California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)

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The California Public Utilities Commission opened a proceeding Thursday to help prevent energy emergencies next summer like those that occurred in August and September. The rulemaking is intended to identify and institute near-term measures that could limit energy consumption and boost generation during heat waves that strain the Western grid.

Pacific Gas and Electric on Thursday acknowledged it needs to get better at notifying local authorities and customers before shutting off power to prevent wildfires, but the utility said it performed far better this fall than it did last year. In its report to the California Public Utilities Commission on...

A former president of the California Public Utilities Commission said Tuesday that the state attorney general should look into the rolling blackouts of mid-August with an eye toward signs of market manipulation in CAISO’s grid. Loretta Lynch, CPUC president from 2000 to 2002 and a commissioner through 2005, spoke during...

The California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously Thursday to enact a moratorium on a longstanding program that provides $30 million to $75 million annually to shareholders of the state’s three big investor-owned utilities for administering energy efficiency programs. The commission’s decision represented a rare disagreement with one of its own...

Southern California Edison told the state Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday that one of its power lines might have started the Silverado Fire, an explosive blaze that critically injured two firefighters and caused tens of thousands of residents to flee their homes this week. "It appears that a lashing wire...

The California Public Utilities Commission acted to correct a "serious omission" Thursday that it said had resulted in huge sums of money going to owners of rural homes, regardless of income, to provide battery backup for electric well pumps. The commission voted 4-1 to limit its Self-Generation Incentive Program’s (SGIP)...

A big part of $612 million intended to provide battery backup to homes in high fire-threat areas has been gobbled up by customers who use electricity to pump well water instead of helping the low-income and medically vulnerable residents it was meant for, the California Public Utilities Commission said Thursday.

A report on the causes of California’s August blackouts details for the first time the role that convergence bidding played in masking tight supply and contends that constrained transmission prevented much needed imports from reaching the state. The 107-page report to Gov. Gavin Newsom by CAISO, the California Public Utilities...

More than 8,000 wildfires have burned nearly 4 million acres in California this year, but there’s little indication that utility equipment played a role in starting major blazes. That differs markedly from the last three years, when equipment belonging to Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric was blamed...