The Bureau of Land Management’s quarterly oil and gas lease sale in Utah generated net proceeds of $3.04 million drawing bids for 96 of 105 parcels offered, according to a Dec. 12 press release. The sale excluded 116 parcels following a court ruling in September by the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho…
Avista Corporation and Hydro One Limited on Dec. 7 filed a brief with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission explaining that their proposed merger is not affected by a 1951 code that bars certain governmental agencies and entities not regulated by the commission from acquiring electricity generation assets in Idaho. The brief comes in response to…
The U.S. Energy Department will partner with the University of Kentucky to explore breakthrough energy storage technologies in the second phase of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, the agency’s innovation hub dedicated to battery science. Established in 2012, the mission of the hub is to create next-generation technologies that can transform the transportation…
The Maine Public Utilities Commission on Dec. 10 approved Central Maine Power Company’s competitive solicitation to procure electricity for customers receiving standard offer supply service – representing 49 percent of sales in the company’s sales territory – for one-year period starting Jan. 1, 2019. For residential and small business customers, the supply price is 13.7…
The U.S. is poised to become the third largest exporter of liquefied natural gas behind Australia and Qatar as export capacity is projected to reach 8.9 billion cubic feet per day by the end of next year – up from the current capacity of 3.6 billion cubic feet, according to a Dec. 10 report from…
The Virginia Corporation Commission on Dec. 7 directed Dominion Energy Inc. to refile its 2018 integrated resource plan finding that the company failed to establish that the proposal is reasonable and in the public interest. The commission found that the plan includes resources that were not subject to modeling on a least-cost basis. The company…
Annual emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the U.S. power sector dropped by 88 percent and 76 percent, respectively, between their peaks in 1997 and 2017, according to a Dec. 11 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Coal’s share of generation declined to 30 percent in 2017 from more than 50 percent…
Washington Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat, launched a comprehensive clean energy proposal on Dec. 10 that would lower the state’s emissions to 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2035. Inslee said the plan would put the state on the path to become carbon neutral by 2030 and eliminate fossil-fuel generated electricity by 2045. To cut…
The move towards time-varying rates is on the rise as electric utilities seek rate designs that better align with the changing energy landscape. Utilities are increasingly experimenting with time-of-use rates (TOU) – which price electricity higher when peak demand drives up system costs –as customer-sited generation eats into revenues needed to maintain the grid and amid a widening disparity between average and peak demand.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 10 passed legislation that would authorize offshore wind energy development in the exclusive economic zone adjacent to all five U.S. territories extending 200 nautical miles seaward, while state waters extending 3 nautical miles would continue to remain under territorial jurisdiction. The bill would provide each territory with state-equivalent…
PJM Interconnection LLC filed revisions with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for market rules that would provide greater flexibility for energy storage resources participating in the wholesale market to manage system operations when charging, discharging or providing continuous electrical service across their full dispatchable range. PJM said the proposal includes modifications, where necessary, to the capacity, energy…
The New York Independent System Operator Inc. on Dec. 7 released a plan outlining a design to internalize the social cost of carbon dioxide emissions in the wholesale electricity markets. The plan would use a carbon price in dollars per ton of emissions, proposing a net cost of $40.74 per ton in 2020. The proposal would require suppliers to include the charges in their energy offers, allowing the price to…
