NEWS CODEX: RAAIM Changes; EV Rebate; Land Use & Solar Permitting Timelines
CAISO Tees Up Changes to RA Incentive Program: "CAISO proposed revisions to its monthly Resource Adequacy Availability Incentive Mechanism structure to include a more targeted, event-based availability process. RAAIM is the primary mechanism for CAISO to entice resources counted toward resource adequacy obligations to be available during stressed grid conditions." RTO INSIDER
California to Offer a Novel $3,500 Rebate for First-Time EV Buyers: "The program is funded with $270 million. Half of that will come from the state budget, and the other half — in a rare arrangement — will come from participating automakers, including Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Lucid, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Rivian, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, and Volvo." CANARY MEDIA
New Study Reveals How Land Use Affects Solar Permitting Timelines in California: "While a complex mix of interconnection, permitting, land use and workforce training are often cited as major bottlenecks, a first-of-its-kind study released by The Nature Conservancy and ECOnorthwest provides hard data on what is actually driving these delays. The report, titled “The Pace of Solar Progress,” contains an analysis of over 15 years of permitting data for 274 proposed utility-scale solar projects in California in various stages of the permitting process." PV MAGAZINE
The Pace of Solar Progress: "Recent California Public Utilities Commission planning efforts underscore the magnitude and urgency of the solar development challenge. In the Integrated Resource Plan proceeding for the 2026-2027 Transmission Planning Process, the CPUC identified that meeting projected load growth and greenhouse gas reduction targets will require an unprecedented expansion of solar and storage capacity statewide. This reflects the increasingly important relationship between modeled resource needs and the permitting, interconnection, and land-use realities that shape large-scale solar deployment." SCIENCE FOR CONSERVATION
PG&E Says it Has 12.7 GW in Data Center Pipeline as it Courts Smaller Loads: "Pacific Gas and Electric now counts 12.7 GW in its data center pipeline, of which 490 MW of projects have executed interconnection agreements and another 3.9 GW are in final engineering, company officials said Thursday during a second-quarter earnings call." UTILITY DIVE
Why California is Using Significantly Less Natural Gas for Producing Electricity: "Because regional resource optimization now occurs at the day-ahead level rather than just in real-time (as was the case with the Western Energy Imbalance Market, or EIM), CAISO is using its fleet of gas-fired power plants at a significantly lower level. In fact, California gas-fired generation has fallen to historic lows during mid-day hours and much lower during the evening ramp. This dramatic shift is due in part because of the new market for imbalance reserves that the CAISO has implemented through DAME." GRIDLAB
Why Do Californians Pay More at the Pump? "Californians bought over 13 billion gallons of gasoline last year (down about 16% from the all-time high), spending nearly $60 billion. If our price premium only reflected higher taxes and environmental costs, California consumers would have paid about $70 billion less since 2015. It seems well worth finding some answers." ENERGY AT HAAS
Wildfire's Risky Business: "This year’s wildfire liability rethink has its own set of stakeholders, including California’s power companies, insurers, disaster attorneys and wildfire survivors. The final shape of any bill will have massive implications for each of those groups. Last year’s Los Angeles area fires illustrated that the state’s conflagrations can cause tens, or even hundreds, of billions of dollars in damages." POLITICO
Your Favorite EV is Out of Stock: "Gil Tal, director of the University of California, Davis’ EV Research Center, said that while car sales data shows California drivers rushed to buy electric models in April and May, there was a steep drop-off in June. He argued the shift wasn’t linked to a change in shopping habits but rather a shortage of options available for purchase." POLITICO