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Avangrid and Puget Sound Energy Sign PPA, Including Upgrade and Life Extension, for Washington Wind Project

LCG, May 19, 2026--Avangrid, Inc., a member of the Iberdrola Group, today announced the signing of a long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Puget Sound Energy (PSE) for the 199.5-MW Big Horn I wind project in Klickitat County, Washington. This agreement represents the fourth PPA executed by the two companies for projects in the Pacific Northwest.

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DOE Acts to Ensure Key Coal-fired Power Plants Are Available in MISO to Supply Peak Summer Demands

LCG, May 18, 2026--The U.S. Secretary of Energy today issued an emergency order to address critical grid reliability issues in the Midwest anticipated this summer. The order is in effect beginning on May 19, 2026, through August 16, 2026. The emergency order directs the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), in coordination with Consumers Energy, to ensure that the J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant (Campbell Plant) in West Olive, Michigan shall take all steps necessary to remain available to operate and to minimize costs for the region.

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Industry News

Transmission Access to Continue to Favor Utilities

LCG, Nov. 4, 2003--Legislators in Congress who are concerned about the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's plan for large regional electricity markets have effectively prevented the agency from doing away with utilities' preferential access to transmission lines.

Sen. Pete Domenici has reportedly been told by Senators from the South that their vote on an energy bill would depend on utilities having the ability to secure transmission access before other entities, such as merchant energy suppliers. Utilities such as Southern Co., which serves customers in the Southeast, want to bear the cost of transmission expansion only to the extent that it is necessary to serve their customers, not for the benefit of other energy suppliers. As electricity flows cannot be strictly controlled, determining who derives benefits from transmission lines is a complicated exercise.

Domenici, who has made his skeptical view of FERC's Standard Market Design clear for some time, intends to block its implementation until 2007. FERC believes that greater centralization of authority for grid operation and investment decisions is necessary to cut through the institutional friction inherent in many local entities overseeing small parts of a larger system.

In the Northwest, the Bonneville Power Administration, which was created by the federal government to be a low-cost supplier of electricity, also is wary of a greater role for FERC in administering its market. It wants to avoid rate increases in its region caused by higher prices in California, or wherever power demand puts pressure on supplies. Pat Wood III, the chairman of FERC, says that the regionally concentrated opposition shows that these utilities believe their strategic positions are at stake. The agency has revised upward the number of regional transmission organizations, which coordinate operations in a given market area, it might be willing to accept.
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