Public Power Underground

John Hairston, CEO and Administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration, joins Humaira Falkenberg, Brian Fawcett, and Paul Dockery on Public Power Underground to participate in our Electric Utility Recruiting video series.

Before John’s recruiting pitch, Humaira Falkenberg opens with a message of change, a message of hope, and a message of inclusion in her cold open as the episodes celebrity guest host.

Electric Utility Recruiting video series

Attracting a new workforce into electric utility professions is going to be one of the key challenges of the next 20 years, and electric utility enthusiasts need to build up recruiting skills to meet the challenge. So Public Power Underground took the opportunity, while it was recording on location at the opening reception for NWPPA’s Annual Meeting in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to pull aside executives from across the region and quiz them on their best recruiting pitches to attract new folks to electric utility professions. 

We were honored to be joined by John Hairston, Mark Johnson, Sarah Giomi, Scott Corwin, Scott Simms, Scott Coe, Scott Rhees, Sarah Edmonds, Marc Farmer, Crystal Ball, and Bear Prairie. The interviews will be released individually over the coming weeks as special, bonus episodes. 

You can find our merch on shopify. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Remember to share this with any friends you have that are electric utility enthusiasts like us!

Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, it’s work to watch!

Elliot Mainzer, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the California Independent System Operator (ISO), joined Crystal Ball, Matt Schroettnig, and Paul Dockery for the second installation of our Electric Market Enthusiasm series. We try to keep it light while discussing governance, transmission, price formation, stakeholder engagement, and CAISO’s new five year strategic plan. To break up the heavy topics we play an intermission game!

05:16 - newly released 5 year Strategic Plan

14:27 - Governance, legislative change, and Concurrent Resolution 188 introduced by Assembly member Chris Holden, also, Elliot’s TEDx1

27:27 - an Intermission Game called “better know an RTO CEO by getting them to reveal a preference of competing energy-interpreted gifs in a championship bracket” 

40:36 - Transmission Planning and Elliot’s “WEIM Transfer Paths” infographic

51:27 - High beams on market evolution and price formation2

1:06:14 - the Duke Silver of Western Power Markets

You can find our merch on shopify. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Remember to share this with any friends you have that are electric utility enthusiasts like us!

Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, it’s work to watch!

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1 TEDxPortland 2011 - Elliot Mainzer - The Power Grid

2 Mays, Jacob and Jenkins, Jesse, Electricity Markets under Deep Decarbonization (April 19, 2022). USAEE Working Paper No. 22-550, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4087528 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.408752

Using the Zach Lowe podcasting technique, Crystal Ball, Humaira Falkenberg, Matthew Schroettnig, and Paul Dockery review their top-5 most interesting energy news stories from so far in 2022 . . . . at a pub . . . together . . . in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho on the eve of NWPPA’s Annual Meeting.

The stories they covered are listed in a google sheet they used to talk from. Rather than translate the google sheet into bullet points, we’re just including a hyperlink to the working doc.

If you have an interesting story from 2022 you’d like to contribute, just add it to the sheet under “Friends of the Underground”. 

Jacob Mays, Assistant Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, answers Paul’s remedial questions on how electric markets function and what the Pacific Northwest should be considering when approaching market expansion incrementally in a wide ranging and engaging conversation. 

Since Professor Mays is an academic, it feels fitting to include citations for the materials referenced. Please excuse any errors in citation.

1. Mays et al., Private risk and social resilience in liberalized electricity markets, Joule (2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2022.01.004
2. Mays, Jacob and Jenkins, Jesse, Electricity Markets under Deep Decarbonization (April 19, 2022). USAEE Working Paper No. 22-550, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4087528 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4087528
3. Mays, J., Morton, D.P. & O’Neill, R.P. Asymmetric risk and fuel neutrality in electricity capacity markets. Nat Energy 4, 948–956 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-019-0476-1
4. F. A. Wolak, Economic and political constraints on the demand-side of electricity industry re-structuring processes, Review of Economics and Institutions 4 (1) (Feb. 2013). doi:10.5202/rei.v4i1.101.
   URL https://doi.org/10.5202/rei.v4i1.101
5. Grubert, E., & Hastings-Simon, S. (2022). Designing the mid-transition: A review of medium-term challenges for coordinated decarbonization in the United States. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, e768. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.768
6. Mays, J., A mini-thread on my and @JesseJenkins working paper, Electricity Markets under Deep Decarbonization. (April 28, 2022). Twitter.com. 
7. Jenkins, J., Texas's grid is straining again, as a spring heat wave finds ERCOT with about 1/3 of thermal power plants down, some for scheduled outages (prep for summer), others forced outages due to equipment failures, including 1 coal and 6 gas units. A few threads on the situation... (May 14, 2022). Twitter.com. 

