The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Justice Department told a federal appeals court that a controversial program by Illinois to prop up struggling nuclear reactors is akin to other state energy policies that subsidize certain types of generation, and should pass judicial review. Illinois’ mandate for electric distribution companies to buy “zero emissions credits” from two nuclear power plants owned by Exelon Corp. has drawn challenges from competing electric producers, who say that the program unlawfully interferes with the wholesale markets. FERC said that the legal challenge should be dismissed because the subsidies fall outside of the agency’s jurisdiction, just as with state renewable energy credit programs. The case comes after the U.S District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed in July a lawsuit by Calpine Corporation, Dynegy Inc., NRG Energy Inc., Eastern Generation LLC and the Electric Power Supply Association. The case is Village of Old Mill Creek, et al. v. Anthony Star, et al. (17-2445)

The Puerto Rico Energy Commission set an Oct. 31 deadline for the Puerto Electric Power Authority to file an updated integrated resource plan, ahead of the March 2020 schedule, to reflect changes in demand and generation as a result of hurricanes Irma and Maria, which devastated the island’s power grid last year, according to a May 29 order. In March, the commission determined the need to update the 20-year resource plan before the mandatory three-year review date to assess any effects from the hurricanes on the island’s electric market. In January, in the wake of the hurricanes, the commission proposed rules to encourage microgrids to facilitate quicker power restoration and to integrate more renewable energy supplies to strengthen the system’s resilience to disruptions.

The Independent Power Producers of New York Inc. said that the New York grid operator should work on reforms to the capacity market in parallel with incorporating a carbon price into the wholesale market to avert the suppression of prices for generators that are needed to ensure reliable electric system. The group said that New York’s monthly capacity auctions are too uncertain for investors, and that a forward capacity auction with longer-term price signals akin to PJM Interconnection LLC’s is needed. The group raised concerns that carbon pricing won’t be deployed until 2022, a date that they said is too far away given the unprecedented pace at which the state is advancing renewable energy contracts outside of the competitive markets. The comments filed with the New York Independent System Operator Inc. on May 25 respond to a request by the grid operator for recommendations on how to drive investments in system reliability in the face of state subsidies and an evolving power system.

New York utilities proposed two rate designs for mass market net metering, calling for a demand-based delivery rate structure to address the “mismatch” between how utilities’ costs are incurred and how they are recovered, according to the utilities May 29 filing with the New York Public Service Commission. The proposals call for demand charges instead of volumetric delivery charges to recover demand-related costs. The utilities said that proposed demand charges consider temporal and seasonal cost differences, and also account for differences in the cost drivers for generators near customers’ versus those located farther away. The utilities are Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation, Consolidated Edison Company of New York Inc., New York State Electric & Gas Corporation, National Grid, Orange and Rockland Utilities Inc., and Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation.

UNS Electric Inc. won approval from the Arizona Corporation Commission to lower the credits customers with on-site generation receive for excess energy exported to the grid, such as from rooftop solar panels, according to a May 29 order. The utility, a subsidiary of Unisource Energy Services Inc., was cleared to cut the rates by about 4 percent to $0.025121 per kilowatt-hour, to reflect market conditions. The rates, last revised in August 2017, take effect July 1. The commission recently approved a 25 percent cut in payouts for Tucson Electric Power Company, a unit of UNS Energy Corporation.

Rocky Mountain Power asked for approval from the Utah Public Service Commission for a solicitation to procure about 308,000 megawatt-hours per year of electricity from renewable generators for up to 25 years, or enough power to supply 34,000 homes, according to the agency’s May 29 notice. The generators need to be able to start service before April 2020. The company seeks authorization by July 31. Rocky Mountain Power is a division of PacifiCorp and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities approved two exceptions to the “single parcel rule,” which requires a net metering facility to be associated with a single parcel of land, interconnected at a single point, and behind a single meter, according to a May 31 order. The exceptions allow the host customer to install more than one facility per parcel if each facility is based on a different renewable energy technology or if all facilities are located on rooftops, either the same or different roofs. Customers who are currently exempt from the rule need not aggregate the capacity of their facilities for credit calculation while a case-by-case review will be applied for future petitioners. The department said it needs more time to determine whether additional measures are needed to prevent gaming and manipulation of the net metering system and reduce risk to the distribution system and non-participating ratepayers.

