Business Meeting #25

Meeting Summary and Action Items

May 10, 2001
RESOLVE
1255 23rd Street, N.W., Suite 875
Washington, DC 20037
202-944-2300

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
[Refer to Attachment A for final participant’s list]

Facilitators: Abby Arnold and Gabe Petlin, RESOLVE, Inc.

After introductions and adoption of the agenda, G. Petlin reviewed the purpose of the meeting:

• Decide whether and how to update the protocol for release of NWCC Documents
• To insure that NWCC activities are prioritized and well understood by hearing a report from each Workgroup Chair on:
  • Why the NWCC is involved in this workgroup's issue?
  • What is the relevancy to the policy and market arena of this issue?
  • Status of each workgroup's current funded activities, products and outstanding or proposed projects.
  • Recommendations for additions or adjustments to workgroup's workplan.
• As a group, decide what adjustments need to be made to the NWCC program and plan for the remainder of 2001 and beyond.

[Refer to Attachment B for the meeting agenda.]

WIND ENERGY PARTNER UPDATES

NWCC wind energy partners presented updates on the following items:

• Status of the marketplace
• Status of state legislation
• Status of relevant research and analysis
• Status of federal wind program and budget

UWIG Update, Wind System Integration Impacts Study, Ed DeMeo
[Refer to Attachment C, Ed DeMeo presentation slides]

Mr. DeMeo provided an overview of the UWIG study to conduct a quantitative investigation of large wind plant operating impacts on utility operations planning. A focus of the study is the identification of cost impacts for target utility systems.

• Mr. DeMeo commented that a key output is the production of a methodology that utilities and others can use to evaluate large wind plant operating impacts on utility operation.
• One participant asked if the utility perspective was favorable or negative towards the study. Mr. DeMeo stated that Xcel Energy would participate as a host utility for the study and possibly Bonneville Power Administration as well. It is the intent to engage the utilities and so far the response has been neither negative nor positive.

Wind Industry Report, Randy Swisher, AWEA
[Refer to Attachment D, Randy Swisher presentation slides]

Mr. Swisher presented an overview of wind industry growth and potential and highlighted 3 key drivers important to wind power development - the green market, state policy mechanisms, and commodity energy markets. He also noted the dramatic favorable change in utilities' perspective toward wind power development compared to a decade ago.

State Legislation Update, Troy Gagliano, NCSL
[Refer to Attachment E, Troy Gagliano presentation slides]

Mr. Gagliano provided a summary of wind-related state legislation introduced in the 2001 legislative session. Because of California's restructuring problems, many states are postponing or rescinding restructuring legislation. Analysis of the wind power bills illustrates that wind power is now frequently introduced in the context of overall electric reliability and air quality issues. Small scale wind is also receiving more attention than in recent years. Some bills highlighted include:

• Kansas - House Bill 1020: Limit of Property Tax Exemptions. Kansas still has an unlimited property tax exemption in place for wind developers.
• Montana - HB 643: Tax Credit for Wind on Reservations. Bill extends Montanta's existing wind energy tax credit from 7 to 15 years for wind farms based in Indian reservations.
• North Dakota - HB 1221 Sales Tax Exemption, HB 1222 Property Tax Exemption, and HB 1223 Income Tax Credit. Gov. John Hoeven signed all three bills into law on March 26, 2001.

DOE and NREL Wind Program Updates, Stan Calvert, DOE and Phil Dougherty, DOE
[Speaker slides were drafts and are not available]

Stan Calvert provided an update on federal wind program strategy and outlined program goals. Program modifications have been made in response to national energy policy changes, but core competencies of these programs are being maintained as possible. Mr. Dixon stated that operation of the NWCC makes up a core competency of the DOE Wind Program. If Administration proposed cuts to the Wind program are sustained, DOE would try to maintain operation of NWCC even if at a reduced level. Wind program strategy is to continue core research and barrier reduction for large and small wind systems. Although wind power is developing rapidly, emphasis has been on developing limited high wind sites (Class 6) and growth may plateau early. Goals are the development of turbine technology that can operate cost effectively in Class 3 and Class 4 wind speeds that would greatly expand US wind development opportunities in the next 4-6 years. One performance measure of this goal for large wind systems is the development of turbine technology capable of 3 cents/kWh in Class 4 by 2007. Noted that Class 6 sites are on average 500 miles from load centers, where as numerous Class 4-5 sites are within 100 miles of loads, thereby bringing down transmission costs.

• A member suggested some partnership between the DOE and USDA to assume the larger outreach and education opportunities fulfilled by Wind Powering America.

PROTOCOL FOR RELEASE OF NWCC DOCUMENTS
[Refer to Attachment F, DRAFT Protocol, April 6, 2001]

Background: During the December 7, 2000 NWCC Business Meeting in Seattle, members discussed the need for the development of a protocol on the use of consensus vs. resource documents. NWCC staff developed a draft protocol for inclusion into the NWCC Groundrules on how to decide if an NWCC document is taken through the consensus process or reviewed and released as a "resource document". Working with the Steering Committee, terms and definitions, usage guidelines, criteria, and disclaimer language were developed and proposed.

