CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY

Energy Infrastructure

The Keystone Center helps the energy industry, government, and communities work together to find common ground on the questions of what energy infrastructure investments are needed, what the impacts might be, how the costs and benefits should be shared, what policies are needed to support these investments, and where infrastructures should be sited.

Projects include:

The Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC), (2010 - present)
The Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC), a coalition of 24 transmission planning authorities in the Eastern U.S. and Canada, has engaged The Keystone Center to make recommendations for and implement the stakeholder process that will support a multi-year study of the EI energy resources and transmission system. The EIPC has been awarded a $16 million Department of Energy (DOE) grant to integrate existing sub-regional plans and evaluate longer-term resource and policy scenarios that will shape the transmission system of the future. Stakeholders, including transmission and generation owners, consumer and environmental advocates, renewable energy generators, end users, public power, state regulators, and Canadian provinces in the EI, will provide strategic guidance on the future scenarios. They will help identify federal and state policy drivers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and new technologies that may dramatically impact the grid. They will advise the EIPC on scenario assumptions such as the amount and location of new renewable resources and other low-carbon generation, the impact of new smart grid technologies, the penetration of demand-side resources, and the impact of new electricity load such as plug-in hybrid vehicles. Keystone will facilitate all the stakeholder activities, including the steering committee, stakeholder work groups and public outreach efforts beginning in 2010 through mid-2012. The EIPC will issue its report to DOE, with the stakeholder-specified future scenarios and related transmission analyses in June 2012. This effort will provide not only forward-looking information about the transmission needs of a carbon-constrained future, but will also result in new EI planning processes and tools. To learn more about the EIPC and join the stakeholder listserv for future updates, go to http://eipconline.com.
Contact:	Catherine Morris
External Website:	http://eipconline.com


Washington County, PA Reliability Collaborative (2008 - present)
Following a decision of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) in Nov. 2008, The Keystone Center was hired to plan and facilitate a multi-stakeholder collaborative to evaluate electricity reliability issues in Washington County, PA, a growing community close to Pittsburgh. The Collaborative participants, including the Office of Consumer Advocate, private land owners, energy conservation advocates, and TrAILCo, a transmission company that has proposed major new transmission facilities in the region, will engage in a joint fact-finding process with the help of an independent technical advisor to determine the extent and nature of reliability problems and evaluate transmission and non-transmission solutions as appropriate. A consensus of the Collaborative may result in a settlement agreement among the participants and a filing before the PA PUC.
Contact:	Catherine Morris

National Interest Transmission Corridors Public Meetings (2006)
The Keystone Center helped the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) design, facilitate, and summarize a public input meeting to establish a process and criteria for designating National Interests Energy Transmission Corridors (NIETC). Under the provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, states must review and decide on siting proposed transmission facilities that are considered to be of national interest within one year of application, or the decision will be remanded to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under back-stop authority. The purpose of the public meeting was for DOE to present their initial views based on public comments, as well as to gather additional information and feedback on how NIETC designations can help strengthen and accelerate existing transmission and sitting processes, and how the designation criteria should be applied, including definitions of congestion areas and corridors.
Contact:	Jody Erikson

Shell Corporation Stakeholder Engagement Workshop (2006)
The Keystone Center provided training on stakeholder engagement to Shell Exploration and Production Company's public relations staff and other members of the company’s U.S.-based offices. The training, called “Managing Politics in the Eye of the Storm,” focused on using collaborative discussion with community stakeholders to build trust, create relationships, and solve problems related to energy development. The group spent substantial time discussing scenarios specific to their local communities and work-sites, brainstorming with one another and with Keystone’s experienced facilitators on how best to engage stakeholders to address local issues in ways that meet the needs of both community stakeholders and Shell staff and management.
Contact:	Catherine Morris

Shell Oil Pinedale Anticline Advisory Board (2006)
The Keystone Center conducted an assessment of the opportunities for substantive input by key local stakeholders on air quality and wildlife mitigation related to Shell Exploration and Production Company’s natural gas drilling operations on the Pinedale Anticline in Wyoming. The project included extensive interviews, program planning, strategic assessment, and facilitation at two meetings so that stakeholders could give input on plans to conduct the dialogue. In addition, The Keystone Center helped plan and facilitate a two-day workshop to explore mitigation techniques that would be appropriate to address impacts associated with natural gas operations on the Pinedale Anticline Mesa. The workshop brought together several energy development operators, their service providers, wildlife biologists, and specialists with experience related to mitigation in other natural gas drilling operations in the Interior West. This workshop ended with a hypothetical mitigation scenario that allowed participants to apply what they had learned to planning challenges similar to those faced in energy development on public lands in Wyoming.
Contact:	Catherine Morris

Tribal Transmission Rights-of-Way Compensation Workshop (2006)
The Keystone Center worked with the U.S. Departments of Energy and Interior to design, facilitate and summarize a series of public input meetings as required by Section 1813 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct). This provision requires the Departments to study compensation to tribes for energy rights-of-way on tribal lands. The study addressed four elements outlined in EPAct: 1) an analysis of historical evaluation; 2) recommendations for appropriate standards and procedures for determining fair and appropriate compensation to Indian tribes for grants expansions, as well as for renewals of energy rights-of-way on tribal land; 3) assessment of tribal self-determination and sovereignty interests implicated by applications; and 4) analysis of relevant national energy transportation policies relating to rights-of-way on tribal lands. These meetings provided opportunities for tribes, industry and others to communicate their concerns, issues and experience with compensation for rights-of-way on tribal lands. The series of public meetings included a scoping meeting that provided several ways to provide input – presentations, discussions, open comment periods, written comment forms, written exercises for quick thoughts and one-on-one conversations with DOE/DOI staff; a second narrowly focused scoping meeting; and a final meeting for comments on the draft study.
Contact:	Jody Erikson

Expanding Regional Transmission Dialogue (2004 - 2005)
The Keystone Center convened and facilitated a year-long Dialogue on “ Regional Transmission Projects: Finding Solutions” to develop recommendations that will help address the difficult and contentious issues related to expansions of regional electric transmission systems that are needed for reliable and economic transmission of power within and across regions. This effort brought together a cross-section of affected stakeholders and thought leaders to address the problem with the collective wisdom of their experiences and interests. Transmission owners sat at the table with consumer advocates and environmental organizations. Representatives from regional transmission organizations exchanged ideas with state and federal regulators. Generation developers explored common interests with public power suppliers. Together, the Dialogue participants developed consensus solutions about how to begin unraveling some of the more intractable issues surrounding identification of need, allocation of costs, and reaching consensus on siting—issues that can frustrate the development of regional transmission infrastructure. The purpose of the Dialogue was to advance the debate about regional transmission organizations (RTOs), a new concept in the electric power industry. RTOs are entities that manage or operate the transmission facilities of all or part of an electric supply system.
Final report:	Regional Transmission Projects: Finding Solutions, June 2005
Contact:	Catherine Morris

The Keystone Dialogue on Natural Gas Infrastructure (2001 - 2002)
This year-long dialogue process brought together a diverse and high-level group of people to address issues relating to interstate natural gas pipeline infrastructure. Participants included individuals from consumer groups, energy-producing companies, environmental organizations, government agencies, industry associations, the pipeline industry, tribes, and utilities.
Final report:	Expanding Natural Gas Pipeline Infrastructure To Meet The Growing Demand For Cleaner Power, March 2002
Contact:	Judy O’Brien