The Virginia State Corporation Commission approved Sustainable Power Group’s application to construct the Spotsylvania Solar Energy Center, set to be Virginia’s largest solar project. The solar farm, planned for western Spotsylvania County, will sell its output to the wholesale market operated by PJM Interconnection LLC. In March, Microsoft Corp. announced a contract to buy 315 megawatts of the project’s capacity, marking an important step towards the software company’s goal of powering 60 percent of its data centers with renewable resources by 2020. The first phase of the project is scheduled to go into service by July 2019. Sustainable Power is owned by AES Corp. and the Alberta Investment Management Corp.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Aug. 16 dismissed a lawsuit by renewable advocates against a rule that cuts credits for solar power exported to the grid, finding that the challenges need to be brought to the lower Superior Court. Solar and environmental advocates, led by the Conservation Law Foundation, sought to overturn the rule, which lowers compensation for rooftop solar output by 10 percent annually. Maine lawmakers have repeatedly failed to override Governor Paul LePage’s veto of legislation that would have preserved the more-generous credit program. LePage said that net metering subsidizes solar panel costs at the expense of those who cannot afford them. The case is Conservation Law Foundation et al. V. Public Utilities Commission (PUC-17-185).

A 40-year-old U.S. statute designed to encourage energy diversity and conservation helped drive 2 gigawatts of solar capacity in 2017, representing just under half of all new utility-scale solar projects added to the grid that year, according to a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Over the last decade the federal mandate, called the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, or PURPA, was credited with spurring nearly one-third of solar photovoltaic capacity. The number of solar projects that qualify under the statute for favorable rates, known as qualifying facilities, have jumped as capital costs have dropped below the so-called avoided cost, or the threshold at which utilities must buy output from the generators. North Carolina leads the nation with 2.9 gigawatts of solar capacity added under the program since 2008. Although PURPA is a federal law, it is interpreted differently across states, which have authority to set how much a utility is obligated to pay for the output of qualifying facilities and determine the capacity threshold.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission announced that all three of the state’s investor-owned utilities – Avista Corp., Pacific Power, Puget Sound Energy – surpassed energy conservation targets over the last two years, saving more than 850,000 megawatt-hours of electricity, or enough power to serve about 74,000 homes for a year. The commission also found that the utilities are on track to meet the state’s renewable energy targets, which call for the sourcing of at least 9 percent of electricity supplies from renewable generation in 2018. Puget Sound is a subsidiary of Puget Energy Inc. Pacific Power is a division of PacifiCorp which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company.

Ameren Missouri, a subsidiary of Ameren Corporation, asked the Missouri Public Service Commission to approve a permit to construct and operate its High Prairie Wind Farm after the utility reached a settlement with environmental groups that lays out the rates and terms for the project. The settlement, struck with groups including the Sierra Club and Renew Missouri, sets the recovery for the project costs, siting and environmental review. TG High Prairie LLC, a special purpose entity tasked with building the facility, would merge into Ameren Missouri after completion of the wind farm. Ameren said the project will generate over half of the non-solar renewable energy credits required for compliance. The state’s energy targets call for 15 percent of retail sales to come from renewable sources by 2021. The project is expected to be completed by 2020.

The U.S. Energy Department will award funds to over two dozen projects aimed at tackling key technical challenges and to boost efficiency and lower costs of the technology, according to the agency’s Aug. 14 press release. With lower costs, hydrogen power holds the promise for use in energy storage, fueling large turbines at power plants, supporting flexibility of the grid, enabling the baseload operation of nuclear plants, as well as increasing renewable power generation. Currently hydrogen is used in industrial applications, serving as a feedstock in petroleum refining, fertilizer production, and steel manufacturing.

Hydro One Limited highlighted progress on its merger with Avista Corp. in its second quarter earnings report released Aug. 14, as a shakeup of executive leadership prompted U.S. state regulators to pump the brakes on approval of the transaction. Hydro One underscored that its application for the merger was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in January as well as by regulators in Alaska and Montana earlier this summer. In July, Hydro One’s chief executive officer and the entire board of directors resigned, as required under an agreement between the government of Ontario and the utility. In order to determine the implications of the leadership changes on the deal, Oregon and Washington regulators immediately delayed their decision deadlines to mid-December, a four-month extension from the original dates. Idaho canceled a hearing scheduled for July 23. Hydro One is a Canadian transmission and distribution service provider and Avista is a Washington-based electricity and gas utility.

