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AES and Meta Announce PPAs to Provide 650 MW of Solar Capacity for Data Centers

LCG, May 22, 2025--The AES Corporation (AES) yesterday announced that it has entered into two, long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) to support Meta's data centers with 650 MW of solar capacity from two AES projects that will be starting operation in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP). AES expects these two solar projects will provide economic benefits to communities in Texas and Kansas, including hundreds of new construction jobs and contributing millions in long-term tax revenue.

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TVA Submits First Construction Permit Application for SMR at Clinch River Site

LCG, May 21, 2025--The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) announced yesterday that it is the first utility in the U.S. to submit a construction permit application (CPA) for the GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GVH) small modular reactor (SMR) BWRX-300 technology to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The application is TVA's next step in pursuing an SMR at its Clinch River site, near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Preliminary SMR site preparation could begin as soon as 2026.

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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."

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