The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority seeks proposals from an entity or team of entities to provide platforms and services required for the functioning of the state’s cap-and-invest program currently under development. This includes emissions reporting, a market registry platform, auction platform, as well as market monitoring and financial services. The program will establish a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions, limit energy costs to consumers, invest proceeds in equitable programs that drive emission reductions, and help maintain the competitiveness of businesses and industries. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation and NYSERDA have released a pre-proposal outline that provides a framework for the regulatory components of the program and a climate affordability study that examines how best to deliver the proceeds.

The New York Public Service Commission is due to receive comments on National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation’s proposal to increase its gas delivery revenues effective Oct. 1, 2024. The company seeks an increase in natural gas delivery revenues of $88.8 million, a 30.8 percent increase in base delivery revenues or a 11.1 percent increase in total revenues. The request would result in a total monthly bill increase of approximately $11.31, or 13,7 percent, for the average residential customer. 23-G-0627

The California Air Resources Board and Québec’s Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change will hold their 38th joint quarterly carbon auction, which will offer allowances for current and future years. The current auction will offer 2024 vintage allowances totaling about 51.2 million, and the advance auction will offer 2027 future allowances totaling about 7.2 million. The previous auction held in November sold all of the more than 57.6 million current allowances at a price of $38.73 per allowance and nearly 7.6 million future allowances at $37.40 per allowance. California’s cap-and trade program places an economy-wide cap on major emitting sources.

The Michigan Public Service Commission is due to receive comments on Consumers Energy Company’s electric distribution system investment and maintenance plan for the five-year period from 2023-2027. In an order issued in 2022, the commission directed the state’s three electric utilities to file the five-year plans by Sept. 29, 2023, finding that the current distribution planning approaches to address pressing matters of reliability of service to customers and current plans for improvements are insufficient. The plan identified severe weather and technological adoptions as the primary drivers of change on the distribution system, representing the most pressing challenges to the future grid, and outlined $7 billion of annual investments aimed to deliver the safety, reliability, and resiliency benefits that customers expect. Reply comments are due by April 26. READ MORE

The California Energy Commission seeks information for a potential future grant funding opportunity that will focus on research and demonstration to advance non-lithium-ion long-duration energy storage technologies aimed at helping the state meet its clean energy and climate goals. The information will help define critical demonstration and system capacity needs in these technologies and identify high-impact use cases that the grant funding should target in order to maximize the benefits of government investments in energy storage. READ MORE