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Transmission & Distribution
Federal Regulators Propose Giving States More Say in Regional Transmission
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved 4-1 a proposed rulemaking that would give California and other states a larger role...
Bills Back Ratepayer Bonds for Tree Cutting Costs; New Clean Energy Workforce Office
The Assembly Utilities & Energy Committee on April 20 passed legislation to expand private utilities’ access to ratepayer-backed bonds and...
Bills Advancing Power Line Undergrounding and Alternative Energy and Vehicles Pass
The state Senate energy committee has approved legislation to accelerate the undergrounding of overhead power lines to reduce fire and...
Energy Agencies Strive to Advance Cost-Effective, Long-Duration Grid Storage
Significant amounts of energy storage with continuous output of eight hours and far longer will be needed to reach a...
Calif’s Zero Emissions Goal Drives Huge New Demand, Weird Math and Dunkelflaute
California may face up to a 90% growth in electricity demand to meet its economy-wide zero emissions by 2045 goal,...
Grid Operator Proposes $30 Billion for Green Grid
For the first time, the California grid operator has released a draft 20-year plan for a grid that supports total...
FERC Won’t Allow PG&E to Bill Ratepayers $6M for Transmission Planning
Federal energy regulators rejected Pacific Gas & Electric’s request to swiftly recoup $6 million it spent downscaling three transmission projects...
CAISO Regional Market Design Details Emerge, Big Questions Remain
The newly reinitiated stakeholder process to build a Western Day-Ahead Market took two steps forward that shows the California Independent...
Guest Editorial: A Long-Term Vision Will Help California Decarbonize Faster and Cheaper
SB 100 set clean power goals for California, providing a clear and bold statement of the state’s commitment to global...
Replacement of Dirty Oakland Peaker Delayed
The plan to swap out the polluting Oakland Energy Center with battery storage this coming January has been delayed because...
California Grid Operator Aims for 2024 Regional Day-Ahead Market
The California-led real-time Energy Imbalance Market has delivered significant savings to Western power providers, but other regions’ market ambitions are...
Shorts
Strong dry offshore winds resulted in Pacific Gas & Electric shutting off power to 25,000 customers in 20 counties starting...
Out-of-State Utilities Join Forces to Consider Western Market
Updated Oct. 13 A dozen utilities from Puget Sound to Colorado have announced they’re exploring the formation of a western-wide...
Report Points to Bureaucratic, Legal and Supply Chain Obstacles to Clean Grid
Staff at the California Public Utilities Commission and Energy Commission are required by law and executive order to ratchet down...
Edison Warns California Won’t Make its Greenhouse Gas Limits
Edison International added its voice to warnings that California will not reach its greenhouse gas reduction mandate set for 2030...
CAISO Board Focuses on Near Term Needs and Long Term Ambitions
The California grid operator is keeping close tabs on climate crisis-driven wildfires and outage uncertainties while looking down the road...
$15B for climate protection, resource adequacy inadequacies
The state grid operator and a federal regulator both point to the fallout from a shortage of supply cushions to...
Totally Different States, Same Problem: Resource Adequacy
In what could be a meaningful coincidence, the California grid operator approved costly reliability ‘must run’ contracts Sept 23 on...
Grid Operator Okays 470 MW to Nail Down Reliability, PG&E Objects to Channel Island Power
The California grid operator is posed to approve a round of reliability must run annual contracts for gas-fired power plants...
Shorts
Updated Sept. 23 Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation providing more than $15 billion to reduce the impacts of the climate...