Colorado's largest utility will retire the last of its remaining coal assets 30 years ahead of schedule, add more than 4 GW of combined renewable generation and battery resources by 2030, and deliver 100-percent emissions-free power to customers by 2050 if regulators approve its preferred el…
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, a 45-member wholesale cooperative based in Colorado and serving electric distribution co-ops in four states, says 100 percent of its member load will be served by entities involved in either an energy imbalance market or a regional transmiss…
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas on April 6 released a preliminary report that, unsurprisingly, points to weather and associated complications as the key factor in Texas' unprecedented energy crisis during a winter storm Feb. 14-19.
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission at a March 31 meeting hired a new chief of staff and accepted a recent application for a large wind farm and associated transmission that could become operational by 2023.
New Mexico oil and gas regulators on March 25 approved rules requiring oil and gas operators to capture 98 percent of natural gas waste by the end of 2026, which they say will lead to significant methane waste reduction beginning in 2022.
A Swedish wind developer whose controversial application for a large wind farm on the Nevada-California border was rejected in 2018 has started over with a new and smaller project in the same area.
New Mexico ratepayers will soon have access to community solar installations provided Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signs a bill, passed late in the legislative session, that would make solar power available on a subscription basis.
New Mexico regulators at a March 24 meeting approved special financing that will enable a small natural gas utility in the state to pay its $19-million fuel bill for the month of February, during which a week of extremely cold weather in the region and insufficient winterization of natural g…
The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada at a March 22 meeting approved more than 600 miles of key transmission lines that the state's regulated utility says will enable it to meet Nevada's goals of 50-percent emissions-free power by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.
The Arizona Corporation Commission at March 23 and 24 meetings approved power-purchase agreements between Arizona Public Service and the proprietors of two 80-MW solar projects in Cochise County that qualify as small power production facilities under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Ac…
Legislation that would reshape the authority of Arizona regulators to set energy policy appears doomed, with the state's largest utility formally opposing it and a Republican lawmaker vowing to vote it down.
Arizona Public Service on March 12 said it would shift operations at the 1,540-MW coal-fired Four Corners Power Plant to reflect seasonal demand, a move that would reduce the plant's annual carbon emissions by an estimated 20 to 25 percent.
New Mexico regulators at a March 17 meeting deviated from the agenda to clarify a recent order on utility disconnections after learning that some residential customers had been issued shut-off notices despite an ongoing moratorium.
The sole remaining utility regulator in Texas resigned during a week that saw an additional bankruptcy and lawsuit, as well as endless opinions—including within the state Legislature—regarding whether or not to retroactively reprice power sold during the February blackouts, as a deadline loo…
The municipally owned utility in Colorado's second-largest city this month will begin passing on to customers the natural gas price impacts from February's Arctic storm. Meanwhile, other utilities in the state are likely to seek regulatory approval to recover excess fuel costs over extended …
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission at recent meetings addressed the developing situation stemming from the extreme cold-weather event in February, agreeing to launch an inquiry into natural gas price hikes during that period and their effect on New Mexico utilities and ratepayers.
The Utah Legislative session wrapped up on March 5, with a number of energy bills heading to the governor's desk.
Stand-alone energy storage projects will be exempt from review under the Nevada Utility Environmental Protection Act, the state's public utilities commission decided at a March 9 meeting.
Colorado's largest utility this week said it will ask regulators to approve $1.7 billion in transmission investments as lawmakers in the state consider a bill that would require transmission utilities to join a regional transmission organization by 2030.
Poor maintenance practices, equipment defects and a lack of training contributed to two separate, sustained outages that took the 750-MW, coal-fired Comanche Unit 3 off line for more than a year, according to a March 1 staff report from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.
Colorado regulators are rethinking the state's risk-allocation method for fluctuating fuel costs following the recent Arctic storm, which led to unprecedented price spikes for natural gas. The current method passes 100 percent of cost increases to ratepayers, which in this instance could lea…
The Arizona Corporation Commission will work with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on a proposal to develop a distributed demand-side resource aggregation tariff for Arizona Public Service that would likely be the first of its kind in the nation.
Regulators outside of Texas, hoping to prevent disasters in their own states, began convening utilities when extended outages during freezing temperatures caused what has been deemed a humanitarian crisis in the Lone Star State.
Legislators in Colorado are debating a bill that would prohibit banning natural gas infrastructure in buildings and homes, days after the Utah Legislature on Feb. 16 sent a similar bill to the Governor's desk.
NV Energy in 2021 will increase planning reserve margins for its two utility subsidiaries in response to record-breaking high temperatures across the West in August 2020.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions 85 percent by 2030 and adding 5.5 GW of new renewable energy and battery storage are just some of the goals outlined in Xcel Energy-Colorado's long-awaited clean-energy plan, released Feb. 24.
