CA lawmakers: PacifiCorp-CAISO regional market could hurt clean energy targets
Bringing PacifiCorp’s operations into the California ISO could save up to $9.1 billion, but a half dozen lawmakers have told Gov. Brown they are worried about holding onto control of the state’s energy policies and direction.
“The proposed regionalization must not undermine state sovereignty or cede authority of our state’s cutting edge clean energy and climate policies to others who do not have the same strong commitment and legal framework to reduce climate pollution and promote clean energy,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Brown.
Since the November 2014 initiation of the Energy Imbalance Market, a limited market that allows CAISO and PacifiCorp to balance their systems through shared resources, the two grids saw financial benefits in excess of $20 million, reduced the curtailment of renewables, and cut greenhouse gas emissions. But lawmakers, who must approve the combined operations, remain worried about how PacifiCorp’s coal resources would impact California’s 50% renewables goal.
“Coal power would be disadvantaged,” Bob Gravely, a spokesman for PacifiCorp, told the Los Angeles Times. “This is a way to reduce the use of coal overall and increase use of renewables.”
