DPU Manager Philo Shelton

By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

After a period of uncertainty, the energy coordination agreement (ECA) between Los Alamos County and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) received some assurance for its continuation through a request to extend the existing ECA for six months.

Department of Public Utilities Manager Philo Shelton reported that as of Tuesday, NNSA requested a six-month extension to the current ECA and was told a determination should be made Thursday.

“We are definitely in weekly communication with our counterparts, trying to get clarity on this issue,” Shelton said.

He explained that since 1985 the County and LANL have had the ECA.

Shelton said that the ECA includes three major elements: a power pool of energy resources where both parties bring together power resources and share them, County staff schedules the power for LANL and Los Alamos as well as purchase additional energy if more is needed, and LANL provides transmission services to deliver power to Los Alamos. Besides dividing up the power, the costs are also split up on average with LANL paying approximately 80 percent and the County covering 20 percent. Again, it’s been operating this way for 41 years before everything screeched to a stop.

On Jan. 27 federal funding and new contracting were frozen by executive order, putting a halt to the renewal of this longstanding agreement. The current ECA is set to expire June 30, but with federal procurements paused, work to negotiate and approve a new ECA ceased, Shelton reported to the Board of Public Utilities’ (BPU) meeting Feb. 5. At that time, when or if it would resume was unknown.

It appeared the reason for the holdup was technical. Shelton told the Los Alamos Daily Post Friday that DOE/NNSA has new procurement software and the ECA was routed in that software. When President Trump issued his executive order, those reviews were put on hold. The challenge is, Shelton said, what will DPU do if the ECA is on hold for too long.

During the BPU meeting, Shelton explained he received an email from NNSA Albuquerque Complex Contracting Officer Matthew Barela who is overseeing the renewal of ECA. Originally, Shelton said Barela proposed getting a draft to review by the end of January. Then the executive order was issued.

“I don’t have a definitive timeline to receive a draft,” Shelton said Feb. 5. “(We) are looking at other ways – maybe a subcommittee of the board could look at what we have as maybe one option. Also, County Attorney Alvin Leaphart is exploring other avenues with the DOE attorney. Another would be to request a 6-month extension … In talking to Mr. Barela he seemed to indicate that would likely be the path that they would request. That needs concurrence on our side as well. But he would still work diligently to get the final agreement in place …”

During the Feb. 5 meeting, BPU Chair Robert Gibson said, “There seems to be a small but growing risk that we won’t get a new ECA. Has the department started giving any thought to contingency options if that should happen? Cause we are going to have a whole lot of power, they’re (LANL) going to need a whole lot of power that they have to get from somewhere … are we are thinking at all about what do we do if we just can’t come to a conclusion on a ECA for one reason or another?”

Shelton said he has been thinking about it, but he hasn’t discussed it with the Los Alamos Power Pool group yet. He added that in the extension language, there’s an option for purchasing power through the term of the agreement.

During an interview with the Daily Post, Shelton said BPU’s policy committee could review the agreement and provide input for County staff. He explained this would allow staff to prepare for any changes that might be requested. Despite all the uncertainties and continuous changes, Shelton said Friday he remains optimistic that the ECA will continue, noting it is a benefit to both parties to keep the electric power going.

“We have a long-term partnership with NNSA, and I see us being able to work through this and get some agreement in place before it expires.”