The Connecticut Green Bank, the nation’s first green bank, seeks speedy approval to secure financing for its residential solar energy credit program to head off “liquidity constraints” that have emerged after lawmakers withdrew funds from the agency in the last legislative session. The bank seeks to create an affiliate that can issue securities in the capital markets against pools of income streams tied to the renewable energy credits. The banks said that assigning the collateral to the affiliate will enable the securities to achieve an investment grade rating, and allows it to raise funds at lower interest rates. The bank asks the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority for expedited review and approval by August 10th.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities proposed a rule to establish an offshore renewable energy certificate, or OREC, program to fund offshore wind projects and deliver the revenue earned from the projects to customers, according to a July 25 press release. The mechanism requires electric companies to allot funds based on board-approved megawatt hours and OREC prices. Suppliers would receive monthly payments via OREC developers who would then refund revenues to ratepayers through the electric companies. Suppliers would have to retire credits to meet their obligations under the offshore wind portfolio standard. In January, Democratic Governor Phil Murphy signed an executive order directing the board to set up rules and, with the Department of Environmental Protection, develop a plan to reach a state goal to deploy 3,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy generation by 2030. In February, the board issued a plan for competitive solicitation of 1,100 megawatts of offshore wind.

The New York Department of Public Service called on members of the state utility commission to revise rates to more accurately and efficiently compensate distributed energy generation, in a move that staff said could help drive an additional 1,000 megawatts of new community distributed generation. The staff recommends options that would allow developers and customers to better calculate the grid value as they look to finance distributed energy technologies. The staff also calls for providing additional opportunities for projects to qualify for market transition credits in areas with suboptimal markets. The credits enable projects to be compensated on par with net metering levels. New York has more than 800 megawatts of community distributed generation under development, more than what was installed across the entire nation last year.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on July 20 authorized a subsidiary of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to acquire a 49-percent stake in Cedar Point Wind LLC and Silver State Solar Power North LLC from Enbridge Holdings (Power) LLC. Cedar Point owns a 252-megawatt wind farm in Colorado, while Silver State owns a 52-megawatt solar farm in Nevada. Alberta-based Enbridge Inc. is one of the world’s largest gas and oil pipeline operators. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, based in Toronto, is an investment manager.

U.S. House Representative Carlos Curbelo, a Republican representing Florida, introduced legislation on July 23 that would impose a carbon tax and repeal the federal gas tax. The bill would levy a fee of $24 per metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions, starting 2020, and increasing annually, with 70 percent of the revenue earmarked for the highway trust fund. To provide long-term regulatory stability, the bill would ban the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing regulations on greenhouse gases through 2025. The legislation would also create a national climate commission to set goals from 2026 based on the latest scientific findings. The bill, which represents a departure from the Republican party’s view on climate change, comes a week after the House passed a resolution expressing the notion that a carbon tax would be detrimental to the U.S. economy. (H.R.6463)

The New York Public Service Commission on July 12 approved for the second time electric rates for utilities serving high demand cryptocurrency companies operating in the northern and western parts of the state, in a bid to shield existing consumers from the added costs of providing power for the high-demand operations. The authorized rates, effective July 17, permit Massena Electric Department, located in St. Lawrence County, to offer individual service contracts for cryptocurrency companies and other consumers with maximum demand exceeding 300 kilowatts. The New York Municipal Power Agency, an association of 36 municipal power authorities, also was approved for rates that allow it to directly allocate costs associated with serving the high-density load customers to those consumers. Cryptocurrency companies have increasingly sought to draw cheap electric supplies in upstate New York, particularly hydropower, which rank among the top 10 percent cheapest nationally. Cryptocurrency firms require the low-cost supplies to run energy-intensive data processing server farms, which consume thousands of times more electricity than an average residential customer would use, and threaten to drain the region’s finite supplies of low-cost renewable power.

The California Public Utilities Commission announced on July 26 that state ratepayers will be off the hook for paying more than $750 million in fees tied to the premature closure of the San Onofre nuclear power plant after finding provisions in an earlier agreement for the generator’s closure were not in the public interest. The new settlement lowers customers’ share of the retirement costs to 40 percent, from the prior 56 percent, while raising utilities’ share to 43 percent from 27 percent. The remainder of the expenses will be covered by other accounts, such as decommissioning trusts. The San Onofre plant, owned by Southern California Edison, San Diego & Electric Company, and the City of Riverside, was permanently shut down in June of 2013, before the end of the 2022 license period, because of defective replacement steam generators.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on July 23 granted a request by New York Transco LLC, an owner and developer of bulk power transmission facilities in New York, to waive rules so that it can incorporate federal corporate income tax cuts in its current revenue requirement projections. New York Transco said the waiver will enable it to include an estimate of the over-collection in its 2018 refund obligation, returning the amount to customers in January 2019, rather than waiting until adjustments are made in 2020. The tax reductions were enacted at the start of 2018, after New York Transco made its projections for the year in September 2017. Transco is owned by Consolidated Edison Transmission LLC, Grid NY LLC, Avangrid Networks New York TransCo LLC, and Central Hudson Electric Transmission LLC. Grid NY is subsidiary of National Grid. Avangrid Networks is a subsidiary of Avangrid Inc. owned by Iberdrola SA. Central Hudson Gas & Electric is a subsidiary of CH Energy Group Inc.

