The Buzz

Months of speculation as to who would be the CA grid operator’s new chief ends with the naming of Bonneville Power Administration head Elliott Mainzer. He says he wants to build on the success of the Energy Imbalance Market, which BPA joins next year.

A nasty dispute between state utility commissioners and the executive director gets exposed this week. Director Alice Stebbins charges that she is being pushed out for trying to clean up the CPUC’s act, specifically in the areas of unrecovered utility fines.

The parent corporation of San Diego Gas & Electric and SoCal Gas reports earnings five times above those of the second quarter of 2019.  The two utilities help push up net profits thanks to sizable increases in their revenue requirements.  The funds will surely help defend the company’s claimed turf in and outside San Diego.

SoCal Gas increases its opposition to building electrification and sues the California Energy Commission for being “anti-gas.”

Legislation to put safeguards on natural gas and gas fracking to protect the health of those in struggling communities of color fails to gain support after two years of effort. The fight is not yet over, however.

Another Senate Committee passes bills advancing lithium extraction from geothermal brine in the Salton Sea, installations of electric vehicle chargers and the prospects of biomethane.

So many working from home, many with kids neither in school or camp, has raised residential energy consumption and utility bills. Will California residents be forced not only to take over part of the energy tab of their workplaces but also be on the hook for the drop in commercial and industrial demand? A ratepayer advocate worries.

The California Public Utilities Commission is expected to approve staff’s opposition to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s proposal to give transmission owners unneeded awards for cybersecurity upgrades.

And more…

–-The Editors