The Arizona Corporation Commission on July 5 issued draft rules to implement the Arizona Energy Modernization Plan that sets a goal for the state to deploy 3,000 megawatts of energy storage by 2030 and requires 80 percent of annual electric sales to come from clean resources by 2050. It also includes a clean peak standard that would require utilities to incrementally ramp up clean energy levels deployed during peak hours by 1.5 percent per year until 2030. The draft will be discussed at the open meeting on July 19 with an emphasis on cost savings. Clean energy groups Western Resource Advocates and the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project have estimated that ratepayers can reap $542 million in savings by 2032 if utilities increase renewable energy, boost energy storage, and optimize energy efficiency and demand side resources.

New Jersey House lawmaker Herb Conaway, a Democrat, introduced legislation on June 27 that would require all new residential buildings in the state to include solar panels. The bill would allow solar installations on individual houses or shared solar arrays to serve multiple residences. The mandate would take effect one year after enactment. The measure mirrors building standards approved in May by the California Energy Commission that call on new homes to install rooftop solar starting in 2020. (A 4274)

The California Public Utilities Commission on July 2 started a new rulemaking to continue oversight of the state’s renewable portfolio standards program. The commission will continue to review and monitor renewable procurement plans of retail sellers as well as procurements of investor-owned utilities, assess compliance, and take enforcement action. The new proceeding will consider improvements by adding new elements, and revising procurement methods and tariffs such as utility solicitation and renewable auction mechanisms. California’s RPS targets, originally established in 2002, have been strengthened with the most recent goal set in 2015 requiring retail suppliers and publicly-owned utilities to get 50 percent of their electricity from renewables by 2030.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on July 3 authorized a transaction allowing sPower Winterfell Holdings LLC to acquire just over half of the upstream ownership interest in ID Solar 1 LLC from Carolina Energy Partners II LLC. ID Solar owns a 40 megawatt solar farm in Idaho and is fully subscribed under a 20-year contract with IDACORP Inc. subsidiary Idaho Power Company. sPower Winterfell Holdings is a subsidiary of FTP Power LLC which is controlled by the AES Corporation and Alberta Investment Management Corporation. ID Solar is a subsidiary of CCP-PI Lessor LLC which is owned 51 percent by CCP-PI Managing Member LLC and 49 percent by CCP-PI Lessee LLC. Carolina Energy Partners holds CCP-PI Managing Member, and is managed by investment advisor York Capital Management Global Advisors LLC.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation, asked the California Public Utilities Commission to approve four energy storage projects totaling about 567 megawatts, including three third-party owned projects, to meet local capacity requirements, according to a June 29 press release. In January, the commission authorized the utility to hold competitive solicitations for storage or preferred resources to address local area needs and ensure local reliability in areas previously served by Calpine Corporation’s gas-fired plants. The commission expects the new portfolio to avoid the need for “reliability must run” contracts that would be used to keep uneconomic gas plants operational. Pacific Gas and Electric will own a 182.5-megawatt project built by Tesla Inc. Dynegy Marketing and Trade LLC, a subsidiary of Dynegy Inc., Hummingbird Energy Storage LLC, and Micronoc Inc. will own the other three projects, with 300 megawatts, 75 megawatts, and 10 megawatts of capacity, respectively.

New York’s Department of Public Service staff and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority said that energy storage and distributed energy resources should be exempt from buyer-side mitigation rules proposed by the New York Independent System Operator Inc., according to a June 25 filing. NYISO’s proposed rule responds to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s order issued in February directing grid operators to revise market rules to remove barriers for participation of electric storage resources in the capacity, energy, and ancillary service markets. The duo said that the mitigation rule is contrary to the commission directive, and that these underdeveloped resources are incapable of exerting market power to artificially suppress prices and are needed to support the state’s long-term environmental and energy resource objectives.

The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada on June 29 authorized a budget of $15 million for NV Energy to implement an electric vehicle demonstration program to scale public charging infrastructure as part of its 2018-2019 annual plan. The commission also approved $5 million for energy storage initiatives. The programs stem from legislation enacted last year that tasked the commission with creating an incentive program for energy storage within the state’s solar program, an electric vehicle pilot, and allocation of funds for distributed generation for low-income classes. The utility cannot utilize the incentive funds to install its own stations. In May, the commission approved regulations allowing the utility to own and operate charging stations and recover costs. Nevada Power must file proposed tariffs within 90 days of the order.

