The Men Who Produce and Deliver Electricity Warn Public Service Commission of "Dire Capacity Need" and "Blackouts" - Lewis Responds: "We Know Blackouts Are Coming"

Only Commissioner Eric Skrmetta understands the urgency

A series of comments in yesterday’s Public Service Commission meeting provide cause for grave concern. Clearly, four of the five commissioners are fully unaware of the severity of the man-made crisis hitting the energy sector, as “limiting fuels” squeezes energy producers into ever-tighter spots.

The disrupting forces of renewables are having their tragic effect; the people of Louisiana have been warned of a situation described as “dire.”

First, from Commissioner Craig Greene:

“I want, and I know other commissioners have said they want: resource diversity, price stability, low-cost energy, and all the benefits that cost-effective renewables can bring to Louisiana residents and businesses.”

Is that all? Anything else, Commissioner Greene? A pot of gold in your basement?

While Commissioner Greene “wants all the benefits” of renewables, will he address their downsides as well? Is he even aware of them? Would he ever read a list of the problems with renewables into the official record?

Commissioner Greene wasn’t finished:

“Every time a utility threatens us with an urgency, I just think, this is a plot or scheme.”

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Do you hear “plot or scheme” in this warning from executives from Southwestern Electric Power Company, SWEPCO?

“In today’s world, by the way, I want to say this: we’re limiting fuels now, because, you know, nukes’ not being a really favorable option, coal has been getting knocked out, and right now… I hope it doesn’t - but there’s talk about environmental regulations as to natural gas, so we’re looking at options, we’re looking ahead, we’re trying to move quickly…”

Policy-makers have increasingly been limiting the fuels that utilities can use to produce electricity, and the consequences have been “dire.”

SWEPCO continued:

“We’ve got to get the capacity up… Everybody agrees: there is a dire capacity need!”

Visibly frustrated, SWEPCO executives appealed to the commission:

“Reliability does make a difference! And I will suggest to you, in years going forward, we’re going to see it maybe quicker than we like, we’re going to learn about reliability even being more of an issue than any of us envisioned sitting right here today. Blackouts and all are being discussed! We don’t want that to happen! … When you start closing things, you’ve got to replace that capacity.”

Stunningly, Davante Lewis replied:

"You mention blackouts; we know they are coming."

Lewis “battles” the entire industry:

“I’m extremely supportive of renewables; I’ve made that very clear, but I’m also very keen on making sure we protect customers… The old way of doing things, the investor-owned utility wants to own it all! I’m battling… I want to hear the justification [for that ownership.]”

People of Louisiana: We have been warned; we cannot later say “We didn’t know!”

Only Commissioner Eric Skrmetta ‘gets it.’ Speaking to the unpredictability of costs in the solar market, and contextually speaking about renewables, Skrmetta cautioned:

“If you’re out the gate, and we find out later that solar… is failing because of the elements of costs around them, and that, then you have a vote against you, and then this commission goes, ‘Oh Man! I wish we’d have thought about that before!’”

The commissioner is concerned about the “questionable viability of the projects.”

Indeed, only Commissioner Skrmetta spoke realistically, starkly. Only Skrmetta offered solutions:

“A couple of very important things got said today. And I’ve heard some other people in other venues say this: that we have to accept the fact that we could start having blackouts, and it’s because of our sort of natural acceptance that we’re going to have to build more renewable energy that’s outside of the availability of base load energy… ‘base load is going to keep the lights on, spinning steel is gonna keep the lights on.’

Renewables are going to provide value in some degree. But what we’ve got to look at is maintaining a balance of energy profiles. And if we don’t put steel in the ground that does both, which means we’re going to have to start looking at, you know, nukes, whether they’re small modular nukes or whatever we’re going to have to do, but we have to keep a real solid open mind to this.

We can have renewables, but renewables are not base load electricity and will lead us closer to a trip to a black-start provision which will be a bigger problem for the citizens of this state and the industry of this state and the economy of this state. We have to be very careful about what we commit to...”

And what is a “black start”? This from NREL, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory:

“Black start is the ability of generation to restart parts of the power system to recover from a blackout. This entails isolated power stations being started individually and gradually reconnected to one another to form an interconnected system again. It is used when the grid experiences a blackout and must be restarted from scratch. As such, black start is a critical resource for maintaining the reliability and resilience of the electric power system and is central to system restoration and recovery plans for system operators.”

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Let’s review some key takeaways from the meeting:

• Note that Davante Lewis contributes very little to the proceedings, oftentimes texting on his phone, reading and signing documents, and stacking them on the corner of his desk. If he speaks at all, it’s to offer platitudes about “protecting the customers,” but he demonstrates no working knowledge about the energy industry; he is unqualified for the position he holds on the PSC.

• The people who do the very work of generating power have issued a “dire” warning to the state commission tasked with regulating the utility sector. One commissioner, Lewis, openly acknowledges: “You mention blackouts; we know they are coming.” And who are the ‘we’?

• Commissioner Greene, a surgeon with an MBA from an Ivy League school, is unaware of the downsides of renewables and believes the unbelievable about the capacity of renewables.

• Commissioner Skrmetta seems the only member who is aware of the severity of the situation and proposes solutions that include Small Modular Reactors. He speaks of - and warns of - a “black start” situation. Mr. Skrmetta is the only commission member speaking the very words that must be spoken right now!

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We cannot understand why this issue is not frontpage news, but here at The BEC we are sounding this alarm with all intensity!

We must move hard away from solar/wind/battery! The time is already late; we have already committed too much to these ersatz systems!

Louisiana, you have been warned.

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