Natural gas exploration and production company Aera Energy LLC announced June 23 that Christina Sistrunk, its president and CEO, is retiring effective Oct. 1. Sistrunk, who joined Aera in June 2015, serves on Gov. Gavin Newsom's Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery. Erik Bartsch, current…
Southern California Gas Co. and the University of California, Santa Barbara, announced June 18 that they had completed two joint energy-efficiency projects that will reduce the campus' energy use by roughly 24 percent, saving an estimated $66,000/year or roughly 66,000 therms/year. The proje…
Average weekday demand for electricity in California declined by more than 4 percent in late March and 9 percent in April compared with the same time last year, the California Energy Commission said in a new "Energy Insights" report. Residential energy usage by customers of the three investo…
East Bay Community Energy issued a request for proposals designed to result in a contract for portfolio and risk management and valuation software. Specifically, EBCE wants a tool or platform its staff can use and customize in order to support its power procurement and risk management. This …
Three people died in a helicopter crash near Fairfield on June 2 while working on a Pacific Gas & Electric power line.
8minute Solar Energy has closed a $225-million letter of credit it plans to use to post securities for both its power-purchase agreements and interconnection agreements for its 18-GW pipeline of solar and storage projects in California, Texas and the Southwest, the company said June 1. The l…
The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission on May 22 voted to approve a regulation requiring electric utilities and other entities to report greenhouse gas emissions data to the state agency.
The California Independent System Operator is raising components of its grid-management charge because of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying its tariff requires the action when the charge fails to recover sufficient revenue, as it has so far this year. Based on data through April, current forecas…
Energy company SGH2 on May 20 revealed plans to develop what will be the world’s largest waste-to-hydrogen plant in Lancaster, California. The plant will process 42,000 tons of recycled waste per year and produce up to 3.8 million kilograms of hydrogen per year, the company said in a news re…
S. David Freeman, who enjoyed a lengthy career in energy, passed away May 12 at the age of 94 following a heart attack.
Researchers have developed a novel self-assembling membrane designed to separate carbon dioxide from a mixture of gases, which could be applied to carbon capture and storage. The Newcastle University material uses a small amount of silver in a membrane. The silver is triggered to grow during…
Pacific Gas & Electric announced it will conduct an islanding test May 9 that will help Humboldt County continue to have power in the event of a public-safety power shut-off or other disruptions. PG&E will be examining the capability of the Humboldt Bay Generating Station to continue…
Tesla is seeing demand that far exceeds supply for its energy storage products, founder and CEO Elon Musk said during an April 29 first-quarter earnings conference call. The company deployed 260 MWh of storage during the quarter, a 14-percent year-over-year increase, while its solar deployme…
Counties in the San Francisco Bay Area issued revised health orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic to clarify that solar-photovoltaic, solar-thermal and storage installation can continue during the stay-at-home order, according to a news release from the California Solar and Storage Associ…
Pacific Gas & Electric on April 23 said it will host a series of county webinars to detail the progress of actions taken as part of its wildfire mitigation program. Any public-safety power shut-off events in 2020 "are expected to be smaller in scope, shorter in duration and smarter for c…
The California Independent System Operator released its flexible-capacity needs assessment for 2021, saying that its needs are affected by actual net load and three-hour ramps that are about four years ahead of the ISO's original estimates due to increasing rooftop solar.
The California Independent System Operator updated its schedule for development of its enhanced and extended day-ahead market initiatives, saying "new work conditions necessitate additional time for policy development and for stakeholders to provide feedback."
Pacific Gas & Electric on March 31 finalized the sale of its Narrows Hydroelectric Project to the Yuba County Water Agency. The 12-MW facility on the Yuba River in Nevada County is licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission through 2026 [P-1404]. The $507,500 sale also includes…
Clean Energy States Alliance on April 2 launched a new information-sharing initiative for states that have established 100-percent clean-energy goals. The 100% Clean Energy Collaborative will build on and supersede the Renewable Portfolio Standards Collaborative, a broad stakeholder informat…
Clean Power Alliance signed its first battery energy storage agreement April 9 with developer sPower for the full output of a 100-MW/400-MWh lithium-ion battery storage facility in Los Angeles County.
Aliso Viejo, California-based energy storage developer esVolta was selected to deliver a new 15-MW-capacity lithium-ion battery system to California Choice Energy Authority. The 15-MW/60-MWh Black Walnut facility, to be built in Santa Paula, California, is due to be in service by June 2022. …
The California Independent System Operator launched a new initiative that will allow random tests to set a proxy demand resource's effective flexible capacity.
North American electric grid operators are well prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic, according to responses to a Level 2 alert issued by the national reliability organization. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation said the alert went to industry on March 10, with a March 20 resp…
Investor-owned utilities in California should take steps to implement a state order supporting the development of microgrids before the 2020 wildfire season, state regulators said.
The Tuolumne Utilities District and Pacific Gas & Electric are in exclusive negotiations to transfer the 2-MW Phoenix Hydroelectric Project [P-1061] from PG&E to TUD ownership, according to a March 10 announcement. Under the terms of the proposed agreement, TUD would acquire the Phoe…
A popular effort that last year brought together utility workers from around the nation to extend electric power to hundreds of Navajo Nation homes is another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic, at least temporarily.
