The Western Energy Imbalance market generated $739 million in benefits in 2021, the highest annual benefits achieved since the market launched in 2014, according to a Jan. 31 press release from the California Independent System Operator Corporation. This brings the cumulative benefits of the real-time energy market close to the $2 billion mark. The previous…...
The Biden Administration on Jan. 31 announced new actions, in accordance with the Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan, which was unveiled in Glasgow during the U.N. climate conference in November 2021. The plan introduces a number of innovative actions to deal with methane emissions, a key driver of climate change, and support a clean energy…...
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Jan. 27 invalidated the Interior Department’s Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale citing failure to accurately consider greenhouse gas emissions that would result from the auction. The sale, Lease Sale 257, held in November 2021, offered about 80 million acres, the largest offshore…...
The Kansas Corporation Commission on Jan. 28 approved a settlement agreement allowing Black Hills Energy to recover $87.9 million in deferred costs related to natural gas service provided during the winter storm Uri in February 2021. The storm affected the south-central U.S., causing widespread outages and forcing natural gas processing plants to shut down. As…...
PJM Interconnection LLC and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on Jan. 27 filed a joint agreement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to implement an offshore wind transmission grid solicitation. The agreement is expected to serve as a national model for states to incorporate clean energy priorities into the regional transmission planning…...
PJM Interconnection LLC on Jan. 24 filed a new schedule for its capacity market auctions and associated pre-auction deadlines with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, proposing to hold the auction for 2023/2024 delivery year on June 8. The proposal is in response to a December 2021 order directing the grid operator, which operates across 13…...
The Arizona Corporation Commission on Jan. 26 voted 3-2 to decline rules that would have required the state’s investor-owned electric utilities to supply 100 percent carbon-free power to their customers by 2070. Utilities already have voluntarily committed to more ambitious decarbonization plans. Arizona Public Service Company (APS) has committed to source all of its electricity…...
Xcel Energy-Colorado, Platte River Power Authority, and Black Hills Colorado Electric LLC on Jan. 25 revealed plans to join the Western Energy Imbalances Service (WEIS) Market, operated by the Southwest Power Pool, which manages the power grid across the central U.S. The utilities plan to join the market by April 2023 subject to approval through…...
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on Jan. 26 announced the opening of the electric vehicle charger incentive program for multi-unit dwellings. This program is consistent with the 2019 Energy Master Plan’s effort to electrify the transportation sector, which accounts for more than 40 percent of the state’s emissions and supports the goal of…...
The U.S. Energy Department on Jan. 25 announced $25 million funding to aid research and expansion of technologies to generate electricity from wave power. The program will assist eight projects in conducting open-water tests at the PacWave South test site. This funding aims to enhance the commercial feasibility and implementation of wave energy technologies as…...
The U.S. Energy Department on Jan. 25 announced various initiatives to advance the deployment of community solar, at the National Community Solar Partnership (NCSP) Annual Summit. The initiatives are expected to help achieve the partnership’s target of reaching a deployment level that can the equivalent of 5 million homes and generate about $1 billion in…...
The National Energy Technology Laboratory on Jan. 24 announced that its Strategic Systems Analysis & Engineering, or SSAE, researchers are working towards using fossil energy resources to produce hydrogen by adopting advanced hydrogen production and carbon capture technologies. The new initiative by the Energy Department national lab is expected to expand the use of fossil-fuel…