The California Independent System Operator Corp. proposed amendments to broaden options for energy storage and customer-sited generation to earn revenue in wholesale power markets, according to an Aug. 20 filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as the grid manager looks to break down barriers for the emerging technology. The proposal would add three new evaluation methods for demand response, which is one of the most common ways for distributed resources, including energy storage, to participate in the wholesale markets. CAISO said that the two existing evaluation methods, one for pure load resources and another to include behind-the-meter generation, may be inadequate to capture the performance of various resources. The new methods for evaluating performance are intended to improve accuracy, and reduce bias and variability. The grid operator seeks to have the rules take effect Nov. 1.

Florida Power & Light Company is seeking to pass on the costs for the early retirement of two units each at the Lauderdale and Martin natural gas-fired power plants, according to an Aug. 17 petition with the Florida Public Service Commission. As part of its fleet modernization program, FPL will retire Units 4 and 5 of its Lauderdale generator, totaling 884 megawatts, in the fourth quarter of 2018, and replace it with a modern 1,163-megawatt unit by mid-2022. It will also retire the two Martin units, totaling about 1,600 megawatts, in the fourth quarter, partially replacing them with upgrades to combustion turbine components at existing facilities. FPL asked to defer the cost recovery until the next general base rate proceeding. The company expects the Lauderdale and Martin retirements to result in an estimated savings of $300 million and $491 million, respectively. Florida Power & Light is a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc.

The District of Columbia Public Service Commission reversed its decision to exclude “nontraditional marketers” from its definition of electric suppliers, finding that the limitation is inconsistent with the prevailing law. The D.C. regulator said that all marketers, including those that are nontraditional, fall under the electricity supplier category under the Retail Competition Act. The commission said that the law defines electricity supplier to mean any person “who sells, purchases, brokers, arranges, or markets electricity for sale to customers,” and does not contain exclusions. Trade groups, including the Retail Energy Supply Association, have raised concerns that an overly expansive definition could lead to unintended third parties, such as those that may co-market a supplier’s services, like civic groups or business associations, could get ensnared in licensing requirements.

The Florida Public Service Commission approved an annual revenue reduction of $102.7 million, or nine percent, for Tampa Electric Company, a subsidiary of Emera Inc., as a result of the federal tax cuts that took effect Jan. 1, according to the agency’s Aug. 20 press release. The company said that savings from 2018 were used to offset storm restoration costs, and starting next year, the money will be passed directly to customers through lower bills. Residential customers will see a $6.50 cut in their monthly electric bills. Under its historic tax reforms, the Trump administration lowered corporate rates to 21 percent from 35 percent.

The Public Utility Commission of Texas approved a settlement that Luminant Energy Company LLC, the scheduling entity for Luminant Generation Company LLC, struck with agency staff to resolve claims that over a dozen quick start units failed to follow dispatch instructions and misreported operations in the summer of 2015. Luminant’s quick start units at the Permian Basin, Morgan Creek and DeCordova generation sites signaled a down ramp rate of zero while running near maximum capacity during a total of four days in July and August 2015, with power supplies at times offered at up to $2,500 per megawatt-hour. While Luminant said that the units lacked the mechanical capability to automatically follow dispatch instructions, the staff said that they should have been manually ramped down. Luminant Generation Company is a subsidiary of Luminant Holding Company LLC.

The sixteenth quarterly carbon auction held by California and Quebec sold all 79.42 million carbon permits offered for current emissions at $15.05, above the floor price of $14.53, according to the results released on Aug. 21 by the California Air Resources Board. The auction also sold all of the more than 9.4 million permits offered for 2021 emissions at slightly above the floor price. Ontario ended its carbon trading program in June after participating in two auctions since its linkage with California and Québec earlier this year. The first three-way auction held in February sold out a record 98.2 million permits for current emissions. The auctions are held under the cap and trade program which is a central part of California’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.

The North Carolina Utilities Commission on Aug. 21 authorized a permit for Recurrent Energy LLC’s 75-megawatt solar facility in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. The project, expected to come online this year, has a 10-year power purchase agreement with Duke Energy Carolinas LLC. In May, Recurrent announced it has closed $106.7 million in financing for the project. Power procurement rules set under the 1978 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act helped to make North Carolina the nation’s second-largest solar market after California. Recurrent Energy is a subsidiary of Canadian Solar Inc.

Public Service Company of New Mexico filed a request to join the Western Energy Imbalance Market on Aug. 22, noting that a transition to the system’s more flexible supply resources could see benefits soar to $21 million by 2024. Public Service Company of New Mexico said that it seeks to use the imbalance market’s intra-hour trading to optimize the use of the growing amounts of renewable energy supplies on its system, noting an exponential jump in wind and solar generation in the state and throughout the western region. Public Service said it seeks to start making investments in early 2019 so as to begin trading in the imbalance market by the spring of 2021. The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission opened an investigation in October 2017 to consider the feasibility for the utility to join a larger market to benefit customers. The energy imbalance market is an automated system that secures the lowest-cost energy to serve real-time customer demand over a broad region spanning across multiple western states. Public Service Company of New Mexico is a unit of PNM Resources Inc.

