NewsData’s Energy West

In the latest episode of NewsData’s Energy West podcast, California Energy Markets Editor Jason Fordney interviews Kyri Baker, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, about her research into the locational marginal pricing methods currently used by most independent system operators. During her research, Baker noticed that LMPs mimic the behavior of direct-current circuits, leading to her research paper published in late March. Tune in to Energy West for details on this entirely new way to understand wholesale energy pricing in ISOs!

Demand for artificial intelligence and machine learning is booming—and so is AI’s energy demand. AI requires massive amounts of computing power, which means huge data centers need to be built to enable AI’s widespread adoption.AI’s energy demand is expected to grow faster than new generation comes on line. Solving that will be hard enough, but differences between the tech industry and the electric power industry make it even more difficult in some ways. The tech industry evolved with a move-fast-and-break-things ethos, while the electric power industry is one of the most heavily regulated and conservative industries in the country. Developing a new data center takes 12, 18, maybe 24 months, whereas adding new generation and transmission takes years.Tech and power are odd bedfellows, and while they are getting to know each other better, they still have plenty more to learn.Ben Lee, a computer scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, is one of the handful of people in the country who works in the space between the electric power industry and big tech. He says there are opportunities for the two to work more productively together. There are also some things that likely will not make much of a difference to accommodating AI demand in the near future, such as time-of-use rates.

NewsData’s Clearing Up reporter K. C. Mehaffey stops by Energy West with updates on Columbia River Treaty negotiations between the United States and Canada, the low snowpack in the Northwest and efforts to save salmon in the Columbia River Basin.

In Part 2 of a wide-ranging interview with California Energy Markets Editor Jason Fordney, California Independent System Operator President and CEO Elliot Mainzer dives into his current priorities, including increased connectivity across the West, transmission planning that looks out 20 years, CAISO's pause of new interconnections to reduce queue clogging and the upcoming extended day-ahead market.

In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, California Energy Markets Editor Jason Fordney speaks with Elliot Mainzer, president and CEO of the California Independent System Operator, in Part 1 of a wide-ranging interview about the California electricity grid, a wider Western day-ahead market, managing the huge influx of energy storage coming on to the CAISO grid, and CAISO's competition with Southwest Power Pool over a Western RTO. You won't want to miss this in-depth episode!

Join us in Part 2 of the latest episode of Energy West, where NewsData's Dan Catchpole and Grid Strategies' Rob Gramlich continue to discuss the design and development of transmission projects throughout the West. Gramlich also discusses new technologies that may benefit the electric grid in the future.

If the West is going to electrify cars and buildings, decarbonize the grid and keep the lights on, it needs more high-voltage transmission, a lot more. One of the nation’s top transmission experts, Rob Gramlich, talks with NewsData reporter Dan Catchpole about how the West can build more and bigger transmission projects. Rob is founder of GridStrategies and coined the mnemonic device, the 3 P's of transmission: planning, permitting and paying. If you solve the 3 P's, you can build more transmission.  This episode is part one of two. Check back later this month for part two! GridStrategies: gridstrategiesllc.com

In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, Clearing Up's Dan Catchpole and California Energy Markets' Jason Fordney talk about efforts to jumpstart transmission construction in the West, how the upcoming solar eclipse likely could effect the Western grid and how battery inverter faults could cause big problems for the grid.Read more about what’s happening in the power industry in the West at Newsdata’s Clearing Up and California Energy Markets.Follow us on X/Twitter: @CUnewsdata, @CEMnewsdata, @dcatchpoleand @fordneyenergy.

In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, Clearing Up's Dan Catchpole and California Energy Markets' Jason Fordney talk about the California Independent System Operator’s decision to delay the launch of its extended day-ahead market from 2025 to 2026, Xcel’s plans to invest $15 billion in its energy transition in Colorado and the need for more transmission in the West.Read more about what’s happening in the power industry in the West at Newsdata’s Clearing Up and California Energy Markets.Follow us on X/Twitter: @CUnewsdata, @CEMnewsdata, @dcatchpole and @fordneyenergy.

In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, Clearing Up's Dan Catchpole and California Energy Markets' Jason Fordney talk about an 11th hour push to form a day-ahead market in the West that includes California AND is independently governed. The initiative drew widespread support from potential participants–and lots of questions about legal feasibility. They also discuss an interview with Southwest Power Pool executive Bruce Rew about the market operator’s expansion of its comprehensive market into the Western Interconnection.Read more about what’s happening in the power industry in the West at Newsdata’s Clearing Up and California Energy Markets.Follow us on X/Twitter: @CUnewsdata, @CEMnewsdata, @dcatchpole and @fordneyenergy.