You can find our merch on shopify. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Remember to share this with any friends you have that are electric utility enthusiasts like us!

Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, where you’re valued and appreciated.

Ben Serrurier, Jason Fordney, Arin Guillory, and Paul Dockery talk about the latest in public power, public-power-adjacent news and exciting acronyms, including BPA in the EIM, CREPC-WIRAB, all-things Tx, NuScale IPO, and another WSJ article!

04:07 - a new merch idea coming from the FDR speech Ben quotes in the cold open

08:19 - Arin Reports

14:21 - BPA joined the EIM on May 3rd

• BPA press release
• CAISO press release

20:28 - Committee on Regional Electric Power Cooperation // Western Interconnection Regional Advisory Body (CREPC-WIRAB)

• Ben’s live tweet of the event
• CREPC WIRAB agenda
• Jason Fordney’s article

34:53 - Ari Peskoe’s Utility Dive guest article

• Jim DiPeso’s coverage of FERC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
• Keegan Moyer’s (Energy Strategies, Partner) presentation on Transmission Planning from CREPC-WIRAB

43:13 - NuScale starts trading on the NYSE

• Coverage from The Oregonian (link from Joel Myer’s Energy News Digest, thanks Joel)
• Stock tracking

49:19 - WSJ’s Katherine Blunt covers Electricity Shortage Warnings

• the February article by Katerine Blunt on the “increasingly unreliable” power grid
• Bloomberg’s coverage of California state officials warning
• Dan Catchpole’s coverage of PNUCC’s Northwest Regional Forecast (NRF)
• The EI/GridLab/Telos report on CA 2030

1:02:31 - TL;DR the rest of the news in “Energy West, lite”

• Rick Adair
• K.C. Mehaffey
• K.C. Mehaffey
• Linda Dailey Paulson
• Jim DiPeso
• “News Roundup”

You can find our merch on shopify. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Remember to share this with any friends you have that are electric utility enthusiasts like us!

Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, where you’re valued and appreciated.

Bill Drummond, Dan Catchpole, Karen Heim, and Paul Dockery talk about the latest in public power and public-power-adjacent news, including Lineworker Appreciation Day, solar developers betting on RTO development, what’s going on with the battery supply chain, and jumpstarting interregional transmission!

08:45 - Arin Reports with Karen Reporting

14:10 - Lineworker Appreciation Day

21:11 - solar developers betting on RTO development

31:08 - a bunch of battery stories

• CAISO is developing a new participation model for energy storage resources
• a Southern California Edison’s energy storage project is facing delays
• Rivian Chief Executive Officer, RJ Scaringe has a warning
• Supply chain issues facing batteries

41:21 - DOE’s $2.5 billion Transmission Jump Start Program

50:01 - TL;DR the rest of the news in “Energy West, lite”

• K.C. Mehaffey
• Rick Adair
• Linda Daily Paulson
• Rick Adair
• Abigail Sawyer
• “News Roundup”
• Albuquerque Journal

You can find our merch on shopify. Remember to share this with any friends you have that are electric utility enthusiasts like us!

Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, where you’re valued and appreciated.

Debra Smith, the General Manager and Chief Executive Officer for Seattle City Light, joined the Karen, Matt, and Paul for a special bonus discussion about the electric utility enthusiast trifecta: Electrification, Markets, and People. We also get some jokes, elephant noises, an intermission game, and some new merch ideas.

05:49 - what’s going well, a numbered list

12:14 - Attracting, retaining, and recruiting public power people

36:56 - an Intermission Game called “Fantasy Utility Draft” where we do a mock electric utility draft from the characters of Schitts Creek, Succession, Ted Lasso, and Parks & Rec

51:27 - Debra’s thoughts on market development in the Northwest

57:03 - Seattle City Lights approach to electrification and highlights of their recent projects

• Curbside EV charging
• New electric bus charging base
• Electrification study developed in collaboration w/ EPRI

1:01:46 - Scaling up our workforce as the biggest challenge facing electric utilities

• background from interview w/ Jesse Jenkins
• Saul Griffith’s book Electrify and link to Rewiring America
• the hk tweet

1:10:03 - new merch ideas

You can find our merch on shopify. Remember to share this with any friends you have that are electric utility enthusiasts like us!

Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, where you’re valued and appreciated.

Robert Trinnear, Abigail Sawyer, Brian Fawcett, and Paul Dockery talk about the latest in public power and public-power-adjacent news, including IPCC’s working group 3 report, the nationalization of National Grid, a $4.7 million fine by FERC, electrifying heavy duty trucks, and public power whitepapers!

