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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: Davis Spares No Expense on 'Advisers'
LCG, June 28, 2001--According to state records released Wednesday California will pay more than $10 million to private consultants assisting Gov. Gray Davis if the state reaches deals to buy power lines from three utilities, the Contra Costa Times reported this morning.The state is also paying a fee of $275,000 a month to two firms, Saber Partners and the Blackstone Group, to advise the state on negotiating the agreements with Southern California Edison Co., San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and Pacific Gas & Electric Co.The paper said the contracts with the firms, kept confidential by Davis but made public Wednesday by State Controller Kathleen Connell, irked the governor's critics, who have assailed Davis for refusing to release information about the state's electricity purchases.The two firms will get a commission of 0.0019 percent on any deal reached between the state and the three utilities for the purchase of their transmission systems at a cost that could exceed $10 billion if PG&E's wires were included.Even without PG&E, Davis has committed $2.76 billion for SoCal Ed's transmission assets and another $1 billion for those of SDG&E. The commission on those deals would net the advisers more than $7 million.But the state legislature would have to agree to the transmission system purchases, and that possibility has become more and more remote as even members of Davis' Democrat Party have turned their back on the proposal.For its $275,000 a month, the state has been provided a team of 15 "financial experts," the Times said. Davis' spokesman Steve Maviglio defended the fee, saying it was half what the two firms normally get for such work. It is doubtful that the firms have ever undertaken such work."The bottom line is," Maviglio said, "Is the governor looking for the best available talent for the lowest price? You bet he is."Davis Takes Credit for New Power PlantsYesterday, Gov. Davis flipped a switch that ostensibly connected the new Sunrise cogeneration plant to the grid, and announced "the beginning of the end of California's energy shortage." The governor, who said he would have 5,000 megawatts of new generation on line by July 1, is up to 320 megawatts, and it isn't even as new as the generation he promised.The new plant, located near Bakersfield at the south end of the Central Valley, had been in development for about three years, since well before Davis became governor, but that didn't stop him from taking full credit for the 320 megawatts.Because the Sunrise plant joined the grid 32 days ahead of schedule, it will be eligible for a $1 million incentive bonus, announced earlier this year by the governor.Two other plants, under development by Calpine Corp. since 1998, will begin operations next week. They are the 500 megawatt Sutter facility and the 559 megawatt Los Medanos Energy Center. Davis will take credit for them as well.In an interesting sidelight to the new power plants coming on line, Calpine inadvertently caused considerable consternation in the western electrical world last week. The company was testing at least one of their new plants, but did not bother to tell any one.A power plant operator told EnergyOnline Daily News "They just closed to the bus and ramped them up. The ISO was scrambling to figure out where all this extra energy came from, and BPA was screaming at the ISO for running up the frequency, and being so far off on their intertie schedule."Our source, who insisted on anonymity, concluded "I guess if Calpine figured if they were not charging anyone for the energy, they didn't need to schedule it with anyone."As to Davis' claiming credit for the new plants, California Republican Party officials contend that the governor is stretching the truth, pointing out that planning for the power plants actually began in earnest during Gov. Pete Wilson's administration.CPUC Delays Vote on Customer ChoiceThe California Public Utilities Commission, expected to vote today to suspend the "direct access" provision of the state's 1996 electric deregulation law, yesterday postponed action on the matter until next Tuesday.Open access is more often called "customer choice" and is the provision that allows customers, large and small, to shop for power among alternative suppliers. Commercial and industrial users have signed long-term contracts with power producers for electricity at favorable rates and many residential customers have signed up with boutique providers for "green" power.CPUC President Loretta Lynch said on Wednesday the vote was delayed until Tuesday, July 3, at the request of state Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, who she said was "exploring more options."Eliminating customer choice, under which power users can leave the systems for which the California Department of Water Resources is purchasing power, is seen as crucial for the issuance of $13.4 billion in bonds to fund those purchases.On June 12, state Treasurer Phil Angelides warned state officials that if customers particularly large industrial users were permitted to leave the system without paying a substantial "exit fee" it would jeopardize the revenue stream needed to service the debt.Yesterday, Lynch said "Direct access is not a matter or choice anymore, it's a way to avoid regulatory decisions that impose cost burdens."Full Disclosure Ordered on Power ContractsSan Diego County Superior Court Judge Linda B. Quinn, who two weeks ago ordered Davis to release long-term power contracts but allowed the state to withhold key details, yesterday ruled the state must disclose everything about California's power purchases, including spot sales, contract details and tapes of negotiations.The ruling was in response to lawsuits by news agencies and Republican lawmakers who argued that the public has a right to know how billions of tax dollars are being spent. "This is a huge victory for the people of California and for open government," said Assemblyman Tony Strickland, a Southern California Republican.Davis has until tomorrow to request a stay of the order if the state plans an appeal, but no decision has been made as yet."The governor doesn't want to give the greedy energy companies a competitive advantage that will drive up electricity rates higher," Maviglio said. "We are reviewing the judge's decision and will make a decision shortly about a possible appeal."The order to release tapes of discussions with power producers surprised many, who did not know they existed. Gary Ackerman, executive director of an industry group, the Western Power Trading Forum, explained the tapes are standard practice in negotiating spot transactions."They do that in order to rectify and misunderstandings," he said. "They play back the tape if there's any dispute."That means there must be tapes covering purchases of power on the spot market by the California Independent System Operator. Many observers have wondered why the ISO seems to insist on paying top dollar of someone else's money for its power purchases.
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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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