Colorado regulators on Feb. 17 rejected a request by an environmental group to open a rulemaking that would have set binding, declining greenhouse gas emissions limits for multiple sectors through 2030 and created a market-based cap-and-trade program to allow compliance with that limit.
Arizona Public Service will pay $24 million in restitution to residential customers who were either misled by a faulty rate-comparison tool on the company's website in 2019 or affected by "data errors" in letters sent by the utility to customers in 2017 recommending they switch to a rate pla…
The general consensus among New Mexico regulators is that many of the energy bills before the state Legislature are unnecessary in light of the Energy Transition Act and include unfunded mandates that the cash-strapped New Mexico Public Regulation Commission would have a difficult time imple…
Resource-adequacy and reliability issues could be partially alleviated through increased interconnection of distributed energy resources, but such integration must be handled carefully to avoid complications that could lead to unintended consequences, utility representatives and experts said…
Longroad Energy Holdings signed contracts to acquire three Arizona-based solar projects from First Solar, the company said in a Feb. 15 news release.
Tensions surrounding the distribution of power between the state Legislature and the Arizona Corporation Commission are playing out in this year's legislative session, in which multiple bills seek to constrain the authority of the ACC to enact energy policy beyond ratemaking.
A slew of energy bills with diverse intentions, if passed, could increase distributed resources, restrict natural gas generation, offer community choice, harden utility distribution grids and clarify regulatory authority in New Mexico.
Public Service Company of New Mexico in its latest integrated resource plan detailed its road map for achieving emissions-free power by 2040, five years ahead of the mandate imposed in New Mexico's 2019 Energy Transition Act.
Innovative thinking about alternative water-management paradigms for the Colorado River will be needed to handle rising global temperatures and increased water consumption in the coming decades, including plans that could reduce the availability of hydroelectricity generation in some parts o…
Colorado Springs Utilities on Feb. 10 said it inked a $100-million deal with General Electric for six 34-MW dual-fired power generators to support grid reliability in light of the early retirement of the coal-fired 208-MW Martin Drake Power Plant.
The City of Denver on Jan. 26 released a new plan detailing how it would achieve 100-percent electrification in all new construction by 2030, with interim targets for the 2021, 2024, 2027 and 2030 building-code cycles.
Avangrid, the American utility arm of Spanish conglomerate Iberdrola Group, on Feb. 2 confirmed it received clearance from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. for its proposed $8.3-billion merger with PNM Resources of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The net benefits to Nevadans of switching to electric vehicles under a net-zero carbon emissions economy could be $21 billion through 2050, with around 65 percent of the savings accruing to Nevada drivers in the form of decreased vehicle operating costs, a new report says. By 2050, EV owners…
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission at a Feb. 3 meeting voted to lift the state's moratorium on disconnections for nonpayment that has been in effect since last March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission at a Jan. 27 meeting voted to extend the state's moratorium on utility disconnections for nonpayment through Feb. 5. The moratorium, currently tied to statewide public health orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic, would have expired Jan. 29.
NV Energy is disputing the results of an investigation which found that its power lines combined with extreme winds caused the 512-acre Pinehaven Fire in Reno, Nevada on Nov. 17.
Black Hills Energy-Colorado is under scrutiny from state regulators for its high electricity rates and even higher rates of disconnection relative to Colorado's other investor-owned utility.
New Mexico's rural electric cooperatives told state regulators Jan. 19 that employee layoffs, grid reliability and maintenance hang in the balance unless their financial circumstances take a positive turn.
The Arizona Corporation Commission in meetings held Jan. 15 and Jan. 19 split along party lines regarding a legislative challenge to its constitutional authority, a development that could threaten the state's adoption of a carbon-free mandate the ACC approved in November.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis' administration on Jan. 14 released a long-awaited Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap outlining how the state could reach its goal of 90-percent carbon emissions reductions by 2050, with widespread electrification of the transportation and building sectors p…
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Humboldt River Field Office on Jan. 15 issued a final record of decision approving a lithium mine in southeastern Nevada that would produce around 66,000 tons of lithium per year at its peak of operations.
Arizona regulators at a Jan. 12 meeting took a step toward their stated goal of encouraging energy innovation and decarbonization in the state with the unanimous approval of an electric service contract rate schedule between a utility and a high-load-factor customer. The customer, integrated…
Colorado regulators on Jan. 11 filed their formal approval of Xcel Energy-Colorado's $110-million transportation-electrification plan that will bring around 20,000 electric-vehicle charging stations to the state and provide EV rebates for low-income customers.
New Mexico's largest utility advanced its effort to remove coal from its generation portfolio with a regulatory filing to abandon its stake in a second northwestern New Mexico coal plant.
