On January 31, 2022, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a district court's dismissal of an antitrust challenge by a class of solar rooftop customers against their municipal utility, the Salt River Project...more
Companies looking to reduce their climate impacts and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions use a variety of tools to do so: buying renewable electricity (especially solar and wind); improving the efficiency of energy-hungry...more
Efforts to introduce investment tax credit (ITC) incentives to support and accelerate the deployment of energy storage in the United States are gaining traction in Congress and the Biden Administration....more
PG&E has announced that it will sell its Pleasant Creek natural gas storage field, has retained an investment banker, and is now publicly soliciting bids. But who will buy the 400 acres of land located between Sacramento and...more
The Renewable Market Adjusting Tariff (ReMAT) program at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is again front and center after Staff working on the Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) have issued a Proposal to...more
California's Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) provides financial incentives for the installation of customer-side renewable energy generation and battery storage technologies. Since 2001, the SGIP has provided $1.2...more
Since August 2018, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has been working on the development of a new standard offer contract for small power projects to sell their power to California investor-owned utilities...more
With ever-increasing risks of wildfire across the state, it seems certain that California’s electric utilities will have to continue to rely on – and perhaps increase – their use of Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) to...more
On February 26, 2019, Administrative Law Judge Stevens of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a proposed decision (Proposed Decision) ruling on the applications for programs and investments in energy...more
We have previously discussed on this blog the California Public Utilities Commission’s (“CPUC”) decision in its Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (“PCIA”) proceeding....more
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is currently considering whether pairing energy storage with a wind power project could change that facility’s status in FERC Docket No. EL18-195-000. ...more
On October 11, by a 5-0 vote, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved Commissioner Peterman’s alternate proposed decision to reform the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (PCIA). ...more
On August 1, 2018 the California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) issued a proposed decision that would adopt tweaks to the methodology used to calculate the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (“PCIA”) — the “exit fee”...more
Energy project developers interested in securing qualifying facility (QF) contracts in California for small power projects of 20 MWs or less may soon have new commercial opportunities because of a new Order Instituting...more
As California marches forward with its aggressive renewable energy targets, expecting to procure half of its electricity from renewables by 2030, a recent federal district court decision calls into question the...more
On July 17, 2017, the California Assembly and the Senate voted to extend California’s Cap-and-Trade Program from 2021 to 2030 (Assembly Bill (“AB”) 398). Governor Brown is widely expected to sign the bill in the coming...more
On February 27, 2017, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (“PG&E”) announced it is withdrawing several portions of its plan to close its 2.3 gigawatt Diablo Canyon Power Plant near San Luis Obispo by 2025. Specifically, PG&E has...more
The short answer is: yes, with a few caveats.
On January 19, 2017, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued a policy statement that, under appropriate circumstances, electric storage resources may...more
On November 17, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comments on its proposal to remove barriers to the participation of electric storage resources and...more
On June 21, 2016, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (“PG&E”) announced a plan to close down the state’s last remaining nuclear power plant, the 2.3 gigawatt Diablo Canyon plant near San Luis Obispo, by 2026. Diablo Canyon...more
Later this year, the California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) intends to issue a proposed decision addressing whether one-way managed or controlled charging of electric vehicles (often referred to as “V1G”) will be...more
As the drought continues across California, the State Water Resources Control Board (“SWRCB”) has adopted its first-ever requirements for desalination plants in the state. Desalination – a process of removing minerals from...more
On September 23, 2014, the U.S Department of Interior and the State of California released a draft Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (“DRECP”), which covers over 22 million acres in Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles,...more
Now that solar panels have popped up on roofs across California, one of the next challenges for unlocking their potential and integrating the energy that they produce into the grid is the development of batteries that can...more