A Fact-Based Appraisal of California's "Net Zero" Strategy: "...f worldwide photovoltaic output increased by another two orders of magnitude, because it would take that much to even begin to make a replacement level contribution to global energy production, we would also have to increase our electricity storage capacity by at least four orders of magnitude from what it is today (current worldwide storage capacity times ten-thousand still only equals 45 exajoules). Notice those battery farms going in all over? Imagine 10,000 of them where one of them now stands. That’s what it will take, at a minimum, if the world’s energy economy electrifies, and does so while relying on intermittent energy sources. Does the earth have the resources to sustain such growth, and what would be the environmental impact?" CALIFORNIA GLOBE
Annual Report to the Legislature on California Investments Using Cap-and-Invest Auction Proceeds: "In May 2026, the CARB board adopted amendments to the program following the Legislature’s enactment of new laws extending it to 2045. The Cap-and-Invest program was updated to achieve its primary goals: reduce pollution cost-effectively, protect ratepayers, and keep businesses operating in California. Altogether, the updates are estimated to provide $10 billion in direct relief to electricity customers through bill credits and generate an estimated $8 billion for the GGRF through 2030." CARB
California's Electricity Imports are Much Cleaner – How Much of it is Real? "In a new working paper, Kevin Novan and I have now done the forensic accounting of how much of California’s greening of imported electricity can be traced to west-wide emissions reductions and how much of it is reshuffling. The answer is about half. This can be seen as a glass is half-empty or half-full result, depending on your expectations." ENERGY at HAAS
California's Main Non-Residential Battery Storage Rebate Category Has Closed, with One Narrow Carve-Out Still Open: "One pathway remains open. The San Joaquin Valley non-residential carve-out is active in Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric territory only, at a $1.00 per watt-hour incentive rate against $0.85 per watt-hour for the general non-residential step. It is a geographically bounded exception rather than a substitute for the statewide category." ENERGY STORAGE WIRE
California DER Wholesale Market Participation Could Grow 2+ GW from CAISO "Accounting Change": "A revised demand response framework expected from the California Independent System Operator on Aug. 19 could incentivize upwards of 2 GW of behind-the-meter energy resources to participate in the ISO’s wholesale power market, according to Advanced Energy United’s lead regulatory official for the western United States. A draft proposal CAISO released last month would treat distributed energy resource aggregators as discrete resources, allowing them to export power within CAISO load zones until their net load hits zero." UTILITY DIVE
California Was Mostly Solar-Powered in May – a Global First: "Solar’s rise has helped California cut polluting energy sources out of its power mix. Natural gas is the only fossil fuel that California power plants burn at appreciable levels, and solar is steadily squeezing it out of the system. Case in point: Solar outproduced gas not only during its record month of May but throughout every month in 2026 leading up to it, too." CANARY MEDIA
Deadly Eaton Fire Sparked by SCE Tx Line, Officials Say: "The California Public Utilities Commission is looking to include 47 new high-fire-threat areas in SCE’s territory. The CPUC’s proposed decision addresses a November 2024 petition from SCE to revise certain fire-threat areas in its region based on updated fuel maps. Approval of the 47 new high-fire-threat areas would 'enhance public safety because stricter fire safety regulations would apply to these areas, in which SCE’s analysis indicates an elevated or extreme wildfire risk,' the CPUC said in the proposed decision." RTO INSIDER
Debunking the Allegedly Prohibitive Cost of Desalination: "The current electricity requirement for desalination to produce fresh water is 3,500 kilowatt-hours per acre foot. The electricity requirement will drop further as new desalination technologies mature. But at that rate, and priced at California’s commercial rate for electricity of $0.26 per kilowatt-hour, electricity costs add another $910 per acre foot. If Californians paid the national average commercial price for electricity of $0.13 per kilowatt-hour, the electricity cost would drop to $455 per acre foot." CALIFORNIA POLICY CENTER
Edison CEO – California Utilities Face Credit Downgrades Without Wildfire Reforms: "California’s investor-owned utilities could see credit rating downgrades if state lawmakers fail to act before the end of the legislative session on Aug. 31, Edison International President and CEO Pedro Pizarro told analysts on Thursday’s second-quarter earnings call. He warned that the utility company hasn’t seen any draft legislation that would address the state’s soaring wildfire costs." UTILITY DIVE
Equipment Manufacturers Meeting on CARB Engine Emissions Regulatory Landscape – the Need for Regulatory Certainty: "The manufacturers really just want CARB to recognize a realistic real world emission standard. CARB sets and enforces emission standards for new off-road engines sold or used in California, often exceeding federal EPA rules. making equipment manufacturers jump through ridiculous hoops, or make two sets of everything – one for California and one for the rest of the country." CALIFORNIA GLOBE
Experts Weigh in On Eastern Lessons as CAISO Launches Market Seams Effort: "Western electricity industry stakeholders must pick and choose what lessons they draw from Eastern markets as they grapple with how to manage the seams between CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market and SPP’s Markets+. And those stakeholders should be selective about what to include in a seams agreement between the two markets while also ensuring any agreement remains flexible enough to respond to changing market conditions. Those were among the top takeaways from a market seams workshop CAISO held in Seattle on July 31, the first in a series of four monthly workshops it will host across the West." RTO INSIDER
"Governance" Looking for the Mary Poppins Solution: "As a senior staff member at FERC, I irritated my management about governance reform at the RTOs generally and worried about the governance of the California ISO and its inability at that time to meet the needs of a regional market." WESTERN POWER TRADING FORUM
LA Fire Survivors Say Newsom is Trying to Help Utilities Reduce Their Wildfire Costs Again: "'Californians deserve a government that works in the open, not behind closed doors,' said Joy Chen, leader of the Every Fire Survivor’s Network, in a press conference last week. She urged the governor to “choose democracy over corporate special interests.” CAL MATTERS
The Election-Year Gamble Behind California's Wildfire Talks: "State lawmakers’ negotiations over how to divide the costs of catastrophic wildfires are running into a problem: No one knows for sure who will be sitting across the table next year. That uncertainty is shaping not only the substance of the debate, but its timing. Utilities, insurers and lawmakers must decide whether to strike a deal under Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has repeatedly intervened to shore up electric utilities facing huge wildfire costs, or gamble that the next governor and insurance commissioner will offer them better terms. The talks have intensified in recent weeks, even though there is still no actual proposal on the table." POLITICO
What We're Watching This End-of-Session: "AB 1156 would make it easier and cheaper to build clean energy on fallowed Central Valley agricultural lands. It’s an elegant solution to two hard problems for California: There’s not enough groundwater to support continued farming at today’s levels, and California needs to build a lot more solar power to keep up with rising energy demand and its clean energy goals." THE CURRENT
The High-Voltage End of Session: "Christine Aurre, Newsom’s legislative affairs secretary, and Ann Patterson, a former senior Newsom adviser and current Stanford scholar, briefed the Assembly Democratic caucus on the governor’s priorities on Tuesday. Their focus was on sustaining the wildfire fund, backstopping utilities that owe huge sums of money after their equipment sparked wildfires, constraining litigation costs after fires and holding utilities more accountable, according to Assemblymember Gregg Hart." POLITICO
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20
Jul
NEWS CODEX: CAISO Moves; California OTC Plants; CPUC Heat Protections