Montana Wind Working Group

Meeting minutes

Oct. 30, 2003

Participants
Name Agency
Timlynn Babitsky North American Rural Futures Institute (NARFI)
Georgia Brensda MT Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ)
Gordon “Corky” Brittan Wheeler Center for Public Policy
James Carkulis XRG
Paul Cartwright MT Dept. of Environmental Quality
Larry Flowers (by phone) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Mark Hines MT Dept. of Environmental Quality
Van Jamison POWAIR
Patrick Judge Montana Environmental Information Center (MEIC)
Bob Julian PPG
Mark Lindberg Governor’s Office
Chuck Magraw Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Bryant Ralston Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)
Gayle Shirley Secretary of State’s Office

                

Update on NorthWestern Energy wind procurement plan

The group was unable to make contact with Mark Thompson at NorthWestern.

Interconnection agreements with NorthWestern

James Carkulis said the interconnection study group within NorthWestern is severely understaffed. He questions whether the company can even enter into interconnection agreements during bankruptcy proceedings. James believes interconnection agreements are vitally important and no energy project can be successful in Montana until interconnection agreements can be signed.

James said interconnection agreements should be non-discriminatory, but that does not seem to be the case. He said NorthWestern is requiring all generators to perform as synchronous generators, requiring .9 leading rather than following. This adds a cost of about $100,000 per turbine because capacitor banks must be added.

James said an induction motor cannot be treated the same as a synchronous one. NorthWestern is requiring a 1 percent flicker when the industry standard is 2.5 to 3 percent. Currently no one complies with this; it is usually dealt with as a price penalty. Wind cannot do this because it is not dispatchable. James said leading is not usually an issue unless you are supporting the transmission grid, so he concludes that wind is being used to support the grid.

James plans to seek clarification from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as to whether this conforms to their non-discriminatory requirement.

James said Montana has the second highest transmission rates in the country, at $4.66/Mhw and $3.40/Kwh/month. He questioned whether this represents “fair market value.”

Van suggested that the WWG transmission subcommittee should formulate questions for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory regarding these issues. He suggested that the subcommittee should invite Ron Lehr to its meeting and should engage the expertise of  UWIG as well as NREL. He also suggested this may be a good topic for the upcoming American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) regional transmission workshop.

Bob Julian noted that ultimately the issue is fair access to transmission by all projects. He said this issue needs to be addressed before the state considers building new poles and wires.

Wind Working Group membership

To ensure that all stakeholders are represented in the WWG, the group decided to invite participation by the following entities by contacting the following individuals:

Agricultural interests

Utility interests

Public interest groups

Government agencies

Wind power developers

Consumer interests

WWG subcommittees

The group decided to create subcommittees to more efficiently work toward its goal of developing Montana into a significant wind energy industry center. Van asked for volunteers to serve as chair and co-chairs of the subcommittees.

The group decided to focus on the following subject areas:

Transmission / Interconnection
James Carkulis, co-chair
Bob Julian asked to be a member
Agriculture Outreach
Van Jamison / Larry Flowers, co-chairs
Market Development (including load aggregation, green tags, energy credits)
Dave Healow, Scott Mendenhall, tribal representative, Larry Flowers suggested as members
Public Lands
Arend Collen, suggested as chair
Gayle Shirley, co-chair

The group agreed the subcommittees should provide “tools” rather than “getting into the business.” Their first acts should be membership, mission, objectives and timelines.

Gayle suggested that we create an internal directory of WWG members and their areas of expertise. This could serve as a resource for subcommittee chairs and others.

Mission statement and strategic plan

The group adopted a vision, goal and list of objectives. See attached.

2004 Farm Bill opportunities

Larry Flowers reported that a national plan to educate the public about energy opportunities provided under the Farm Bill has not yet been approved. The amount of money available under the Farm Bill also hasn’t been finalized. He noted that this year the money may be given out partly as grants and partly as loans.

Larry stressed that interested parties should have their proposals ready by the time the Farm Bill grant solicitation goes out, because the timeframe for applying will be short. He said December to February is the best time to prepare for late spring/early summer  solicitation.

