Judge Limits Expert Testimony
June 15th, 2010The judge overseeing the utilities’ approval process yesterday granted Public Service’s request to prevent Trinchera from presenting testimony by two national experts on the impact of Colorado’s new renewable energy standard on the need for the line. In April, the judge asked for additional testimony on the impact of the new standard and how it might affect Public Service’s renewable-energy acquisitions in the future.
The two experts who will not be allowed to testify are:
- Dr. Anjali Sheffrin, a professor at the Tulane University Energy Institute with 27 years experience in the electric utility industry. Among Dr. Sheffrin’s specialties are integrating renewable energy resources onto the electric grid and the economics of regulatory policy.She intended to testify that satisfying the new standard will have a significant impact on Public Service’s resource acquisition decisions going forward and will likely reduce the need for the line. Further, she was going to testify that additional studies and analyses are needed to evaluate how to best achieve the 30% standard considering numerous factors on the likely resource mix. These factors include the requirement for distributed retail and wholesale generation, environmental impacts of different renewable energy resource mixes and the transmission that may be needed to accommodate the resources.
- Bill Powers, a principal with Powers Engineering with expertise in renewable energy generation and integration, and particular expertise in the use of the solar photovoltaic generation some are pursuing in the San Luis Valley.Mr. Powers intended to testify that the new Colorado statute states a clear policy of encouraging the development of distributed generation (e.g. community-scale, renewable-energy projects), which reduces the need for the proposed line. He was going to testify that the new policy goal would also make it preferable and both economically and technologically feasible for a substantial portion of the 30% requirement to be met with distributed generation. Doing so would reduce the need for new transmission lines, improve reliability and cost significantly less than larger facilities. Further he intended to point out that, because distributed solar generation reduces revenue for large utilities, the utilities tend not to adequately study or incorporate sufficient amounts of it onto the electric grid.
National energy expert, James Dauphinais, whose work identified numerous feasible alternatives that the utilities still refuse to consider, will still testify about the impact of the new 30% renewable-energy requirement on the need for the line at the hearing scheduled for July 26 and 30. The judge has not yet ruled on whether Dr. Sheffrin or Mr. Powers will be allowed to testify on the impact of Public Service’s recently filed amendment to its 2007 Resource Plan that decreased the amount of solar generation it plans to acquire in Colorado through 2015 , although PSCo may again try to exclude their testimony.
Read more about the experts’ planned testimony.