Long-time Bloom Energy critic John Nichols is calling for the Delaware Public Service Commission to overturn the long-term agreement between the fuel cell maker and the State of Delaware.
The agreement brought a Bloom Energy plant to Delaware.
“To date, Delmarva ratepayers have been billed nearly $200 million for the QFCP tariff, net of proceeds from selling all electric power produced to the grid (in competition with the other energy sources being used to generate electric power), which works out to some four or five dollars per month for a typical ratepayer. The cumulative tariff is increasing by about $3 million per month, and if this pattern continues the payments will total nearly $700 million through 2033,” Nichols’ petition stated.
The agreement was approved by a hefty margin by the Delaware General Assembly.
Click here for a copy of Nichols’ petition.
He went on to state that fuel cells powered by natural gas are “somewhat less efficient (over their time in service) than a combined cycle natural gas (CCNG) power plant” and have minimal environmental benefits.
The petition suggested that the state has the following options:
- Upgrade the equipment in use or adjust other operating procedures with a goal of reducing the cost of electric power being produced. As the saying goes, “if you always do what you always did, you will always get what you’ve always got.”
- Review the implications of shutting down and dismantling fuel cells, including quantification of what payments Bloom Energy would expect for this accommodation.
- Recommend legislation to replace the Bloom tariff with a taxpayer-funded subsidy payment.
Nichols, a resident of Middletown, has previously pursued legal actions against Bloom.
Bloom spokesman David McCulloch issued the following rebuttal
“First, we believe this petition has no basis. Delmarva Power and Bloom Energy continue to deliver clean, reliable electricity with stable and predictable prices over the term of the project, exactly as promised.”
McCulloch continued, “Second, it really doesn’t make sense to compare Bloom Energy Servers to a natural gas combined cycle power plant. A 300MW turbine plant (10 times the capacity Delaware required) would have to be built in order to have a similar efficiency level to a 100kW distributed Bloom Energy Server. When factoring in the superior environmental benefits of a Bloom system, and the ability to site Bloom systems virtually anywhere, centralized plants are not a comparable or competitive technology. Plus, Bloom systems are fundamentally different, utilizing an electrochemical reaction rather than combustion to produce electricity.”
