North America News

Latest news and developments from North America region

• I&M announces USD93 million investment in Fort Wayne–Bluffton transmission line rebuild

  September 9, 2021
  Indiana Michigan Power (I&M) has announced an investment of USD93 million for upgrading the Fort Wayne–Bluffton transmission line, beginning in 2022.

• PacifiCorp’s integrated resource plan outlines energy transition strategy

  September 9, 2021
  Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary PacifiCorp, the largest grid operator in the Western US, has outlined a sweeping clean energy transition across its six-state service territory.

• Canadian Solar sells major stake in California BESS project [free access]

  September 9, 2021
  Canadian Solar’s project development subsidiary, Recurrent Energy, has sold an 80 per cent stake in its 350 MW/1,400 MWh Crimson energy storage project in California, to an investment portfolio management firm Axium Infrastructure. Recurrent Energy will retain the remaining 20 per cent stake.

• FERC releases staff report on energy and ancillary services’ market reforms

  September 8, 2021
  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has released a report prepared by its staff, on energy and auxiliary services’ market reforms to address changing system needs.

• Taihan Cable & Solution wins 275 kV transmission line project in Los Angeles, US

  September 8, 2021
  On September 8, 2021, South Korean company Taihan Cable & Solution announced that it had won a USD36 million power transmission project from an unidentified California utility company in the US.

• Renewable storage firm Energy Vault reaches USD1.6 billion SPAC deal to go public

  September 8, 2021
  Energy Vault Inc. is merging with Novus Capital Corporation II—a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), to go public.

• FERC orders inquiry to resolve Maine transmission line complaint

  September 7, 2021
  On September 7, 2021, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) opened an inquiry in response to a dispute over whether the 1,251 MW Seabrook nuclear plant, owned by NextEra Energy Resources LLC, should be required to replace a circuit breaker, to accommodate a new power line being built under the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission project by Avangrid Inc.

• EPRI, NREL and University of Washington form industry consortium to promote grid-forming technologies

  September 7, 2021
  On September 7, 2021, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and the University of Washington announced the creation of the industry-wide Universal Interoperability for Grid-Forming Inverters (UNIFI) Consortium, to advance research on grid-forming inverters supporting variable renewable energy growth across the power system.

• FERC rejects NYISO transmission owners' bid to earn returns on system upgrades

  September 6, 2021
  On September 3, 2021, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued two orders rejecting a complaint by New York-based transmission owners against the New York Independent System Operator's (NYISO) interconnection policies, and a concurrent rate filing (ER21-1647) that would have given the transmission owners the unilateral right to fund and earn a return on a growing number of transmission upgrades triggered by renewable energy resources.

• FERC approves market monitor’s proposal to fix PJM capacity market rate

  September 6, 2021
  On September 2, 2021, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) put an end to the default offer cap rate for the PJM Interconnection's capacity market that was used for the purpose of market monitoring, and further ordered to replace it with an alternative recommended by the grid operator's independent market monitor.

• FERC approves new Cold Weather Reliability Standards

  September 6, 2021
  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved new standards regarding cold weather electric reliability, which were proposed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).

• FERC approves division proposal of Exelon Corp

  September 6, 2021
  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the proposal to divide Exelon Corporation into two independent publicly traded companies – Exelon and HoldCo.

• DOE-backed battery technology promises advancement in energy storage

  September 2, 2021
  The research led by Tulane University and funded by Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Frontier Research Center, has developed an energy storage technology that could reduce the charging time of batteries to a matter of minutes as compared to lithium-ion batteries.

• DLC partners with LineVision to implement dynamic line rating technology

  September 2, 2021
  DQE Holdings LLC subsidiary, Duquesne Light Company (DLC), announced a new partnership with LineVision Inc., which manufactures no-contact sensors that give transmission operators the ability to implement dynamic line ratings (DLR).

• Hurricane Ida triggers massive grid failure in Louisiana and Mississippi [free access]

  September 1, 2021
  On August 29, 2021, Hurricane Ida heavily damaged the transmission infrastructure that delivers electric power to large parts of Louisiana and Mississippi causing a massive grid failure.

• RWE signs BESS contracts with LG Energy Solution in US

  September 1, 2021
  One of the world's leading renewables companies, RWE, has signed contracts with LG Energy Solution to secure an integrated battery energy storage system (BESS) for two of the company’s upcoming solar plus storage projects in the US.

• FERC schedules first federal-state transmission task force meeting

  August 30, 2021
  On August 30, 2021, the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission (FERC) decided to organise the first meeting of the Joint Federal-State Task Force on Electric Transmission on November 10, 2021.

• California's growing energy storage fleet begins to impact energy markets

  August 30, 2021
  As the US state of California deploys more energy storage systems, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) reported that it is witnessing signs of storage resources' ability to shift energy between different times of the day as envisioned.

• PPL Electric Utilities reaches agreement to lower transmission rates

  August 27, 2021
  PPL Electric Utilities (PPL Electric) recently reached an agreement with a group of industrial and municipal customers which, if approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), will reduce the company’s transmission rates and lower customer bills.

• ERCOT generation and transmission winterisation rules proposed for publication

  August 25, 2021
  In response to the catastrophic power grid failure that occurred in Texas in mid-February 2021, weatherisation rules have been proposed for publication, and filed by the staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) for generation and transmission entities in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region.