Please mark your calendars and plan to join us for upcoming NEM events. Agendas will be available shortly. Sponsorships are available. Please contact headquarters if you are interested in sponsorship.

NEM’s Summer Executive Committee Meeting and Mid-Atlantic Energy Summit will be held July 25-26, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor. The Draft Agenda is available here. You may register here.

NEM’s Western Energy Policy Roundtable will be held October 24-26, 2018, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. You may register here.

The Trump Administration directed Energy Secretary Perry to take action on "fuel-secure power facilities." A statement from the White House Press Secretary said:

"The United States of America has the most technologically advanced and developed infrastructure in the world, with access to a reliable, dependable, and diversified electric grid.

President Donald J. Trump believes in total energy independence and dominance, and that keeping America’s energy grid and infrastructure strong and secure protects our national security, public safety, and economy from intentional attacks and natural disasters.

Unfortunately, impending retirements of fuel-secure power facilities are leading to a rapid depletion of a critical part of our Nation’s energy mix, and impacting the resilience of our power grid.

President Trump has directed Secretary of Energy Rick Perry to prepare immediate steps to stop the loss of these resources, and looks forward to receiving his recommendations."

This Statement coincided with the disclosure of a draft plan from the DOE on the subject. The draft plan describes a 24 month requirement for grid operators to purchase power from certain coal and nuclear facilities under DOE emergency powers. Specifically,

"To promote the national defense and maximize domestic energy supplies, federal action is necessary to stop the further premature retirements of fuel-secure generation capacity while DOE, in collaboration with other federal agencies, the States, and private industry, further evaluates national security needs and additional measures to safeguard the Nation's electric grid and natural gas pipeline infrastructure from current threats. To that end, as described below, it is necessary and appropriate for the Department to: (1) issue orders pursuant to its authority under the Defense Production Act of 1950 (DPA) and the Federal Power Act (FPA) to temporarily delay retirements of fuel-secure electric generation resources, while we (2) continue our analysis of, and take prompt action to address, the comprehensive resilience needs of our electric generation system, including specific actions to support defense critical energy infrastructure in the event of attack.

The Department is exercising its DPA and FPA authority by directing System Operators (as defined in the Directive), for a period of twenty-four (24) months, to purchase or arrange the purchase of electric energy or electric generation capacity from a designated list of Subject Generation Facilities (SGFs) sufficient to forestall any further actions toward retirement, decommissioning, or deactivation of such facilities during the pendency of DOE's Order. DOE also is directing SGF's outside of the RTO/ISO territories to continue generation and delivery of electric energy according to their existing or recent contractual arrangements with Load-Serving Entities. DOE's Order establishes a Strategic Electric Generation Reserve (SEGR) to promote the national defense and maximize domestic energy supplies. This prudent stop-gap measure will allow the Department to further address the Nation's grid security challenges while the Order remains in force."

The full text of the Draft DOE Plan is available on the NEM Website.