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Alltricity Network Report
Are Your Wood Poles Protected Against Fire?
Osmose Utilities Services, Inc.®
Fires in the United States have been increasing in size, damage, and cost for the last 30 years. Utility hardening programs should include fire protection and preparation as a key component. Osmose asset fire protection solutions include pre-fire solutions, such as fire protection installation and pole loading analysis, and post-fire solutions, such as visual assessments and new asset inventory verification.
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Education and Upcoming Events
Burns & McDonnell
Alltricity Network Member Information
RMEL's trusted network is now accessible on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. These are forums intended for RMEL members only. Working side-by-side in a cooperative manner, RMEL members band together for the common goal of bettering the industry and improving service for utility customers. For more than 100 years, these key principles have proven successful and, more importantly, are tried and true methods for building strong business relationships.

 

RMEL Champions is a prestigious group of RMEL supporters with access to useful and beneficial promotional opportunities. Thank you, 2022 RMEL Champions!

Visit https://www.rmel.org/page/RMELChampions to view the full article online.

Industry Information
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced $20 million in funding for projects that will improve stakeholder access to region-specific information and technical assistance regarding the commercial deployment of carbon capture, transport, conversion, and storage technologies across the United States. 

Visit https://www.energy.gov/fecm/articles/doe-announces-20-million-available-regional-projects-accelerate-us-carbon-capture to view the full article online.

  
Physicists have sought since the 1950s to harness nuclear fusion reactions to generate energy, but no group until now has produced more energy from the reaction than it consumes, which is known as net energy gain or target gain.

Visit https://www.utilitydive.com/news/doe-hails-fusion-technology-breakthrough-on-path-to-achieving-abundant-zero/638585/ to view the full article online.

The programs are intended to help accelerate private-sector investment, spur advancements in monitoring and reporting practices for carbon management technologies, and provide grants to state and local governments to procure and use products developed from captured carbon emissions. 

Visit https://www.power-eng.com/emissions/doe-aims-billions-at-building-a-carbon-dioxide-removal-industry/ to view the full article online.

  
Generation retirements in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator and Northeast Power Coordinating Council-Ontario footprints are outpacing replacement capacity, while the California Independent System Operator must address challenges associated with variable resources and changing demand. Other regions, including Texas, swaths of the U.S. West and Southwest, and New England, meet resource adequacy criteria but face “elevated risk” of shortfalls in extreme weather conditions.  

Visit https://www.utilitydive.com/news/nerc-grid-resource-adequacy-shortfall-reliability-assessment/638949/ to view the full article online.

  
FERC directed NERC, which develops grid reliability standards, to consider requiring physical risk assessments for more bulk-power transmission stations, substations and associated primary control centers.

Visit https://www.utilitydive.com/news/substation-attacks-ferc-nerc-physical-security-grid-duke-pge/638948/ to view the full article online.

CopperLeaf Technologies Inc.
Tyndale Company
A group of lawmakers led by Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., is urging the government to authorize $2.1 billion in disaster supplemental funding to address the shortage of electrical transformers and complementary grid security technologies through the Defense Production Act.

Visit https://www.utilitydive.com/news/distribution-transformer-shortage-appa-casten/639059/ to view the full article online.


When it comes to the grid, “we have solar panels, we have wind turbines, we have battery storage in the form of lithium-ion batteries, and we can roll these things out to clean up the grid. But we don't have commercial technology for the other half, which, for the grid, is long-duration storage."

Visit https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2022/12/24/we-have-half-the-technology-we-need-to-decarbonize-scientist-says/?ss=energy&sh=2ff6a4852980 to view the full article online.

  
Solar generation could provide nearly half of the nation’s electricity supply by 2050.  Those solar power plants, including the power electronic devices that communicate with utility control and automation systems, could pose significant cybersecurity challenges to power system operation. 

Visit https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/solar/taking-on-solars-cybersecurity-challenges/ to view the full article online.

  
The first new nuclear units in the U.S. in more than 30 years moved closer to operation while the sector is receiving a boost from the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure law.

