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News from TCAP
BLOG: Proposed Changes to ERCOT Mechanism Could Impact Prices
It’s called the Operating Demand Reserve Curve — ORDC for short. You can be forgiven if you’ve never heard of it. But the ORDC — which is a component of the state’s wholesale power system — was in the news this month … and in a way that could portend higher power...
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BLOG: Texas Regulators Want Utility Rates to Reflect Tax Savings
Gas and electric ratepayers in Texas could see their utility bills go down — or at least not increase as much as they might have otherwise — as a result of tax legislation recently adopted by the U.S. Congress. Leaders at both the Texas Public Utility Commission and...
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BLOG: Texas Gas Utility Bills Increase, Despite Falling Commodity Costs
Natural gas commodity prices are less than half what they were in 2004 and yet average home gas bills have gone up. How can this be? Why aren’t Texans enjoying real savings in their gas utility bills? The answer relates to pipeline and distribution charges, which are...
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BLOG: ERCOT Acknowledges Years of Rules Violations
ERCOT inadvertently violated its own technical rules over the course of several years — including violations that potentially could have impacted power prices, according to new regulatory filings from the organization. Included in a Dec. 18 filing at the Texas Public...
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BLOG: Will Mexico Developments Undercut Authority over ERCOT?
ERCOT is an island unto itself — that is, unless the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission takes over. And that at least remote possibility has captured the attention of the state’s top utility regulator. “I’m very, very concerned about it,” said Public Utility...
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BLOG: Federal Study Examines Electric Reliability, Natural Gas
Regulatory planners, industry officials and others looking to guard against blackouts must focus more of their attention on the nation’s natural gas delivery systems and its natural gas-fired plants. That’s among the key take-away findings from a new report by the...
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BLOG: $105 Million Settlement in Market Manipulation Case
$105 million — that’s how much Barclays Bank and several former energy traders will pay after being accused by federal regulators of improperly manipulating electric prices in California during 2006 and 2008. Although less than the $487.9 million originally sought,...
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BLOG: Wind Power to Surpass Coal in Texas, Expert Predicts
With the expected retirement of several aging plants and the continued growth of wind power, the production of electricity from wind turbines may soon supersede that from coal in Texas. That’s the word from University of Texas-Austin research fellow Joshua Rhodes, who...
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BLOG: Despite generation retirements, ERCOT projects sufficient power
Texas should have sufficient generation capacity to safely keep the lights burning for the coming months — even given the announced retirements of several big generating plants. That's the word this week from ERCOT, the organization that manages the state's main power...
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BLOG: TCAP Documents Continuing Drop in Electric Complaints
Continuing a generally downward trend that began nearly a decade ago, electricity complaints filed with state regulators have dropped to a new post-deregulation low, according to a new report from the Texas Coalition for Affordable Power. All told, Texans filed 4,175...
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