Recent example: HEADLINE
Mesa ponders natural gas plant near homes
The City of Mesa wants to get into the business of producing its own electricity to supply Mesa electric utility’s 17,000 customers during peak demand times.
The utility’s service area covers 5.5 miles in the city’s core.
Producing its own energy would allow the city’s electric utility to avoid the open energy market when prices are high during times of peak demand – such as sundown when solar generation is declining and people are returning home from work and flipping on lights and air conditioning.
To make the city-owned electric utility better able to meet these peaks with in-house electricity, Mesa is eyeing investments in plants powered by natural gas.
That fossil fuel emits about 117 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per million BTUs, compared with 160 pounds for gasoline and 200 pounds for coal.
The city Energy Department staff said during a budget study session last week that they are considering land next to the Rogers Substation at University Drive and Stapley Road, just north of the Sherwood Mesa neighborhood, for a “large-scale” natural gas power plant in the future. . .
Mesa’s electric utility serves a 5.5 mile area in the city’s core. (City of Mesa/Submitted)
. . .While staff said it is still exploring both a large gas-fired plant and battery storage, the mayor endorsed moving forward with adding robust gas-burning capacity.
“Natural gas is not renewable energy,” Giles said, “but until we develop the sustainable technology to avoid it, I think it is how you bridge the gap. I think that gap will be there for a generation or more.”
Energy Resources Program Manager Tony Cadorin told the city council that Mesa would take its first steps into natural gas generation with the installation of two 3-megawatt natural gas generators downtown to power microgrids tied to public safety facilities and other critical services.
. . The mayor asked if this plan worked on a small scale, then why shouldn’t the city consider doing it at a large scale.
Staff told the mayor it is indeed interested in large-scale generation.
City Manager Chris Brady said that burning natural gas could be especially lucrative for the city because “we’re in the natural gas business.”
Brady was alluding to Mesa’s natural gas utility, which could presumably supply the fuel for its power plants at lower cost than buying it on the market.
All the talk of the city ramping up its fossil fuel use prompted Councilwoman Jenn Duff to remind her colleagues and staff about Mesa’s Climate Action Plan.
Passed in 2021, the plan calls for the city to draw down its fossil fuel use and reach 100% renewable energy sources by 2050.
“I appreciate that we’re doing this microgrid for resiliency and self-reliance,” Duff said, “but I do caution if we do a lot of expansion in this we have to put it in line with our sustainability goals because natural gas is still burning fossil fuels.”
“We have to balance (gas plants) with growth opportunities that meet our sustainability goals,” she added.
Mesa Energy and Sustainability Director Scott Bouchie replied that Mesa can’t expand its reliance on solar energy without other power sources to fill gaps.
He said that battery storage, natural gas and the energy market “are different pieces to the puzzle,” and the city would be studying the “best combination” of those and would present its findings to council later. . .If Mesa steps into the natural gas plant business, it could be in it for a long time. The website of power plant designer Sargent and Lundy says owners should anticipate a 25- to 30-year life span for natural gas generators. . ." READ MORE
RELATED EARLIER CONTENT ON THIS BLOG Opportunities for utilities with the right policy supportSome utilities have embraced the transition to clean energy, while others are still running uneconomic coal plants and building new natural gas. But as energy economics and state targets shift from fossil fuel to clean energy, the utilities that stick with a business-as-usual approach do so at their own peril, increasing the risk of expensive stranded assets and higher consumer electricity prices.. .
05 February 2023
AZ Corporate The Commission has until Feb. 8 before its decision becomes final. Public comments can be submitted until then
Tell the ACC: No to Southwest Gas Rate Hike
Recent research has documented that methane gas is too costly for our health, our communities, & our economy. Yet, Southwest Gas is seeking a 7.6% rate hike that includes $664,596 in 2021 membership dues for the American Gas Association & a line-extension allowance, which forces customers to pick up the tab when developers want to extend gas lines to residential & commercial properties. Shareholders, not ratepayers, should pay for such membership dues. And developers should pay their own way.
Tell the Arizona Corporation Commission “no” to consumers paying for extending dirty & dangerous gas. No to a 7.6% rate hike.
