South Dakota Coops Bury Transmission for Reliability
Posted on Oct 7, 2014 in Grid & Infrastructure, Legislative & Politics, Project Development, Reliability | Comments Off on South Dakota Coops Bury Transmission for Reliability
Five South Dakota coops are using federal and state disaster funds to bury hundreds of miles of transmission lines. The coops are focusing on reliability after a blizzard caused outages for thousands of customers in early October of last year. Click here for more.
North Dakota Coop Vies for Territory
Posted on Oct 7, 2014 in Grid & Infrastructure, Litigation, Regulation & Policy | Comments Off on North Dakota Coop Vies for Territory
The North Dakota Public Service Commission has ruled in favor of Montana-Dakota Utilities (MDU) in a territorial dispute with Capital Electric Cooperative (CEC) over which company should provide service to an industrial customer building a plant in McKenzie, North Dakota. MDU and CEC divide territory between themselves under a service area agreement, but the agreement did not cover...
Kentucky Coop Participates in a Collaborative Solar Project for Army Base
Posted on Oct 6, 2014 in Environmental, Financing, Grid & Infrastructure, Innovation/Efficiency, Land Use, Renewable Energy | Comments Off on Kentucky Coop Participates in a Collaborative Solar Project for Army Base
Pennyrile Rural Electric Cooperative has joined forces with the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, the Department of Defense at Fort Campbell and the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) to build a 5-Mw solar photovoltaic panel system at Fort Campbell. The group’s plan would result in building the largest solar array in Kentucky. Since forming the collaborative has accumulated...
Michigan Coop Asks FERC to Change Cost Order
Posted on Sep 29, 2014 in Grid & Infrastructure, Regulation & Policy | Comments Off on Michigan Coop Asks FERC to Change Cost Order
Michigan’s Cloverland Electric Cooperative (Cloverland) has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reverse an order requiring Cloverland to pay potentially millions in costs for a plant from which Cloverland argues it derives no direct benefit. When investor-owned utility We Energies decided to close its coal-fired Presque Isle Power Plant, the Midcontinent...
New MultiSpeak Cybersecurity Standard Ready for Testing
Posted on Sep 25, 2014 in Grid & Infrastructure, Reliability, Technology | Comments Off on New MultiSpeak Cybersecurity Standard Ready for Testing
MultiSpeak, an industry software interoperability standard developed in part by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, has expanded to include a new cybersecurity component that is now available for testing. The cybersecurity standard is intended to help coops protect against data breaches by ensuring safer billing and other data-related processes. Click here to read...
Department of Energy Seeking Public Comment
Posted on Sep 23, 2014 in Grid & Infrastructure, Regulation & Policy | Comments Off on Department of Energy Seeking Public Comment
The Department of Energy has requested public comment on their newly released draft Energy Sector Cybersecurity Framework Implementation Guidance and their draft Voluntary Code of Conduct for smart grid data privacy. Federal Register requests for comment are here: Framework Guidance here: Code of Conduct here:
Basin Electric Receives Federal Approval for Major Transmission Line
Posted on Sep 16, 2014 in Grid & Infrastructure, Legislative & Politics, Permitting, Regulation & Policy, Reliability | Comments Off on Basin Electric Receives Federal Approval for Major Transmission Line
Basin Electric Power Cooperative (Basin Electric) recently received federal approval for construction of a 200-mile transmission line in western North Dakota. The project, which will include 345 kV transmission lines, two new substations and modifications to three existing substations, will start at Basin Electric’s Antelope Valley Station and end in Tioga, North Dakota. Basin...
Endangered Species Listing May Risk Reliability
Posted on Sep 15, 2014 in Environmental, Grid & Infrastructure, Regulation & Policy, Reliability | Comments Off on Endangered Species Listing May Risk Reliability
Several hundred distribution and generation and transmission coops may be affected if the northern long-eared bat is added to the endangered species list. The House Natural Resources Committee is considering this designation as the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and others argue that listing the bat will pose a risk to reliability because coops remove bat roosting...
Court Strikes Down New Jersey Power Plant Subsidy Program
Posted on Sep 15, 2014 in Grid & Infrastructure, Litigation, Project Development, Regulation & Policy | Comments Off on Court Strikes Down New Jersey Power Plant Subsidy Program
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has determined that New Jersey’s Long-Term Capacity Agreement Pilot Program impinges on the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over wholesale sales of capacity in interstate commerce. The ruling is the latest in a string of similar cases in which state subsidy programs have been struck down on jurisdictional...
USDA Announces Investment to Improve Reliability of Rural Electric Systems
Posted on Sep 9, 2014 in Financing, Grid & Infrastructure, Legislative & Politics, Regulation & Policy, Reliability | Comments Off on USDA Announces Investment to Improve Reliability of Rural Electric Systems
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) plan to invest more than $518 million in rural electric cooperatives to improve rural electric infrastructure. More than $23 million of the announced funding will be targeted for smart grid improvements. For more information and a list of the loan recipients, click here.
Subscribe
