Energy Department plans new grid reliability effort as EPA rules loom

A senior Energy Department (DOE) official said Thursday that DOE is crafting a new team to work with utility regulators and other parties to ensure power grid reliability.

Arun Majumdar, the White House nominee for under secretary of Energy, briefly described the plans at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing.

“What we will do in DOE, if confirmed, is to put together, I will commit to you, to put together a team, and we are actually putting that together right now, to help the utilities and all the [public utility commissions] and the stakeholders to make sure that the grid remains reliable, and that is the role of the Department of Energy,” said Majumdar.

The comments came in response to questioning from Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).

Barrasso voiced concerns shared among many Republicans and some power companies that looming Environmental Protection Agency power plant regulations will hamper the grid’s reliability by forcing substantial numbers of coal plant shutdowns.

But Obama administration officials have rebutted the criticism. Last week DOE issued a report that found that a pair of EPA rules to limit interstate air pollution and emissions of air toxics including mercury will not threaten the grid overall.

The report, which modeled a scenario that DOE says is more stringent than EPA’s regulations, found that “the overall supply-demand balance for electric power in each region examined would be adequate.”

EPA finalized the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule several months ago, and is slated to roll out final air toxics standards for coal- and oil-fired plants next week.

The report notes that additional analysis is necessary to determine the effect of the rules on local reliability. But DOE says it is capable of addressing those potential issues on a case-by-case basis.

On Thursday Majumdar noted that that study was a macro-level report, while the new team will work on reliability at a more local level.
 
Majumdar directs DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency and is a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu.