The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) said last week it will not require the state’s electric distribution companies to solicit proposals for a coordinated independent transmission network for the 1,600 MW of offshore wind energy already procured, but recommended bundling transmission in its next OSW solicitation. "Following a thorough...

FERC last week accepted SPP Tariff revisions implementing recommendations from the RTO’s stakeholders on fast-start resources and ramping products. The commission accepted SPP’s compliance filing on fast-start pricing but directed a further compliance filing (ER20-644). It also accepted Tariff revisions creating two new ramp capability products for both ramping up...

The PJM Operating Committee on Thursday unanimously endorsed a "quick fix" solution to give transmission owners access to the Dispatch Interactive Map Application (DIMA), a geospatial situational awareness program that RTO dispatchers have used since 2014. Ed Kovler, PJM’s senior lead business solutions architect, presented and reviewed the problem statement...

ERCOT’s Technical Advisory Committee last week held its first full working meeting — albeit virtually — since the COVID-19 outbreak, endorsing a raft of revision requests, reviewing the committee’s strategic goals, and receiving updates from the Real-Time Co-Optimization Task Force (RTCTF). The committee last conducted a full meeting in January.

New England’s total wholesale costs of electricity last year fell 19% to $9.8 billion, driven mostly by lower energy costs, according to the ISO-NE Internal Market Monitor’s 2019 Annual Markets Report. Energy and capacity costs collectively composed about 93% of the overall decrease, as shown by highlights from the report...

It’s been almost two months since ISO-NE presented FERC with its Energy Security Improvements proposal, a generator-backed plan nearly two years in the making that split stakeholders so much that the RTO agreed to also submit an alternative supported by load interests. The time since the filing has done nothing...

Austin Energy has officially notified ERCOT that it plans to permanently retire one of the two original gas-fired steam units at its Decker Lake generating facility, effective Oct. 31. The municipal utility filed a notification of suspension of operations on Monday. The 315-MW Decker 1 unit began commercial operation in...

Given the continued uncertainty of future in-person meetings, ERCOT stakeholders last week endorsed several bylaw amendments and rule changes to improve electronic meetings and votes. As if to hammer the point home, the changes were among 15 voting items in an email vote that did not become official for two...

Preliminary results from an ISO-NE study show that the quantity of reserves needed in an increasingly renewable future will be a function of how well semi-dispatchable resources can be curtailed, the Planning Advisory Committee heard on Wednesday. Patrick Boughan, ISO-NE senior engineer for resource studies and assessments, presented that finding...

FERC on Thursday approved PJM’s proposed energy price formation revisions, agreeing with the RTO that its reserve market was not functioning as intended (EL19-58, ER19-1468). "PJM made a persuasive case that its current reserve market design must be overhauled," Chairman Neil Chatterjee said during the commission’s monthly open meeting, held...