By Robert Mullin Critics of CAISO’s most recent draft proposal of principles for governing a Western RTO contend the ISO is moving too quickly to get a plan to California lawmakers before the close of the current legislative session in September. Speaking at a joint state agency workshop in Sacramento...

By Robert Mullin CAISO last week provided an explanation of its decision to increase regulation requirements in response to the growing variability on its system. The ISO’s Department of Market Monitoring last month called attention to the sharp rise in costs from the requirements, prompting the California Energy Commission to...

By Robert Mullin CAISO has released a revised set of principles for governing a Western RTO in a bid to convince skeptics that an expanded ISO will be amenable to the entire region. The new document won initial praise, although doubts remain. The ISO’s governance changes seek to address the...

By Robert Mullin Berkshire Hathaway Energy is contesting FERC’s June decision to revoke the ability of the company’s subsidiaries to sell power at market-based rates in four neighboring balancing authority areas in the West. The commission’s June 9 order prohibited Berkshire-owned utilities PacifiCorp and NV Energy — as well as...

By Robert Mullin Utah lawmakers plan to draft a bill requiring PacifiCorp to gain legislative approval before joining an RTO based on an expanded CAISO. Members of the Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology Interim Committee approved a motion to create the proposed law July 13 after listening to more than...

By Robert Mullin An effort to create an organized electricity market is taking shape in the inland West even as CAISO continues to build the case for expanding its operations into the wider region. The Mountain West Transmission Group — a partnership consisting of seven different transmission owning entities within...

By Robert Mullin Puget Sound Energy (PSE) and Talen Energy reached an agreement with environmentalists to shut down Units 1 and 2 at the coal-fired Colstrip power plant in Montana by July 2022. Under the July 12 settlement filed in the U.S. District Court in Missoula, the Sierra Club and...

By Robert Mullin CAISO’s expansion into a multistate, regional electricity market could save California ratepayers as much as $1.5 billion annually while helping the state to meet or exceed its 2030 emission-reduction goals, according to a study commissioned by the ISO. California’s Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act — the...

By Robert Mullin FERC on Thursday rejected CAISO’s proposal to prohibit Energy Imbalance Market participants from implementing economic bidding at the market’s external interties until the ISO can develop “appropriate rules and procedures” to manage the transactions (ER16-1518). The ISO’s Tariff currently stipulates that each balancing authority area (BAA) that...

By Robert Mullin CAISO’s regulation costs have quadrupled since the ISO increased requirements to help balance variable output from renewable resources. Daily payments to regulation service providers jumped from about $100,000 to more than $400,000 after CAISO increased the requirements in late February, according to a report from the ISO’s...