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By Michael Brooks, Amanda Durish Cook and Tom Kleckner While President Trump’s executive order rolling back the Obama administration’s efforts to combat climate change upset environmentalists, RTO officials are largely shrugging their shoulders, vowing to continue on without the federal government as market forces and state policies continue decarbonizing their...
By Robert Mullin CAISO is seeking to create a new transmission access charge (TAC) area for a California load-serving entity that does not intend to become a participating transmission owner in the ISO. The “one-off” proposal with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) would create an unorthodox relationship...
By Robert Mullin A coalition of environmental, renewable energy and business groups called on California officials Tuesday to reignite CAISO’s effort to expand its operations into other areas of the West. The groups — which include the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Entrepreneurs, Union of Concerned Scientists and the Solar...
By Robert Mullin CAISO has signed an agreement with the Bonneville Power Administration designed to facilitate Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) transfers in the Pacific Northwest while ensuring that the agency can continue to reliably serve its own transmission customers. The Coordinated Transmission Agreement (CTA) could provide a model for future...
By Robert Mullin A top California lawmaker last week introduced a bill that would require the state’s utilities to meet an increasing amount of their peak energy demand with renewable resources and energy storage systems. The proposed law would set a “clean peak energy standard” to reduce the reliance on...
By Robert Mullin CAISO’s real-time market experienced an uptick in volatility during the fourth quarter of 2016, as five-minute prices at times spiked to well above day-ahead and 15-minute levels on unexpected variability in output from solar resources. On the flip side: Solar generation increasingly sent mid-day prices into negative...
By Robert Mullin CAISO staff expect to submit a proposed black start procurement proposal to the Board of Governors in May, officials said Tuesday. The ISO launched an accelerated procurement effort in January after identifying the need for additional black start resources in the transmission-constrained San Francisco Bay Area. (See...
By Robert Mullin CAISO’s Board of Governors last week approved an ISO request to designate two Calpine natural gas-fired plants in Northern California as reliability-must-run despite criticism from several stakeholders. Acknowledging concerns, ISO officials pledged to avoid “case-by-case” designations in the future. At the board’s March 15 meeting, Carrie Bentley,...
By Robert Mullin CAISO’s Board of Governors last week approved a measure investing the board with complete oversight authority over the grid operator’s internal Market Monitor. The change comes in response to FERC’s recommendations in a 2016 audit report that found that SPP executives had “inappropriate” involvement in the oversight...
By Robert Mullin CAISO’s Board of Governors last week approved a proposal designed to prevent smaller transmission owners from footing the costs for network upgrades needed to interconnect generation serving load outside of their service territories. Valley Electric Association serves about 18,000 customers in a sparsely populated region along the...