The Idaho Public Utilities Commission approved changes to Avista Corporation’s annual rate adjustments that will lower residential electric bills by $4.85 per month, according to the agency’s Oct. 2 press release. The fixed cost adjustment, a mechanism that allows customers to receive a rebate when the utility’s revenue surpasses costs and incur a surcharge when…
The U.S. Department of Energy published a final environmental assessment on Oct. 2 for Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation’s project Icebreaker, a freshwater offshore wind demonstration project located in Lake Erie, near Cleveland, Ohio. The 20.7-megawatt project is being developed by Fred. Olsen Renewables, a Norwegian company, and the nonprofit Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation…
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission established requirements governing the services of community solar companies – entities other than electric utilities – based on guidelines for other regulated industries, according to the agency’s Oct. 2 press release. The rules create consumer protection measures including written permission to release private consumer information, escrow accounts to refund…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Oct. 2 ordered another halt to construction activity on all portions of the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline. The court ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers had instituted inadequate requirements for how the pipeline should cross streams in West Virginia, just a few weeks…
Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, released Virginia’s new energy plan which provides a strategic vision for the commonwealth’s energy policy over the next 10 years. The plan is the implementation strategy of the Grid Transformation and Security Act (Senate Bill 966), signed into law earlier this year. Among other things, the legislation includes 3,000 megawatts…
PJM Interconnection LLC on Oct. 2 unveiled a proposal addressing a June 29 directive from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to revamp the capacity market rules to address price distortion as the participation of sources receiving out-of-market state revenues continues to grow. The plan proposes an expanded minimum offer price rule or MOPR that would…
U.S. net natural gas exports averaged 0.87 billion cubic feet per day during the first six months of this year, more than double the amount during all of 2017, which marked the first time the U.S. became a net exporter in almost 60 years, according to an Oct. 1 report from the U.S. Energy Information…
The U.S. Energy Department announced the funding to support research partnerships that will facilitate next-generation technologies to advance cybersecurity and resilience of the electric grid and oil and natural gas infrastructure, according to an Oct. 1 press release. The projects will take innovative approaches such as redesigning existing architecture that makes the grid vulnerable to…
The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement on Sept. 28 updated the 2016 well control rule, one of the spate of safety regulations implemented in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill that spewed 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over nearly three months. The agency said…
The Michigan Public Service Commission on Sept. 28 approved settlements that will return a total of about $7.6 million under the second round of federal tax cut adjustments to electric customers of Alpena Power Co. and Upper Michigan Energy Resources Corp., and gas customers of Michigan Gas Utility Corp., Northern States Power, SEMCO Energy Gas…
U.S. President Donald Trump signed legislation on Sept. 28 that requires mergers or consolidations of public utilities with a value above $10 million to be first approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. For transactions valued below that threshold but above $1 million, the law requires the utilities seeking merger to notify the commission within…
