California Lawmakers Urge CPUC to Enforce Utility Interconnection Timelines: "The legislators, led by Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay), submitted a formal letter to the commission demanding accountability for Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison, citing consistent failures to meet state-mandated timelines. The core issue centers on 'Rule 21,' a standardized tariff that establishes the process and deadlines for utilities to approve and activate distributed energy resources. Data presented to the commission indicates that both PG&E and SCE have frequently failed to comply with these rules." PV MAGAZINE
Energy News Roundup: "The Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners on Oct. 28 approved a $195 million investment to expand demand-response opportunities for the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power beginning in 2026. The funds will increase LADWP’s current demand-response resource capacity from 80 MW to 340 MW via residential and commercial demand-response and managed electric-vehicle-charging programs. LADWP is also investing in a centralized demand-response management system to optimize LADWP’s DR portfolio and support Los Angeles’ transition to 100-percent clean energy, the utility said in a news release." CALIFORNIA ENERGY MARKETS
EVs and California's Future Demand for Electricity: "...we may estimate with some confidence that it will take somewhere between 115,000 and 130,000 GWh per year to electrify 100 percent of California’s wheeled, on-road vehicles. Is that estimate too rough? Too speculative? Perhaps. But I’d be surprised if it differs significantly from what may ultimately be the case. The big question – along with just how rapidly Californians will be willing to exchange their gas and diesel powered cars and trucks for EVs, or how rapidly the distribution infrastructure could be built – is where all this additional electricity is going to come from." WHAT'S CURRENT
Ionna Plans $250M Investment in EV Charging Infrastructure in California: "Despite the Dept. of Transportation’s revised guidance for the distribution of federal funding to construct public EV charging infrastructure in the U.S., Ionna continues to expand its network. The company is not reliant on federal funds to construct its charging sites. Instead, its funding comes from private capital." UTILITY DIVE
Newsom Finally Addresses the Duck Curve (or Tries To): "Governor Newsom signed legislation to try to relieve the Duck Curve and halt wasteful curtailment by creating a 'day-ahead energy trading market' (instead of a 'spot market' of minutes) to give more time for grid balancing authorities like the huge California Independent System Operator to sell excess solar power across state lines instead of switching desert solar projects off. (And buying baseload/on-demand natural gas generation and hydro power)." BASIN & RANGE
PG&E Finds Value in Excess Solar with Vehicle-to-Microgrid Project at Redwood Coast Airport in Northern Cal: "In what they are saying is a first for vehicle-to-microgrid technology, Schatz Energy Research Center researchers, along with PG&E and Fermata Energy, have demonstrated how to use EV chargers to control solar overgeneration, boost resilience and support the main grid." MICROGRID KNOWLEDGE
Startup Raya Power Poised to Offer its Plug-In Solar and Storage Solution in Puerto Rico and California: "Pre-orders for the Raya Power system are available now in Puerto Rico and California with a refundable deposit. The total cost of the system is listed as $6,790, or about $5 per watt." PV MAGAZINE
State Commission Makes Recommendations to Reduce Utility Retail Rates: "California should take a series of steps toward reducing the pace of retail electricity price hikes, an independent state commission said. The Golden State is second only to Hawaii on the list of states with the highest retail electric rates, with residential rates at about twice the national average and commercial/industrial rates about 2.5 times higher than average, according to the report from the Little Hoover Commission. Aside from the obvious strain this places on homeowners, many businesses, schools and hospitals, it affects the desire and ability of businesses to come to California, the report says. Prices for customers of investor-owned utilities have risen at a faster clip than for customers of publicly owned utilities and have significantly outpaced the rate of inflation." CALIFORNIA ENERGY MARKETS
Trump Includes California in Draft Offshore Lease Plan: "According to the Los Angeles Times, California still has roughly two dozen active oil platforms in state and federal waters, some of them easily spotted from beaches in Southern California. But the industry has been largely frozen in place for decades: no new federal offshore leases have been issued since 1984, a legacy of political resistance that hardened after the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. Even so, significant untapped reserves remain." INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY RESEARCH
Utilities, Regulators Look to Accelerate Pilots to Achieve Speed-to-Innovation: "To meet its quickly growing electric vehicle penetration, Pacific Gas and Electric’s managed charging program for 1,000 customers, launched in January, is already nearing its next phase, said Marina Donovan, vice president of global marketing for smart meter provider Itron. 'That shows the speed the utility wants to move at,' she said." UTILITY DIVE
When the World's Largest Power Plant Caught Fire, Toxic Metals Rained Down – Wetlands Captured the Fallout: "Metals from the Moss Landing battery fire still linger in the region’s sediments and food webs. These metals bioaccumulate, building up through the food chain: The metals in marsh soils can be taken up by worms and small invertebrates, which are eaten by fish, crabs or shorebirds, and eventually by top predators such as sea otters or harbor seals." THE CONVERSATION
Why California's Coastal Commission Should Let Diablo Canyon Keep Operating: "Currently, the California Coastal Commission poses the most serious impediment to the state’s efforts to extend operations at Diablo Canyon—largely over the issue of fish larvae. Established in 1976, the California Coastal Commission is tasked with considering whether coastal developments align with the California Coastal Act’s policies for marine ecosystem protection. While the Commission is also considering other factors, a primary issue before the Commission is the power plant’s impact on small marine organisms that pass through the seawater cooling system’s intake filters." ECOMODERNIST
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FRIDAY AGGREGATE: Smart Meters; Core Gas Deliveries; RPS Milestones
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18
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December 18 CPUC Voting Meeting Results: Cost of Capital; Long-Term Gas Planning; Woolsey Fire
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17
Dec
MID-WEEK NEWS CODEX: Heat Pumps; Hydrogen for Data Centers; Denial of Sable Permit Transfers
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17
Dec
WEDNESDAY AGGREGATE: Final CPUC Voting Meeting of 2025; Palomar Decarbonization Project; TIMPBA Briefs
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16
Dec
IOUs Seek Approval to Handle Distribution Capacity & Wildfire Project Overlaps Under Existing Planning Framework
