The California Public Utilities Commission ordered the state’s investor-owned utilities to take steps to hasten the creation of microgrids Thursday, including establishing a $200 million incentive program for communities most at risk from public safety power shutoffs (PSPS). It was the latest in a series of measures the commission pushed...

CAISO and its sister state agencies released a final, more detailed analysis Wednesday of the mid-August blackouts and steps they are taking to prevent capacity shortfalls this summer and beyond. "We recognize our shared responsibility for the power outages many Californians unnecessarily endured," stated a cover letter to Gov. Gavin...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed investing more than $1.5 billion in zero-emission vehicles to accelerate their adoption as part of his $227 billion budget plan released Friday. Newsom’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2021-22 would allocate $1 billion to ZEV infrastructure, including charging and fueling stations for battery powered electric...

CAISO and the California Public Utilities Commission entered the new year trying to get ready for summer and avoid the shortfalls and rolling blackouts that plagued the state in August and September. The CPUC on Friday proposed ordering the state’s three big investor-owned utilities — Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern...

CAISO’s top priority in 2021 will be making sure there is enough generating capacity for summer after last year’s shortfalls. The ISO also will focus on the expansion of its Western Energy Imbalance Market, which is set to add multiple new entities in the coming months, and it will pursue...

The California Energy Commission allocated up to $116 million on Wednesday to install fueling stations for hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles with the goal of having 200 stations supporting 230,000 vehicles in the next decade. The grants to three companies — Iwatani Corp. of America, FirstElement Fuel and Equilon Enterprises...

A proposal to extract lithium for battery production from geothermal wells in California moved forward Wednesday when the state’s Energy Commission named most of the members of a new blue-ribbon panel to address the plan. Energy commissioners said the idea of having a "Lithium Valley" in far Southern California could...

CAISO’s CEO and four other top officials discussed the ISO’s handling of California’s mid-August blackouts and actions to head off future shortages in a webinar Wednesday hosted by the Clean Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for clean energy and grid modernization. The webinar was intended partly as a response to...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday appointed Liane Randolph, a member of the state’s Public Utilities Commission, as the next chair of the California Air Resources Board. CARB oversees vehicle emissions, among other roles, and has battled with the Trump administration in recent years. Its policies have influenced manufacturing in...

Pacific Gas and Electric canceled forecasted blackouts Monday after saying it might shut off power to nearly 400,000 residents to prevent wildfires. The move would have been an extraordinary step in December, when fire season is normally over in the utility’s Northern California service territory. Over the weekend, Southern California...