeze Cost Mon Power $40.5 Million In Penalties

The power grid struggled to meet the demand for electricity as temperatures plummeted ahead of Christmas Eve.

Updated Friday, Nov. 17, with comment from Mon Power.

Mon Power paid a $40.5 million performance penalty to PJM interconnection for the December outage at its Harrison plant in Harrison County, according to written testimony filed this week to the West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC).

PJM is the grid operator that includes West Virginia and 12 other mostly eastern states. PJM struggled to meet the demand for electricity as temperatures plummeted ahead of Christmas Eve.

A large portion of West Virginia’s coal-fired generation was not available during that critical time, including Harrison’s Unit 2.

According to the PSC testimony, Unit 2 was offline for 17 days in December. It was brought back into operation on Dec. 24 at 7 p.m, during the height of the crisis. 

Hours earlier, Mon Power had asked its customers to conserve electricity. West Virginia did not experience rolling blackouts that weekend, but some surrounding states did.

Hannah Catlett, a spokeswoman for Mon Power, said the company’s plants “performed very well with some units performing better than others.”

She said Mon Power will receive a net of $10 million in performance payments that exceed charges from PJM and that that money will be credited back to customers.

In total, PJM lost 7,600 megawatts of coal capacity and 32,500 megawatts of natural gas during the peak of the crisis.

Unit 2 is capable of generating 684 megawatts of the plant’s total output of 2,052 megawatts.

Mon Power is before the PSC seeking a rate increase that would add $10 a month to the average residential bill.

PJM Report: Natural Gas Supply Crunch Threatened December Blackouts

Natural gas production in the Appalachian Basin fell 10 to 11 billion cubic feet per day, or about 30 percent of the supply, during the Christmas holiday weekend last year.

A report by the nation’s largest power grid operator shows an interruption in the natural gas supply threatened rolling blackouts in December’s winter freeze.

According to a report from PJM Interconnection, natural gas production in the Appalachian Basin fell 10 to 11 billion cubic feet per day, or about 30 percent of the supply, during the Christmas holiday weekend last year.

As a result, power plants fueled by natural gas couldn’t get enough supply to operate.

In the end, no rolling blackouts took place in the PJM footprint, which includes West Virginia, 12 other states and the District of Columbia.

But PJM came close to a failure, the report said. 

The loss of one more power plant, or the inability to import power from the neighboring New York Independent System Operator may have plunged some of PJM’s 65 million residents into the darkness on some of the coldest days in memory.

PJM actually supplied power to neighboring regions, including the Tennessee Valley Authority and Louisville Gas & Electric-Kentucky Utilities, until it came up short for its own footprint.

Natural gas plants accounted for 70 percent of the outages on Dec. 23 and 24, 2022 according to PJM, while coal accounted for 16 percent.

For example, two of the three units at the Appalachian Power John Amos plant in Putnam County were offline during the storm, according to written testimony filed to the West Virginia Public Service Commission.

Unit 1 was shut down for planned work on its wastewater treatment and coal ash disposal systems. Unit 3 was shut down on Dec. 20, because of a tube leak and did not become available again until Dec. 27, when the crisis was over.

At Mon Power’s Harrison Power Station in Harrison County, Unit 2 went offline on Dec. 7 and was not reactivated until 7 p.m. on Dec. 24, during the height of the crisis. It’s not clear what caused the outage.

Appalachian Power and other utilities in PJM asked their customers to conserve power during what became known as Winter Storm Elliott.

Appalachian Power is an underwriter of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Coal Loses More Ground To Gas In PJM, Nation’s Largest Grid Operator

In what could be a sign of bigger changes happening in the power sector, coal fell to 14 percent of PJM’s power in the first five months of this year.

West Virginia is part of a 13-state regional power grid that’s been a heavy user of coal, but that’s changing.

PJM Interconnection ensures that power reliably gets delivered to 65 million people, making it the largest grid operator in the country.

For the first five months of last year, 22 percent of that power came from coal, 33 percent came from nuclear and 35 percent came from gas.

In what could be a sign of bigger changes happening in the power sector, coal fell to 14 percent of PJM’s power in the first five months of this year. Nuclear stayed about the same, at 34 percent, while gas jumped to 42 percent.

Power demand fell about 4 percent from year to year, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. The changes also reflect the rising cost of coal and the declining cost of natural gas.

Preliminary EIA data tracked by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis shows that nationwide, coal fell to under 15 percent of total generation in April and May for the first time. It also shows that solar and wind together outpaced coal in the first five months of the year for the first time.

PJM Head: Energy Transition Can Be Done, But Grid Reliability Is At Risk

The PJM queue for new generation is backlogged and isn’t accepting any new entries until 2026.

The head of the nation’s largest power grid operator said the transition to cleaner energy is doable, but there are challenges.

Expert witnesses told the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday that retiring coal-fired power plants too quickly could put grid reliability at risk.