Plummeting project costs helped the U.S. add over seven gigawatts of wind power in 2017, bringing the total utility-scale wind capacity to nearly 89 gigawatts, according to an Aug. 23 report by the U.S. Energy Department. Last year’s average installed cost of $1,611 per kilowatt was 33 percent lower than the peak in 2009 and 2010. In 2017, wind provided 6.3 percent of the nation’s electricity, and accounted for more than 30 percent of supplies in Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. Larger turbines and longer blades have improved performance, with capacity factors increasing by 79 percent for projects built in recent years compared to those from 1998 to 2001. The agency highlighted momentum from the offshore wind industry, with 1.4 gigawatts of commercial-scale projects competitively procured by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Another 25 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity is being planned or under development across 13 states.

California’s goal to have 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2025 will require the installation of over a quarter-million chargers, according to an August 20 report by the California Energy Commission. Specifically, the agency found that reaching the vehicle target will hinge on the installation of up to 133,000 destination chargers, including at workplaces and public locations; up to 25,000 fast chargers; and 121,000 chargers at single-family homes and group residences. At the end of 2017, nearly 14,000 public chargers, including, 1,500 fast chargers, served 350,000 plug-in electric vehicles, according to the agency. Zero-emission vehicles are critical to meet the state’s goal of 40 percent emissions reductions by 2030 given that the transportation sector is the largest greenhouse gas emitting segment accounting for 45 percent of California’s emissions.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission unveiled a set of rules intended to boost the efficiency and reliability of the natural gas pipeline system, including with more streamlined coordination between the natural gas and electric industries. The proposed updates ratified by the North American Energy Standards Board, the developer of consensus-formed voluntary standards for the energy industry, are designed to curb miscommunication for participants involved in wholesale electricity sales and gas transportation. Revisions to standards for scheduling pipeline service would provide more flexibility for customers by allowing distribution of upstream nominations among several contracts rather than tying them to specific contracts. The proposal would also revise standards guiding the electronic dissemination of information in the wholesale marketplace.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Aug. 21 authorized Monarch MO Power Holdings LLC to expand its stake in the 620-megawatt natural gas‐fired Dogwood Energy generator to over 63 percent from 35 percent. Monarch MO applied to purchase the interests in the plant in Cass County, Missouri, from four upstream owners: EIG Energy Fund XIV LP, EIG Energy Fund XIV‐A LP, EIG Energy Fund XIV Blocker (Dogwood) LLC, and Credit‐Suisse Loan Funding LLC. Monarch MO Power Holdings is owned by several investment funds managed by Monarch Alternative Capital LP.

U.S. pipeline exports to Mexico surpassed 5 billion cubic feet per day in July 2018, compared to an average of 4.2 billion cubic feet per day in 2017, as several key projects came online in Mexico, according to an Aug. 22 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. June saw the start of the 504-million cubic feet per day Nueva Era pipeline, which draws from the Eagle Ford, and the 670-million cubic feet El Encino-Topolobampo pipeline, which transports gas from the Permian basin in western Texas to the western part of Mexico. An additional four major pipelines are scheduled to begin commercial operations by the end of 2018. The new pipelines will ship supplies farther into Mexico, serving the nation’s growing demand for natural gas-fired power generation and industrial sectors, and offsetting declines in domestic production. These new pipelines are expected to displace a portion of imports of liquefied natural gas at the Manzanillo terminal, while alleviating constraints that have depressed prices in the Permian.

The nation’s path to toppling a 1970s-era record for oil production runs through the Permian oil basin thanks to the shale formation’s favorable geology and advancements in technology and operations, according to an Aug. 23 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. EIA projects that Permian production will average 3.3 million barrels per day in 2018, and build to 3.9 million in 2019. That forms a large chunk of growth of the nation’s output, which is poised to average 10.7 million barrels per day in 2018 and 11.7 million in 2019, beating the record of 9.6 million set over 40 years ago. The Permian’s ouput, however, is expected to slow in 2019 as pipeline constraints lessen wellhead prices for drillers, who may be prompted to move into the Eagle Ford region instead.

The net oil export revenue of the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, is projected to grow 30 percent to $736 billion in 2018 on the back of higher crude oil prices, according to an Aug. 21 analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That’s up from last year’s net oil export revenue, which also surged about 30 percent from the prior year to reach $567 billion. The agency attributed the surge to the rise in average annual crude oil prices and higher OPEC exports, with Saudi Arabia accounting for nearly one-third of the revenues.