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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...
News Roundup: New Renewable Peak, East Bay Home Electrification Launched
California hit a new renewable energy peak of nearly 98%. This new record of nonfossil resources flowing into the grid...
Higher Natural Gas Prices Push up Grid Market Costs
A 50% increase in natural gas costs drove up the grid operator’s day-ahead market prices in the fourth quarter of...
Bills to Remove Barriers to California’s Clean Grid Goal Advance
The Assembly energy committee backed legislation to require that installers of large solar rooftop panels be paid prevailing wages. Lawmakers...
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,...
Bills Aim to Accelerate New High Voltage Lines and Clean Energy Resources
The Senate Energy Utilities & Commerce Committee approved legislation seeking to speed up the decarbonization of the grid, including by...
Next Year’s $3B Green Resilient Grid Plan Okayed
The California grid operator approved spending $2.9 billion for 23 transmission projects in its 2022-23 plan, which largely aims to...
CPUC Lowers Greenhouse Gas Target by 25%, with Big Storage Steadily Lining Up
Updated Feb. 15 The California Public Utilities Commission ratcheted down the greenhouse gas emissions cap for the electric sector to...
Emerging Technologies: Virtual Power Plants Advance in California
California regulators and utilities are finally beginning to seize the emerging virtual power plant (VPP) opportunity that allows aggregations of...
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...
Big Utilities Go Big on Utility Storage Deals
Pacific Gas & Electric will install 1.6 gigawatts of large energy storage projects between August 2023 and June 2024 to...
Federal Agency Pushes Grid Operators to Increase Distributed Energy
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has directed the California grid operator and five others to prove they are lowering market...
Tight Energy Supply Brightens Prospects for Pumped Storage
California uses lots of electricity to push massive amounts of water from the Bay-Delta rivers to farms, homes and factories...
Hydropower Plant Back Online After Winter Rains
The Department of Water Resources’ Hyatt hydropower plant at Oroville Dam in Butte County is back generating electricity, thanks to...
Booming Clean Energy Highlights Transmission Needs
Record growth through the end of last September brought the combined installed wind, solar, and battery storage capacity in the...
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...
Storage Surges, but Will Rooftop PV Payment Changes Affect its Pairing with Solar?
Well before California signed international agreements to slash climate-harmful emissions from the energy and building sectors at last month’s COP-26...
Inside the Beltway: FERC Goes After Market Violators
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recovered 14 times as much in penalties for energy market wrongdoings in 2021 than the...