Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo on May 9 announced that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation established regulations requiring all the power plants in the state to meet new emission limits for carbon dioxide. No existing coal-fired sources are expected to continue beyond 2020 under the new rule, as emissions control technology needed for…
The New Hampshire legislature passed a measure on May 8 amending regulations governing the state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, to be consistent with the program’s updated model rule adopted in December 2017. The nine-state compact established the nation’s first mandatory emissions trading program. The bill revises the statewide budget allowance,…
California’s large investor-owned utilities procured about 38 percent of their total generation from renewable resources, which accounted for nearly 42 percent of their total generation costs in 2018, according to a May 8 report from the California Public Utilities Commission. Wind and solar dominated utility power contracts, with the average prices for contracts dropping to…
Tucson Electric Power Company entered into an agreement to join the Western Energy Imbalance Market from April 2022, according to a May 8 news release from the California Independent System Operator Corporation. Tucson estimates the participation to result in about $13 million in annual energy cost savings for its customers by expanding real-time access to…
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas on May 8 released its seasonal assessment report for the upcoming summer, which forecasts a peak demand of about 74,850 megawatts, which is 1,300 megawatts higher than the all-time record set last July. The grid operator identified a potential need for an energy emergency alert status, in order to…
Democratic Governor Katherine Brown signed legislation on May 6 which clarifies that renewable energy certificates may be issued for the generation of thermal energy at a facility that generates electricity using biomass, subject to the same requirements as all other certificates. The legislation, introduced at the governor’s request, account for the fact that some biomass…
More than half of U.S. states with competitive retail energy markets face proposals for stricter oversight rules from lawmakers, including measures to phase out the industry altogether, as efforts mount to put in place more consumer protections. Just five months into most states’ legislative sessions, over two dozen proposals have emerged to toughen rules around billing and marketing practices, licensing and registration and contractual terms.
The California Public Utilities Commission approved a preferred system portfolio that calls for 12 gigawatts of new renewables and storage by 2030, including 1.7 gigawatts of geothermal, according to a May 1 decision. The agency said that geothermal is valuable for balancing the intermittency of wind and solar resources. The plan will require “concrete procurement…
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on May 1 denied Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s requests for rehearing of the agency’s order asserting concurrent jurisdiction with bankruptcy courts over wholesale contracts that the utility may seek to reject through its Chapter 11 filing. While FERC’s role in evaluating rates and terms of power contracts is to protect…
Democratic Governor Jay Inslee signed legislation on April 30 setting forth requirements that Washington’s electric utilities must accomplish in their distributed energy resources planning processes. The move comes on the heels of a measure approved by the legislature last month requiring the state’s electricity supply to be carbon-neutral by 2030 and 100 percent carbon-free by…
The Colorado legislature approved a measure on May 1, setting a goal of achieving emission cuts of 26 percent by 2025, 50 percent by 2030, and 90 percent by 2050, relative to 2005 levels. The bill requires state regulators to establish implementation rules that may be revised as necessary to ensure timely progress toward the…
The California Independent System Operator Corporation announced that San Diego Gas & Electric’s vanadium redox battery pilot has been connected to the wholesale power market, opening opportunities to leverage the features of flow batteries that could make bulk system electricity storage more cost-efficient, according to an April 30 news release. The four-year pilot is intended…