The group discussed holding two workshops for the agricultural community to educate them about opportunities under the Farm Bill. The Agriculture Outreach subcommittee would be in charge of planning. Larry said DOE and Wind Powering America are willing to work with the states to put the workshops together. He said Lisa Daniels, Dave Benson, Dan Jewell, Dave Kolsrud, and Tom Wind would be good resources for the workshops. Lisa Daniels has a DOE contract to do this work.

The group decided to hold at least two Farm Bill workshops back to back in January in Billings, Great Falls, and possibly a Hi-Line community. Van said he will produce an agenda for the workshop before the next WWG meeting.

At the workshops, the group hopes to demonstrate some prototypical project designs to show the range of possibilities that are acceptable. Mark Lindberg suggested that the workshops include someone from Montana to talk about what works here with regard to our tax structure and incentives.

Wind resource maps

Bryant Ralston, of ERSI, attended the meeting at the suggestion of Peggy Beltrone, Cascade County commissioner. He exhibited a detailed GIS map that the county produced with ERSI software. The map identified landowners, wind resource and topography. He noted that all 56 counties have the software needed to produce similar maps.

The group thought it might be useful to get certain key windy counties to produce similar maps as an economic development tool. ERSI offers training.

It was noted that the universities have this technology and can do the mapping.

Irrigation project

Corky Brittan gave a verbal report on his irrigation project, which he expects will involve 31 refurbished turbines by 2005. He will put the report into writing and share it with the group in the near future.

Miscellaneous, meetings

An attempt is under way to form a regional wind working group and Montana has been invited to participate. The group seemed to think it lacks the resources to participate, but Van agreed to find out more about what kind of commitment would be involved.

Mark Lindberg said the Governor’s Carbon Sequestration Task Force will meet Nov. 21 in Missoula at Ruby’s Inn.

Larry Flowers said DOE has awarded the Fort Peck reservation funding for the first commercial turbine. It will be 750 to 900Kw. DOE has also awarded money for “Wind Wires West.”

AWEA will hold its 2004 annual conference in Chicago in March.

Peter Moulton of Climate Solutions has approached the WWG about hosting the 2004 Harvesting Clean Energy conference in Montana next fall. The group agreed it needs to know more about what kind of commitment we would need to make with regard to financing and staff. Gayle agreed to contact Climate Solutions to find out. Georgia will contact AERO and the Montana Renewable Energy Association to see whether they would be willing to get involved.

Timlynn said NARFI is putting information about alternative energy on its Web site for use by educators. The site is located at www.narfi.org.

Next WWG meeting

The group will meet Dec. 2 in Great Falls in conjunction with the Montana Grain Growers convention. More details will be forthcoming.

Montana Wind Working Group
Mission Statement
Oct. 30, 2003

Vision: To develop Montana into a significant wind energy industry center.

Goal: To promote wind power purchases to utilities and other power purchasers and to proactively support projects and initiatives that will stimulate development of Montana’s wind resources.

Objectives:

  1. To identify and cultivate potential power purchasers for utility scale wind power developments.
    1. Work with utilities, cooperatives, large industrial users and government agencies to encourage purchases of wind power.
    2. Inform landowners and developers about upcoming wind power solicitations.
  2. To identify wind power production barriers and take necessary steps to eliminate them.
  3. To develop a statewide wind energy education strategy for Montana.
    1. Provide reliable information on wind power production to agricultural, utility, government, teachers, students and other Montanans.
    2. Conduct two workshops on how to successfully apply for USDA Farm Bill grants and guaranteed loans within the next five months.
    3. Present the benefits of wind power development to landowners and rural economies.
    4. Develop and maintain an Internet-based clearinghouse for wind power information and opportunities.
  4. Work with the Montana Renewable Energy Association to encourage the installation of 25 small wind projects by the fall of 2004
    1. Obtain USDA Farm Bill grant or loan guarantee support for five Montana projects.
  5. To get power purchase agreements, site, permit, construct, and interconnect 150 MW of wind power on Montana’s utility grid by the end of 2005.
  6. To assess and properly characterize the cost of wind power compared to conventional generation and make this information widely available.
  7. To network with other agriculture, rural economic development and energy related groups in the state and region.
  8. To monitor federal, state and utility funding streams, initiatives, and directives that could help promote wind power development and actively market these opportunities.
  9. To dissolve when the group has achieved its other objectives.