EnergyOnline
Services

RSS FEED

EnergyOnline.com rss

News

NuScale Power Achieves Standard Design Approval from NRC for 77 MW SMR

LCG, May 30, 2025--NuScale Power Corporation (NuScale), a leading provider of advanced small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear technology, yesterday announced that it has received design approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for its uprated 77 MW power modules. NuScale states that it remains the only SMR technology company with design approval from the NRC, and the company remains on track for deployment by 2030, with 50- and 77-MW SMR options.

Read more

EIA Presents Analysis of California's Solar and Wind Power Curtailment Challenges

LCG, May 29, 2025--The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released an analysis yesterday showing that the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), the grid operator for most of the state, is increasing its curtailment of the rapidly growing solar- and wind-powered generation facilities in order to balance electricity supply and demand, which is necessary to maintain a stable electric system.

Read more

Industry News

California Utilities Want Electric Rates Boosted 26% to 30%

LCG, Dec. 28, 2000California's two largest electric utilities told state regulators yesterday that lights might go out over much of the state unless the rate freeze imposed by deregulation is lifted and they are allowed whopping increases in what they charge their retail customers for power.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. asked for approval of a 26 percent rate increase. Southern California Edison Co., asking for a 30 percent increase, said that wouldn't even allow the company to break even. SoCal Edison said it would need an 82 percent rate increase to do that.

Since early this year, the two utilities have been selling power at rates frozen by the California electric restructuring law at 10 percent below 1997 retail rates. At the same time, the companies have been paying for wholesale power at prices up to 30 times higher than what was expected when the law was passed in 1996.

Blame it on supply and demand. Californians and there are more of them every day have been increasing their demand for power at record rates, and no new sources for power have been developed since the 1980s.

The California Public Utilities Commission has recognized that "rates must rise" and is meeting with the utilities yesterday and today to find out how small an increase they are able to accept without going out of business. The regulators say they will issue a decision a week from today.

At yesterday's meeting, PG&E lawyer Roger Peters told the commissioners "We are out of credit and we are close to being out of cash. People will not lend us money to buy power. You need to understand that."

SoCal Edison on Tuesday sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in U.S. District Court, in a move to allow it to charge cost-based rate for retail electricity. That action, placing the ball in a federal court, could have far-reaching results.

On December 15, FERC commissioner William Massey noted the companies' plight and said "Some day soon a federal court, when asked, will declare that utilities are entitled to recover these high wholesale costs from their customers."

Copyright © 2025 LCG Consulting. All rights reserved. Terms and Copyright
UPLAN-NPM
The Locational Marginal Price Model (LMP) Network Power Model
Uniform Storage Model
A Battery Simulation Model
UPLAN-ACE
Day Ahead and Real Time Market Simulation
UPLAN-G
The Gas Procurement and Competitive Analysis System
PLATO
Database of Plants, Loads, Assets, Transmission...
CAISO CRR Auctions
Monthly Price and Congestion Forecasting Service