Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Energy And Solar topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Energy consultant warns rising capacity costs; Kane County solar array limits county exposure
Summary
Consultant Arnie Grama briefed the committee on wholesale and capacity price increases, the effect of data-center demand on supply, and how the county's Judicial Center solar array reduces exposure to capacity price spikes.
Arnie Grama, managing partner at Progressive Energy Group, told Kane County's Administration Committee on Feb. 14 that wholesale power and capacity prices have risen sharply since 2020 and that the county's Judicial Center solar array helps blunt near-term capacity cost increases.
Grama said wholesale power prices fell into a multi-year trough before rising after 2020 and spiking during the Ukraine war, and he warned that capacity costs are increasing materially. He explained that capacity payments are intended to ensure generators are available during peak demand hours and said capacity charges in the region have climbed from roughly $29 per megawatt-day to levels that will materially increase customer bills beginning in June 2025.
Grama told the committee the county's largest single electric load is the jail/Judicial Center (about 10 million kilowatt-hours per year) and that the facility's solar field reduces the facility's "primary load contribution" during the grid's peak hours. "Your solar field up there mitigates most of this increase," he said, describing how solar production during peak periods lowers the county's capacity exposure.
He also cautioned that new demand sources are changing the regional outlook. Data centers, particularly those planned and operating in northern Illinois, consume very large amounts of electricity and are increasing demand growth after a long period of flat load. Grama said data-center growth was not fully anticipated by prior planning assumptions in the Clean Energy Jobs Act and related forecasts.
Grama summarized other factors affecting future prices: scheduled retirements of some generating units, slow interconnection and build-out of wind and solar resources, and increasing natural gas exports that can support higher gas prices. He noted the county's solar installation reduces the county's exposure and recommended continuing energy-efficiency and solar projects.
On household impacts, Grama said the Clean Energy Jobs Act will raise average residential costs by an estimated amount once fully implemented; he also gave a county-level estimate: "your power bills on average, are gonna go up a little over a quarter million dollars a year," he said. He recommended that the county pursue energy-efficiency projects and evaluate community solar and additional on-site solar where feasible.
Grama closed by saying commercial and governmental solar paybacks are typically faster than residential installations because of tax and depreciation advantages; he said the average residential solar payback is about seven years and government/business paybacks can be shorter.
Ending: County staff and the committee discussed using available state and federal incentives and the county's own solar projects to reduce future energy cost exposure. Grama said Progressive Energy Group can help the county evaluate additional projects and community solar subscriptions.
