SATURDAY BRIEFING: DER Values Rise; Wildfire Charge Falls; Diablo Canyon Costs Clear Review Threshold

Today’s briefing leads with the CPUC’s 2026 Avoided Cost Calculator, which increases total avoided costs in every hour compared with the 2024 version. This is largely due to reduced federal clean-energy support and new tariffs that increase the modeled value of avoided greenhouse-gas emissions.

Also covered:

• Preliminary reviews of utility distribution-planning data;
• Proposed changes to the DAC-SASH rooftop-solar program;
• An 8.3% reduction in the 2027 Wildfire Fund charge; and
• PG&E’s $1.224 billion Diablo Canyon cost true-up.

For those interested in Canadian energy news, I have several new pieces up at RTO Insider, including a story about a rejected 1,400-MW combined-cycle natural gas-fired plant, which would have powered an Alberta data center. And if anyone is attending the Ontario Energy Conference next month in Toronto, please message me. I will be there.

Back on the U.S. side, CRI is mentioned in this Diana DiGangi piece at Utility Dive, discussing the CPUC's new General Rate Case rulemaking.

-- MC