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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

PG&E Told to Defend Legality of Reorg Plan

LCG, Dec. 5, 2001--U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali yesterday told Pacific Gas & Electric Co. that it would have to defend the legality of its reorganization plan at a January 25 hearing on the co-called "preemption issue" raised by state regulators.

PG&E's plan to emerge from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy relies in large part on Montali's willingness to preempt state regulations that limit a utility's right to sell power plants and other assets. While the company has not suggested that it wants to sell its remaining power plants, it does want to transfer them into a non-regulated subsidiary of its parent holding company PG&E Corp.

The California Public Utilities Commission had asked for a separate trial on the issue, but Montali rejected the request. Even so, Gary Cohen, general counsel for the CPUC, said "Overall, I'm pleased with what happened today."

PG&E was also pleased. Oscar Cantu, a lawyer for the utility, said the judge's ruling had put the monkey on the CPU's back. "It's their burden to show there is no set of circumstances" under which the reorganization plan could be found legal by the court, he said.

There are a number of laws with which the PG&E plan may be in conflict, most notably legislation passed just three months before the utility filed for Chapter 11 protection, that prohibits any transfer of a utility's generating assets until 2006.

Lawyers for the CPUC have been hesitant to insist on enforcement of some of these laws lest they might compromise the state's sovereign immunity and trigger a federal review of the state laws.

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