Featured Articles
| Tuesday Aug 1, 2017 | |
| The West is where the action is at this week with Portland expected to break a record when it comes to its daytime high at the airport. For example, some forecasters are calling for highs to reach the 108-100 degree mark by Thursday with an overnight low of 73 degrees. Just for the record, the low for the day has been a typical daytime high throughout the cooler ... » read more | |
| Monday Jul 31, 2017 | |
| Lawrence Berkeley National Labs (LBNL) does some mighty fine research. Each year I look forward to reading a number of their reports. Sometimes I get a little behind in my reading – so it takes a few months for me to catch up with their publications. In March of 2017 LBNL published “Retail Rate Impacts of Renewable Electricity: Some First Thoughts.” This ... » read more | |
| Friday Jul 28, 2017 | |
| Battery storage has attracted considerable attention recently. The IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting in Chicago this month featured many-dozen papers and well-attended presentations on storage, most of them focused on battery storage specifically. One of the presenters, a long-time researcher in the field, commented that even just 5 years ago there ... » read more | |
| Thursday Jul 27, 2017 | |
| The line 'from sea to shining sea' is taken from the lyrics in the American the Beautiful. With the weather pattern in the Western region of the Lower 48 warming up, we could have kept the title of the newsletter the same as the lyrics in the song as Portland is expected to get up into the low 90's by early next week. Figure 1 | ... » read more | |
| Wednesday Jul 26, 2017 | |
| After experiencing a record number of wet days this winter, Portland has gone a little more than a month without any rainfall. While the dry and warm conditions in the PNW have made for a pleasant summer, we are starting to see the impact on the power market. Average daily hydro generation has declined nearly 6 GWa since the start of July. » read more | |
| Tuesday Jul 25, 2017 | |
| Yesterday, FERC posted a Cease and Desist Order from the West Virginia Department of Enrironmental Protection (WVDEP) stating that Rover must stop progress on pipeline construction until all regulations are met with regard to safe working practices. In the order they cite several issues. Almost all of them are related to waste management and worksite containment practices. » read more | |
| Monday Jul 24, 2017 | |
| The California Public Utilities Commission did somehting incredible this week. They defied public and political opinion, listened to the expert testimony of SoCal Gas and the California Department of Conservation - Department of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) and declared that Aliso Canyon open for business once again after nearly 21 months of being shut down. » read more | |
| Friday Jul 21, 2017 | |
| As many readers know, I am a big fan of the work of Vaclav Smil. He is one of the best thinkers and writers in the energy space. He has the rare combination of intellect, creativity, numerical competence, clear writing style, and relevance. He is a prolific writer. This year he has published an update to a book originally published in 2006, a new book, and the JPMorgan ... » read more | |
| Thursday Jul 20, 2017 | |
| For the past two days, the CAISO day-ahead auction clear has settled in around the 11.0 implied heat rate across the heavy load down in SP15. Figure 1 | CAISO Day-Ahead Auction Breakdown ... » read more | |
| Wednesday Jul 19, 2017 | |
| It is that time of year again when the annual Midc conference is being held in Wenatchee, WA. If you have not been and are doing business in the West, I highly recommend putting it on your calendar for next year. The reasons for this is simple ... » read more | |