SP Wind Holdings II LLC, a subsidiary of Southern Renewable Energy Inc., asked the Texas Public Utilities Commission to authorize the sale of its equity interests in four wind farms to JPM Capital Corp., BAL Investment & Advisory Inc., and Wells Fargo Central Pacific Holdings Inc., according to the agency’s Aug. 13 notice. Upon consummation of the transaction, the co-investors will be the passive equity interest holders with no management or operational control, while Southern Renewable Energy will hold the managing interests. Three of the wind projects — the 174-megawatt Salt Fork Wind Project, the 126-megawatt Tyler Bluff Wind Project, and the 257-megawatt Wake Wind Project – are connected to the market run by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. The 276-megawatt Bethel Wind Farm is connected to the Southwest Power Pool. Southern Renewable Energy is a subsidiary of Southern Power Company. JPM Capital is a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Equity Holdings Inc. BAL Investment & Advisory Inc. is a subsidiary of NB Holdings Corporation. Wells Fargo Central Pacific Holdings Inc. is a subsidiary of WFC Holdings Corporation.

MIC Thermal Power Holdings LLC, a unit of Macquarie Infrastructure Corp., asked the New York Public Service Commission to approve the transfer of its entire stake in the Bayonne Energy Center to investment entities of Morgan Stanley, according to an Aug. 10 filing. The 644-megawatt, dual-fuel generating station, located in Bayonne, serves New York’s wholesale power market via a dedicated transmission line to Consolidated Edison Company of New York Inc.’s Gowanus substation in Brooklyn. The parties seek to close the transaction by Sept. 12.

The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission cut a hike in Indianapolis Power & Light Company’s revenue requirement to about $44 million, down from the initially requested $124.5 million, under a settlement agreement approved by the agency on Aug. 15. The boost, representing a 3.2 percent revenue increase, reflects lower corporate rates under the federal tax law as well as accounts for concessions with consumer and industry groups. The agreement provides a nearly $36-million credit to customers through adjustments to the company’s environmental compliance cost recovery. Indianapolis Power & Light is a unit of AES Corporation.

Idaho Power Company asked the state utility commission to reject a request by renewable advocate Vote Solar to exclude customers who use on-site generation exclusively to offset electricity consumption, and not for export to the grid, from a newly formed rate class, according to an Aug. 10 filing. The company said that customer-sited generation connected in parallel use grid services to operate even if they have battery storage or export-limiting devices. Idaho Power said that non-exporting customer generators have the same ability to offset consumption, which would create an opportunity for them to continue the shifting of costs for maintaining the grid between customers with on-site generation and those without. In May, the commission approved new classes for on-site generation customers, finding that the difference in electricity consumption patterns and demand characteristics justifies the separation. Idaho Power is a subsidiary of IDACORP Inc.

The California Public Utilities Commission approved a settlement revising rate design and cost allocation for Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s customer classes, according to an Aug. 17 decision. The revisions create a new peak period for non-residential and agricultural customers based on the high-cost hours captured by the period. A new “super off-peak period” is designed to boost renewable generation utilization during spring. The revisions also shorten the utility’s summer season to a four-month period of June through September for time-of-use customers, from the prior six-month period, to reflect the time of the year with highest cost hours. A new energy storage option called “Option S” is expected to help customer-sited systems to bring ratepayer benefits by avoiding marginal utility costs and reducing emissions.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Aug. 15 accepted proposals by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator Inc. to clarify that energy storage batteries are eligible to provide up and down ramping service, if technically capable. The measure is part of a broader push to open up markets to the emerging technology. FERC also affirmed MISO’s proposal to apply its must-offer rules to energy storage that provides capacity. FERC said that the grid operator must demonstrate how its market rules provide a means for batteries to provide capacity in a way that acknowledges the energy limitations of the technology. The grid operator proposed the energy storage category, called “Stored Energy Resource-Type II”, last April after Indianapolis Power & Light complained that current regulations improperly exclude the resource from selling services into the market. Indianapolis Power & Light is a unit of AES Corporation.

Eversource Energy filed an appeal with the state’s highest court against New Hampshire’s rejection of the Northern Pass transmission line as the utility maintains its commitment to reviving the project. Eversource argued that the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee, the state agency tasked with vetting energy projects, acted arbitrarily and violated due process when it “abruptly ended its review” in February without completing a full assessment of the proposed transmission line. The utility asked the New Hampshire Supreme Court to have the state reconsider the permit application. Eversource says that the 192-mile Northern Pass transmission line, which would ship over 1,000 megawatts of hydropower from Canada to New Hampshire, is critical to meeting the region’s needs for clean energy.

