FOLSOM, CA–(Marketwired – June 17, 2016) – With record-setting heat expected in Southern California early next week, the California Independent System Operator (ISO) is preparing for potential stress on the electricity system and may issue a Flex Alert asking consumers to conserve energy to help prevent rotating power outages. Electricity demand is expected to rise … Continue reading ISO Preparing for State Heat Wave to Ensure Grid Reliability →

The grid merger that could reshape the western power sector Politics, the old adage goes, makes for strange bedfellows. So it is with a proposal to merge PacifiCorp’s five-state transmission system with the California Independent System Operator. A combined western grid could save consumers up to $9 billion over the next two decades, according to … Continue reading The grid merger that could reshape the western power sector →

Huge Benefits from Regional Market Expansion, Studies Show Expanding the organization that coordinates the operation of California’s electricity generation and transmission into a regional grid system operator across the West will produce enormous financial and other benefits for the state, according to results of legislatively required studies unveiled last week by the California Independent System … Continue reading Huge Benefits from Regional Market Expansion, Studies Show →

Berkshire Companies Denied Rehearing on EIM Market Power Measures FERC last week denied a request by NV Energy and PacifiCorp to rehear a previous decision that prohibits the two companies’ generating units from offering energy into the Western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) at prices above default energy bids because of market power concerns. Both companies … Continue reading #Berkshire Companies Denied Rehearing on #EIM Market Power Measures →

CAISO: Renewables market in Western EIM grows The Western EIM is working to boost renewable generation and lower costs, which could lead to calls for expanding the voluntary balancing market. “If not for energy transfers facilitated by the EIM, some renewable generation located within the ISO would have been curtailed via either economic or exceptional … Continue reading CAISO: Renewables market in Western #EIM grows →

Better together: How an organized market can help clean up the western US grid Today 38 separate balancing authorities deliver power out West. A new paper says a single market would be more efficient For more than a decade, the U.S. electricity system has been a house divided. In the early 2000s, the California energy … Continue reading Better together: How an organized market can help clean up the western US grid →

CALIFORNIA: Officials mull revamp of electric system as blackouts loom The last time California dealt with extended rolling power blackouts, the turmoil transformed the state’s electricity system. Outages in 2000 and 2001 came as the state struggled with a newly deregulated electricity system and power shortages driven by market manipulation. The state in response passed … Continue reading CALIFORNIA: Officials mull revamp of electric system as blackouts loom →