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

Explore the Trendline➔

Sustainability

Companies are pursuing increasingly ambitous sustainability goals around clean energy, but integrating rising amounts of renewables, minimizing environmental impacts, and achieving carbon reduction targets can be challenging.

By Utility Dive staff

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

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

FERC to reopen 1999 policy on gas project approvals, add environmental justice considerations

Though the vote was unanimous, commissioners had differing opinions on the necessity of proceeding, and to what extent policy should change.

By Catherine Morehouse • Feb. 19, 2021

Congress, Texas should 'rethink' ERCOT's 'go it alone approach': FERC Chair Glick

"Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business," former Governor of Texas and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said earlier this week.

By Catherine Morehouse • Feb. 19, 2021

The Texas electricity crisis and the energy transition

Although the political and national debate is turning into a proxy debate on energy resources, the most immediate concern is that the current failure threatens public health and safety, the authors write.

By Alex Gilbert and Morgan Bazilian • Feb. 19, 2021

FERC 'finally' ends PJM MOPR proceeding, paving way for grid operator's next capacity auction

"To have anything but a bright line against the participation of subsidized resources is simply an error and a dereliction of the duty to keep our markets properly insulated," said Commissioner James Danly, the sole dissenting vote.

By Catherine Morehouse • Feb. 19, 2021

FERC closes resilience docket opened in response to DOE coal, nuclear bailout proposal

The decision comes amid rolling outages that have plagued Texas, and Commissioner Neil Chatterjee, in his sole dissent, said the docket was precisely the right place to examine these and other reliability issues.

By Catherine Morehouse • Feb. 19, 2021

Power experts cite gas constraints as main cause of ERCOT outages, but system planning questions remain

"The fact that this was not wind's fault is not an argument that the wind system as we currently have it would have done better if it were a bigger part of the grid," said a professor of environmental engineering at Georgia Tech.

By Catherine Morehouse • Feb. 18, 2021

Questioning 'artificial' electrification

Should we hurry electrification through governmental actions with incentives and subsidies, or instead, allow the market by itself to determine the speed and magnitude of electrification, the author asks.

By Kenneth W. Costello • Feb. 17, 2021

PUC to take closer look at Hawaiian Electric's interconnection processes, fossil fuel retirement plans

Hawaiian Electric’s lack of transparency around its interconnection processes creates “the potential for a significant setback to renewable energy development" in the state, the PUC's order said. 

By Kavya Balaraman • Feb. 17, 2021

FERC, NERC to investigate mass outages across ERCOT, SPP, MISO

Increased demand from extreme cold weather, limited gas supplies and frozen equipment at thermal plants were the primary causes of rolling blackouts triggered largely across Texas, according to officials.

By Catherine Morehouse • Feb. 16, 2021

California moves to address 'extraordinarily frightening' energy debt amid COVID-19

Residential arrearages for Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas surpassed $1 billion in December.

By Kavya Balaraman • Feb. 16, 2021

The system of GHG emissions reporting is broken, experts say

As the media points fingers at cities for underreporting carbon emissions, some argue the blame should instead be placed on a lack of guidance.

By Cailin Crowe • Feb. 12, 2021

Glick sees consensus on FERC considering climate, environmental justice in siting gas infrastructure

The chairman said he was "heartened" by Commissioner Neil Chatterjee's previous comments, indicating that he was open to reassessing how the commission approves pipelines and other gas infrastructure.

By Catherine Morehouse • Feb. 12, 2021

Duke to spend up to $134B on energy transition by 2030, eyes regulatory reforms

CEO Lynn Good also said the company sees offshore wind potential in its North Carolina territory within the next 10 years.

By Catherine Morehouse • Feb. 12, 2021

CPUC moves forward with plan to prevent 2021 blackouts despite criticism from environmental groups

The decision expresses a preference for energy storage resources as opposed to natural gas facilities, as well as short-term contracts, in the case of natural gas, instead of longer-term ones, a commissioner said.

By Kavya Balaraman • Feb. 12, 2021

NARUC, NASEO unveil 5 'blueprints' to guide state energy planning on climate, other challenges

A dozen states pledge actions such as increased stakeholder meetings and technical conferences based on the new modular planning strategies.

By Emma Penrod • Feb. 12, 2021

Grid operators to request extension on FERC Order 2222 compliance, regulator cites 'short' timeline

"FERC, when issuing Order 2222, left many of the most difficult challenges to be dealt with by the RTOs in their stakeholder process," said Ted Thomas, chair of the Arkansas Public Service Commission.

By Catherine Morehouse • Feb. 10, 2021