Portland General Electric plans to roll out a residential electric vehicle charging pilot program next year using direct load control smart chargers, in lieu of mandatory time-of-use rates.

The California PUC on Nov. 7 recommended that five once-through-cooling natural gas power plants remain on line for up to three years beyond their planned retirement date of Dec. 31, 2020. The commission also approved delaying by up to 2.5 years the start dates of three solar and two battery…

NW Natural has promoted Anna Chittum as director and hired Josh Lieberman as project developer for its newly created renewable resources group, which is tasked with securing renewable natural gas and renewable hydrogen to decarbonize the company's system and ensure a sufficient supply for cu…

PacifiCorp will lean on the wholesale power market to meet the bulk of its summer and winter peaking capacity needs over the next decade, according to the utility's 2019 integrated resource plan filed with state regulators Oct. 18.

Intervenors mostly praised Portland General Electric's 2019 integrated resource plan, but questioned some of the plan's methodology, along with timing of the action plan and how the utility expects to fill its capacity deficits, according to comments filed with the Oregon PUC.

Oregon's codes for commercial buildings have produced significant energy-efficiency gains in recent years, and more progress can be made, according to a detailed study commissioned by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance.

A lack of dispatchable resources will leave the Northwest with a capacity deficit of several thousand megawatts over the next few years that could spiral into widespread outages unless a regionwide mechanism for addressing resource adequacy is developed.

The California PUC on Sept. 12 proposed a delay in once-through-cooling (OTC) compliance deadlines for natural gas-fired power plants to address what could be a capacity deficit of up to 2.5 GW in 2021-2023, and said there is a need for additional energy procurement by load-serving entities …

A sense of urgency filled the room at the California ISO's headquarters in Folsom Sept. 18, as officials warned of extremely tight generation capacity beginning next year.

PacifiCorp continues to see dramatic savings from early retirement of some of its coal-fired power plant fleet and switching to renewables and natural gas, in modeling for its 2019 integrated resource plan.

Power planners across the Northwest know wind ­turbines, which account for about 14 percent of the region’s installed capacity, won’t generate much, if any, power to meet demand during heat waves. The same is generally true during winter cold snaps, when wind output plummets along with tempe…

The region's most ambitious energy storage pilot project is a step closer to launching.

PacifiCorp will dial back the output from Jim Bridger 1 and 2, rather than install pollution control equipment needed to comply with Wyoming's regional haze implementation plan.

The California ISO on Sept. 3 gave FERC its latest round of enhancements aimed at better integrating energy storage and distributed energy resources (ESDER) onto its grid.

Battery storage would help reduce electricity demand charges most effectively for commercial customers with solar power systems and narrow, "peaky" loads, according to a new report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Large commercial and municipal customers of ­Portland General Electric gobbled up the first offering in the utility’s new Green Future Impact program, ­mirroring the popularity of corporate renewable energy buying ­programs around the region and the country.

Tacoma Power has signed an implementation ­agreement with the California ISO for joining the ­Western EIM, targeting 2022 for going live in the market.

A pilot program aimed at commercial customers wanting to invest in intermediate-sized solar arrays was approved Aug. 15 by the Seattle City Council’s Housing, Health, Energy, and Workers’ Rights Committee.

Climate change will be the baseline for scenarios in the 2021 Northwest Power Plan, according to the ­Northwest Power and Conservation Council.

Future resource planning by Puget Sound Energy and Portland General Electric seem to signal that the long-awaited promise of Montana wind power may finally come true.

Renewables dominated proposals submitted to Puget Sound Energy’s 2018 all-resource solicitation for new generation resources. Only a handful of natural gas resources were even submitted, according to information PSE provided to Clearing Up.

A bill setting voluntary renewable natural gas goals for Oregon’s natural gas utilities and allowing them to recover prudent costs incurred in pursuing the gas was recently signed into law by Gov. Kate Brown.

Portland General Electric could be on a major resource acquisition spree over the next few years that would ­further decarbonize the utility’s generating ­portfolio, according to the company’s 2019 integrated resource plan filed with the Oregon PUC July 19 [LC 73].

A flaw in the modeling of coal-mine reclamation costs associated with the Jim Bridger power plant has pushed back the release of PacifiCorp’s 2019 integrated resource plan from “August 1 to no later than October 18,” the utility said in a filing with the Oregon PUC.

Portland General Electric announced July 15 it has officially launched the nation’s most ambitious smart grid pilot program.

Members of Utah Associated Municipal Power ­Systems have inked contracts for more than 150 MW from the small modular reactor plant UAMPS plans to build at the Idaho National Laboratory, triggering ­continued work and evaluation of the project, the agency announced July 17.

Solar generation and transmission capacity are the initial additional resources identified for offsetting early coal capacity retirements in the preferred portfolio of Idaho Power’s 20-year 2019 integrated resource plan.

A formidable jump in the price of natural gas in California ISO territory in the first quarter drove up the cost to serve wholesale load by 43 percent compared with the first quarter last year, CAISO’s market monitor said in a new report.

Electric vehicles have proliferated in Seattle, and their adoption rates are expected to increase in coming years. As part of its effort to address the infrastructure challenges and load growth this represents, Seattle City Light has launched two electric vehicle charging pilot programs as p…

All but two of Washington’s 17 eligible utilities plan to meet the current 9 percent mandate under the state’s RPS for 2019, and all but one appear to be on track to meet their two-year conservation targets, according to plans submitted to the state’s Commerce Department.

Coal made up about one-fifth of NorthWestern Energy’s electric generation portfolio in 2018, but its future role dominated discussion during a Jan. 18 hearing before the Montana PSC.

Facebook may be the first test of Oregon’s recently adopted New Load Direct Access program (NLDA), and be in the market soon for 180 MW of renewable energy.

The Columbia Generating Station set a new generation record in 2018, producing more than 9.7 million MWh, the most in its 34-year history, eclipsing the previous record set in 2016 of 9.6 million MWh.

Hundreds of thousands of customers in western Washington and Oregon lost power Jan. 5 and 6 after a windstorm packing 60 mph winds ripped through the region.

Idaho Power asked the Oregon PUC in a Dec. 28 application to approve a time-of-day pricing pilot program for its customers in the state [ADV 901].

With natural gas prices expected to stay down for years to come and renewable generation rising, the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance is having to fine-tune its pitch for some members.

A recent study says it’s possible to maintain resource adequacy for a deeply decarbonized Northwest electricity grid, as long as sufficient firm capacity is available during periods of low wind, solar and hydro production.

A crack in a low-pressure turbine rotor blade has kept the Boardman coal-fired plant off line since December, and some of Portland General Electric’s customer groups are questioning if the plant should return to service at all.

Montana’s coal industry is being undercut by cheap natural gas and rising demand for cleaner alternatives, which could seriously erode state and local tax revenues, while also eliminating a host of well-paying blue-collar jobs, according to a report presented Jan. 17 to the state Legislature…