The Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority on May 6 issued a final decision adopting comprehensive marketing standards and sales practices for electric suppliers. The new standards are designed to ensure that customers choosing third-party suppliers have access to accurate information to make educated decisions. The standards apply to switching practices, solicitations and renewals, hiring and…...
The California Public Utilities Commission on April 29 proposed a decision adopting short-term actions to expedite the deployment of microgrids and related resiliency strategies that would mitigate the impacts of safety power shutoff events to avoid the risk of power lines starting wildfires. The proposal would direct the state’s large investor-owned electric utilities to streamline…...
The Arkansas Public Service Commission on May 5 approved a settlement agreement, allowing Southwestern Electric Power Co. to acquire up to 810 megawatts of wind energy from three projects in Oklahoma. The company will invest $1.01 billion to own 54.5 percent of a 1,485-megawatt portfolio of wind projects, which it plans to buy with Public…...
Dominion Energy Inc. on May 1 filed its 2020 integrated resource plan with the Virginia State Corporation Commission, reflecting the targets of the Clean Economy Act, which requires the company to produce its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045. Under the proposal, the company proposes to add 6.7 to 18.8 gigawatts of solar over the…...
Utility commissions in almost a dozen jurisdictions have canceled hearings and revised procedural schedules in several pending electric and natural gas rate cases. A few utilities have committed to delay the implementation of rates, in order to avoid burdening customers amid the difficult circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator Inc. anticipates summer power demand to peak at 125 gigawatts, with 152 gigawatts of available capacity to meet the need, according to an April 29 news release. The grid operator said that impacts to the outage schedule from COVID-19 have been minor and no reliability impacts are foreseen due to…...
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation on April 29 proposed regulations to advance the state’s portion of the 30 percent emissions cap reduction from 2021 to 2030, under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, which established the nation’s first regional program to cap and reduce power sector emissions. Following the program update,…...
Natural gas markets have a tendency to react to regional factors while crude oil markets respond swiftly and most times drastically to world events, according to a April 29 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The correlation of daily price movements across the West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, and Brent are typically above 0.90…....
U.S. petroleum consumption dropped to its lowest level in nearly three decades due to the travel restrictions in place to curb the spread of COVID-19, as well as the economic downturn resulting from the pandemic, according to an April 23 report from the Energy Information Administration. The U.S. demand averaged 14.1 million barrels per day…...
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on April 27 proposed to amend its solar energy rule and create a Transition Incentive Program to replace the Solar Renewable Energy Certificate, or SREC, initiative. The board ordered the closure of the SREC program effective April 30, declaring that the state has attained the milestone set by…...
New Jersey and Maryland filed a lawsuit with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s order directing PJM Interconnection LLC to extend the minimum offer price rule, or MOPR, to state-subsidized resources, according to an April 27 news release. Several states have criticized the move, citing its potential to harm…...
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission on April 29 put off a decision on the Public Service Company of New Mexico’s plan for two solar-plus-battery projects to partially replace the generation from the San Juan Generating Station scheduled for retirement by 2022. In a March 27 recommended decision, hearing examiners suggested that the commission approve…...