Gateway Energy Storage LLC, a unit of LS Power Development LLC, seeks an order from federal regulators directing San Diego Gas & Electric Co. to provide transmission and grid-connections services to deliver the output of its battery storage system onto the California grid. The commission’s consent is needed to preserve the status of San Diego Gas & Electric as a “local furnishing utility” that qualifies for tax-exempt bonds for financing transmission, distribution, and generation facilities. Gateway requested approval by Sept. 15 so that the battery facility, under development in San Diego, can achieve its expected commercial operation date in January 2020.

The U.S. Interior Department announced that its Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale held on Aug. 15 generated $178 million in high bids for 144 tracts spanning over 800,000 acres. The sale offered 78 million acres offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida covering “all available unleased areas” in the Gulf of Mexico. The previous sale held in March also auctioned about one percent of the 77.3 million acres offered, generating about $125 million in proceeds. The proceeds trailed expectations, as drillers look for more economic opportunities onshore or abroad. The auctions are part of the Trump administration’s push to drive domestic oil and gas production.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Aug. 10 declined to reconsider approval of the PennEast pipeline, Eastern Market Access Project, and Southeast Market Pipeline Project. Rehearing requests centered on the need for the project and potential environmental consequences. PennEast, which would extend from Pennsylvania to New Jersey adding up to 1,107,000 dekatherms per day of natural gas, is a joint venture owned by AGL Resources Inc., New Jersey Resources, South Jersey Industries, UGI Energy Services, and Spectra Energy Partners LP. Dominion Resources Inc.’s Eastern Market Access would provide up to 294,000 dekatherms per day to supply markets in Maryland and Virginia. The projects comprising Southeast Market Pipelines — Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company LLC’s Hillabee Expansion Project, Sabal Trail Transmission LLC’s Sabal Trail Project, and Florida Southeast Connection LLC’s Florida Southeast Connection Project – are intended to serve four power plants in Florida. The decisions came ahead of Republican Commission Robert Powelson’s departure.

U.S. refineries are operating at historic levels due to strong domestic and international demand for petroleum products such as motor gasoline and distillate fuel oil, according to an Aug. 13 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The four-week average of gross refinery inputs for the week-ended July 6 exceeded 18 million barrels per day for the first time, driven largely by operations in the Gulf Coast and Midwest. Input levels approached this level last August, the week before Hurricane Harvey made landfall and caused widespread closures along the Gulf Coast. The agency noted that higher refinery runs were due to increased capacity rather than utilization. Refinery utilization as a share of capacity set a record in 1998. The agency’s most recent short-term outlook projects new records with annual average refinery runs of 16.9 million barrels per day in 2018 and 17.0 million in 2019, as compared to 16.6 million in 2017.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Aug. 16 authorized a unit of Cheniere Energy Inc. to introduce feed gas to commission train 1 of its Corpus Christi Liquefaction plant in Texas, marking the second LNG production facility to commence operations since the nation has emerged as the world’s leading natural gas producer. The Corpus Christi facility, consisting of five trains with a collective production capacity of up to 22.5 million tonnes per year, won a federal construction permit in December 2014. The U.S. became a net exporter of natural gas last year, a status it hasn’t attained since 1958, amid surging shipments of LNG as well as pipeline deliveries to Mexico, according the commission’s market report issued in April.

Governors with Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont underscored the need for ISO New England Inc. to strive to keep power rates “as affordable as possible” as the grid manager looks to address concerns about a tightness in fuel supplies for the region’s electric generators. Any actions to support reliability of the grid “must have a full accounting of the benefits and costs to regional consumers,” the governors said in the Aug. 13 statement. The governors said that states have many tools at their disposal to tackle higher prices, including the deployment of demand response, energy efficiency, large-scale hydropower and offshore wind. However, they said that transmission and wholesale power prices, which can account for half the cost of consumer electricity bills, fall squarely to ISO New England and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. New England has some of the nation’s highest power prices thanks to constraints in natural gas supplies during the winter, when the fuel is used to both heat homes and businesses as well as run electric generators.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission set a Nov. 20 deadline to issue an environmental assessment for Empire Pipeline Inc.’s natural gas infrastructure upgrade project, according to the agency’s Aug. 17 notice. The proposed Empire North Project would provide about 205,000 dekatherms per day of incremental firm capacity into the interstate pipeline system via existing pipeline facilities, including local gas distribution markets and northeastern markets centers, such as New York and Canada. A final decision is due by Feb. 18, 2019. Empire Pipeline is a subsidiary of National Fuel Gas Company.