VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — Two 345-kV lines that were knocked out when a tornado leveled four transmission towers in Commonwealth Edison territory on June 22 were back online as of July 12, PJM’s Chris Pilong told the Operating Committee last week. The twister hit near LaSalle, in North-Central Illinois, around...

By Rich Heidorn Jr. and Tom Kleckner SPP executives had “inappropriate” involvement in the oversight of its Market Monitoring Unit, FERC said in an audit report released Friday that called for changes (PA15-6). The report said the internal MMU “should strengthen its independence and enhance its separation from” the RTO...

By Amanda Durish Cook Citing an analysis by The Brattle Group, MISO has decided to stick with its original forward design in its capacity auction overhaul, rejecting the hybrid prompt auction proposal it had negotiated with the Independent Market Monitor. Jeff Bladen, executive director of MISO market services, said the forward...

By Rich Heidorn Jr. WASHINGTON — The Senate voted overwhelmingly last week to enter conference committee negotiations on energy legislation after Republicans agreed to drop provisions in a House bill that President Obama has promised to veto. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, speaks...

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 William Opalka Dynamic. Changing. Challenging. Those words, which NYISO CEO Brad Jones uses frequently, are themes echoed throughout the 2016 NYISO Power Trends report. New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision, the Clean Energy Standard (CES), distributed generation and customer engagement also feature prominently in the report, which was released...

By Amanda Durish Cook The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on Wednesday accepted a settlement negotiated between Duke Energy and local consumer groups on a statewide infrastructure upgrade plan. The seven-year, $1.4 billion plan results in an average 0.93% increase in Duke Energy Indiana customer rates annually over the next seven...

FERC pushed back the timeline for an environmental impact statement on the Mountain Valley Pipeline, delaying construction of the $3.5 billion shale gas pipeline crossing Virginia for at least six months. The developers of the 301-mile pipeline project applied for the environmental certificate in October, but FERC staff has repeatedly...

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...