The "Protocol for Review and Release of NWCC Publications" was circulated among NWCC members and no objections were raised. At the meeting on modification was proposed to Section C, "Resource Document" requiring where possible that objections to a document's classification as a Resource Document be provided in written form.

Next Step: NWCC staff will incorporate the one change proposed at the business meeting and circulate the draft Protocol for approval by NWCC members.

Update: Subsequent to the meeting, NWCC staff circulated the Protocol with the one change suggested at the business meeting and received no objection to that language during its comment period. The Protocol for Review and Release of NWCC Publications was adopted into the NWCC Process Groundrules on May 29, 2001 and can be found on http://www.nationalwind.org.

NWCC workgroup REPORTS
[Refer to Attachment G, NWCC Workgroup Reports/Workplans]

Each NWCC workgroup chair or designee presented their workgroup workplan that answered the following questions:

• Why the NWCC is involved in this workgroup's issue?
• What is the relevancy to the policy and market arena of this issue?
• Status of each workgroup's current funded activities, products and outstanding or proposed projects.
• Recommendations for additions or adjustments to workgroup's workplan.

Discussion and comments to workgroup workplans include:

Avian - Tom Gray, AWEA

• Workgroup proposed completing current projects such as the Avian fact sheet and Perspectives Paper and not pressing for additional funding, but continue to provide information on an as needed basis.
• The bulk of discussion focused on whether an Outreach and Communication strategy should be developed relaying the outcome of work from the Avian Perspectives Paper and the experience of the workgroup.
• A question was raised if any studies had been completed on avian mortality from other power plants, such as coal power, nuclear power, etc.
• Another question asked is there potential for another Altamont? Industry representatives responded that nowhere was avian mortality from wind turbines biologically significant other than at Altamont.
• Questions were raised concerning siting and permitting regulations for wind development in different states. Members representing the wind industry sector responded that although different states have different laws for permitting wind developments, it is now standard industry practice to conduct wildlife studies as part of siting for wind developments even when not legally required.

Siting - Tom Gray, AWEA

• Members commented on the use and popularity of the "Permitting of Wind Energy Facilities: A Handbook" document produced in 1998 by the NWCC and the importance of an updated handbook which the workgroup is working on.
• A member recommended that additional changes in formatting are made to the siting handbook - ie noise section in the handbook is overemphasized.
• For the updating of the Permitting Handbook, a member suggested looking at measures being taken to expedite wind facility permitting.
• A workgroup member pointed out that the workgroup is distributing a user feedback survey for comments on updating the Permitting Handbook.
• Planning for the WPA-NWCC Massachusetts Meeting is on hold until a Northeast DOE strategy meeting is completed May 30, 2001.
• Update: USFWS considers wind development compatible on lands with conservation easements for waterfowl habitat in North and South Dakota.

Credit Trading and Green Power Marketing - Ron Lehr, Attorney, NARUC

• Workgroup workplan chair, Ron Lehr, emphasized that the trading of attributes is a "bright spot" for moving wind energy to market in the face of transmission constraints.
• Upon acceptance of the Protocol for Review and Release of NWCC Publications by the NWCC, the credit trading report, "Credit Trading and Wind Power: Issues and Opportunities" will be released as a resource document. No further comments have been received on the companion document, "Credit Trading Opportunities and Guidelines," which will be released with the larger report.
• The bulk of discussion focused on considering activities that would provide the greatest value in order to prioritize limited funding support.
• A member suggested pursuing additional funds for this workgroup because the NWCC is on the leading curve of understanding barriers and identifying options in this arena.
• Mr. Lehr discussed and clarified the workgroup's proposal to work with interested parties (CRS, EMA, EPA, NYSERDA, etc) on outreach opportunities that contribute to green attribute market development.
• Bob Gough, ICOUP, discussed credit trading in the European and international markets and the potential for Native American involvement from the US in those markets.
• Lisa Daniels, Windustry, questioned whether benefits of credit trading filter down to the landowner and how to insure that they are compensated fairly. A member commented that landowner payments are linked to the sales of output and should reflect any premiums.

Distributed - Ed DeMeo, Renewable Energy Consulting Services, Inc.

• Members commented that the "Distributed Wind Assessment" report provided a realistic view of distributed generation potential, but was not the envisioned "gold mine" that many had expected. Distributed generation potential is very site specific.
• Distributed workgroup sought membership input on a proposal to merge the Distributed workgroup with the Economic Development workgroup. Members expressed reservation to this idea. Kevin Porter commented that there is substantial interest in creating rules and regulations for the transmission of distributed power and other members agreed that this seemed to be an important role for the existing Distributed workgroup.
• The existence or termination of the Distributed workgroup was put forth as an item for the membership to vote on in the NWCC ranking/prioritization exercise at this business meeting.

