Diverse team of energy rivals debate roles in future energy strategy
SAN ANTONIO – Everyone was a winner in a debate before an audience of state utility regulators about the future makeup of the nation’s energy mix.
Representatives of a half dozen industry associations stated their case at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Annual Meeting and Education Conference in San Antonio for being part of the team that will not only wind down carbon emissions but also keep the lights on in a reliable and economical fashion.
“Diversity is important because each generation resource offers different attributes,” said Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington.
But there remains a concern that regardless of the attributes of the various resources, some could see their babies thrown out with the bathwater as utility commissions and other government officials focus too narrowly on cost and climate. “There really is an ‘all of the above’ strategy,” Korsnick said. “No one resource can do it all.”
The NARUC meeting provided a forum for discussion of the many moving parts of the rapidly changing energy landscape. Monday’s discussion was staged as an actual debate where each speaker addressed questions posed by NARUC President Nick Wagner. The questions were focused on what the energy grid was going to look like in five years and what regulatory changes would be required to keep each fuel source on the field and playing a role rather than being relegated to the bench.
All of the speakers agreed that steps needed to be taken to preserve, if not expand, their role in the energy strategy.
• Nuclear: Harnessing the atom was originally hailed as a massive source of cheap power that would fuel the brave new post-war world. Korsnick contended that nuclear had not disappointed in its unshakably large generation capacity and fuel security, and the fact that reactors simply don’t spew out greenhouse gases. Korsnick also stressed reliability and the ability of nuclear plants to seamlessly cover weather-related spikes in demand. She called for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to be given the authority to include the environmental impact of nuclear power in its deliberations on electricity markets.
• Natural Gas: The one-time Great Clean Hope against climate change has been getting some doubts from environmentalists as being not entirely free of challenging emissions. But Karen Harbert, CEO of the American Gas Association, said that gas had already slashed U.S. methane emissions and was going to play a major role in the nation’s energy strategy for the foreseeable future. “We add a customer every minute of every day,” she said. “We have more natural gas today than we have ever had before, and demand is also higher than it has ever been.” The prospect of gas was limited only by its transportation infrastructure, and Harbert urged regulators at all levels to streamline the permitting process in order to speed up the construction of pipelines to constrained markets such as the Northeast.
• Coal: Like nuclear energy, coal’s ample supplies and high-output plants are still in place. Michelle Bloodworth, CEO of America’s Power, touted coal as riding to the rescue in areas where renewables were not strong enough to meet regional demand. “We believe the grid needs more capacity that is resilient, and fuel-secure,” she said. “The coal fleet keeps the lights on regardless of circumstances.” Bloodworth held up PJM, which last year launched a fuel-security task force, as a model for the rest of the nation.
• Distributed Resources: Katherine Hamilton, executive director of the Advanced Energy Management Alliance, said high-tech distributed resources were an effective means of raising the resiliency of the grid by quickly adding power from home solar panels and similar resources in a pinch. The technology has also helped utilities save millions of dollars in operational costs. Utilities and regulators, she said, could help by looking at distributed resources as a viable asset and not “more trouble than they are worth.”
• Wind and Solar: Renewables have powered their way into a leading role in the utility industry as its production costs plummet. When combined with effective storage, it is developing a greater reputation for reliability and cost along with its obvious lack of harmful emissions. “Renewable resources are clean, resilient and reliable,” said Nat Kreamer, CEO of Advanced Energy Economy and AEE Institute, who added that renewables were still “generally misunderstood.” He called on regulators and the utility industry to move more quickly on climate change policy or else risk seeing their customers set up their own solar or wind generators and disconnect from the grid altogether.
• Storage: Energy storage is seen as vital if renewables are going to continue expanding by “absorbing the oversupply” of electricity generated on sunny and windy days and then releasing it when needed. Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO of the Energy Storage Association, also pointed out that large commercial customers could tap into their own energy storage systems at times of peak demand and hold their electric costs down. She said FERC could take a more aggressive role in supporting the expansion of storage. “There are so many little things (to do) here and there,” she said.
In keeping with the collegial format of the NARUC conference there was no declared winner of the debate, and the U.S. energy team remained intact with each niche able to claim a stake in the future.
Harbert said, “Everyone on the stage will have a role to play, and I would hope that we don’t devolve into fuel cannibalism because that’s not the answer. Practical discussions like today are where we should be taking this great energy solution.”
