Grid Giants Ignoring Political Correctness to Scream "Danger, Danger, Danger..." By Thomas Shepstone

Getting these power people to speak truth to power of the political kind was a gargantuan and nearly impossible task.

Grid Giants Ignoring Political Correctness to Scream "Danger, Danger, Danger..."

THOMAS J SHEPSTONE

MAY 23, 2024

Joe Biden has done it! He’s forced two electrical grid giants to break through the wall of political correctness to scream warnings about his foolish carbon crusade. Cracking that PC wall wasn’t easy. The grid operators, like big utilities, big this and big are prone all to PC and PR speak (“Newspeak” for those of you who are Orwellians). They avoid controversy, love bland indecipherable language and adopt whatever trendy cause comes down the pike as their own, working in meaningless words such as ‘sustainability’ whenever possible.

Getting these power people to speak truth to power of the political kind was a gargantuan and nearly impossible task. Old Joe has succeeded, though, because his brain cells no longer register fear of treading where angels refuse to go. He was the one fellow who could be counted on to go further than normal, to take that step into absurdity by letting his EPA go wild, giving them a good hair sniff, pat and “you go girl” at he did so.

And, the EPA did go wild with a carbon rule, which was enough to prompt at least two gigantic grid operators — the Southwest Power Pool and PJM — to say “whoa” in ways they’ve never said before. Here’s some of the former’s scream (emphasis added):

LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — Southwest Power Pool (SPP) sent its member utilities a statement on May 20, detailing the impact a final rule issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could have on future energy availability throughout their region and the country. Given SPP’s and its stakeholders’ commitment to ensuring electric reliability, the grid operator asserts the EPA rule could negatively impact the nation’s ability to provide consumers reliable electric service in the interest of a swift transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, particularly during a time when additional generating capacity is already needed to ensure the reliable supply of energy.

Rule 2023-0072, finalized by the EPA on April 25, is meant to curb greenhouse gas emissions at power plants through new performance standards. SPP prides itself on being a leader in the reliable integration of renewable energy and is supportive of the long-term goals of the rule. However, though wind is the number one source of energy in its 14-state region, the grid operator underscored in its statement to stakeholders that controllable or “dispatchable” energy sources like coal and natural gas remain necessary to meet the ever-growing demand for electricity…

SPP’s statement questions the feasibility of implementing the carbon capture and sequestration process by the rule’s deadline and the reasonableness of optional requirements for volumes of natural gas, which may not be available to individual producers. SPP also noted that the need to ensure the reliable delivery of power is becoming both more critical and complex given the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and increasing demand for electricity, among other factors.

“Our mission, and our charge from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is to strive to continuously keep the lights on today and tomorrow throughout our region,” said Lanny Nickell, chief operating officer at SPP. “We take our duty to the 18 million people in our footprint very seriously, and we fear that the EPA rule will induce or impose actions that conflict with that duty. At the minimum, it presents serious complications for SPP and our members that may be insurmountable.”

That’s still way too mild-mannered, of course, but, by Big PR standards it’s a “Danger, Danger…” warning. The SPP power generation mix, as I write this at 6:15 this morning, is as follows:

While highly variable wind generates a great deal of energy right now, coal and natural gas account for a combined of 35% of generation and nuclear accounts for another 7%. Solar is irrelevant but will produce in a few hours. It, too, is highly variable and the only things consistently guaranteeing the availability of power when needed are coal, natural gas and nuclear. They are the baseload foundation that permits use of solar and wind, leaving aside the financial stupidity of subsidizing these energy sources.

The PJM folks are somewhat more blunt in their statement:

Although we appreciate EPA’s adoption of certain flexibility measures in response to our proposals, areas of concern remain related to ensuring reliability given the impact of the Final EPA Rule:

• The new rules governing both existing coal and new natural gas are premised on EPA’s finding that carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology represents the “best” system of emissions reduction, which will be commercially available at a reasonable cost. However, the availability of CCS is highly dependent on local topology, such as salt caverns available to sequester carbon and the availability of a pipeline infrastructure to transport carbon emissions from individual generating plants to CCS sites potentially hundreds of miles away. There is very little evidence, other than some limited CSS projects, that this technology and associated transportation infrastructure would be widely available throughout the country in time to meet the compliance deadlines under the Rule.

• The Final Rule imposes the most stringent requirements on new gas and existing coal units that operate as baseload units. Although EPA has focused on these units given that they have greater emissions, these baseload units provide a critical reliability role. We are seeing vastly increased demand as a result of new data center load, electrification of vehicles and increased electric heating load. The future demand for electricity cannot be met simply through renewables given their intermittent nature. Yet, in the very years when we are projecting significant increases in the demand for electricity, the Final Rule may work to drive premature retirement of coal units that provide essential reliability services and dissuade new gas resources from coming online. The EPA has not sufficiently reconciled its compliance dates with the need for generation to meet dramatically increasing load demands on the system.

• The Final Rule is premised on the availability of increased access to natural gas infrastructure to support the Rule’s “co-firing with gas” compliance option for existing coal units. The present gas pipeline system is largely fully subscribed. Moreover, given local opposition, it has proven extremely difficult to site new pipelines just to meet today’s needs, let alone a significantly increased need for natural gas in the future. The Final Rule, which is premised, in part, on the availability of natural gas for co-firing or full conversion, does not sufficiently take into account these limitations on the development of new pipeline infrastructure.

Notice how PJM effectively calls out the EPA for promoting natural gas when the whole world Joe Biden is doing everything he can to kill the industry. It’s tone regarding Old Joe’s EPA is, no doubt, a function of this generation mix at 5:00 AM this morning:

Yes, over 95% of the PJM power comes from coal, natural gas and nuclear. New nuclear energy isn’t coming anytime soon and the EPA is trying to shut down every coal plant as it attempts to slowly suffocate natural gas. Meanwhile, Old Joe is promoting ‘electric everything’ and the AI energy eating beast is coming at us like Godzilla rising from the Atlantic. The PJM folks sense an approaching disaster the likes of which modernity has not witnessed, with complete blackouts and nowhere to turn but a flickering candle in the wind; a very real return to the Dark Age.

This impending energy Armageddon is attributable to a corporatist obsession with the Big Green Grift and an unholy desire of elites for ever more power. Old Joe’s handlers endorse the first objective because it assures achieves of the second.

The thirst for that power is simply unquenchable. As Mark Steyn opined yesterday, the real divide in our civil society is not left vs. right or any of the other dichotomies served up to explain current tensions. No, it is the divide between elites and commoners. Elites see themselves as global managers. And, they see all commoners, whether they be the African poor, immigrants flooding across our U.S. and European borders, Upstate New Yorkers or downstate Land of Lincoln residents as mere teeming masses to be managed. That’s our problem. But, there are cracks in the wall between them and us, aren’t there?

#SPP #PJM #Wind #Grid #Electricity #Biden #EPA #CarbonRule