Southwest Gas recruited elected officials to back its rate increase, records show
"Championing Southwest Gas’ second rate increase in as many years, mayors in some of Arizona’s fastest-growing communities sent a letter of support to the Arizona Corporation Commission claiming proposals from a consumer interest group “would impose unnecessary and costly barriers for consumers” who want to use natural gas.
“If enacted, these misguided policies will slow our economic progress and jeopardize the safety of our communities,” the mayors wrote.
But the letter wasn’t an organic outpouring of community support. Rather, it was written by Southwest Gas as part of a concerted effort by the utility to drum up outside support of its desired 11.6% price hike. . .
✓ SWEEP became involved in the process in the wake of the gas utility’s rate increase request to the Commission at the end of 2021, about a year after its previous increase. The consumer advocacy group applied for and received intervenor status so the public had representation in the process, which was overseen by an administrative law judge. . .
✓ SWEEP maintains that the Southwest Gas delivery system is in good shape after the utility spent more than $700 million on maintenance and upgrades in recent years, and the company will use the rate increase to pay for work that may ultimately prove to be unnecessary, redundant or “stranded assets” as the U.S. attempts to move to more sustainable forms of energy production.
The approved increase raises overall rates by $61.7 million annually, and will result in an average increase of 7.6% for Southwest Gas’s customers...
This comes on top of previous increases in the cost of gas that have raised customer rates significantly in the past year. The utility is not required to get approval from the Commission for rate increases due to fluctuations in the cost of fuel.Southwest Gas provides service to 10 counties in Arizona, serving approximately 1.1 million customers, and gets the majority of its gas from sources outside of Arizona, which has minimal natural gas reserves. With few producing wells and little new drilling activity, Arizona’s annual natural gas production has declined from its peak of more than 2.1 billion cubic feet in 1990 to about 66 million cubic feet in 2020. Arizona’s total consumption of natural gas in 2020 was 483 billion cubic feet.
Much of the natural gas consumed in Arizona is used for electric power generation — 43% of the state’s electricity is produced from natural gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration — and comes from other states through pipelines that enter Arizona at the New Mexico border.
Lobbying for support
As the process made its way to the Corporation Commission for final action, Southwest Gas was hard at work behind the scenes rallying support for its rate increase and to discredit SWEEP.
. . .Public records requests filed by the Energy and Policy Institute, a watchdog organization working to expose “attacks on renewable energy and counter misinformation by fossil fuel and utility interests,” found that mayors in nine Arizona cities signed off on a letter to the Commission less than a week before the hearing.
Southwest Gas sent the mayors — Julia Wheatley of Queen Creek, Brigette Peterson of Gilbert, Joe Pizzillo of Goodyear, Eric Orsborn of Buckeye, Skip Hall of Surprise, Nancy Smith of Maricopa, Craig McFarland of Casa Grande, Ed Honea of Marana and Tom Murphy of Sahuarita — a draft of the letter for comment. The utility also solicited suggestions from Smith, Maricopa’s mayor, for local nonprofits that it could donate to. . .
Both Kerr and Griffin received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Southwest Gas’s political action committee, and U.S. Rep. Debbie Lesko — also a recipient of Southwest Gas largesse, in addition to numerous political donations from other sectors of the extraction industry — published her own take on the issue in the weeks leading up to the hearing. . ..jpg)
.jpg)
Kevin Thompson Biography
Kevin Thompson served in the United States Air Force from 1988 to 1996. Thompson earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in 1998. His career experience includes working as a small business owner in economic development, as the manager of new business development for Southwest Gas, and in government affairs.
2023 - Present
2027
0
.jpg)
Prior offices
19 February 2021
Extreme Weather Anomalies + Disruptions In Energy Supply Pipelines
| File #: | 21-0207 |
| Type: | Presentation | Status: | Agenda Ready |
| In control: | City Council Study Session |
| On agenda: | 2/18/2021 |
| Title: | Hear a presentation, discuss, and provide direction on the City’s efforts to create and maintain an environmentally sustainable community. |
| Attachments: | 1. Presentation |
.
X
No comments:
Post a Comment