Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Green Machine Alleges Fraud Allegation against Bloom Energy and Delmarva Power




Dear GREENEXPLORED readers I have been mighty quiet on Bloom Energy but this is because I have been working hard to gather evidence of alleged fraud by Bloom Energy and Delmarva Power against the customers of Delmarva Power in Delaware.    My investigation has uncovered significant overcharges for natural gas beyond the maximum quantity of natural gas in the final permit application.   I wrote to two Deputy Attorney Generals and the Attorney General of Delaware (Mr. Beau Biden) outlining the allegations today.   Below is my letter that was faxed at 1:20 pm pacific time this 8th day of April 2014.  

I will report on developments.   To date Bloom has collected $41,628,118 in subsidies from the customers of Delmarva Power for the unreliable, dirty, and expensive electricity they sell from their 30 megawatts of Bloom Coffins in the state.   


To Mr. Stephen McDonald
Deputy Attorney General
Department of Justice
State of Delaware
Fax 302 577 2496

With Copy to Attorney General Beau Biden also at Fax 302 577 2496

And with copy to Deputy Attorney General Ralph K. Durstein also at Fax 302 577 2496

April 8, 2014

From Lindsay Leveen


Regarding Bloom Energy and Delmarva Power – Alleged Fraud Against The Customers Of Delmarva Power in the State of Delaware

Dear Mr. McDonald:

Over the past several months I have collected evidence of alleged fraud in the billing of electric power charges to the customers of Delmarva Power.   By this email you are requested to open a criminal investigation into the alleged fraud committed by Bloom Energy and Delmarva Power against the customers of Delmarva Power in the State of Delaware.  The allegations of fraud are based on the following irrefutable written evidence that is in the public domain and has been gathered by me:
Each month towards the end of the month Delmarva Power prepares a monthly filing for the approval by the Public Service Commission of Delaware (PSC) of the Qualified Fuel Cell Provider Project Tariff.   The latest monthly filing dated March 28, 2014 is attached and is referenced in this fraud allegation.

The calculation worksheet on the last page of the filing provides the calculation of the amount of money (subsidy to Bloom Energy) Delmarva Power will collect from its customers in Delaware.   On line 11 of the worksheet Delmarva Power lists a “heat rate”.   This heat rate is the quantity of natural gas used to generate a unit of electric power and is in millions of BTUs per megawatt hour.  As you can see from the attached filing, this heat rate is 7.19 million BTUs per megawatt hour for the month of June 2014 and 7.16 million BTUs per megawatt hour for May 2014.    The heat rate is then multiplied by the unit cost of natural gas to determine the amount of money Delmarva Power’s customers will be charged for the natural gas used by the Bloom Fuel Cells.   Delmarva Power acts as Bloom Energy’s agent to collect money from customers and then gives the money collected from its customers to Bloom Energy.

The General Manager of Bloom Electrons, Mr. William Brokenborough, under penalty of perjury submitted a revised and final permit application on January 13, 2012 to the Delaware DNREC.  On February 10 2012 Mr. Colin O’Mara the secretary of the DNREC wrote a completeness report on the subject of the Bloom Energy project and accepted and affirmed the data provided by Mr. Brokenborough in the January 13, 2012 final permit application to be complete and correct.  Note the data submitted by Mr. Brockenborough on January 13, 2012 were the final data submitted by Bloom prior to the issuance of the permit by the DNREC.

I quote from Mr. Brokenborough’s January 13, 2012 Final Permit Application Titled Revised Application To Construct, Operate, or Modify Stationary Sources. Under Project Description he states “each fuel cell has a base electrical output of 200 kw with a maximum natural gas usage of 1.32 MMBTU per hour”.  For your reference kw is kilowatts and MMBTU per hour is millions of BTUs per hour.  The front page of the January 13, 2012 final permit application with this quote is attached for your reference.

