The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Feb. 3 determined that a court-ordered revised environmental review of Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3 pipeline project is adequate. The agency also approved and re-issued the certificate of need and route permit for the project, which has been delayed for a year due to opposition from environmental groups and permitting…
The ISO New England Inc.’s annual forward capacity auction closed at a clearing price of $2.00 per kilowatt-month, the lowest in the auction’s history, according to a Feb. 5 news release. The closing price was about 47 percent lower than the last year’s auction, which valued capacity at $3.80 per kilowatt-month. The primary auction received…
Hydropower is moving to the forefront of clean energy and climate policy debates as a growing number of U.S. states are setting targets to achieve zero-carbon power. About half a dozen state-level laws were enacted last year to establish 100 percent clean energy transition, showing how the nation’s decade-long renewable push is ramping up. Hydroelectricity…
U.S. electricity generation from renewable sources such as wind and solar are projected to surpass nuclear and coal by 2021 and to surpass natural gas in 2045, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook 2020. The share of U.S. electricity generation from renewable sources is projected to double, accounting for 38 percent…
Estimated U.S. natural gas use for power generation averaged about 28.4 billion cubic per day from November 2019 to January 2020, about 12 percent higher compared to the same period in 2018-2019, according to a Jan. 30 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Power burn reached 34 Bcf/d on Jan. 20, the second-highest natural…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on Jan. 24 vacated three orders issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2017 granting extensions of small refinery exemptions under the Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS, program. The court ruled that the agency cannot allow extensions of exemptions that had lapsed, noting that none of…
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Jan. 29 ruled that the Public Regulation Commission must apply the Energy Transition Act, or ETA, to the closure and replacement of the San Juan coal-fired plant, granting a petition by New Mexico Governor Lujan Grisham, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, and the legislators who sponsored the act. The…
Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company on Jan. 23 asked the Kentucky Public Service Commission to approve a 20-year contract with Rhudes Creek Solar LLC, to purchase the output of a 100-megawatt solar generation facility to be built in Hardin County, Kentucky. The project is expected to come online by the end…
The California Public Utilities Commission proposed additional guidelines that investor-owned utilities would be required to follow prior to the 2020 wildfire season prepare for and minimize the impacts of public safety power shutoff events to avoid the risk of power lines starting wildfires, according to a Jan. 30 news release. The agency also issued a…
Southwestern Electric Power Co. reached an agreement with the Arkansas Public Service Commission’s staff, the Office of Arkansas Attorney General, and Walmart Inc. to acquire 810 megawatts of wind energy from three projects in Oklahoma, according to a Jan. 24 filing. SWEPCO will own 54.5 percent of a 1,485-megawatt portfolio of wind projects, which it…
The Southwest Power Pool Inc.’s Board of Directors approved the grid operator’s 2020 transmission expansion plan report, a comprehensive listing of transmission projects in the region for the 20-year planning horizon, according to a Jan. 28 news release. The plan includes 78 projects to be constructed over the next six years in eight states at…
The District of Columbia Public Service Commission issued an order outlining the initial steps to achieve the vision of Power Path DC, which was launched last August to advance the next phase of the agency’s grid modernization efforts, according to a Jan. 29 news release. The order approves a set of recommendations from the PowerPath…
