Author: Graham Foster

Happy new year, and welcome back to the Energy Source newsletter! On Monday, President Joe Biden declared a ban on offshore oil and gas drilling along most of the U.S. coastline. This decision is anticipated to create challenges for incoming President Donald Trump’s plans to increase drilling and enhance the country’s oil production, which has already reached record levels. Meanwhile, a winter storm has left millions of Americans under weather advisories, resulting in freezing temperatures and nearly 250,000 homes without power. The market for natural gas saw an uptick, with its benchmark price closing 10% higher at $3.71 per million…

The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) is set to broaden its regional transmission operations into the Western Interconnection, expected to start as early as next year through its new RTO West plan, which received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday. FERC Commissioner Willie Phillips expressed that this initiative is anticipated to boost grid reliability and streamline operations by unifying transmission management under a single organization. He noted, “This proposal will likely enhance grid reliability and operational efficiency.” Commissioner Judy Chang emphasized that the go-ahead for the RTO West plan marks a significant step in the evolution of…

Kemi Badenoch has recently made headlines by opposing the UK government’s 2050 net-zero emissions target, a law established by her own Conservative party six years ago. While her stance has caught many by surprise, it reflects ongoing debates within UK media. Various right-leaning newspapers regularly report that the country’s high industrial electricity prices are leading to severe consequences for manufacturing and industry, often blamed on what they describe as a rushed transition to net zero. Notably, much of the public discourse stems from last year’s July elections, where criticism of climate policies has become persistent. Interestingly, despite the rising backlash,…

This past week presented challenges for BYD, the electric car company and its founder Wang Chuanfu, who began as a metallurgist. Despite raising nearly $6 billion for ambitious international growth, BYD is currently facing difficulties across three continents. In Mexico, the company’s plans for a major factory are encountering pushback from both the local government and officials in Beijing, who are concerned about potential technology leaks. In Hungary, a crucial plant for tapping into the European market is under investigation by Brussels. To add to the trouble, in Brazil, labor officials have accused BYD of maintaining harsh working conditions at…

Overview: The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has announced the formation of an international group aimed at developing an open-source artificial intelligence model specifically for the power industry. This initiative, known as the Open Power AI Consortium, will focus on creating specialized AI models and datasets tailored for the energy sector. The consortium plans to collaborate with utilities and other key players to explore AI applications in the power industry and leverage global expertise to foster innovation and reduce risks. Among the founding members of the consortium are utilities, independent power producers, grid operators, software developers, and major tech companies…

Dive Brief: In 2024, energy storage installations in the U.S. reached 12.3 GW/37.1 GWh, even with a 20% decrease in the fourth quarter, according to a recent report by Wood Mackenzie and the American Clean Power Association. The projections for the whole of 2025 estimate 15 GW/48 GWh of energy storage deployments, marking a 25% increase over 2024, fueled by significant growth in both utility-scale projects and a projected 47% rise in residential storage. However, uncertainty in state and federal policies presents challenges for the medium-term outlook, creating a 27-GW discrepancy between Wood Mackenzie’s high and low forecasts for the…

France has recently made a significant change in its leadership for the state-owned nuclear power company, EDF. After several months of disagreements regarding the company’s future direction and concerns over potential budget overruns in a major reactor construction project, Luc Rémont, the CEO, has been removed from his position. The announcement came from the Élysée Palace on Friday. Rémont had been leading EDF since November 2022, with a primary goal of improving the output of its nuclear reactors, which had been facing numerous technical challenges during his tenure. Additionally, he was overseeing an ambitious plan to develop a new generation…

Carlyle Group’s planned purchase of a portfolio of oil and gas projects for $945 million from Energean has fallen through, marking a setback for the investment firm’s strategy to enhance its foothold in the Mediterranean energy sector. The deal, initially announced in June, was meant to signify Carlyle’s continuing expansion into the upstream oil and gas industry, a path that many other investment firms have recently shied away from. Despite having set a deadline for the transaction to close by Thursday, the company did not secure the necessary regulatory approvals in Italy and Egypt, leading to the collapse of the…

Welcome to the latest edition of Energy Source, coming to you from London. Wednesday proved to be a challenging day for the UK’s electricity markets. The National Energy System Operator, responsible for maintaining power supply, issued several alerts. They called upon power generators to boost supply due to falling wind speeds, while import cables were already heavily utilized. Phil Hewitt, director at the energy data firm Montel Analytics, commented that this was the “tightest day so far this year.” Gas-fired power stations were demanding very high prices to come online, with one station asking for £5,750 per megawatt-hour, while the…

The UK’s new state-owned energy company, Great British Energy, is making its first significant investment by allocating £110 million in grants. This funding is aimed at supporting the installation of solar panels and developing clean energy projects at schools, hospitals, and community initiatives, with the understanding that there will be no direct return for the company. The funding from Great British Energy, located in Aberdeen, will be complemented by additional UK government contributions, bringing the total taxpayer investment for these projects to roughly £200 million, predominantly benefiting regions in England. Chair Juergen Maier emphasized that this initiative marks the “first…