EnergyOnline
Services

RSS FEED

EnergyOnline.com rss

News

Suniva Announces New Facility to Dramatically Increase Solar Cell Manufacturing Capacity in America

LCG, April 15, 2026--Suniva announced yesterday that it has entered agreements to bring a state-of-the-art 4.5 GW solar cell manufacturing facility to Laurens, South Carolina. The new facility, combined with Suniva’s existing facility at its headquarters in metro Atlanta, will bring the company’s total annual domestic solar cell manufacturing capacity to over 5.5 GW.

Read more

U.S. Coal-fired Generating Capacity Retirements in 2025 Are Less Than 20 Percent of Retirements in 2022

LCG, April 13, 2026--The EIA today released an "In-brief Analysis" of U.S. coal-fired generating capacity retirements in 2025. A highlight of the analysis is that, during 2025, the electric power sector retired 2.6 GW of coal-fired generating capacity at four power plants, which is (i) the least since 2010 and (ii) 5.9 GW less than the planned retirement of 8.5 GW at the beginning of 2025.

Read more

Industry News

Delay Sought for Oregon Electric Dereg

LCG, March 27, 2001With partial deregulation of the Oregon electricity market set for October 1, rural electric cooperatives are pushing for a delay, because that is the same day the Bonneville Power Administration plans to increase rates.

There have been other moves to delay electric competition in Oregon, but they have been successfully resisted by Ron Eachus, a member of the Oregon Public Utility Commission and a Democrat, and Republican Gene Derfler, president of the state Senate.

But with the upcoming Bonneville wholesale power price hike, Eachus sent Derfler an e-mail message suggesting the delay of partial deregulation for a couple of months to disassociate it from the price increase. Derfler was open to the suggestion.

"If that would satisfy everybody, I think that would be a fair way to do it," Derfler said.

Oregon's deregulation scheme is odd in the first place. Residential and small business customers are encouraged to stick with their existing utilities and pay regulated rates. The state's consumer-owned utilities, representing about 25 percent of the Oregon market, are exempt. That leaves only the large customers of Portland General Electric Co. and PacifiCorp.

But all Oregonians could be affected by the Bonneville price increase, because the federal utility markets about half the wholesale power in the Pacific Northwest and is the major source of power for Oregon's 17 rural electric cooperatives and the state's municipal utilities.

Bonneville has said it is trying to hold the increases to less than 100 percent.

Bonneville spokesman confirmed most of its power goes to public power utilities and their customers could see rate increases of 50 percent or more.

The two investor-owned utilities also want to increase their rates. Portland General has asked regulators for a significant increase to take effect on October 1, which may earn the name "Black Monday," and PacifiCorp last Friday asked for a 24 percent increase for May through July to tide it over until the commission decides what to give it for August and thereafter.

Oregon's 17 rural cooperatives represent only 12 percent of the market but they serve the voters who elected the Republicans who run both houses of the state legislature.

Add to that the effect of electric deregulation on Oregon's neighbor to the south and it's easy to see that support for its electric deregulation law is waning. A survey done for Portland General in February showed that 69 percent of Oregonians were against the state's deregulation plan.

State Rep. Robert Ackerman, a Democrat who wants to repeal the deregulation law, says he thinks he has a chance against those like Eachus and Derfler who want to preserve it. "I think they are the political run," he said. "They're trying to distance themselves from California, and I don't think they can."

Copyright © 2026 LCG Consulting. All rights reserved. Terms and Copyright
UPLAN-NPM
The Locational Marginal Price Model (LMP) Network Power Model
Uniform Storage Model
A Battery Simulation Model
UPLAN-ACE
Day Ahead and Real Time Market Simulation
UPLAN-G
The Gas Procurement and Competitive Analysis System
PLATO
Database of Plants, Loads, Assets, Transmission...
CAISO CRR Auctions
Monthly Price and Congestion Forecasting Service