Advanced Energy Perspectives

The news that DOE’s review of “critical issues” in the electric power system, which was expected the last week of June, would not be completed until July means that the Department – and Energy Secretary Rick Perry – would have at least one more week to consider the latest document submitted to inform the review. That would be the report produced by Analysis Group, and commissioned by AEE and AWEA, entitled Electricity Markets, Reliability, and the Evolving U.S. Power System. Its conclusion could not be more clear: “Recently, some have raised concerns that current electric market conditions may be undermining the financial viability of certain conventional power plant technologies (like existing coal and nuclear units) and thus jeopardizing electric system reliability. In addition, some point to federal and state policies supporting renewable energy as a primary cause of such impacts. The evidence does not support this view.”

As readers of Advanced Energy Perspectives are aware, the Trump Administration may be turning its promises to bring back coal jobs into an attack on advanced energy. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has ordered the Department of Energy to conduct a closed-door study of the electric power system. As designed, the purpose of this study seems to be blaming the growth of solar and wind energy for the declining market share of “baseload resources,” namely coal-fired and existing nuclear power plants, and suggesting that the decline threatens the reliability of electric power service. Though off base from the start, we can only expect that such a study, with its apparently predetermined result, will lead to policy action that will attempt to harm our industry’s continued growth.  Although the Department has not initiated the customary process of seeking public input on this study, when it comes to sharing the extensive evidence in literature and practice that the system is changing, but changing for the better, we are not waiting to be asked.

A funny thing happened on April 14. In a simple memo directing the Department of Energy to conduct a short-term study, the Trump Administration signaled that it was seeing advanced energy as a problem that needs to be solved. Whereas AEE has argued that homegrown advanced energy technologies like wind and solar, energy efficiency, demand response, energy storage, and advanced grid systems deserve a central role in the administration’s “America First” energy plan, the outline of DOE’s study portrays renewable energy, in particular, as a threat to electric system reliability, even “national security,” and it takes aim at federal, and even state, policies that have facilitated its growth. For the advanced energy industry, the memo was not just a study order, it was a shot across the bow.

The election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States yesterday surprised us at AEE as much as the rest of the business, political, and media world. Nonetheless, this morning, AEE sent a memo to the Trump Transition Committee, outlining AEE’s recommendations for the incoming administration. Notably, the memo to the Trump team was identical to the one AEE would have sent to the Clinton transition group had the election turned out differently. It has always been AEE’s belief that advanced energy should be seen as a nonpartisan opportunity for the United States to lead the world toward a prosperous future running on secure, clean, affordable energy. Technology innovation, customer choice, and economic growth – these are the benefits the advanced energy industry has to offer. To paraphrase President-elect Trump’s campaign slogan: Advanced energy can make American energy great again. Our transition memo spells out how.