Vistra confirmed that a portion of its Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in Monterey Bay was still off line Sept. 10 after an overheating incident took it out of operation on Sept. 4.
A self-described grassroots coalition of 347 organizations on Sept. 3 sent an open letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Public Utilities Commission, asking that the state focus on keeping solar energy affordable. Net-energy metering changes are being considered; however, the group …
Powerful storms knocked out 133 power poles in the Imperial Irrigation District's service territory in Southern California this week. The public utility in a news release reported extensive damage to its major transmission corridors between Calipatria and Niland from an Aug. 31 storm that kn…
A contractor in San Jose on Aug. 25 dug into an 8-inch steel natural gas pipeline owned by Pacific Gas & Electric, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate the area. The San Jose Fire Department created a 900-foot-radius evacuation area around the ruptured pipeline, and no injuries had bee…
U.S. District Judge William Alsup on Aug. 18 ordered Pacific Gas & Electric representatives to answer whether a blown fuse on a PG&E-owned power line could have sparked the ongoing Dixie Fire. PG&E representatives must respond to that question, and numerous others, by Aug. 31. Al…
The Dixie Fire in several counties in Northern California, which Pacific Gas & Electric is under investigation for possibly causing, has burned more than 1,000 structures, which would trigger the next step of the California Public Utilities Commission's six-step enforcement process if PG…
The water elevation at Lake Oroville dropped to levels that forced the California Department of Water Resources to take the Hyatt power plant off line Aug. 5.
The City of Los Angeles on Aug. 5 delayed a vote on its initiative to move to a 100-percent zero-carbon electric grid by 2035. City Council member Mitch O'Farrell postponed the motion until it could be heard at a special committee meeting in two weeks, according to a news release from Food &…
A group of California community choice aggregators—Central Coast Community Energy, East Bay Community Energy, MCE and Silicon Valley Clean Energy—formed a new joint-powers agency focused on power-purchase financing. The California Community Choice Financing Authority has a goal of reducing p…
Power-line failures and wind speed are the most critical factors in the size of Southern California's largest wildfires, researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey say in a recent study. Jon Keeley, a senior scientist with the USGS, and colleagues analyzed 71 years' worth of daily Santa Ana w…
A landfill-based solar energy project is closer to being fully operational after the installation of a specialized ballast mounting framework designed to meet the site’s unique. Solar FlexRack said July 12 that it had installed the technology for Prometheus Power, which built the project on …
The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power on July 7 named Monique Earl to lead its newly created Office of Diversity and Inclusion. As senior assistant general manager, Earl will support the internal and external development and implementation of LADWP's Racial Equity Action Initiative…
The California State Senate on June 28 confirmed Darcie Houck as a member of the California Public Utilities Commission after she was appointed to the position in February by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Previously, Houck worked as chief counsel for the California Energy Commission and as an administr…
The State Water Resources Control Board is taking public comment on a proposal to extend for another two years the compliance date for once-through-cooling regulations at the natural gas-fired Redondo Beach Generating Station Units 5, 6 and 8. The board in September extended for three years …
Federal energy regulators gave power sellers that sold power in the California Independent System Operator above a $1,000/MWh price cap during a heat wave last August an additional 30 days to justify their actions, and offered further guidance on how those prices could be justified.
The California Public Utilities Commission's Wildfire Safety Division on July 1 will transfer out of the CPUC to the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety at the California Natural Resources Agency in Sacramento. The division will become fully independent of the CPUC but will continue its o…
The California Air Resources Board on June 8 opened the state's hybrid and zero-emission truck and bus voucher program, which will supply $165 million this year to California-based businesses to upgrade their vehicle fleets. Half of the program's funds are available now and the other half wi…
Southern California Gas Co. plans to reduce or curtail service to dispatchable electric generators located in its southern system during maintenance work from June 10 through June 16 "or until work is completed," according to ENVOY notices posted May 28 and June 2. It is possible the curtail…
The San Diego City Council after a drawn-out and sometimes tense negotiation process on May 25 approved a 10-year franchise agreement with San Diego Gas & Electric that will allow the utility to install and maintain its electric and natural gas infrastructure within the city's right of way.
PG&E Corp. struck a deal to sell its 32-story terra-cotta headquarters building and adjoining annex in San Francisco to Delaware-based real estate firm Hines Atlas for $800 million, the company said on May 24. PG&E built its headquarters on Market Street in 1923 and has occupied the …
NuScale Power and Prodigy Clean Energy signed a memorandum of understanding May 14 to support business-development opportunities for a marine-based nuclear generating station powered by NuScale's small modular reactor technology. The companies have been working together since 2018 on integra…
We encourage you to join us for the 5th Annual Pacific Northwest Wholesale Power Markets Conference, which will be held online the mornings of June 17 and 18.
The California Independent System Operator appointed two vice presidents May 10, which the grid operator said will complete both its senior management team and its organizational restructuring. Anna McKenna is now vice president of market policy and performance. She has served in that positi…
Wholesale market prices were higher in the California Independent System Operator in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared with the same period a year prior, the Department of Market Monitoring said in a new report. Average five-minute prices were lower than both 15-minute and day-ahead prices…
Sempra Energy is attempting to acquire all outstanding shares of Infraestructura Energética Nova S.A.B de C.V. that it doesn't already own, as it intends to list its shares of common stock on the Mexican stock exchange. The offer, launched April 26, seeks to exchange each outstanding IEnova …
Peninsula Clean Energy is providing $248,000 for 124 new electric-vehicle charging ports to be located in San Mateo County, at the Government Center Parking Structure currently under construction in Redwood City. Although access is intended for county employees, the charging infrastructure c…
Public Service Company of New Mexico is seeking to replace 114 MW of leased capacity at the Palo Verde Generating Station, a nuclear power plant near Phoenix operated by Arizona Public Service, with a combination of solar and storage resources.