For your reference one megawatt is 1,000 kilowatts.  Therefore five Bloom fuel cells each of 200 kilowatts will generate one megawatt of electrical power.  Five fuel cells will use five times as much natural gas as one fuel cell.   Therefore per Mr. Brokenborough’s admission under penalty of perjury the maximum usage of natural gas would amount to 5 times 1.32 million BTUs per hour per megawatt which equals 6.60 million BTUs per hour per megawatt.   Restated this is a heat rate of 6.6 million BTUs per megawatt hour.  The maximum permitted quantity of natural gas to be used is therefore indisputably 6.6 million BTUs per megawatt hour.

Yet Delmarva Power and Bloom Energy have collected money each month from Delmarva Power’s customers for a period of more than 18 months using heat rates that exceed 6.6 million BTUs per megawatt hour which is the maximum permitted amount.  This is akin to permitting a five story building but building a six story building and then renting out an extra unpermitted floor.  In a nutshell Bloom operates beyond the permitted quantity of natural gas and correspondingly Delmarva Power charges its customers beyond the permitted quantity of natural gas.  Using the data from the Delmarva Power filing that is attached the May 2014 charges for natural at 7.19 million BTUs per megawatt hour are a 9% overcharge compared with the permitted maximum quantity of 6.6 million BTUs per megawatt hour.

Returning to the analogy of a building, if the owner of building applied and received a permit for only a five story building but built a six story building their occupancy permit would be terminated and they would be forced to demolish the building.  Bloom’s operating permit for the subject power plant should be revoked and all money illegally and fraudulently collected by Delmarva Power from its customers should be returned.  Bloom’s power generation stations (Brookside and Red Lion) should be shut until such time they can operate with only using a maximum of 1.32 million BTUs per hour in each and every one of their fuel cells.  Their General Manager under penalty of perjury and in writing claimed this quantity to be the maximum usage of natural gas in their final permit application.  Note the quoted statement in the final permit application is “each fuel cell has a base electrical output of 200 kw with a maximum natural gas usage of 1.32 MMBTU per hour”.   Therefore each 200 kw fuel cell that Bloom Energy has installed and operates must meet this threshold of natural gas efficiency or remain shut.  All 150 fuel cells installed by Bloom Energy need to meet this requirement before they should be allowed to continue to operate the power plants.

You must remember that increased natural gas usage means increased CO2 emissions.   The EPA has ruled and the US Supreme Court has affirmed that CO2 is harmful to the health and wellbeing of citizens.  The Delaware Department of Justice must uphold the laws of the land and must bring criminal charges against Bloom Energy and Delmarva alleging the fraudulent operation of a power plant and the fraudulent billing of charges to customers of Delmarva Power who live in Delaware.  

I can be reached at xxxxxxxxx on my cell phone or yyyyyyyyy on my home phone.   Please note that I and my newspaper the Tiburon Ark won First Prize for a Serious Column in the National Newspapers Association 2013 awards for the greenwashing boondoggle Bloom has perpetrated in Dealware.   I look forward to reporting to my readers that criminal charges alleging fraudulent billing and operation of a power plant have been brought in Delaware against Bloom Energy and its agent Delmarva Power. 

As soon as these criminal charges are brought, I suggest that a criminal investigation then begin into how the DNREC issued a permit.  We now have written evidence that Bloom removed hazardous solid waste that contained sulfur in tanks from the coastal zone.

Sincerely,


Lindsay Leveen



Attachments  Delmarva Power March 28, 2014 Filing with the DE PSC and Page 1 of the January 13, 2012 Revised Application to Construct Operate, or Modify Stationary Sources.

5 comments:

  1. I anxiously await to see how this matter unfolds. Thank you for fortitude and willingness to expose green going/gone wrong.

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  2. Kim thanks these gangrene guys have excluded real green folks from access to government funds. Their exposure will help clean up the environment and free up funds for honest folks with green projects.

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  3. Below is my letter that was faxed at 1:20 pm pacific time this 8th day of April 2014qui tam attorney

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  4. http://www.tellpoliticians.com/2017/01/saudi-arabia-making-deals-to-control.html#.WNzm9G-GPcs

    ReplyDelete