The California Public Utilities Commission authorized Southern California Edison Company to recover costs for utility-owned energy storage systems procured during 2016-2017 to mitigate reliability concerns in the Los Angeles Basin following shortages caused by a major gas leak in the Aliso Canyon storage facility in October 2015, according to the commission’s June 25 decision. The leak lead to a ban on injections into the facility, and the commission authorized SoCal Edison to hold a solicitation to procure storage. The utility secured four projects, two from Tesla Motors Inc. totaling 20 megawatts and two from General Electric Company totaling 20 megawatts. The projects count towards satisfying a portion of the utility’s storage targets established by 2010 legislation that directed California’s three investor-owned utilities to obtain 1,325 megawatts of storage by 2020.

The Illinois Commerce Commission held a policy session examining the benefits of energy storage to the grid, policy tools to assist storage applications, and the legal and regulatory framework to address storage integration, according to the commission’s July 2 press release. Panelists discussed the benefits such as grid resiliency, the potential to lower electricity costs, and add value to existing infrastructure. Changes in regulations are expected to streamline storage applications for frequency regulation, deferral of transmission and distribution infrastructure, and microgrids.

Avangrid Inc. said that it’s planning to invest $2.5 billion over 10 years to lessen the impacts of severe storms on infrastructure in its service territories, according to the company’s June 27 press release. The company said that its utilities in Maine, New York, and Connecticut incurred more than $450 million in storm restoration costs over the last 16 months, underscoring the need for a long-term plan to strengthen the grid. The plan includes replacement of wood poles, undergrounding infrastructure, deploying new technologies like batteries or microgrids, tree trimming, and automated metering infrastructure. It gives priority to vegetation management as tree-related interruptions account for about 80 percent of outages. Avangrid is owned by Iberdrola SA.

The Illinois Commerce Commission proposed to approve Commonwealth Edison Company’s solicitation process for third-party energy efficiency programs as part of its 2018-2021 energy efficiency and demand response plan, according to a June 26 draft order. The program follows legislation enacted last year requiring electric utilities to implement a single energy efficiency portfolio and plan from 2018 through 2021 including third-party programs which must receive at least $25 million per year starting in 2019, and to hold a solicitation in 2018 requesting proposals from third-party vendors for one or more of the years.

Interstate Power and Light Company, a subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corporation, proposed an energy efficiency and demand response plan consisting of a suite of electric and natural gas saving programs for the five-year period from 2019-2023, according to a July 5 filing with the Iowa Utilities Board. The plan is expected to save 611 gigawatt-hours of electricity over the period and 20 megawatts of demand annually, excluding demand response programs. The company expects its demand response programs to provide peak demand management potential of 265 megawatts over the same period. The natural gas programs are expected to save almost 2.5 million therms over the course of the plan. The proposal would replace the company’s 2014-2018 plan on or before April 1, 2019.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on June 28 granted a request for waivers by transmission owners in ISO New England Inc.’s region to allow the federal corporate income tax cuts to be accounted for in the 2018 projected transmission revenue requirement for service rate effective on June 1. The transmission owners use formula rates to calculate their transmission service charges and use historical cost inputs from the previous year to update revenue requirements. They explained that without a waiver, the tax cuts would not be reflected in the rates until the 2018 true-up is calculated in June 2019. The tax rate was slashed to 21 percent from 35 percent effective Jan. 1. The transmission owners are National Grid; Emera subsidiary Emera Maine; Avangrid Inc. subsidiaries Central Maine Power Company, Maine Electric Power Company, and United Illuminating Company; U.S. Transmission Holdings LLC subsidiary New Hampshire Transmission LLC; Eversource Energy subsidiaries Connecticut Light and Power Company, NSTAR Electric Company, and Public Service Company of New Hampshire; Unitil Corporation subsidiaries Unitil Energy Systems Inc. and Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light Company; and Green Mountain Power Corporation subsidiary Vermont Transco, LLC. Avangrid is owned by Iberdrola SA.

Illinois Commerce Commission Chairman Brien Sheahan, in a July 2 statement, expressed concern that the state’s carbon-free resources may be forced out of the PJM Interconnection LLC’s capacity market as a result of a new approach proposed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to tackle state-backed generation. The commission on June 29 rejected PJM’s proposals and put forth an alternative solution requiring PJM to expand its minimum offer price rule to all sponsored resources regardless of resource type with minimal or no exemptions, and also establish a “fixed resource requirement alternative” mechanism, allowing subsidized resources to be removed from the capacity auction. Sheahan said the actions imperil the state’s regional partnerships with PJM and its market participants. The state has enacted legislation to promote zero emission electric generation resources.

