Energy Roundup: OMA Resists Calls for Weaker Reliability Standards

• Despite widespread power outages last summer, AEP Ohio has asked state regulators to lower reliability standards. The OMA Energy Group is fighting the proposed backslide, which would allow 180,000 additional outages a year.
• While Ohio regulators have paused their House Bill 6 investigations, reports say the PUCO can still address HB 6 subsidies for two 1950s-era coal plants — estimated to cost Ohio ratepayers millions of dollars.
• Attorney General Dave Yost has asked the Supreme Court of Ohio to pause a lower court’s decision unfreezing the assets of former PUCO Chair Sam Randazzo, who has been accused of taking a $4.3 million bribe tied to the passage of HB 6.
• The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts a 27% jump in retail natural gas prices this winter for the Midwest.
• With continued strong demand for renewable energy, power purchase agreement prices are now 34% higher than last year, reports say.
• An anticipated surge in solar and wind installations has increased the urgency of grid interconnection reforms, according to Reuters. (PJM, the grid operator whose service area includes Ohio, has seen the number of projects in the interconnection queue increase to 2,500.)
• Proponents of federal permitting reform are looking for common ground, according to reports — but the Nov. 8 election will determine the next steps.

Meanwhile, OMA Connections Partner William Vaughan Company has published this insight regarding the Inflation Reduction Act’s expanded deduction for energy efficient commercial buildings. 10/20/2022