utilities

California regulators on Thursday ordered financial penalties and corrective actions against the state’s major investor-owned electric utilities for failing to meet guidelines in 2019 when using planned power outages as a means of reducing the risk of wildfires caused by utility equipment. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), Southern California Edison Co. (SCE), and San…

As the Texas legislative session drew to a close over the weekend, lawmakers approved bills aimed at overhauling the state’s electric grid — and those who govern it — following February’s massive winter storm that left residents in the dark for days amid record cold temperatures. “This is our response, this body’s response, to the…

Surveys show that 80% of NW Natural’s residential customers prefer natural gas for heating and cooking, CEO David Anderson said Wednesday. Anderson spoke at a virtual forum sponsored by the American Gas Association (AGA). “More than 80% of those surveyed said they would pay $50,000 more for a median-priced home with gas appliances over an…

PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. power grid operator, is forecasting adequate supply to meet the electricity needs of its 65 million customers this summer. PJM, which serves 13 states and the District of Columbia, expects peak demand of about 149,000 MW this summer, but it has performed reliability studies at loads in excess of 155,000…

Black Hills Corp. utilities absorbed more than $600 million in added costs in February related to the impacts from extreme cold weather. The bulk of the $565 million in additional charges for the Rapid City, SD-based operator were attributed to the natural gas utilities in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming. “During this extreme…

Energy infrastructure holding company Sempra Energy wants its California and Texas utilities to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045, but they need some help from technology innovations and regulators, executives said. A key for California utilities, including Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas), is developing renewable natural gas (RNG) as a decarbonizing tool, CEO Jeff Martin said…

Acknowledging the risk for another above-average wildfire season, Edison International CEO Pablo Pizarro said recently he was confident the Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) utility was prepared. California avoided the “catastrophic widespread damage” of the 2017 and 2018 fire seasons even with last year’s all-time record acreage scorched, he said during the first quarter conference…

Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy Corp. was tagged with $1 billion in added fuel costs by Winter Storm Uri in February, for which it plans to seek recovery from state regulatory commissions, according to CEO Ben Fowke. Fowke, during a 1Q2021 earnings conference call Thursday said the fuel costs from the storm came “despite strong operational performance.”…

NorthWestern Energy said this week it would build a 175 MW natural gas power plant in Montana. The $250 million project is part of a larger plan to add 325 MW of power capacity to address increasing energy needs in its home state. The other components of NorthWestern’s plan include a 50 MW battery storage…