As if you were there, in Houston on March 14, 2019, Power Day, at “CERAWeek at IHS Markit,” check out these four brief videos:
State of the North America Power Business, “CERAWeek by IHS Markit” Panel, March 14, 2019
Eric Silagy, Florida Power & Light’s CEO:
"[Developments] in Texas have been great. But the reality is, the renewables that have been built here, the vast, vast majority of them have been built with contracts with the munis and the co-ops. Because they get entered into long-term contracts. If the municipals and the co-ops were not carved out of the system in Texas, and weren't able to enter those long-term contracts, you wouldn't have renewables built in Texas.
"Those are structural differences that you have in different areas. It's not that it's right, wrong, better, worse. There are differences that we need to recognize. It means that one size doesn't fit all.
"Florida, as an example, is a peninsula that has limited electrical interconnection and limited natural gas. We're the third largest user of gas in the country, and we have three major interstate pipelines.
"If you look at Texas, it's the second or first in gas usage. I think it's second. But it's a web of pipelines. And it sits on top of massive amounts of reserves of gas.
"Those are just physical differences that have to be recognized. And have to be engineered, if you will, into the marketplace, to make sure that in the end, the customer gets affordable and reliable power."
Digital Transformation and the Future of Power, “CERAWeek by IHS Markit” Panel, March 14, 2019
Gil Quiniones, New York Power Authority’s CEO:
"We're doing that as we speak. We're adding additional sensors. And we project that at the end of next year, we will be streaming about a hundred and fifty thousand sensor points.
"We are also building our own communication network - fiber optic network - on top of our transmission systems, called Optical Ground Wire. To make sure that we get that data without any latency and capacity issues.
"We're very excited. There's still a lot to be done. We're just getting started. But we see a lot of possibilities. We are already seeing savings.
"Paul [Browning, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas CEO] mentioned a little bit of an example where a valve is stuck, or a valve is open when it's supposed to be closed. So we are able to do tweaking now, to increase the heat rate and the efficiencies of our power plant. Or predict something that may prevent an unplanned outage. For example, a vibration sensor that may go outside the range, and force our plant to shut down."
Wholesale Power Market Evolution, “CERAWeek by IHS Markit” Panel, March 14, 2019
Midcontinent Interdependent System Operator's (MISO's) COO Clair Moeller and PJM's CEO Andy Ott:
Clair Moeller: [That's] only part of the question. So two polar vortex's ago, my neighbors to the east got in trouble. I sent them about nine thousand megawatts across at their scariest time. This last time they sent me fourteen thousand.
Andy Ott: We paid them back.
Clair Moeller: Right. So, that's resilience. The places that I was in trouble on the 30th and 31st had to do with how fast I could get resources to respond. We did have some fuel issues. The wind fleet is not homogeneous. There are wind turbines that are rated to minus forty below. If you are in Alberta, all of them are, because that's a Canadian regulation.
As you get South from there, people's choices are different. Literally, the fiberglass blades can become ripped. So they have to go offline. We missed that in our forecast. We were expecting the wind to be where it was in terms of miles per hour. When they began to shut down because of the cold, we missed that in our forecast.
So my problem was about six thousand megawatts of resource that we expected to be reliable based on what is normally reliable."
Wholesale Power Market Evolution, “CERAWeek by IHS Markit” Panel, March 14, 2019
Andy Ott, PJM’s CEO:
"The point is, we really depend on the market to make sure we sustain resource adequacy. Even though we're in an oversupply. So having, essentially, this effort, whether it be renewable or nuclear subsidies. Certainly if enough of it occurs, I think it really calls to question, can you really have a what I'll call a short-term capacity market that is driving competition? And I think my answer is probably not.
"I think what we need to do then is flip to more of a procurement model. Where we essentially do the same thing that states are doing. Except we up and do it as a regional operator on behalf of the rest of the load in the states. And basically say, okay we're putting out whatever, seven-year contracts for, pick your resource.
"So that's what would happen. And you'd essentially evolve. Either that or all the states would have to re-regulate. In other words, take back, if you will, and re-regulate generation. Either way would work. But I think at some point you'd probably say a short-term capacity market being two or three or four-year forward, like we have, probably isn't going to sustain if you have too much of this.
"So we'll see how it goes. Certainly not saying that the market will collapse. But we've just changed the way we do resource adequacy. It would be somewhat less competitive and more expensive than before. So that's really the outcome."