Welcome to your Friday Rundown for the week ending August 25. We always appreciate your reliable feedback at info@clearpathaction.org.
 

DOE STUDY TOUTS RELIABLE GRID DURING MARKET CHANGE   

The Energy Department’s power grid study “is a much-needed, pragmatic look at U.S. electricity reliability and resilience, including the priority of maintaining critical clean baseload power as electricity markets change,” ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell said.

Several of the findings are particularly important to preserving nuclear plants. For example, the report emphasizes the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission completing the price formation reforms in the wholesale electricity markets that ClearPath has been targeting. These reforms would increase the compensation for electricity sales for all market participants, and nuclear plants close to the edge of profitability would benefit in particular.

ClearPath also looks forward to FERC’s response to the report’s second major recommendation around developing a value for resilience and essential reliability services. Such a reform could properly compensate nuclear and hydropower for their resilience benefits and might incentivize innovation and development in grid-scale storage.

RELATED READING: DOE: More Coal, Nuclear Needed To Secure Grid REUTERS 
 

HYDRO’S POTENTIAL IS BIGGER THAN ONE ECLIPSE 

Hydropower and natural gas stepped up to provide the needed grid reliability for California during the solar eclipse.

But the untapped potential for smaller hydro projects is far bigger. The future of U.S. hydropower is creating electricity from existing flows of water, be it pipes in municipal systems or an irrigation canal on a ranch.

There is enormous potential for these small “conduit” or “energy-recovery”  hydro projects that are possible on private land and using private, man-made existing water infrastructure.

Rich Powell and ClearPath’s hydro expert Justin Ong have broken down the potential and challenges:
 

SMALL HYDROPOWER, BIG OPPORTUNITY
 

SPEAKING OF THE ECLIPSE 

We at ClearPath looked just as silly as everyone else - but it was worth it.

NEWS NUGGETS 

A new report from former USS Cole Commanding Officer Kirk Lippold says it is “incumbent” for Congress to extend a nuclear production tax credit “in order for it to remain a reliable power backbone for decades into the future."

Interim FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee has tapped Anthony Pugliese as his chief of staff. Pugliese was the Transportation Department’s senior White House adviser.

Coal will remain India’s primary energy source in the short to mid-term because it is a cheap source of power, according to the country’s chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian. He also called for establishing a global coalition for clean coal technology modeled after an international solar alliance.

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