The state Senate Environmental Quality Committee on April 12 passed SB 582, which would establish California's first-ever statutory net-negative emissions goal, with a target date of 2035. SB 582, from Sen. Henry Stern (D-Canoga Park), also calls for a "just resilience plan" to drive investm…
The California Energy Commission has proposed a $1-million award to consulting firm Energy and Environmental Economics to develop a plan for decommissioning certain natural gas infrastructure in the state. E3 will identify where gas infrastructure decommissioning is "plausible, economically …
The California Independent System Operator's Western Energy Imbalance Market continued its growth this week, adding two more utilities and expanding its footprint into New Mexico.
Pacific Gas & Electric is looking for potential buyers for its Hamilton Branch hydropower facilities, the company said in an April 1 news release. The facilities include a small powerhouse and the Mountain Meadows Reservoir, as well as the 4.8-MW Hamilton Branch Powerhouse on Lake Almano…
The Turlock Irrigation District, the Balancing Authority of Northern California, and the Western Area Power Administration's Sierra Nevada Region began participating in the California Independent System Operator's Western Energy Imbalance Market on March 25, one week ahead of schedule.
Southern California Edison launched its third Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff and Community Solar Green Tariff request for offers. SCE is soliciting energy from solar projects located in disadvantaged communities as specifically defined in the RFO document. Procurement for the DAC-GT …
Southern California Edison, operator of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, on March 15 released a strategic plan for relocating the shuttered plant's spent nuclear fuel and launched a national coalition to pressure the federal government to find a permanent repository for waste store…
Pacific Gas & Electric selected Grass Valley, California-based BoxPower to design and install a standalone power system in Briceburg, California, to help mitigate fire risk in the area. The remote grid will support PG&E in its wildfire-mitigation and energy-resilience efforts in the …
MCE on March 10 released details of its forthcoming 2021 Open Season procurement process, through which the community choice aggregator is soliciting bids for Portfolio Content Category 1 renewable energy and front-of-the-meter, stand-alone energy storage. For the first time, MCE is encourag…
The California Energy Commission on March 3 proposed $15 million in funding for five entities to further develop their clean-energy technology projects. Examples of projects include production of transparent solar-power-generating windows; manufacture of a solid-state heat engine; and produc…
The California Public Utilities Commission on Feb. 19 proposed seven new public-safety power shut-off guidelines for utilities to follow during potential or actual shut-offs.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said Feb. 22 that its Office of Enforcement is examining wholesale natural gas and electricity market activity during the recent extreme cold weather to determine if any market participants engaged in market manipulation or other violations. If the OE…
Pacific Gas & Electric is extending its existing COVID-19 customer protections through June 30. The protections were set to expire on April 16, but the utility made the announcement based on a Feb. 11 California Public Utilities Commission meeting during which the CPUC approved a decisio…
Gov. Gavin Newsom this week appointed a group of energy industry professionals to leadership positions at the California Public Utilities Commission, California Energy Commission and California Independent System Operator.
Four hydrogen fuel technologies to be used in transportation will be provided with $1.3 million in funding by Southern California Gas Co., the company stated in a Feb. 8 news release. The utility will fund fuel-cell marine vessels, hydrogen refueling stations at ports, and fuel-cell locomoti…
A wildfire victim trust fund established during the Pacific Gas & Electric bankruptcy proceeding is more than $1 billion short of its intended value due to fluctuations in PG&E's stock price, the fund's trustee told fire victims.
El Paso Electric has signed an implementation agreement with the California Independent System Operator to join the Western Energy Imbalance Market in 2023, CAISO said. The agreement extends the real-time balancing market to 12 Western states. EPE is a regional utility providing generation, …
General Motors on Jan. 28 committed to setting targets to become carbon-neutral in its operations by 2040. This includes a plan to cease production of tailpipe-emitting light-duty vehicles by 2035, the company said in a news release. GM worked with Environmental Defense Fund to develop a vis…
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is investigating a fire that started at Calpine's Geysers geothermal facility in Sonoma County Jan. 18.
Hundreds of thousands of customers across California on Jan. 18 and 19 had their power proactively cut in response to strong Santa Ana winds and red-flag warnings issued by the National Weather Service.
The California Air Resources Board and the California Energy Commission extended the application deadline for the Zero-Emission Drayage Truck and Infrastructure Pilot Project to Feb. 15. The entities eligible for the $44.1 million in available funding include local air districts, California-…
Southern California Edison on Jan. 15 said it was considering a public-safety power shut-off to 66,500 customer accounts over the next 48 hours. Power was shut off to about 8,700 customer accounts as of mid-day on Jan. 15. This included 1,600 accounts in Los Angeles County, 2,597 in Riversid…
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Dec. 30 reappointed Marybel Batjer as president of the California Public Utilities Commission. Her second term ends Jan. 1, 2027. Batjer was originally appointed as CPUC president on July 12, 2019, by Newsom and was sworn in on Aug. 16 of that year. The position requires…
We want to hear from you on energy issues and to share your thoughts with our readership. Read more