As public entities, NCPA and its members are recipients of power generated by the Central Valley Project in California. NCPA advocates before Congress to ensure power customers concerns regarding agency proposals affecting power rates, operations, and maintenance are understood and addressed where necessary. This includes requests for congressional oversight to assure transparency in decision-making by the federal agencies that manage this program, fairness among all of the multi-purpose uses of these projects, and efforts to prevent the unwarranted imposition of non-power-related costs onto public power customers. This has included work to ensure the Central Valley Project Improvement Act is implemented properly, and that administrative action is taken by the Department of Interior to declare goals of this act as complete in keeping with the intent of the statute. NCPA has also advocated for wildfire policies to reform electric utility liability requirements in cases where negligence has not occurred. As well, the agency has advanced initiatives to allow for workable utility wildfire mitigation practices that assure reliability and public safety. NCPA co-chairs the US Department of Energy Electric Subsector Coordinating Councils wildfire working group which includes collaboration with other utility stakeholders and federal agency officials to address these challenges. NCPA operates a hydroelectric generation project located in the Sierra Foothills. Unfortunately, due to a series of extreme weather events and debris flows from U.S. Forest Service (USFS) land, a significant amount of sediment buildup has occurred in one of our reservoirs. This sediment buildup has degraded the water quality, accelerated the wear and tear of the turbines, and reduced overall power output to nine NCPA member communities served by the project. To ensure proper project operations, a solution is needed to remove the debris that has flowed into this reservoir from federal lands as a result of landslides and erosion-however, the USFS has thus far informally declined requests to relocate this non-contaminated sediment back onto the adjacent land it manages. NCPA is encouraging the USFS to take action to allow for sediment relocation on adjacent federal lands that were the initial source of the debris for fire breaks and soil augmentation, among other purposes. NCPA is also asking Congress to direct the USFS to take action in this regard.
As participants in the California Hydrogen Hub, ARCHES, NCPA has lobbied to preserve funding for clean energy projects, including the Hub program which will help facilitate the hydrogen transition at the agencys Lodi Energy Center. NCPA has also advocated for wildfire policies to reform electric utility liability requirements in cases where negligence has not occurred. As well, the agency has advanced initiatives to allow for workable utility wildfire mitigation practices that assure reliability and public safety. NCPA co-chairs the US Department of Energy Electric Subsector Coordinating Councils wildfire working group which includes collaboration with other utility stakeholders and federal agency officials to address these challenges. NCPA is also very engaged in industry and FERC efforts to ensure physical and cyber security in the electric sector, and continues to engage with agencies to assure an ongoing dialogue about industry standards and future needs in this area.
NCPAs Lodi Energy Center is a project included in the California ARCHES Hydrogen Hub. The Lodi Energy Center is one of two gas fired power plants in this Hub that have been slated for federal funding to facilitate a transition from natural gas to hydrogen. NCPA has advocated in Congress to support protection of the 45V hydrogen tax credit which is essential to the success of this project.