The governors of five New England states – Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont – issued a statement on Oct. 14 calling for reforms to the regional wholesale electricity market structure to support their decarbonization efforts. In light of the states’ commitment to reduce emissions by at least 80 percent below 1990 levels by…...
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Oct. 15 issued an order on PJM Interconnection LLC’s proposed revisions in response to a December 2019 order that directed the grid operator to expand the minimum offer price rule, or MOPR, effectively raising the bid price for state-subsidized resources to participate in the capacity market. Democratic Commissioner Richard…...
In 2019, the weighted average wholesale price of solar PV-generated electricity was $83 per megawatthour, more than double the price of wind, fossil fuels, or nuclear, according to an Oct. 9 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The higher price is partly driven by geography and timing. Wholesale electricity prices rise when demand within…...
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Sept. 17 approved a long-awaited rule, directing regional grid operators to open their markets to distributed energy resource aggregations. The order removes barriers preventing these resources from competing on a level playing field in the wholesale capacity, energy, and ancillary services markets. The rule requires regional grid operators to…...
Proposals to accelerate the phase-out of coal-fired generation appear more prominently in long-term resource plans of U.S. electric utilities, reflecting the growing shift to renewable energy. The transition from coal continues to be driven by state clean energy mandates, emissions reduction goals, low natural gas prices, and increased availability of low-cost renewables and storage resources.
There is a growing interest in how carbon pricing can be incorporated into wholesale power markets as more jurisdictions embrace policy goals to transition to a lower-carbon power system. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has scheduled a technical conference to consider state adoption of mechanisms to price carbon emissions in regions with commission-jurisdictional electricity markets.
Recently, state regulators have stepped up efforts to value distributed energy resources (DERs) more accurately while looking for ways to better reflect the costs they impose on the grid. Among recent actions, New York adopted a mechanism to move the market towards more cost-reflective rates, while California decided to include avoided transmission costs in the valuation, and Connecticut unveiled a study on quantifying the benefits of these resources.
From 2011 to 2019, the U.S. repurposed 121 coal-fired plants to burn other fuels, of which 103 switched to natural gas, according to an Aug. 5 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The agency attributed the trend to stricter emission standards, low gas prices, and more efficient natural gas turbine technology. Of the 316.8-gigawatts…...
The Southwest Power Pool Inc., the regional transmission organization for 14 states in the central U.S., on July 29 announced plans to implement policy changes and improve its market development strategies in the second half of 2020. The announcement follows a suite of approvals from the organization’s board and stakeholder committees. The board approved four…...
The debate over ratepayer subsidies for struggling nuclear power plants has resurfaced, following a racketeering investigation related to a controversial Ohio law, which created a $1 billion bailout for FirstEnergy Corp. last year. The economic troubles of the embroiled industry come to the fore even as states such as New Jersey and Illinois evaluate plans to opt out of the regional capacity market in response to reforms that expanded the minimum offer price rule to subsidized resources.
The Western Energy Imbalance market generated about $79 million in savings in the second quarter of this year, with total benefits reaching about $998 million since its launch in 2014, according to a July 29 press release from the California Independent System Operator Corporation. The market constitutes an automated system that secures the lowest-cost energy…
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has revised the regulations for implementing a 1978 federal law, which requires electric utilities to purchase power from small power producers. The reforms, intended to reflect changes in the energy markets, mark the first major overhaul to utility power procurement rules under the law, which has spurred the growth of small renewable generators.