The U.S. Energy Department on Feb. 2 signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in conjunction with the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to promote new actions that will speed up efforts to strengthen the electrical resilience of the island. The proposed initiatives further President Biden’s…...
Revisions to rules governing competitive retail electricity markets are focused on strengthening customer protections while exploring ways to expand access to these markets. Recent actions include efforts to open retail electric competition in Arizona, Connecticut’s investigation into supplier offers, and Maine’s update to marketing standards for retail electric services.
The California Independent System Operator Corp. on Feb. 1 released a 20-year transmission outlook that discusses long-term infrastructure requirements to reach the state’s target of generating 100 percent electricity from carbon-neutral sources by 2045. The draft plan is based on the assumption that about 120 gigawatts will have to be added to the grid by…...
Georgia Power on Jan. 31 filed its 2022 Integrated Resource Plan with the Georgia Public Service Commission, proposing to close all of its coal assets by 2035. The company intends to retire a total of 12 generation assets producing more than 3,500 megawatts by 2028. To assist this asset transformation, the utility is planning to…...
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…...
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…...
U.S. offshore wind is gaining traction with new milestones spurred by state commitments of almost 40 gigawatts (GW) by 2040 and a federal goal of 30 GW by 2030. Recent developments include state-level project selections that could add more than 3.2 GW of new capacity, New Jersey’s proposal for a novel offshore wind transmission solution, and New York’s move to advance transmission technologies for offshore wind integration.
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…...
