Jon Wellinghoff is the chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency responsible for regulating all interstate transactions of electricity and natural gas. It is an obscure agency with a pivotal role in setting our nations energy and climate policy. FERC was responsible for the plague of deregulation that resulted in the Enron fiasco in the late 1990's. Their policies will set the pace for the energy grid of tomorrow.
And yesterday, Jon Wellinghoff said that he doesn't think we need any new nukes or coal plants, thank you:
From NYT:
No new nuclear or coal plants may ever be needed in the United States, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said today.
"We may not need any, ever," Jon Wellinghoff told reporters at a U.S. Energy Association forum.
The FERC chairman's comments go beyond those of other Obama administration officials, who have strongly endorsed greater efficiency and renewables deployment but also say nuclear and fossil energies will continue playing a major role.
...
Wellinghoff said renewables like wind, solar and biomass will provide enough energy to meet baseload capacity and future energy demands. Nuclear and coal plants are too expensive, he added.
"I think baseload capacity is going to become an anachronism," he said. "Baseload capacity really used to only mean in an economic dispatch, which you dispatch first, what would be the cheapest thing to do. Well, ultimately wind's going to be the cheapest thing to do, so you'll dispatch that first."
He added, "People talk about, 'Oh, we need baseload.' It's like people saying we need more computing power, we need mainframes. We don't need mainframes, we have distributed computing."
The technology for renewable energies has come far enough to allow his vision to move forward, he said. For instance, there are systems now available for concentrated solar plants that can provide 15 hours of storage.
"What you have to do, is you have to be able to shape it," he added. "And if you can shape wind and you can effectively get capacity available for you for all your loads.
"So if you can shape your renewables, you don't need fossil fuel or nuclear plants to run all the time. And, in fact, most plants running all the time in your system are an impediment because they're very inflexible. You can't ramp up and ramp down a nuclear plant. And if you have instead the ability to ramp up and ramp down loads in ways that can shape the entire system, then the old concept of baseload becomes an anachronism."
Asked whether his ideas need detailed studies, given the complexity of the grid, Wellinghoff said the technology is already moving that way.
"I think it's being settled by the digital grid moving forward," he said. "We are going to have to go to a smart grid to get to this point I'm talking about. But if we don't go to that digital grid, we're not going to be able to move these renewables, anyway. So it's all going to be an integral part of operating that grid efficiently."
I actually gave Wellinghoff one of his first consulting gigs after he left the Nevada AG's office in the early 1990's. He's a pretty good guy, and I was astonished when Bush appointed him to FERC in 2006. It is quite possibly the only half-decent appointment that Bush ever made.
This is a big deal. Electricity and natural gas doesn't move without FERC's blessing, and an agency that is actually acting independently of the powerful forces of business as usual is going to matter.
The most fascinating thing about this is that Wellinghoff didn't have to say it. In fact, the hounds of the nuclear, coal, and mega-utility industries that we know and love will be baying for the blood of the FERC chairman from this day forward. What's more, it's hard for me to imagine that Wellinghoff would say this without at least giving Obama a heads-up. It appears that elements of the Obama administration are actually serious about doing the right thing.