Decarbonization

While acknowledging uncertainty for the rest of the year, Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. executives reported lighter impacts from Covid-19 in the eight-state utility service territories. The corporate-wide $2.7 billion, five-year capital expenditure program is moving along, and growth in customers and gross margins for the natural gas and electric utilities have continued in…

Alliant Energy Corp. is working to eliminate all coal use by 2040, 10 years sooner than previously planned, and by 2050 is aspiring to be net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the electricity it generates, according to their 2020 Corporate Responsibility Report (CRR). The Madison, WI-based utility, which serves around 420,000 natural gas customers across…

Three California lawmakers have asked the chief regulator to consider alternatives to electrification that could be more affordable for average and low-income consumers as part of the state’s attempt to decarbonize. Assembly members Jim Cooper, Patrick O’Donnell and Blanca Rubio, who represent working-class areas of Sacramento and Los Angeles counties, told President Marybel Batjer of…

Tucson Electric Power (TEP) last week unveiled a 2020 integrated resource plan (IRP) that would phase out coal-fired generation and emphasize renewables and efficiency, and while retaining its natural gas-fired power plants. The plan would retire the remaining units at TEP’s coal-fired Springerville Generating Station and add 1,400 MW of energy storage over the next…

With support from the natural gas distribution utilities, California regulators on Thursday approved major efforts to decarbonize with unprecedented additions of renewables and battery storage, along with pilot electrification programs for new buildings.

With support from the natural gas distribution utilities, California regulators on Thursday approved major efforts to decarbonize with unprecedented additions of renewables and battery storage, along with pilot electrification programs for new buildings.

California regulators are working on a long-term strategy to manage the transition from natural-gas fueled technologies to meet the state’s long-term decarbonization goals.

Portland, OR-based NW Natural expects to increase by up to 2% overall utility distribution supplies to renewable natural gas (RNG) this year in Oregon and obtain regulatory approval in Washington to offer the alternative fuel as an option.

Renewables and battery storage are only part of the equation leading to meeting California’s aggressive decarbonization goals, according to a report presented at a seminar at Stanford University on Wednesday by former Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.