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Vistra to Install New Gas-Fired Units at Permian Basin Power Plant

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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ERCOT Announces New Grid Research, Innovation and Transformation (GRIT) Initiative

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

Federal Court May Decide California Electric Rates

LCG, Feb. 12, 2001Even as California Gov. Gray Davis and the state legislature wrestle with what they regard as a "bailout" for the state's nearly bankrupt electric utilities, a federal judge in Los Angeles could decided how much consumers have to pay for power they have already used.

Since whole sale power prices began exceeding in May of last year what the utilities could charge their retail customers, the two largest California utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co., have gone into a financial hole exceeding $12 billion bailing out ratepayers.

SoCal Edison sued the California Public Utilities Commission in the U.S. District Court for Los Angeles last November after the regulators had repeatedly refused to lift a the rate freeze that prevented the company from charging the true cost of power. A similar suit by PG&E was recently transferred to the L.S. court and the two are expected to be consolidated.

The SoCal Edison case is on the court's docket for today, and it is difficult not to recall the words of William Massey, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, who on December 15 said "Some day soon a federal court, when asked, will declare that utilities are entitled to recover these high wholesale costs from their customers."

But in Sacramento, the governor and lawmaker are still trying to find a way out for the utilities that won't burden, and hence upset, consumers who are also taxpayers and voters.

The utilities have agreed to take part in state Senate hearings this week. "We have reached agreement with the utilities on a timetable to resolve this issue," Davis said. "They've agreed to participate in hearings dealing with their finances."

Pending the outcome of the hearings, state Attorney General Bill Lockyer has asked the Los Angeles court to delay any decision in the utilities' suit against the CPUC.

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