Regulation & Policy

Texas regulators decline to act after market monitor reports $16B of 'inappropriate' ERCOT charges

The two commissioners voted against directing the grid operator to retroactively reprice its real-time prices that were artificially inflated during the generation shortages and subsequent forced outages.

By Catherine Morehouse • March 08, 2021

Buttigieg says infrastructure faces a 'once-in-a-lifetime moment' as power grids, roads get C- grade

Speaking at the unveiling of the American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card last week, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said now is the time to fix America’s crumbling infrastructure.

By Joe Bousquin • March 08, 2021

Explore the Trendline➔

Trendline

The Utility Dive Outlook on 2021

The major trends driving the US power sector persisted in 2020, despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and with the recent changes in the White House and Congress, will likely get stronger in 2021.

By Utility Dive staff

Deep Dive

'A total mindshift': Utilities replace gas peakers, 'old school' demand response with flexible DERs

Utility-customer cooperation can balance renewables' variability with flexibility without using "blunt" demand response or natural gas.

By Herman K. Trabish • March 08, 2021

Glick commits to avoid repeat of 'disturbing' lack of action in Texas after 2011 outages

“It is pretty clear” what the message was in the 2011 report, the chairman said, “and it's just disturbing that it didn't turn into action."

By Catherine Morehouse • March 05, 2021

Opinion

How the National Green Bank can help small businesses build back greener

With 30.7 million small businesses located in the U.S., any efforts toward reducing emissions are going to need to include this market, the author writes.

By Paul Schuster • March 04, 2021

Opinion

An open letter to Energy Secretary Granholm: Policy is too important to be made behind closed doors

During the last four years, we wasted precious time that should’ve been spent working feverishly toward a just, clean energy transition. And the public has been kept in the dark, the author writes.

By Howard Crystal • March 03, 2021

House Democrats introduce bill with pathway to 100% clean energy by 2035

The bill would include major changes to the Federal Power Act and the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, and require economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050.

By Catherine Morehouse • March 03, 2021

Deep Dive

Texas must increase ties to the national grid and DER to avoid another power catastrophe, analysts say

Planning for inter-regional transmission and distributed resources could do what ERCOT's competitive, energy-only market didn't – keep the heat and lights on, energy advisors say.

By Herman K. Trabish • March 02, 2021

ERCOT fires CEO, following resignation of head utility regulator, board members

CEO Bill Magness' termination follows continued fallout from the power outages that plagued the state for days last month during extreme cold weather.

By Catherine Morehouse • UPDATED: March 4, 2021 at 9:21 a.m.

US lags international peers on renewables development, and federal policy is to blame: Moody's

Inconsistent federal policy has held back clean energy growth, but observers are optimistic with President Biden in the White House.

By Robert Walton • March 02, 2021

Texas gas regulator punts outage blame back to electric industry, 'we got us out of the problem'

Texas Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick insisted her industry was not responsible for the blackouts that hit Texas last month, despite assertions from the electricity industry that supply-side constraints were a major issue.

By Catherine Morehouse • March 01, 2021

National Academies call on Congress to address 'persistent under-investment in electric innovation'

NASEM's report recommends that the U.S. double government spending on energy research to keep pace with the need for new grid technologies and other nations.

By Emma Penrod • Feb. 26, 2021

'Everyone is asking, why?': Texas lawmakers grill generators, regulators on mass outages

Gas-electric coordination, the Texas wholesale market, communication protocols and regulatory authority all came under fire during the state's first hearing on the blackouts that left millions without power last week.

By Catherine Morehouse • Feb. 26, 2021

California proposes enhanced oversight of PG&E as concerns rise over wildfire mitigation

The process is based on six steps triggered by certain events and could potentially lead to the commission reviewing — and possibly revoking — PG&E’s operational certification down the road.

By Kavya Balaraman • Feb. 26, 2021

Opinion

Utilities need to harden the grid as they green it. Consumers aren't ready for the cost

Federal funding for grid modernization and decarbonization is the way to ensure events like the Texas blackouts don’t happen again.

By Stephanie Eyocko • Feb. 26, 2021

Opinion

To catalyze transmission development, end the utility protection racket

Current policies reinforce an anachronistic approach that fails to spur the regional projects needed to decarbonize the power sector and mitigate extreme weather impacts, writes Harvard Electricity Law Initiative's Ari Peskoe.

By Ari Peskoe • Feb. 25, 2021

California's approach to power pricing could discourage electrification, experts fear

"Effectively, what we’re doing is imposing a very, very regressive tax on electricity consumption in order to pay for many programs and infrastructure," Severin Borenstein, faculty director of the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business' Energy Institute, said.

By Kavya Balaraman • Feb. 25, 2021

ERCOT narrowly avoided 'much more devastating' impacts as nearly half of generation went offline: CEO

At the highest point, about 48.6% of the grid operator's power generation — 52,277 MW out of 107,514 MW in installed capacity — was forced offline due to the extreme weather conditions.

By Catherine Morehouse • Feb. 25, 2021

Opinion

The real problem in Texas: Deregulation

In a deregulated market, one where one company generates power, another delivers it, and another sells it, there’s little incentive not to cut corners, the author writes.

By Paul Griffin • Feb. 24, 2021

FERC to examine potential market violations in wake of massive Texas power outages

The commission also announced it would open a new proceeding to examine the threat climate change poses to electric reliability, following FERC's decision last week to close its resilience docket.

By Catherine Morehouse • Feb. 23, 2021

Texas suspends utility disconnections after 'skyrocketing' power bills

State regulators held an emergency meeting Sunday to address the payment billing spikes that had customers charged up to 70 times more than what they would normally pay for electricity.

By Catherine Morehouse • Feb. 23, 2021

Climate leaders go 'all in' to halve emissions by 2030

The new "America Is All In" coalition of U.S. communities, businesses and institutions, has pledged to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 with support from the federal government. 

By Chris Teale • Feb. 23, 2021

Deep Dive

Possible hundreds of billions in US power sector securitizations spur ratepayer protection debate

Securitization can ease impacts of COVID-19 moratoria debt, stranded asset costs, and extreme weather losses, but bankers and regulators agree that customer costs need oversight.

By Herman K. Trabish • Feb. 22, 2021

Residents' climate anecdotes to inform San Diego resilience plan

Following hazard vulnerability assessments, the city is nearing a resilience draft plan focused on wildfires, sea level rise, extreme heat and flooding.

By Maria Rachal • Feb. 22, 2021

Texas outages take center stage during Congressional hearing on climate and clean energy

Attempts to blame the Texas power outages on renewable energy stand to derail calls for bipartisan climate legislation, members of the Congressional Subcommittee on Energy said last week.

By Emma Penrod • Feb. 19, 2021