By Robert Mullin California lawmakers last week passed a bill to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. The State Assembly approved the measure on a 48-31 vote, largely along party lines. Two Democrats opposed the bill, with one abstaining, while just one Republican...

By Robert Mullin FERC last week approved rule changes to improve the ability of energy storage resources to participate in CAISO’s markets (ER16-1735). The changes will allow “non-generator resources” to submit their state-of-charge as a bid parameter in the day-ahead market and manage their own state-of-charge and energy limits for...

By Robert Mullin NV Energy and PacifiCorp returned nearly $95,000 to generation customers after FERC revoked market-based rate authority for Berkshire Hathaway Energy affiliates in four neighboring Western balancing authority areas and imposed cost-based rates. NV Energy and PacifiCorp refunded $95,000 to generation customers in the PACE, PACW, IPCO, and...

By Robert Mullin California must significantly upgrade its transmission system in order to meet its 2030 target of generating 50% of its electricity from renewable resources, according to an interagency study. “We have either the seventh or eighth largest economy in the world — we need a grid to match...

By Robert Mullin Critics of a proposal to lower CAISO’s energy market bid floor last week questioned the need for the measure and its efficacy in solving the ISO’s increasing intervals of oversupply. The ISO contends that reducing the bid floor from -$150/MWh to -$300/MWh will provide the market with...

By Robert Mullin CAISO met with stakeholders last week to refine a proposal for allocating costs of new transmission facilities in an expanded balancing authority (BA) that would include areas of the West outside California. The current CAISO footprint and PacifiCorp's balancing areas would represent separate sub-regions under the ISO's...

By Robert Mullin Pacific Gas and Electric filed with California regulators last week to shut down the state’s last remaining nuclear power plant by the end of 2025. The application also asks the state Public Utilities Commission to approve a joint proposal that the utility forged with environmental, labor and...

By Robert Mullin A new CAISO proposal seeks to shield smaller participating transmission owners from outsized network upgrade costs for interconnecting generation built to serve load outside that TO’s service area. “The issue is — to what extent should a local area incur costs for resources that are clearly not...

By Robert Mullin California Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday postponed CAISO’s effort to expand into a Western RTO, saying  he wants state agencies to take more time to develop a proposal. Brown Source: Wikipedia “While very significant progress has been made by the ISO on a transition proposal that meets...

By Robert Mullin CAISO last week began work on a plan to extend participation in the western Energy Imbalance Market to resources located outside the market’s footprint. Rothleder The move comes a month after FERC rejected CAISO’s proposal to indefinitely prohibit EIM participants from implementing economic bidding at the market’s...