Transmission - Ed DeMeo, Renewable Energy Consulting Services, Inc.
[Refer to Attachment H, NWCC Transmission Workgroup: Activity Plan slides]

• Members discussed the results of the May 1-2 NWCC Transmission Workshop held in Minneapolis and how a number of project ideas arose from this meeting.
• The bulk of the discussion focused on the complexity of the transmission planning process and the barriers to planning. Members commented that wind power is aligned with other energy resources by a constrained transmission system and all utilities must work cooperatively to solve transmission issues.
• Roger Hamilton commented on the urgency of developing a transmission planning process in the US West for oncoming new power generation and on the benefits of developing an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) as part of the transmission planning process.
• Proposal to conduct a second Transmission Workshop in the Fall of 2001 was accepted.

Economic Development - Philip Chou, NWCC staff and RESOLVE, Inc.

• Members briefly discussed the findings from prospective and post-development economic development case studies presented at the NWCC Economic Development Workshop held in March and detailed a number of new activities/products out of that workshop that were suggested for the workgroup to pursue.
• Workgroup chair, Steve Clemmer, clarified that the Case Studies (a workgroup product in progress) are not intended to tout the economic benefits of wind, but serve as a guide to economic development specialists, policy makers, land owners, and other users of these studies to assess economic impacts of existing wind developments and to provide a methodology to evaluate others.

RANKING EXERCISE TO PRIORITIZE NWCC workgroup ACTIVITIES

After all workgroup workplans were discussed, members ranked current and proposed activities for all NWCC workgroups in order to identify activities and products that would provide greatest value to the overall mission of the NWCC and its workgroups. Each member present at the meeting received 24 votes to freely distribute amongst all workgroup activities.

[Refer to Attachment I, Activities Ranking Scorecard]

Results of the ranking exercise are summarized below:

NWCC PROGRAM EVALUATION
[Refer to Attachment J, Memorandum - Proposal to conduct an evaluation of the NWCC]

A. Arnold introduced a proposal to conduct an NWCC program evaluation. There has been no evaluation to date of the NWCC program including the facilitation aspect of it. Participant comments and discussion include:

• Discussed the motivation for an NWCC program evaluation. Explained the impetus is a methodological critique of the program for the NWCC staff and for an audience which could use such an evaluation.
• Appropriateness of RESOLVE, Inc. as an independent evaluator was questioned. Pointed to the use of clearly laid out methods to insure credibility and to insufficient funds to hire an outside evaluator.
• Discussed opportunity cost of an NWCC program evaluation. Acknowledged need to determine costs to overall program incurred by running an evaluation procedure.
• A member commented that an NWCC program evaluation is a tremendously valuable exercise assuming a reasonable price and is analogous to a personnel evaluation procedure of self-evaluation.
• A member commented that there has been a record of interest in conducting an NWCC program evaluation.

Next Step: NWCC staff will draft a more detailed proposal that addresses the questions brought forth by members at this meeting and present it to the Steering Committee for their consideration.

NWCC WORKSHOPS, FORUMS, AND BUSINESS MEETINGS

Members received updates on currently proposed NWCC meetings. The meeting date for NWCC Business Meeting #26, Montana, was set for October 3-4, 2001. (Please hold both dates on your calendars as one day will be for the business meeting and the other day for a possible Montana Wind Forum.) The current proposed NWCC meeting schedule is as follows:

• NWCC NY-PA Wind Forum and Workshop, July 25-26, 2001, Albany, NY
• WPA-NWCC MA Wind Forum, date and location TBD
• NWCC Upper Midwest Wind Transmission Workshop II, Fall 2001, location TBD
• NWCC Business Meeting #26, October 3-4, 2001, Montana
• NWCC Business Meeting #27, December 6, 2001, New Mexico

Other NWCC Activities and Products
Members were briefed on the status of other current activities and products. The California ISO Case Study was added to this list and members proposed it be released as a resource document. Members were updated on NWCC website development including the development of list serves for the general public, NWCC members and key participants, NWCC steering committee, and individual NWCC workgroups. The list of other activities and products is as follows:

• State Policy Options Issue Brief (proposed)
• Updated Wind Energy Issue Papers and Briefs (proposed)
• NWCC Outreach and Member Services (on-going)
• CA ISO Case Study (on-going)

MEETING SUMMARY ATTACHMENTS

Attachment A - Final Participant's List
Attachment B - Meeting Agenda
Attachment C - Wind System Integration Impacts Study, Ed DeMeo - UWIG
Attachment D - Wind Industry Report, Randy Swisher - AWEA
Attachment E - State Legislation Update, Troy Gagliano - NCSL
Attachment F - Draft Protocol for Review and Release of NWCC Publications
Attachment G - NWCC Workgroup Reports/Workplans
Attachment H - NWCC Transmission Workgroup: Activity Plan
Attachment I - NWCC Activities Ranking Scorecard
Attachment J - Memorandum: Proposal to Conduct an Evaluation of the NWCC