transmission system Archives

Nov 07

Renewable Interconnection Chaos

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Rant No Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I drove across Southern Minnesota, starting in the SW where wind alley is, and therefore, hundreds, or maybe thousands of wind turbines. The following was my observation while cruising I-90. Since the turbines were not spinning, I can only assume that excessive wind forced the Midcontinent Independent System Operator to curtail several hundred megawatts of wind generation. This, for one reason, is why net zero is as worthless as a three-dollar bill, but also, utilities have power purchase agreements with these non-spinning resources, right? Who pays? The MISO hub prices were as follows that day.…

Feb 22

Love0

RFPs from the Edge

By Jeff Ihnen Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Government, Stimulus One Comment

Last month, the one session I attended at the AESP national conference was how to write a better request for proposal (RFP). It was sort of a forum led by our friends at Tetra Tech. Essentially, it was full of people like me, for whom a major responsibility is business development and marketing – responding to RFPs. For a while I sat there like a lump, thinking, eh, just deal with it and quit whining. Toward the end of the session I started getting fired up. Here are some guidelines for writing RFPs: If you’ve already decided who you are…