Peak Demand
Critical Federal Analysis of Klamath Dam Removal Due Beginning of the Year
It looks as though the long-awaited environmental impact analysis for a historic removal of four large dams on the Klamath River will come in January. That will be a milestone. After more than two decades of struggle, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s draft impact assessment will be the final hurdle to their removal, […]
CPUC Seeks Another 3,000 MW by Next Summer
The California Public Utilities Commission proposes to further bolster the grid the next two summers by adding between 2,000 and 3,000 megawatts, including by expanding commercial and residential demand response and home energy efficiency programs, as well as increasing payments for the resources. The mix of supply and demand products is to alleviate stress […]
Controversial Redondo Beach Gas Plant to Stay Online
It’s final. In the tension between electricity reliability and harmful pollution, reliability won out in a vote on Oct. 19 to keep the aging Redondo Beach fossil-fired power plant online for another two years. The 834 MW natural gas plant will provide peaking power as needed to the grid through the end of 2023. […]
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 threatening the plan to expand it to a day-head market in three years.
The Northwest Power Pool is developing a capacity sharing program, and the Southwest Power Pool is developing a day-ahead market. […]
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 emissions from the electricity sector and simultaneously add new generation to the grid. But a new CEC report points out several ways the agencies and grid operator’s own bureaucracies–as well as matters outside […]
120 MW of New Fossil Gas Generation Installed
Source: DWR
Four new 30 MW natural gas-fired generators have just been added to the California grid at a cost of $196 million. In a peculiarity of the state’s power system, it was the Department of Water Resources that has been in charge of the installations expected to provide power at times of high stress […]