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News
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LCG, August 14, 2024 – LCG Consulting (LCG) has released its annual outlook of the ERCOT wholesale electricity market for 2025, highlighting the region's rapid transition toward increased reliance on renewable energy resources and battery storage.
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LCG, August 14, 2024 – LCG Consulting (LCG) has released its annual outlook of the ERCOT wholesale electricity market for 2025, highlighting the region's rapid transition toward increased reliance on renewable energy resources and battery storage.
Read more
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Industry News
California Capsule: U.S. House Drops Energy Bill
LCG, June 7, 2001The Republican controlled U.S. House of Representatives yesterday cancelled additional work on an emergency electricity bill intended to aid California, saying they were unable to reach agreement with Democrats on how to rein in high wholesale power costs.Rep. Joe Barton, the Texas Republican who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on energy, blamed House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat, for forcing Democrats to insist that wholesale rates be based on the cost of production to stem price gouging, according to this morning's edition of the Sacramento Bee."It became clear we would not be able to come to agreement," said Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La.,chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.Rep. Henry Waxman of Los Angeles, the senior Democrat on the energy panel, was, predictably, "outraged." He complained "The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the White House and now the Republican Congress has decided it won't help California. We feel an outrage that we won't get to markup a bill that is supposed to help Californians."The Bee noted that behind the congressional sniping is a deep political divide. The Republicans are opposed to anything that looks like government intervention in the marketplace, while Democrats believe that government cannot sit by idly while consumers pay for a dysfunctional electricity market.Barton said he believed there were enough votes on the committee to defeat Democraticprice-control amendments and to pass his bill, but that it probably would have drawn only two orthree Democrats on final passage, not enough to demonstrate bipartisan support.Tauzin said "This is not the end of the process," adding that provisions of the Barton bill will be taken up this summer when the committee addresses broader energy legislation.Lower Prices Make State Power Buyers Want Better DealsLower wholesale prices for electricity and natural gas in California have the state's novice power buyers congratulating themselves for locking up power in long-term contracts on the one hand and wondering if they contracted to pay too much on the other.The California Department of Water Resources has already signed 38 contracts to purchase power at fixed prices for up to ten years, but another 23 contracts remain in negotiation. Because of the drop in prices over the past couple of weeks, the state is beginning to feel the crisis is over and the 23 contracts may not be needed.Ray Hart, deputy director of the water agency, said "We may not need all 23." If power companies are unwilling to meet the state's demands for lower prices, "I don't think all those contracts will come to term," he said.Power and gas prices have eased in the state, but it isn't because of the water agency's prices. Unusually mild weather has held demand in check even as an unexpected increase in supply has been available. Neither phenomenon can be expected to last.Some of the increased supply has come from an unusual surge in hydroelectric generation. A heat wave in early May began melting what was left of the state's snowpack and the runoff set some hydroelectric turbines spinning. The snowpack is now gone there will be no more runoff this year.Steve Maviglio, press secretary for Gov. Gray Davis, summed up the official position on the drop in power prices. "We're in the driver's seat now," he said. "There's no question about that." Generators' Ads Stress 'Working Together'Mirant Corp., which recently tabled plans for a 530 megawatt addition to a power plant because of a "hostile business climate" in California, is running an ad with the headline: "Working together, we'll make it through this energy crisis."Reliant Energy Inc., which was singled out by Davis for charging $1,900 for a megawatt-hour of power it didn't want to sell, calls its ad campaign "The power of solutions," and focuses on avoiding blackouts in California.California's independent power producers have been called "the biggest snakes on the planet earth" by the governor, and Davis and other state officials have kept up a steady stream of the most vitriolic and vituperative rhetoric against them, in an attempt to shift the blame for the state's energy crisis from incompetent politicians to private companies motivated by profit.The generators have responded throughout that they are simply responding to the market created by California politicians. But the people of California have been swayed by their political leaders, and the companies are beginning to fight back.Robert L. Waldrop, a Reliant senior vice president, said he has spent 30 years dealing with anger directed at his company whenever rates go up. "In all that time," he said, "I've never seen us portrayed as harshly or in the same light that we have in the last few months in California."
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UPLAN-NPM
The Locational Marginal Price Model (LMP) Network Power Model
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UPLAN-ACE
Day Ahead and Real Time Market Simulation
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UPLAN-G
The Gas Procurement and Competitive Analysis System
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PLATO
Database of Plants, Loads, Assets, Transmission...
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