The Michigan Public Service Commission announced that it approved Consumers Energy Co. and DTE Electric Co. to pass on about $270 million in savings resulting from federal tax cuts to ratepayers, in a move expected to reduce residential bills by an average of $1.95 a month. The commission so far authorized rate cuts for nine out of the 10 regulated utilities, bringing the total savings to about $371 million. Action on Indiana Michigan Power Co. rates are pending. The tax law slashed the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent beginning Jan. 1. Consumers Energy is a subsidiary of CMS Energy Corporation. DTE Electric is a subsidiary of DTE Energy Company. Indiana Michigan Power is a subsidiary of American Electric Power Company Inc.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said that utilities have started passing on their tax savings to consumers with benefits expected to exceed $400 million per year, up from the original estimate of $320 million, according to the agency’s July 27 press release. The commission ordered regulated utilities to start adding credits to monthly customer bills from July to reflect the effects of the federal tax reform that slashed corporate tax rates to 21 percent from 35 percent, effective Jan. 1. Electric utilities will return $277 million per year, accounting for a 4.74 percent cut in distribution charges on monthly bills, while natural gas utilities will return nearly $83 million per year, or a 4.92 percent cut in monthly charges.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on July 25 approved an agreement resolving claims that Entergy Nuclear Power Marketing LLC violated ISO-New England Inc.’s market rules in December 2013 by failing to secure adequate fuel to meet its dispatch obligation, and not providing a timely notification to the grid operator despite being aware of the issue. The company agreed to pay a civil penalty of $115,000 and disgorgement of $47,084, plus interest. During the 2013-2014 winter period, Entergy committed to offer 575 megawatts of a natural gas generation facility it had bid into the ISO-New England capacity auction and to provide the associated electricity when dispatched. Entergy Nuclear Power Marketing is a business unit of Entergy Corporation.

The Vermont Public Utility Commission issued an order on July 23 encouraging utilities to think “outside the box” and consider alternative ratemaking plans to better adapt to various challenges in the energy sector, including flat or declining sales, the decentralization of power generation, and ambitious environmental goals. The commission expressed support for plans that can sever the link between utility sales and profit, known as revenue decoupling, to pave the way for investments in efficiency, demand management, and other customer-centered technology and services.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities added more than 30 requirements to the state’s existing 100-plus storm response protocols, covering pre-storm preparations, service restoration, and communications and outreach, according to the agency’s July 25 press release. The measure stems from an investigation launched in March, at the direction of Democratic Governor Phil Murphy, to examine whether utilities complied with the protocols in their response to winter storms Quinn and Riley that resulted in extended outages. The board conducted five hearings to gather public input and analyzed utility actions, producing an investigative report that recommended the actions. The rules apply to the state’s four electric distribution companies.

The Kansas Corporation Commission on July 24 opened a case to examine how state utilities should permit ratepayers to opt out of advanced meter programs as some customers look to ditch the systems amid complaints, ultimately rejected by the agency, that the technology causes health problems, cause fires and threaten an invasion of privacy through inadequate cyber security. The proceeding will discuss the non-advanced meter types that customers prefer, costs associated with installation and operation of such meters and billing strategies. The case will cover programs by Westar Energy Inc., Kansas Gas and Electric Co., and Kansas City Power & Light Company. Kansas Gas and Electric is a subsidiary of Westar Energy Inc., which in turn is a subsidiary of Evergy Inc. Kansas City Power & Light is a subsidiary of Great Plains Energy Incorporated.

ADG Group Inc. asked the U.S. Energy Department to authorize an application for exports of electric energy to Canada for a period of five years over existing international transmission facilities across the two countries, according to a July 17 application filed with the agency. The company said the power it plans to export will be surplus to the selling parties’ needs and hence, will not affect supplies in the U.S. ADG plans to buy power from wholesale electric markets, electric utilities, wholesale generators, and power marketers. ADG Group, owned by three Canadian individuals, is a power marketer engaged in marketing and trading of energy-related products in Canada and the U.S. The company requests approval by Sep. 17.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on July 23 approved a unit of AMP Limited to acquire ownership in six fossil-fuel powered generators owned by subsidiaries of Invenergy Investment Company LLC. AMP was authorized for the purchase of Grays Harbor Energy LLC, Hardee Power Partners Limited, Invenergy Cannon Falls LLC, Invenergy Nelson LLC, Lackawanna Energy Center LLC, and Spindle Hill Energy LLC that operate natural gas or dual gas-oil-fired generation facilities of capacities 715 megawatts, 470 megawatts, 347 megawatts, 628 megawatts, 1,499 megawatts, and 420 megawatts, respectively.

The California Independent System Operator Board on July 26 approved a management recommendation to establish “reliability must-run” agreements to retain NRG California South LP’s Ellwood and Ormond Beach gas-fired generating stations to meet local reliability needs. After NRG filed notices in February to retire the facilities before the 2019 resource adequacy year, the California ISO conducted an analysis, which concluded that the closure would result in a capacity shortfall to reliably serve demand in the local area in 2019. NRG California South is a subsidiary of NRG Energy Inc.

The Michigan Public Service Commission denied appeals to its order authorizing DTE Electric Company to construct a 1,100 megawatt natural gas combined cycle power generation plant at the company’s Belle River Power Plant site, according to the agency’s July 24 order. Environmental groups including Michigan Environmental Council, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Sierra Club sought reconsideration of the order issued in April, claiming improper analysis of alternative resource options. The commission reaffirmed its decision, which found the utility’s proposal to be the most “reasonable and prudent” to meet the required power needs compared to other options. The company is entitled to rate recovery of an estimated $951.8 million of the plant’s costs. The facility is scheduled to begin construction in spring of 2019, and enter commercial operations in the second quarter of 2022. DTE Electric is a subsidiary of DTE Energy Company.