Dominion Energy has multiple electric power plants

From an Article by Gregory S. Scheidner, Washington Post, May 7, 2019

Richmond, VA — Nine organizations from across the ideological spectrum have formed an unlikely alliance to call for changes in the way Virginians get their electricity, including breaking up the state’s monopoly utilities and letting customers choose their power providers.

Former state attorney general Ken Cuccinelli (R), who now does work for the libertarian group FreedomWorks, and others from conservative or libertarian groups stood alongside representatives from left-leaning groups such as the Virginia Poverty Law Center on Tuesday to announce the creation of the Virginia Energy Reform Coalition.

The coalition highlights what a lightning rod the political power of Virginia’s electric utilities has become. Dominion Energy is the state’s largest power provider and its biggest corporate political donor, spreading its influence to both major parties and helping to write its own regulatory legislation. The smaller Appalachian Power has similar clout in the southwestern section of the state.

The coalition’s slogan makes its target clear: “It’s Time to Take Back Our Dominion.” Its members said the state should allow monopolies only for the network of wires that distributes energy. Power production should be open to competition, they say.

“In this day and age, when there seem to be more and tougher obstacles to working across party and ideological lines,” Cuccinelli said, “I’m proud to stand here today with a politically eclectic group that is committed to modernizing Virginia’s electricity markets.”

Cuccinelli said the various groups had found unity in the goal of breaking up the insider influence of the utilities and setting up a competitive market.

The current system is built around a “fundamental imbalance,” said Brennan Gilmore, executive director of the liberal group Clean Virginia, which has been encouraging political candidates to refuse contributions from Dominion and Appalachian Power. “Our utilities have taken advantage of Virginians” to protect their “privileged and lucrative” monopolies, Gilmore said.

A spokesman for Dominion warned that the proposals would harm consumers. “Deregulation isn’t the way forward for Virginia’s energy future,” Rayhan Daudani said via email. “In fact, it would be a step backward. Customers in deregulated states pay rates that are more than 40 percent higher on average and don’t receive nearly as much in return.”

Virginia tried deregulation once before, and it didn’t work. The General Assembly restructured the electricity market in 1999, during an era when many states experimented with opening energy markets to competition. But most such markets struggled, and in 2007 the legislature abandoned the experiment.

The State Corporation Commission has authority to oversee Dominion and Appalachian Power, setting rates and issuing rebates to customers when profits get too high. But in the past few years, the General Assembly has diluted the commission’s power. In 2015, with Dominion’s help, lawmakers passed a rate freeze that stripped the SCC of its power.

Faced with increasing political backlash, last year Dominion led the General Assembly in a comprehensive rewrite of regulatory law. The SCC is again restricted in its ability to oversee electricity rates, and the utilities are granted wide latitude to reinvest profits in new technologies and expansion projects.

The members of the Virginia Energy Reform Coalition said states such as Texas and Ohio have devised successful ways to deregulate the energy market and usher in competition that saves money for consumers. They consulted with Pat Wood III, who led the Texas utility commission in the late 1990s and served as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under President George W. Bush.

Wood said at the news conference that the idea is to construct a market that allows consumers to benefit from competitive pressures that can drive down energy prices, just as Dominion and Appalachian Power benefit now from fluctuations in the wholesale market.

In Texas, he said, that involved breaking up the big utilities and selling off their generation plants. As a result, he said, the energy market has evolved faster to embrace new technology and alternative energy sources.

Daudani, the Dominion spokesman, said later that the utility is already embracing renewable energy and modernizing the grid. “This coalition’s collection of grab-bag policies was tried and failed and ultimately led to the bankruptcy of Enron,” he said. “We know how this story ends, and it is wrong for Virginia.”

The coalition was put together by James Presswood of the Earth Stewardship Alliance, a conservative conservation group. Other organizations involved are Appalachian Voices, the Piedmont Environmental Council, the Reason Foundation, R Street Institute and the Virginia Institute for Public Policy.