Visit https://www.utilitydive.com/news/nuclear-power-saw-multiple-gains-in-2022-but-economic-and-other-questions/639459/ to view the full article online.

The United States has gone all-in on climate and clean energy funding. The Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) $370 billion in emissions reduction funding, the CHIPS and Science Act’s $70 billion in zero-carbon technology research funding, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s (IIJA) $95 billion in grid and electric vehicle (EV) charging funding are the largest-ever investment in nationwide decarbonization.

Visit https://www.forbes.com/sites/energyinnovation/2023/01/03/crossing-the-emissions-gap-between-inflation-reduction-act-and-2030-ndc-is-worth-4-million-jobs/?ss=energy&sh=3b75d26d4e34 to view the full article online.

Member Announcements

Black Hills Corp. announced its subsidiary, Wyodak Resources Development Corp., completed a new contract to continue providing fuel supply to the 402-megawatt Wyodak Power Plant. Wyodak Resources currently provides fuel supply to five on-site, mine-mouth coal-fired generating facilities near Gillette, Wyoming, including the Wyodak Power Plant.

Visit https://www.blackhillscorp.com/node/118351 to view the full article online.

  
The SRP Board of Directors approved the second phase of continued development at the Copper Crossing Energy and Research Center in Florence, AZ, which includes a utility-scale advanced solar generation facility capable of generating up to 55 megawatts (MW) of solar energy, or enough to power approximately 12,000 homes.

Visit https://media.srpnet.com/srp-to-develop-utility-scale-advanced-solar-generation-at-copper-crossing-energy-and-research-center/ to view the full article online.


Basin Electric sent a letter supporting a funding proposal by Membrane Technology & Research (MTR) for U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funds. DOE issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement for integrated carbon capture, transport, and storage systems. The funds would be used for a $5 million supplemental front-end engineering design (FEED) study. 

Visit https://www.basinelectric.com/News-Center/news-briefs/Basin-Electric-sends-letter-of-support-for-CCUS-project-study to view the full article online.

Evergy, Inc. (NYSE: EVRG) announced it will transfer its stock exchange listing from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to the Nasdaq Global Select Market, effective as of the opening of trading on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022. Evergy’s common stock will continue to trade under the ticker symbol “EVRG.”

Visit https://investors.evergy.com/news-releases/news-release-details/evergy-announces-dec-28-2022-transfer-nasdaq-stock-market to view the full article online.

  
Electricity customers in the West expect reliable, affordable and clean power on demand. To help advance that commitment to its 2 million customers in six states, PacifiCorp is announcing its plan to join two new innovative efforts that have been years in the making: the Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM) being developed by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and the Western Power Pool’s Western Resource Adequacy Program (WRAP). 

Visit https://www.pacificorp.com/about/newsroom/news-releases/EDAM-innovative-efforts.html to view the full article online.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will move consideration of flexible partial requirements memberships between not-for-profit power supplier Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and its members to a hearing process, following efforts to settle the issue in a timelier manner that were supported by a significant majority of Tri-State’s utility members and Tri-State, unopposed by FERC trial staff, but contested by utility member United Power.  

Visit https://tristate.coop/tri-state-members-will-continue-pursue-flexible-memberships-options-ferc-hearing-process to view the full article online.

White Paper
A new study finds that the health benefits associated with wind power could more than quadruple if operators turned down output from the most polluting fossil-fuel-based power plants when energy from wind is available. However, compared to wealthier communities, disadvantaged communities would reap a smaller share of these benefits.

Visit https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/12/221202142543.htm to view the full article online.

MIT researchers developed a scalable fabrication technique to produce ultrathin, flexible, durable, lightweight solar cells that can be stuck to any surface. Glued to high-strength fabric, the solar cells are only one-hundredth the weight of conventional cells while producing about 18 times more power-per-kilogram.

Visit https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/12/221209153100.htm to view the full article online.

A new pathway to creating durable, efficient perovskite photovoltaics at industrial scale has been demonstrated through the first effective use of lead acetate as a precursor in making formamidinium-caesium perovskite solar cells.

Visit https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/12/221221090611.htm to view the full article online.