Manu Asthana, president and CEO of PJM Interconnection, the grid operator that includes West Virginia and 12 other states, said there is enough wind, solar and battery storage waiting for approval to join the system.

“So we have said we see 40,000 megawatts at risk of retiring by 2030,” Asthana testified. “To replace it, we need 100,000 megawatts of intermittent generation. We have 250,000 in the queue. So it’s doable.”

The problem, he said, is getting it all built, and in time to replace coal plants that are retiring because of economic factors or government policy.

“I wouldn’t want to bet the farm that it will get done given the current trends,” he said. “We need to push to get it done. But I think we need to not burn the boats in terms of the generation we have in the meanwhile.”

The PJM queue for new generation is backlogged and isn’t accepting any new entries until 2026. Asthana said the completion rate of projects is only 5 percent to 10 percent.

He said to meet the future demand, the completion rate needs to be 50 percent or 60 percent.

The witnesses also cited supply chain issues as an obstacle, as well as delays in permitting for new transmission lines and pipelines.

West Virginia has about 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity waiting for approval from PJM. About 10,000 megawatts of that is wind, solar and storage. Only 2,000 megawatts is natural gas, and none of it is coal.

More frequent and severe storms driven by climate change, such as Winter Storm Elliott in December and Winter Storm Uri in 2021, were also cited as risks to the grid.

Pleasants Power Station Remains In Limbo As Shutdown Date Approaches

Mon Power is currently negotiating with the plant’s owner to keep it in operating condition and its employees on the payroll.

The Pleasants Power Station will be deactivated as scheduled on June 1, according to an update from the PJM regional grid operator.

West Virginia lawmakers and officials in Pleasants County have pushed to spare the plant from closing. Mon Power is currently negotiating with the plant’s owner to keep it in operating condition and its employees on the payroll.

Mon Power is supposed to report to the West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC) in the coming days on how those negotiations are going.

If an agreement is reached, Mon Power will charge ratepayers $3 million a month to keep the plant in standby, but it will produce no electricity. The company will proceed with a thorough evaluation of purchasing the plant and operating it.

In its PSC testimony, Mon Power has said it does not intend to operate three power plants in West Virginia. It already has two – the Harrison and Fort Martin power stations.

Environmental and consumer groups, as well as the state’s leading manufacturers, have argued that Mon Power does not need Pleasants. They’ve also said the PSC lacks the authority to approve the monthly surcharge.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) forecasts that PJM, which includes West Virginia and 12 other states, will be able to meet this summer’s electricity demand without Pleasants.”

“Pleasants is not really necessary for reliability purposes this summer,” said Emmett Pepper, policy director for Energy Efficient West Virginia. “It’s also questionable that Pleasants would be necessary for reliability in the long term.”

The 1,300 megawatt plant on the Ohio River could have shut down years sooner, but the state legislature and Gov. Jim Justice gave it a $12.5 million annual tax break that saved it in 2019.

The $36 million annual surcharge Mon Power proposed is three times the amount of the tax break.

Lawmakers passed resolutions in both chambers encouraging Mon Power to buy the plant. Mon Power planned to purchase Pleasants in 2017. The PSC approved the sale, but FERC rejected it.

Coal has become far less competitive in the electric power marketplace. It now generates less than 20 percent of electricity nationwide, though in West Virginia, around 90 percent of power still comes from coal.

Natural gas is currently the dominant fuel for U.S. electricity, but renewables account for an increasing share. Recently, renewable sources surpassed both coal and nuclear power.

With 65 million power customers, PJM is the nation’s largest electric grid operator.

Those who support the continued operation of Pleasants point to December’s deep freeze as a reason to keep it on the grid. Unlike many coal plants, it was producing power during the storm.

Still, the outages PJM experienced during Winter Storm Elliott were mostly at natural gas and coal facilities. Ultimately, no rolling blackouts were required in PJM’s 13-state territory.

Groups Ask PSC To Reconsider Approval Of Pleasants Power Station Plan

Last month, the PSC allowed Mon Power to negotiate an agreement with the plant’s current owner to keep it in operating condition and its workers paid.

Environmental, consumer and industrial groups want state utility regulators to reconsider their approval of a plan to save a coal-burning power plant.

Energy Efficient West Virginia, Solar United Neighbors and Citizen Action Group has asked the Public Service Commission to revisit its conditional approval of a rescue for the Pleasants Power Station.

Last month, the PSC allowed Mon Power to negotiate an agreement with the plant’s current owner to keep it in operating condition and its workers paid past its previously announced shutdown on May 31.

If an agreement can be reached, the PSC would allow Mon Power to charge ratepayers $3 million a month for a year or more, though Pleasants would produce no electricity.

The groups say the PSC lacks the authority to approve the surcharge and that the PJM regional grid operator has offered no objection to the plant’s retirement based on reliability.

The West Virginia Energy Users Group, which consists of the state’s largest manufacturers, supports the petition to reconsider.

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