08:02 - Arin Reports with Brian Reporting

16:28 - IPCC’s Working Group 3 Report

• The Guardian article on Working Group 3 conclusions
• The Guardian article on IPCC reports and what they address

29:29 - UK government buys ESO from National Grid

37:32 - Constellation NewEnergy pays fine for violating CAISO market rules

42:25 - Nevada joins EV MOU

47:57 - Preference customers publish papers on Provider of Choice

• PPC’s “PUBLIC POWER POST-2028 CONCEPT PAPER”
• PNGC’s “Post-2028 BPA Contract Framework and Concept Paper”

52:37 - TL;DR the rest of the news in “Energy West, lite”

• Wholesale electric prices in CAISO
• Colstrip operator Talen Energy reportedly preparing for bankruptcy
• Biden Invokes Defense Act to Boost Critical Minerals

You can find our merch on shopify. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Remember to share this with any friends you have that are electric utility enthusiasts like us!

Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, where you’re valued and appreciated.

Matt and Paul have a meandering conversation with Chris Kroeker from NW Natural about H2’s role in the energy transition.

04:01 - all the colors of hydrogen
17:32 - difference between hydrogen (H2) and renewable natural gas (CH4)
21:23 - How much H2 can go in CH4 transmission and distribution lines?
26:58 - How much H2 can be used in natural gas power plants?
29:35 - H2’s role in industrial decarbonization (include paper mills)
31:50 - Infrastructure necessary to get H2 to industrial loads (and money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that may go toward it)
36:50 - How much hydrogen infrastructure does a billion dollars get ya!? 
39:15 - Is there an inverse heat rate for the electricity to H2 conversion? 

• 55kWh/kg-H2, 1kg-H2 = 135,000 btu 
• 55kWh/135,000btu or 2,454 btu/kWh
• Inverse heat rate (a.k.a. the Cold Hart Rate) = 1 / 2.454 MMBTU/MWh = 0.4075 MWh/MMBTU
• Break even price for electrolysis at $30/MWh = 0.4075 MWh/MMBTU * $30/MWh = $12.22/MMBTU

I decided to check my concepts against known efficiencies of Proton exchange membrane electrolysis cells

• 3.4121 MMBTU = 1 MWh
• Efficiency of electrolysis conversion from MWh to H2, η = ~70%
• η*3.4121MMBTU/MWh = 2.38847 MMBTU/MWh 
• Inverse heat rate (a.k.a. the Cold Hart Rate) = 1/2.38847 MMBTU/MWh = 0.4187 MWh/MMBTU 
• Break even price for electrolysis at $30/MWh = 0.4187 MWh/MMBTU * $30/MWh = $12.56/MMBTU

Special thanks to Chris Kroeker and Jonathan Hart for finding mistakes in my initial math. In exchange for Jon’s help resolving my error, I will forever refer to this conversion as the “Cold Hart Rate”. 

I don’t know if that was useful, if you have thoughts about the usefulness of an inverse heat rate or better math, let me know.

Remember to share this with any friends you have that are electric utility enthusiasts like us!

Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, where you’re valued and appreciated.

Therese Hampton, Jason Fordney, Crystal Ball, and Paul Dockery talk about the latest in public power and public-power-adjacent news, including Blue Wolf Capital, minimum pool elevation for power generation at Glen Canyon Dam, FERC’s take on ROE, innovation at Douglas County PUD, a new President and CEO at WPP, and two new members of WMEG!

06:45 - Arin Reports with Crystal Reporting
13:29 - Blue Wolf Capital is pursuing the restart of the Intalco aluminum smelter 

• Larry Brown opinion piece in The Seattle Times
• Scott Simms rebuttal in The Seattle Times

18:47 - Glen Canyon Dam approaching minimum pool elevation

• Coverage by Jake Bittle at Grist
• AP coverage in October of 2021
• US Bureau of Reclamation Reservoir Storage Dashboard
• US Drought Monitor map

24:20 - FERC Lowers PG&E Transmission ROE, related coverage in Utility Dive
34:16 - Douglas County PUD is innovating with renewable hydrogen (and maybe, possibly, someday expanding)
40:21 - The Western Power Pool announces the selection of Sarah Edmonds as President and CEO
44:22 - TL;DR the rest of the news in “Energy West, lite”
52:30 - the Western Markets Exploratory Group (“W”- “meg”) added two new members since announced in October of 2021
56:56 - BREAKING NEWS from the Chair of the Western Energy Imbalance Market Governance Review Committee

Remember to share this with any friends you have that are electric utility enthusiasts like us!

Public Power Underground, for electric utility enthusiasts! Public Power Underground, where you’re valued and appreciated.