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EPA and Texas Railroad Commission Sign Memorandum of Agreement for Permitting Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide

LCG, April 29, 2025--Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) today outlining the state’s plans to administer programs related to carbon storage wells, known as Class VI wells. The MOA signing is a required step in the RRC’s application to be granted authority to permit Class VI wells in the state of Texas. EPA is currently preparing a proposed approval of RRC’s primacy application.

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Calpine and ExxonMobil Sign CO2 Transportation and Storage Agreement for CCS Project in Texas

LCG, April 24, 2025--Exxon Mobil Corporation (ExxonMobil) announced yesterday an agreement with Calpine Corporation (Calpine) to transport and permanently store up to 2 million metric tons per annum (MTA) of CO2 from Calpine’s Baytown Energy Center, a natural gas-fired facility located near Houston, Texas. This is part of Calpine’s Baytown Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project that is designed to add CCS for the facility’s CO2 emissions. The Calpine facility could then provide a 24/7 supply of low-carbon electricity to the Texas grid plus steam to nearby industrial facilities.

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Industry News

Reliant Resources Says Trades Were Fake

LCG, May 14, 2002--The power producer and trader Reliant Resources Inc. (RRI) announced yesterday that it had increased the volume of its electricity trading through artificial transactions with other companies over three years.

The trades, which involved reciprocal sales of energy between Reliant and other parties, such as CMS Energy, in Dearborn, Michigan, may have inflated power prices by creating the appearance of a fluid market. Last year, twenty percent of RRI's trades were said by the company to have been transacted purely to increase the appearance of volume. The reaction to the news by industry analysts and energy companies is such that the practice appears to have been common knowledge. Last week, Dynegy revealed that it had been involved in what it termed "in-and-out" trades with CMS Energy, prompting further losses in Dynegy's stock price.

The trades conducted by both companies could have brought them more trading partners through online trading systems, but according to Thomas J. Erickson, a commissioner with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, "there's nothing illegal per se. And they're not inherently bad things." Gordon Howard, an analyst with Credit Lyonnais in New York, said, "if a company is long power and power costs $50 a megawatt, and it does a trade for $53, then it increases the price out there. The concern is that you can take it to that next level. Can you take trades like this and make a case that these companies manipulated the market?"

Compared with the daily trading volumes for energy seen one year ago, this year's trade volumes through May 10 are up 40 percent.
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