Duke Energy Carolinas LLC reached an agreement with environmental groups June 1 to cut the price tag of its Power/Forward Carolinas grid modernization plan to $2.5 billion, from $7.8 billion, and scale back the initiative to three years, from a decade. Duke’s updated plan includes voltage optimization, electric-vehicle charging infrastructure and at least 300 megawatts of energy storage, which is still subject to the approval of the North Carolina Utilities Commission. The Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club and the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association argued that the original plan was too costly, focused too much on reinforcing infrastructure and undergrounding wires in hurricane-prone areas, while featuring too little investment in renewable generation. Duke Energy Carolinas is a subsidiary of Duke Energy Corp.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection announced May 25 that Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s power lines were the cause of four massive wildfires that occurred in the state’s Butte and Nevada counties last October, leaving the utility at greater risk of billions of dollars in damages. The agency found that the utility violated laws requiring sufficient separation between trees and power lines in three of the historic blazes – one covering 821 acres, and two covering 76 acres each. The utility attributed the fires to a confluence of weather conditions, including years of drought that led to the death of millions of trees followed by a season of low humidity and high winds.

The Michigan Senate on May 30 adopted a resolution calling on the Michigan Agency for Energy to engage in a discussion to explore the potential to integrate energy storage into the state’s electric market. The move comes as some states look to harness energy storage technologies to improve grid resilience following the devastating hurricane season last year. The resolution seeks to explore how these technologies can provide value to consumers and the electric grid, and how they impact rates and service quality. (SR 170)

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on May 31 cleared a unit of NRG Energy Inc. to sell its entire stake in GenOn Holdco 10 LLC, including its 1,113-megawatt natural gas- and oil-fired power plant in Sandwich, to Stonepeak Kestrel Holdings LLC. Stonepeak is a subsidiary of Stonepeak Infrastructure Fund II (AIV) LP.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on May 29 cleared NRG Retail LLC, a subsidiary of NRG Energy Inc., to acquire Global Holdings LLC, parent company of Xoom Energy LLC, a North Carolina-based public utility that owns retail energy suppliers. In March, NRG said that the $210-million acquisition of Xoom will expand its retail sales capabilities in the East. Global Holdings is a unit of BlueGreen Holding LLC.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced May 29 that it seeks to retain the existing limits for sulfur dioxide, a harmful pollutant emitted from coal-fired power plants and factories, citing the recommendation from its science advisors that found the current rules sufficient to protect public health. The Trump administration in April directed the EPA to tie in economic, energy, and other factors in setting the pollution standards, as part of its initiative to promote manufacturing and job creation and cut back on rules seen as onerous to industry. Last month the EPA also declined to revise standards for nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant emitted from cars as well as coal- and gas-fired power plants. Concentrations of sulfur dioxide in the U.S. have plunged by over 70 percent since 2000 and more than 50 percent since 2010, according to the EPA.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on May 30 upheld its decision to extend its review of several dozen challenges to the controversial PennEast natural gas pipeline it approved in January, saying the agency needs more time to “respond meaningfully” to the issues raised by opponents of the project. Environmental groups including the Delaware Riverkeeper Network fought the tolling order that buys the commission more time to weigh the challenge, arguing that the practice allows the developer to proceed with construction before the dispute is resolved. PennEast is designed to ship 1.1 million dekatherms per day of natural gas from prolific shale reserves in Pennsylvania into New Jersey. The project is a joint venture owned by AGL Resources Inc., New Jersey Resources, South Jersey Industries, UGI Energy Services, and Spectra Energy Partners LP.

The Kentucky Public Service Commission established a process to consider the closure of Big Rivers Electric Corporation’s 312-megawatt Station Two coal power plant amid projections that the plant won’t be able to maintain economic operations beyond May 2019, according to a June 1 order from the agency. Big Rivers, a rural electric cooperative that provides wholesale electricity service, has been operating the coal-powered units under a series of contracts executed since 1970 with Henderson Municipal Power & Light and the City of Henderson, Kentucky. Coal-fired power plants are retiring in droves across the U.S. as revenues get squeezed by slumping power prices that have fallen to historic lows from cheap, abundant natural gas.

The nation’s demand for fossil fuels to produce electricity slid to 22.5 quadrillion British thermal units last year, reaching the lowest since 1994, as weak power prices spurred a wave of closures of coal- and oil-fired generators, according to a May 29 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Last year marked a tipping point for coal, as consumption of the fuel plunged to the lowest level since 1982, while demand for petroleum slipped to the lowest on record in data going back to 1949. Natural gas power plants, which are more efficient and produced more electricity, saw demand for the fuel edge higher. The plummeting use of fossil fuels marks the power grid’s latest evolution, and comes as left-leaning states are imposing ambitious targets to reign in greenhouse gas emissions.