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.