Federal energy regulators on March 17 once again rejected arguments by the California Public Utilities Commission and others that a 50-basis-point incentive adder on Pacific Gas & Electric's transmission rate for membership in an independent system operator is not just and reasonable. Th…
A new test has proved that large, utility-scale wind power plants can provide important services that are currently supplied by conventional thermal generators, the California Independent System Operator said.
The Intermountain Power Agency on March 10 awarded Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems a contract for two power trains for the Intermountain Power Plant in Delta, Utah. The power trains are being specifically designed to allow the plant to make the transition from coal to natural gas, then from…
The California Independent System Operator announced March 4 it is immediately changing its operations "to protect the health of the company's staff, and prevent possible disruption to critical business operations" due to risks presented by the novel coronavirus. Until April 1 or until furth…
EDF Renewables North America on Feb. 19 cut the ribbon on a comprehensive microgrid system at its San Diego headquarters. It includes a 209-kW-peak solar carport, a 182-kWp solar rooftop system, a 280-kW/538-kWh battery storage system, and 43 electric-vehicle charging stations. The company c…
Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) on Feb. 19 introduced SB 1139, a bill that would prevent utilities from taking tax deductions on expenses incurred from safety-violation penalties issued by state regulators.
Devil's Canyon Brewing Company, a small craft brewery based in San Carlos, is using CiCi—a plug-and-play carbon-capture technology from Austin-based Earthly Labs—to capture as much as 100,000 pounds of expended carbon dioxide a year, which it is reusing to carbonate and package beer.
Pacific Gas & Electric on Feb. 7 applied to recover about $900 million in wildfire mitigation costs that the bankrupt utility spent in 2017, 2018 and 2019—years in which the largest wildfires in California's history occurred [A20-02-003]. PG&E argued it should be allowed to recover t…
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Feb. 10 released a new executive directive that outlines sweeping action plans aimed at implementing L.A.'s Green New Deal.
Trade associations representing developers of renewables projects and other generation types said they are "encouraged" that bankrupt utility Pacific Gas & Electric has promised to honor $42 billion in power-purchase agreements it had signed, now part of its reorganization.
Pacific Gas & Electric on Feb. 7 announced that former Alcoa Vice President Francisco Benavides will be the utility's new chief safety officer. Benavides will report directly to PG&E CEO Bill Johnson and will start his position on March 9. He served as vice president of environmental…
The California Independent System Operator showed a $2.9-million loss for the fourth quarter, primarily due to the depreciation of assets, a noncash expenditure. Operating income before depreciation is $2.9 million for the quarter and $34 million for the year, the ISO said.
Peninsula Clean Energy is now supplying its customers with solar energy generated by the 200-MW Wright Solar Project, which it says is the largest renewable-energy installation ever built for a community choice aggregator, according to a Jan. 22 announcement. The aggregator has a 25-year pow…
A fourth person has entered a guilty plea in an ongoing, billion-dollar federal fraud case purportedly involving sales and loans of mobile solar generation units.
Robert Kondziolka was unanimously voted in as the newest member of the Western Energy Imbalance Market Governing Body at its Jan. 23 meeting. His appointment begins Feb. 1. Kondziolka retired as the Salt River Project’s management consultant for grid resiliency and security in December. In a…
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved the 450-MW Quartzite Solar Project in Riverside County, one of a handful of new solar and wind projects, as well as a geothermal facility, planned throughout the West in the near future.
Calgren Dairy Fuels and Southern California Gas Co. now have four additional Central Valley dairies sending cow-manure-generated methane to Calgren's biogas operation in Pixley, the companies announced Jan. 13. The methane is further processed into renewable natural gas, which is injected in…
To mark the end of his first year in office, a coalition of environmental, public-health and other advocacy groups sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a letter urging him "to take bolder action" and asking him to declare a climate emergency.
The California Independent System Operator is making some changes at the senior level, promoting Neil Millar, who had been serving as executive director of infrastructure development, to the position of vice president of transmission planning and infrastructure development, where he will ove…
Public Utilities Commission of Nevada member Hayley Williamson on Jan. 1 was elevated by Gov. Steve Sisolak to the role of chairwoman of the commission. Sisolak appointed Williamson to the three-member PUCN in April 2019, but Williamson has worked at the commission since 2013, serving as sen…
Xcel Energy and three other Colorado utilities plan to join the Western Energy Imbalance Market operated by the California Independent System Operator in 2021, saying it will help them meet clean-energy goals and provide the most benefit to customers compared with alternatives.
Elizaveta Malashenko, Deputy Executive Director of Safety and Enforcement Policy at the California Public Utilities Commission, is leaving the job, CPUC officials said at the commission's Dec. 19 meeting. Malashenko was a safety panelist at energy committee hearings at the State Legislature …
Monterey Bay Community Power made a significant expansion, adding 11 jurisdictions in two counties following a Dec. 4 board vote.
The California Public Utilities Commission on Dec. 11 issued a proposed decision that would modify its Self-Generation Incentive Program to support renewable-energy and grid-resiliency projects, consistent with legislation passed in 2018. The proposed decision authorizes ratepayer collection…