The Illinois Commerce Commission asked Commonwealth Edison Company and Ameren Illinois Company to clearly display the charge per kilowatt-hour on monthly electric bills to enable cost comparisons for customers shopping for retail power suppliers, according to the commission’s July 2 press release. The requirement for the so-called “price to compare” information follows suggestions from the commission’s annual report on the current state of the retail electric choice market. This year, customers enrolled with alternative suppliers paid $195.3 million more than the utility price-to-compare, or about 24 percent over 2017. The number of customers served by alternative suppliers dropped by about six percent since last year. Ameren Illinois and Commonwealth Edison are subsidiaries of Ameren Corporation and Exelon Corporation, respectively.

AEP Texas Inc. asked the Texas Public Utilities Commission to approve an interim revision to its transmission cost of service and wholesale transmission rates to reflect changes in capital investment including projects related to Hurricane Harvey, according to a July 3 filing. The company seeks a transmission rate base increase of over $356 million, with a total revenue requirement increase of over $45 million for its central and north divisions together. The proposal equates to a 14 percent hike in the company’s wholesale transmission revenue requirement, with 10 percent for the central division and 25 percent for the north division. In December 2016, AEP Texas Central Company and AEP Texas North Company merged into AEP Texas, which continues to maintain them as two separate divisions. In March, AEP Texas sought rate reduction to wholesale transmission rates to reflect the federal tax overhaul and the commission approved an updated revenue of $320,178,844, a reduction of $23,798,546. AEP Texas is a subsidiary of American Electric Power Company Inc.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on July 2 authorized a transaction allowing Navajo Transitional Energy Company LLC to acquire 4C Acquisition LLC’s seven percent ownership interest in the Four Corners Power Plant, a coal-fired generating facility located on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. The plant currently has two operational units with a combined capacity of 1,540 megawatts, of which 4CA Acquisition’s share is 108 megawatts. Other joint owners are Arizona Public Service Company, Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District, PNM Resources Inc. subsidiary Public Service Company of New Mexico, and UNS Energy Corporation subsidiary Tucson Electric Power Company. Pinnacle West Capital Corporation is the parent company of 4C Acquisition and Arizona Public Service. Navajo Transitional Energy is owned by the Navajo Nation, a federally recognized Indian tribal government.

NextEra Energy Inc. asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to authorize a transaction allowing its subsidiary 700 Universe LLC to acquire the interests of Southern Power Company in Southern Power-Florida LLC and Oleander Power Project Limited Partnership, according to a July 3 application. Southern Power-Florida owns 65 percent of the interests in a 655-megawatt natural gas-fired unit of the Stanton Energy Center in Florida. Its share of 427 megawatts is committed through long-term contracts with Orlando Utilities Commission and Florida Municipal Power Agency. Oleander Power Project owns a five-unit 790-megawatt natural gas power plant in Florida, with four units committed through long-term contracts. Southern Power is a subsidiary of The Southern Company.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission should reject a proposal by Minnesota Power Enterprises Inc., a division of ALLETE Inc., to purchase 48 percent of the capacity from a 525-megawatt natural gas power plant to be built in Wisconsin because the utility failed to show that the purchase is needed, according to a report issued by administrative law judge Jeanne Cochran on July 2. The report found that the company relied on analysis that was “systematically biased” in favor of the plant as it used unreasonable assumptions and limited alternatives. It said that the company didn’t give adequate capacity credit to wind and solar resources, underestimated the amount of energy efficiency and demand response in its analysis, and also overstated its ramping needs by excluding existing dispatchable facilities. The majority of the comments opposed the proposal, which would have ratepayers bear the $350 million investment, saying that the company can meet demand by increasing energy efficiency and investing in renewable energy alternatives, and also raised concerns that the gas will come from hydraulic fracturing that causes environmental damage. The proposed Nemadji Trail Energy Center would be jointly developed by Minnesota Power’s affiliate South Shore Energy LLC and Dairyland Power Cooperative. As Wisconsin law permits only Wisconsin entities to own a generation facility, ALLETE created South Shore to own its share of the plant.