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News
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LCG, September 30, 2025--Vistra Corp. announced yesterday that it will proceed with the next phase of its capital plan to support grid reliability in Texas. In 2024, Vistra identified over $1 billion worth of potential capital additions in generation capacity within the Texas ERCOT market by 2028 if market conditions were supportive. Now, with West Texas' growing power requirements, particularly the state's expanding oil and natural gas industries, Vistra reached a final investment decision and confirms it will build two new advanced natural gas-fired power units on-site at its Permian Basin Power Plant.
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LCG, September 24, 2025--Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc. (ERCOT) yesterday announced its new initiative to increase its efforts to fully use and apply innovation and transformation through industry collaboration to best overcome the challenges and opportunities facing future grid operations. The new Grid Research, Innovation, and Transformation (GRIT) initiative will advance research and prototyping of emerging concepts and solutions to better understand the implications of rapid grid and technology evolution and position ERCOT to lead in the future energy landscape.
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Industry News
Regulator Sees ‘Collusion’ in Power Price Spikes
LCG, July 19, 2000--California Public Utility Commissioner Carl Wood said yesterday that the state regulators at their August 3 meeting may launch an investigation into possible illegal collusion and profiteering in the wholesale electricity market."There is outrageous profiteering that is going on at the present time," Wood told a San Diego news conference. "There are hints that collusion, possibly even illegal collusion, may have been involved in this price run-up, and one of the things that has been urged on us ... is that our commission hold investigatory hearings in order to get at the bottom of what is actually driving this price run-up."The high price of wholesale power is big news in San Diego these days because residential customers of the local utility, San Diego Gas & Electric Co., have seen their monthly bills double since May.Under Californias electric restructuring law, enacted in 1996, all residential and small commercial customers received a 10 percent rate cut that went into effect on January 1, 1998. Rates were then frozen for four years or until a utility paid off its stranded costs, whichever came first. SDG&E paid off its stranded costs fast and can now pass wholesale power price increases through to consumers.Wood is one of two appointees made by Californias new Democrat Governor Gray Davis to the five-member commission. He is a former maintenance electrician at the San Onofre nuclear power plant owned by Southern California Edison Co. and was a top official of the Utility Workers Union of America.Wood is not happy with deregulation of the electric industry, calling it a "mistake." He wants the regulatory commission to step in and reassert control. "The mistake has now turned into a crisis. We have to make sure that this crisis doesn't turn into a disaster," he said.Art Larson, a spokesman for SDG&E, was also at the news conference and gamely told reporters "We believe theres a market-based solution out there." The company has proposed offering customers a fixed-price plan, which would solve the problem of high monthly bills by averaging payments over a year.SDG&E customers in San Diego County and part of Orange County have seen a typical householders bill for electricity zoom from $50 in May to about $100, and all 1.1 million of the utilitys customers are upset. They have yet to look at the other side of the coin.Because SDG&E has paid off its stranded costs, the transition charge on the electric bill is being dropped. About $100 million will be returned to customers. Another $390 million will be returned to residential and small commercial customers as the company shares with them the profit it made on the sale of its generating assets.Altogether, SDG&E customers will receive an average of about $300 in the next month or two -- about six times the increase they are complaining about.
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UPLAN-NPM
The Locational Marginal Price Model (LMP) Network Power Model
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UPLAN-ACE
Day Ahead and Real Time Market Simulation
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UPLAN-G
The Gas Procurement and Competitive Analysis System
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PLATO
Database of Plants, Loads, Assets, Transmission...
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