Appalachian Power looks to acquire planned wind power projects, one in WV

From an Article by Max Garland, Charleston Gazette-Mail, July 5, 2017

Appalachian Power is continuing its shift toward renewable energy, as the electric utility announced Wednesday it is seeking approval to acquire two wind power facilities under development.

One of these projects, the Beech Ridge II Wind Facility, will be located in Greenbrier County and generate about 50 megawatts of power. The other, Hardin Wind Facility, will be located in Hardin County, Ohio, and generate 175 megawatts of power.

Both wind power facilities are being developed by Invenergy, according to a statement from Appalachian Power. The facilities are expected to be in commercial operation in 2018, according to Invenergy’s website.

Appalachian said it is pursuing the acquisitions because of “the declining cost of wind resources and the extension of the Federal Production Tax Credit.” It is filing for regulatory approval with the West Virginia Public Service Commission and the Virginia State Corporation Commission.

About 61 percent of Appalachian’s electricity comes from coal, while wind and solar make up a total of 5 percent, according to the utility’s most recent estimates. By 2031, Appalachian projects that coal will make up 51 percent of its electricity generation, while wind and solar will total 25 percent.

“We are continuing our transition to an energy company of the future and further diversifying our power generation portfolio. These acquisitions move us in that direction,” Appalachian President Chris Beam said in a news release. “Direct ownership and operation of these facilities will give our employees new experiences in the planning, production and delivery of power from diverse generating assets as Appalachian continues to add renewable resources in the years ahead.”

Appalachian, an American Electric Power subsidiary, serves about 1 million customers in West Virginia, Tennessee and Virginia.

Beam told the Gazette-Mail earlier this year that the company is looking toward renewables as big businesses like Amazon and Google look for facilities that can run entirely on renewable energy. He also said “there definitely is some ability to expand wind in West Virginia.”

Appalachian has 375 megawatts of wind generation. An additional 120 megawatts will come online next year from NextEra’s Bluff Point Wind Energy Center, an acquisition approved by the PSC in March. The PSC said “it is just, reasonable, and in the public interest” for Appalachian to enter into the purchase agreement, despite concerns that customers would be responsible for the costs if the wind energy market were to falter.

Greenbrier County already is home to the Beech Ridge Wind Farm in Rupert, which generates 100 megawatts of power and is owned by an Invenergy subsidiary. It began commercial operation in 2010, according to Invenergy’s website.

Invenergy, headquartered in Chicago, develops and operates wind, solar and natural gas projects in the United States and other countries. The company and its affiliates have developed projects that total more than 15,900 megawatts of power, it said in a recent news release. The majority of that power comes from wind farms, with about 10,000 megawatts generated.

Invenergy representatives did not respond to interview requests for this report.

According to a 2014 presentation on the West Virginia Department of Commerce website, the Beech Ridge Wind Farm has 67 turbines and Beech Ridge II would develop up to 33 turbines, all west of the existing turbines.

Greenbrier County Commissioner Lowell Rose said the Beech Ridge Wind Farm, located near Cold Knob Mountain in the western part of the county, has been a net positive to the community. Its location quelled initial concerns that the wind turbines would harm the area’s natural beauty and, consequently, the tourism industry, he added.

“[The wind farm] is back behind the mountains in a private land area,” Rose said. “It’s not really noticeable from major cities like Lewisburg. It actually might have helped tourism a bit, with people visiting it.”

Appalachian receives energy from the Beech Ridge Wind Farm through a purchase agreement. Invenergy also has a 31.5 megawatt energy storage project near the site.

Following a federal court settlement between Invenergy and environmental groups, the Beech Ridge turbines can only operate during times when the endangered Indiana bat and the Virginia big-eared bat are not flying, according to a previous Gazette-Mail report. Additionally, its turbines cannot be operated from April 1 to Nov. 15, the report said.

Max Garland