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News
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LCG, May 8, 2025--The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) Board of Directors approved SPP’s proposed Expedited Resource Adequacy Study (ERAS) at its May 6 meeting. SPP developed the new ERAS in collaboration with its stakeholders in response to the growing need to add new generating resources before the region’s generating capacity is outpaced by its electricity demands. ERAS is intended to be a one-time, expedited study process designed to significantly accelerate the addition of new power generation facilities to the grid and address concerns about the near term ability to maintain the affordable and reliable electric service that consumers expect.
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LCG, May 7, 2025--EDP Renewables North America LLC (EDPR NA) announced yesterday the inauguration of its Scarlet II Solar Energy Park (Scarlet II) in Fresno County, California. This phase of the solar plus energy storage project includes 200 MW of solar capacity, plus a co-located 150 MW/600 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS). The initial phase of the project, Scarlet I, which provides 200 MW of solar and 40 MW/160 MWh of BESS, achieved commercial operations in July 2024.
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Industry News
FERC and NERC Issue Joint Report on System Performance During the January 2025 Arctic Weather
LCG, April 17, 2025--The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), and its Regional Entities today issued a joint staff report concluding that the nation’s Bulk-Power System (BPS) "performed well during successive cold weather events in January 2025, without major issues in either the natural gas or electric systems."
Over the past decade, the U.S. has experienced several extreme cold weather events that challenged the reliability of the BPS, including: the polar vortex of 2014, Winter Storm Uri in 2021, Winter Storm Elliott in 2022, and Winter Storms Gerri and Heather in 2024. These extreme, cold-weather events caused a variety of challenges, such as significant increases in regional demand for both electricity and natural gas, as well as equipment failures that cause significant reductions in natural gas production and power generation that highlight the interdependence of the natural gas and electric systems.
The newly released report concludes that system performance demonstrates the benefits of actions taken in response to prior winter storm reports’ recommendations and the need for continued coordination between natural gas and electric systems in preparing for and responding to extreme cold weather.
“Today’s report shows just how important these types of reviews can be,” said the FERC Chairman. “Clearly, we have learned important lessons from earlier catastrophic outages such as those that took place during Winter Storm Uri, and grid operators and gas pipelines acted on those lessons. As a result, consumers benefitted by better system performance in subsequent extreme cold events.”
The joint review evaluates the BPS performance during the January 2025 arctic events, which comprised Winter Storms Blair, Cora, Demi, and Enzo. The evaluation focused on four key areas: weather conditions, operating conditions, electric grid performance, and natural gas system performance. The evaluation considers performance in January 2025 relative to other recent winter storms, i.e., Winter Storm Uri (2021), Winter Storm Elliott (2022), and Winter Storms Gerri and Heather (2024).
The joint review found that communication and coordination were improved ahead of these winter storms. Specifically, system operators made additional generator commitments and had increased situational awareness, which showed their implementation of lessons learned from previous extreme cold weather events and prior report recommendations. Generators were also more prepared for the extreme weather. The natural gas system performed better overall, serving record levels of natural gas demand, and experiencing only minor production declines.
NERC’s President and chief executive officer stated, “It’s great to see both electric and gas industries find ways to lean into extreme events like we saw with these winter storms. As these kinds of events become more frequent, it's important to codify what works and include that information into performance expectations for both sectors.”
The report also identified some continuing gaps: "Despite the overall adequate grid performance during the January 2025 arctic events, a critical and persistent gap remains: mechanical and electrical generator outages. This trend reinforces the urgency of implementing recommendations from past cold weather event reports, including Uri Report Recommendation 11 and Elliott Report Recommendation 2. The continued prevalence of these outages suggests that existing preparations may be insufficient or inconsistently applied, indicating a need for a more robust approach to continued winter preparedness."
The report notes, while progress has been made, the natural gas and electric systems should continue to implement the recommendations and observed practices from the Winter Storms Uri and Elliott reports, the December 2023 blackstart report, and the Winter Storms Gerri and Heather review.
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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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