Latest News
Solar-storage microgrids, CEC grants, SCE’s $1B ratepayer bond
Solar advocates introduce an innovative way to advance clean microgrids and meet California's urgent need for power system reliability and resilience. In a new California Public Utilities Commission filing, they seek incentives to add energy [...]
Energy Commission Awards Million$ More to Electric Trucks and Buses
The most recent batch of California Energy Commission clean energy grants is out and includes $13 million for research that leads to the installation of two public, heavy-duty charging stations for electric drayage trucks in [...]
Solar Groups Propose Customer-Owned Solar-plus-Storage Microgrids to Regulators
An innovative proposal from Vote Solar and other solar advocates would demonstrate that customer-sited solar and storage can provide reliability and resiliency. The Joint Solar Reliability Parties microgrid docket filing with the California Public Utilities Commission proposes rebates for adding storage.
Regulatory Proposal Cuts SCE’s $1B Ratepayer Bond Request in Half
A California Public Utilities Commission proposal agreed with ratepayer advocates that Southern California Edison is overreaching in its request for $1 billion in long-term ratepayer-backed bonds. The Administrative Law Judges would allow the utility [...]
Shorts
Strong dry offshore winds resulted in Pacific Gas & Electric shutting off power to 25,000 customers in 20 counties starting Oct. 11 to protect against power lines sparking fires. The counties with the largest number [...]
Out-of-State Utilities Join Forces to Consider Western Market
Updated Oct. 13 A dozen utilities from Puget Sound to Colorado have announced they’re exploring the formation of a western-wide trading market amid the shifting energy landscape. Such a market could give the California Independent [...]
Pilots to curb disconnections, diesel backups soar, billion$ for EVs
The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approves investor-owned utility pilots to reduce the number of poor customers who have their power shutoff because of unpaid utility bills. The quintet also votes to develop a safety [...]
New CPUC Rulemakings Aim to Reduce Disconnections and Increase Utility Safety
The California Public Utilities Commission voted to launch a pilot project to curb power disconnections at struggling customers’ homes as part of a new rulemaking. It also acted to add yet another layer of [...]
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 [...]
Federal Infrastructure Bills Would Drive Transportation Electrification
Two federal proposals to advance electric vehicles in California and across the nation are the $1.2 trillion Invest in America (HR 3684) bill, already passed by the Senate, and the House’s controversial and still [...]
Diesel Backup Spree by Businesses Equals 15% of California Grid Capacity
Businesses have installed diesel generators across California at such a clip that they now amount to 15% of the total electrical capacity, undermining California’s greenhouse gas reduction targets and harming public health, according to new research from the consulting group M.Cubed.
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 under the 15-year old AB 32 without major changes at the state and federal [...]
11.5 GW of clean energy assures reliability, CCAs add more renewables
To attain 11.5 GW of clean electricity by mid-decade, no additional fossil fuel plants will be needed to ensure grid reliability, California Energy Commission staff concluded Sept. 30. In late May, the California Public [...]
CPUC prez steps down, 120 MW of new gas plants, New East Bay wind farm
The biggest news of the week is the announcement that the California Public Utilities Commission chief is leaving, five years before the end of her term. President Marybel Batjer tells staff in an email [...]
Future Brightens for the Salton Sea’s Lithium Valley
Prospects are the brightest they’ve been since the beginning of a years-long effort to create a domestic supply of lithium from the Imperial Valley’s Salton Sea. Imperial Valley lithium has the advantage of being extracted [...]
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 [...]
California Public Utilities Commission Chief Is Leaving
Marybel Batjer, California Public Utilities Commission president, is bidding adieu to the agency, five years before the end of her term. In a Sept. 28 email to staff, Batjer said she will depart by [...]
SoCalGas Reaches Aliso Canyon Settlement
Southern California Gas has proposed a $1.8 billion settlement to resolve thousands of lawsuits filed by San Fernando Valley victims of the gas company’s massive, months-long methane leak from its Aliso Canyon Storage Field [...]
New Law Mandates Carbon Emission Reductions from Cement
California just took a major step toward addressing the powerful role of concrete in climate change. Governor Newsom has signed the first bill in the country focused on cutting greenhouse gas emissions from cement, [...]
Debut for Repowered Wind Farm Serving East Bay Community Energy
East Bay Community Energy formally opened a new 57.5 MW wind farm in the Altamont Pass in Livermore under hot sunny, nearly breezeless skies the morning of Sept. 24. The project will be sending [...]
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 towards a regional power market. Despite wildfires across CAISO's region, power system conditions have [...]