People in Power – A NewsData Podcast

Jason Hunter, a former employee of Riverside Public Utilities, is still looking for answers regarding contracting activity he witnessed at the organization years ago. Bolstering his claims of wrongdoing is the fact that some of the individuals involved in the alleged activity are now serving prison sentences for later activities at Los Angeles Department of Water & Power. It’s a wild story complete with employee harassment; police harassment; Federal Bureau of Information raids on LADWP offices; and conflicts of interest, as well as shell companies, luxury cars and beachfront condos.Hunter alleges that after years of seeking the truth and seeking an audit of the contracting activities he witnessed more than a decade ago, the alleged crimes were never punished. He is still waiting for the City of Riverside to perform the audit, which nobody can seem to complete.Check out the latest episode of People in Power to hear the whole story.

The effort to create a regional wholesale energy market in the West moved forward in 2023 when a group of state regulators from Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington advanced a proposal “for ensuring that the benefits of wholesale electricity markets are maximized for customers across the entire Western U.S.” This led to the creation of the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative, driven by stakeholders across the West who realize the reliability and cost benefits that could be created with a wider wholesale market that includes California. In the inaugural episode of People in Power, NewsData’s Jason Fordney speaks with Kathleen Staks, director of Western Freedom and a member of the WWGPI Launch Committee, about the effort. This interview was conducted just prior to the issuance of WWGPI’s Step 2 proposal, which would create a new regional organization to oversee the market. NewsData's Abigail Sawyer also shares her thoughts about observing the demolition of the San Juan Generating Station in New Mexico.

Virtual power plants are an old idea being revolutionized by new technology. VPPs bundle distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar, demand response, energy storage and electric-vehicle chargers, into a single grid-scale resource. Proponents say they are essential to decarbonizing and meeting growing demand. The U.S. Department of Energy says VPPs could provide as much as 20 percent of demand in 2030. John Manetti and Aaron August come on Energy West to talk about Puget Sound Energy's VPP, which launched in November. It is about 30 MW now. The company plans to expand it to at least 86 MW by the end of 2025 and could provide 10 percent or more of the company's demand in just a few years. 

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.