CA Current

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted 2-1 to require grid operators to eliminate market barriers to aggregated rooftop solar, storage, energy efficiency and other clean energy resources on the distribution system. The new rule requires grid operators to rework their tariffs within nine months to include aggregated distributed resources as market participants in a way […]

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Neil Chatterjee announced Thursday that his agency is looking into what caused a shortage of electricity that led to rolling outages in California on Aug. 14 and 15. He said he is concerned about heat related events and wildfires. “Climate change is increasing the ferocity and number of weather events,” […]

The climate crisis threatens the stability of the U.S. financial markets, warned commissioners appointed by the current president to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in a recent report. Although their report has not been approved by the full commission, Emilie Mazzacurati, founder/CEO of climate risk analyst 427, called it miraculous in the current political environment. […]

Anticipation surrounds a multi-agency analysis of which power plants unexpectedly went offline and what failures may have precipitated the call for rolling power outages in California mid-August. Now the release of that analysis is delayed until October rather than later this month.  The California Independent System Operator, California Public Utilities Commission and California Energy Commission, […]

The analysis of the rolling blackouts is in the works but there was advanced warning of some serious systematic problems, making some mistakes avoidable. The joint agency root cause report of the mid-August blackouts may be underway, but some problems were just waiting to happen. California was clearly and inexcusably on a path to rely […]

How much owners of rooftop solar reap for excess energy produced and the conditions attached have been battled in and outside California for several years. The Golden State has inconsistent solar policies, from providing $3 billion in subsidies under the decade-long Million Solar Roofs program that ended in 2017, to adding hefty chargers to net […]

Northern San Diegans vigorously protest San Diego’s plan to upgrade and extend a big power line from San Marcos to Escondido. After listening to concerns about fire and financial dangers, as well as visual blight, the California Public Utilities Commission pulls the item from this week’s business meeting. In other news, the utility regulators learn […]

Members of the public expressed strong concern about a proposal by San Diego Gas & Electric to modernize and extend a 12-mile 69 kV line through northern San Diego County, leading state regulators to delay a vote for construction that seemed sure to be approved. Several locals, many emotional, said the proposed overhead line running […]

At an update this week on the ongoing effort to remove dams on the Klamath River, PacifiCorp representatives told the California Public Utilities Commission that progress is being made on the transfer of the lower dams to a non-profit organization.     “We continue to support the settlement agreement,” PacifiCorp’s attorney told the commissioners. When pressed, […]

The governor should direct the overhauling of resource adequacy rules to help mitigate future supply and demand disparities, the California Community Choice Association head stated in a letter to Gavin Newsom. The recent rolling blackouts “reveal an urgent need to reform the existing resource adequacy rules administered by the California Public Utilities Commission and the […]

SoCalGas announced Sept. 10 it was increasing energy efficient appliance rebates by 50%. It applies to efficient appliances purchased now through the end of the year. A tankless water heater can save about $1,500, an efficient traditional water heater about $200, and an energy efficient furnace will save a customer about $550 over its lifetime, […]

The Assembly Utilities & Energy Committee Chair warned that increases in California utility bills are becoming untenable. Chris Holden (D-Pasadena) pointed to the private utilities’ tab to reduce climate-aggravated wildfires, which gets passed on to customers. “Rates are really getting out of control,” Holden said during a Sept. 9 Power Association of Northern California meeting, […]

Today marks the 10-year anniversary of the explosion of a Pacific Gas & Electric gas pipeline that killed eight people and destroyed three dozen homes in San Bruno. The Sept. 9 disaster happened along a corroded stretch of 30-inch-wide pipe near San Francisco that burst and sent flames high into the sky. Among the dead […]

High temperatures and fires over the Labor Day weekend put the grid to the test. While the California Independent System Operator managed to keep supply and demand in balance Sept. 5-7, tens of thousands of customers of the three investor-owned utilities lost power or had it shut off because of wildfires during and after the […]

Under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order, the California Public Utilities Commission has initiated a “root-cause analysis” of the state’s August 14-15 blackouts. Its joint report with the grid operator and California Energy Commission is expected to be completed at the end of this month. The blackouts were “intolerable,” but combined with the pandemic, west-wide heat storm, […]

Updated Sept. 11 Fewer energy bills passed in the 2020 California legislative session than in any in the last two decades plus. The pandemic, shelter at home, and resulting focus on budget difficulties largely are responsible for the dramatic fall in energy measures making it to the governor’s desk. “It was pretty much a bust,” […]

The California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously Aug. 31 to formally oust the agency’s executive director Alice Stebbins.  “You took a series of actions over the course of several years that calls into question your integrity,” CPUC President Marybel Batjer told Stebbins during a remotely-held public meeting. She added that Stebbins neither took responsibility nor […]

State utility regulators sign off on funding the country’s biggest green public interest energy program and utility electric vehicle charging plan. The California Public Utilities Commission approves Southern California Edison’s $436 million program to install 38,000 electric car ports, focused on renters in and outside of struggling communities. The CPUC also extends for a decade […]

California regulators unanimously approved the largest utility electric car charging infrastructure program in the country. The California Public Utilities Commission voted 5-0 to allow Southern California Edison to charge its ratepayer $436 million over the next four years to install 38,000 light duty vehicle chargers. Commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen recognized concerns about the program’s cost. He […]

The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved charging ratepayers $1.4 billion over the next decade to continue paying for emerging clean energy technologies. These include those that help create a clean reliable grid, reduce air pollution in struggling communities, advance zero and low emission vehicles and reduce wildfire risks. “In California we know we need […]