In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, Clearing Up's Dan Catchpole and California Energy Markets' Jason Fordney talk about the western United States’ second comprehensive energy market, the future of offshore wind in the West, long-duration battery storage’s arrival, and more. Read more about what’s happening in the power industry in the West at Newsdata’s Clearing Up and California Energy Markets. Follow us on X/Twitter: @CUnewsdata, @CEMnewsdata, @dcatchpole and @fordneyenergy. 

The West is getting a second RTO (or regional transmission organization). The Southwest Power Pool is launching a western branch of its existing RTO, which covers much of the Midwest. Nine Rocky Mountain utilities and power marketers have committed to launching the western branch in 2026. An RTO manages the transmission grid and wholesale electricity market for its participants. Right now, the only market operator in the West is the California Independent System Operator (or CAISO). Since the 1990s, there have been plenty of failed attempts to create another comprehensive market in the West. If the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approves SPP's western expansion, it will not only be the second RTO in the West, it will also be the first RTO operated in Eastern and Western Interconnections. NewsData's Dan Catchpole talked about the news with SPP's Senior Vice President of Operations Bruce Rew. Read more about what’s happening in the power industry in the West at Newsdata’s Clearing Up and California Energy Markets. Follow us on X/Twitter: @CUnewsdata, @CEMnewsdata, @dcatchpole and @fordneyenergy.

In the latest Energy West podcast, California Energy Markets Editor Jason Fordney speaks with CEM Associate Editor Abigail Sawyer about the emerging Western wholesale energy market, a push by Western state regulators to move forward with a regional transmission organization, and a recent forum held in Las Vegas by the California Independent System Operator on its extended day-ahead market proposal.

In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, Clearing Up's Dan Catchpole discusses this week's top stories from the energy industry in the West, including the California Independent System Operator asking federal regulators to approve a Westwide day-ahead energy market, PacifiCorp's plans to convert coal-fired power plants to burn natural gas, and more. You can find the Energy West podcast on NewsData's podcast page, Apple podcasts, Spotify and other major podcast plat-forms.

In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, Clearing Up's Dan Catchpole looks at the hot temperatures that recently scorched the West, including Arizona’s heat emergency, a new record high peak demand in the Northwest, new research that says climate-driven droughts will lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, offshore wind of Oregon, and more.Read more about what’s happening in the power industry in the West at Newsdata’s Clearing Up and California Energy Markets.Follow us on Twitter: @CUnewsdata, @CEMnewsdata, @dcatchpole and @fordneyenergy.

After more than 30 years at NewsData, publisher Mark Ohrenschall is retiring. Before he leaves, he talks with Jason Fordney, Abigail Sawyer and Dan Catchpole about his time at the company, journalism and the energy industry.

In this week's episode of Energy West, California Energy Markets Editor Jason Fordney discusses a proposal by state regulators to increase storage levels at the controversial Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility in southern California; an update on how the California grid is holding up this summer; and a plan by the California Department of Water Resources that would keep natural gas-fired once-through-cooling power plants operating past their scheduled retirement dates.

In this episode of Energy West, California Energy Markets Editor Jason Fordney gives a rundown of the latest energy news in the Golden State and beyond, including how wholesale cost to serve load in the California Independent System Operator doubled between 2020 and 2022; a request for rehearing from the California Community Choice Association of a state regulator decision to restrict CCA expansion because of resource-adequacy requirement failures; and a new rule from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission designed to address the severe backlog of interconnection requests from new generation resources across the U.S. Energy West is available at www.newsdata.com as well as on all the major podcast hosting platforms.

In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, Clearing Up's Dan Catchpole and California Energy Markets' Jason Fordney talk about concerns that CAISO’s extended day-ahead market could short-circuit the Western Resource Adequacy Program, Energy Northwest and X-Energy’s plans to build 12 small modular nuclear reactors, CAISO’s new subscriber-funded model for new transmission lines, Bonneville Power Administration sizing up day-ahead market offerings from CAISO and the Southwest Power Pool, and more.Read more about what’s happening in the power industry in the West at Newsdata’s Clearing Up and California Energy Markets.Follow us on Twitter: @CUnewsdata, @CEMnewsdata, @dcatchpole and @fordneyenergy.

In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, Clearing Up's Dan Catchpole and California Energy Markets' Jason Fordney talk about about the state of transmission planning in the West, California’s (good) battery boom, Bonneville Power Administration’s announcement of $2 billion in transmission system upgrades, fewer public safety power shut-offs in northern California, and more.Read more about what’s happening in the power industry in the West at Newsdata’s Clearing Up and California Energy Markets.Follow us on Twitter: @CUnewsdata, @CEMnewsdata, @dcatchpole and @fordneyenergy.