On this episode of People in Power , California Energy Markets Associate Editor Abigail Sawyer talks with Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, about California's unprecedented rate increases over the past several years, the factors driving those increases and what can be done to keep power bills from continuing to rise. Toney doesn't hold back in offering his opinions on reasonable wildfire safety measures, who should pay for them, and whether the California Public Utili...
Jun 27, 2025•46 min•Ep. 108
New Mexico Public Regulation Commissioner Gabriel Aguilera discusses how his 15 years at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission prepared him for his role as a state utility regulator with California Energy Markets' Southwest Editor, Abigail Sawyer. Aguilera also offers his take on the emergence of competing day-ahead markets and regional transmission organizations in the Western U.S., the implications of market competition for the New Mexico PRC, and the importance of green chile in attracting...
Jun 13, 2025•29 min•Ep. 107
On this edition of People in Power California Energy Markets Associate Editor Abigail Sawyer discusses the role of community choice aggregation in California with Beth Vaughan, CEO of CalCCA. In their 15-year history in California, CCAs have presented a model for innovation and contributed to the radical reshaping of California’s electricity generation, delivery and consumption. With affordability, uncertainty and flexibility currently on everyone’s minds, CCAs seem poised to continue innovating...
May 30, 2025•47 min•Ep. 106
Transmission in the West is a huge topic nowadays, with many more lines and additional infrastructure needed to meet renewable-energy goals and maintain grid reliability in the face of significant load growth. This episode of People in Power features Neil Millar, vice president of transmission planning and infrastructure development at the California Independent System Operator, the man who guides CAISO’s multibillion-dollar annual planning process. Neil is also responsible for managing new gene...
May 16, 2025•34 min•Ep. 105
Hear from the nation's top reliability official as he and California Energy Markets Editor Jason Fordney explore the topic of grid reliability. Generation retirements, load growth through data centers and electrification, and more frequent extreme weather are among the challenges facing grid planners and reliability officials. This episode digs deep into the issues, including the challenges of more inverter-based resources on the grid, gas-electric coordination, and how New York City almost lost...
Apr 24, 2025•48 min•Ep. 104
People in Power Episode 8: NewsData Reporter Roundtable! Looking to update your knowledge of emerging Western wholesale energy markets? This episode of People in Power features three experts on the topic, California Energy Markets Managing Editor Jason Fordney, Clearing Up Editor Steve Ernst and California Energy Markets Associate Editor and Southwest Editor Abigail Sawyer. They discuss both the California Independent System Operator’s extended day-ahead market and the competing proposal from th...
Apr 02, 2025•36 min•Ep. 103
In the latest episode of NewsData's People in Power, upstream natural gas drilling executive Jason Sandel, chair of the Western States and Tribal Nations Energy Initiative, sits down with Abigail Sawyer to discuss the value of Rocky Mountain-sourced natural gas for providing electric reliability and heat in the West. Sandel, who runs a family-owned drilling and well-servicing business in the San Juan Basin, also discusses how natural gas producers can pivot to drilling geothermal and advanced-ge...
Mar 17, 2025•32 min•Ep. 102
In this episode of People in Power, Chatterjee, former energy advisor to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, discusses what to expect from the new federal administration in terms of energy. Some of his thoughts are surprising, such as Trump’s embrace of clean energy, and how Trump is concerned about his legacy. First nominated to FERC by Trump in 2017. Chatterjee describes how Trump isn’t doing anything he didn’t say he was goin...
Feb 28, 2025•34 min•Ep. 101
In the latest episode of People in Power, Abigail Sawyer and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association CEO Duane Highley discuss threading the needle to satisfy diverse interests across a multi-state territory and the G&T cooperative’s decision to join the Southwest Power Pool’s RTO West expansion.
Feb 14, 2025•33 min•Ep. 100
For this episode of People in Power, California Energy Markets Editor Jason Fordney speaks with Will Abrams, a leading wildfire survivor advocate who discusses some disturbing developments around compensation for wildfire victims in California—a situation stretching back years and tied to the bankruptcy of Pacific Gas & Electric in 2020. These developments include wildfire victims not getting paid; Wall Street hedge funds, attorneys and others profiteering off the proceedings; and state legi...
Jan 24, 2025•32 min•Ep. 99
Antoine Lucas, Southwest Power Pool's VP of markets, talks with California Energy Markets Associate Editor Abigail Sawyer about waiting for federal approval of Markets+, SPP’s day-ahead market offering for load-serving entities in the West. Further regulatory delays could have implications for Markets+, which is in direct competition with the California Independent System Operator's extended day-ahead market. That competition, Lucas says, is good for everyone. Listen to the conversation on the l...
Dec 23, 2024•44 min•Ep. 98
Jason Hunter, a former employee of Riverside Public Utilities, is still looking for answers regarding contracting activity he witnessed at the organization years ago. Bolstering his claims of wrongdoing is the fact that some of the individuals involved in the alleged activity are now serving prison sentences for later activities at Los Angeles Department of Water & Power. It’s a wild story complete with employee harassment; police harassment; Federal Bureau of Information raids on LADWP offi...
Oct 30, 2024•37 min•Ep. 97
The effort to create a regional wholesale energy market in the West moved forward in 2023 when a group of state regulators from Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington advanced a proposal “for ensuring that the benefits of wholesale electricity markets are maximized for customers across the entire Western U.S.” This led to the creation of the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative, driven by stakeholders across the West who realize the reliability and cost benefits that could be...
Oct 01, 2024•40 min•Ep. 96
Virtual power plants are an old idea being revolutionized by new technology. VPPs bundle distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar, demand response, energy storage and electric-vehicle chargers, into a single grid-scale resource. Proponents say they are essential to decarbonizing and meeting growing demand. The U.S. Department of Energy says VPPs could provide as much as 20 percent of demand in 2030. John Manetti and Aaron August come on Energy West to talk about Puget Sound Energy's V...
Jun 28, 2024•41 min•Ep. 95
In the latest episode of NewsData’s Energy West podcast, California Energy Markets Editor Jason Fordney interviews Kyri Baker, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, about her research into the locational marginal pricing methods currently used by most independent system operators. During her research, Baker noticed that LMPs mimic the behavior of direct-current circuits, leading to her research paper published in late March. Tune in to Energy West for details on this ent...
May 24, 2024•21 min•Ep. 94
Demand for artificial intelligence and machine learning is booming—and so is AI’s energy demand. AI requires massive amounts of computing power, which means huge data centers need to be built to enable AI’s widespread adoption. AI’s energy demand is expected to grow faster than new generation comes on line. Solving that will be hard enough, but differences between the tech industry and the electric power industry make it even more difficult in some ways. The tech industry evolved with a move-fas...
Apr 26, 2024•31 min•Ep. 93
NewsData’s Clearing Up reporter K. C. Mehaffey stops by Energy West with updates on Columbia River Treaty negotiations between the United States and Canada, the low snowpack in the Northwest and efforts to save salmon in the Columbia River Basin.
Apr 12, 2024•23 min•Ep. 92
In Part 2 of a wide-ranging interview with California Energy Markets Editor Jason Fordney, California Independent System Operator President and CEO Elliot Mainzer dives into his current priorities, including increased connectivity across the West, transmission planning that looks out 20 years, CAISO's pause of new interconnections to reduce queue clogging and the upcoming extended day-ahead market.
Mar 22, 2024•39 min•Ep. 91
In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, California Energy Markets Editor Jason Fordney speaks with Elliot Mainzer, president and CEO of the California Independent System Operator, in Part 1 of a wide-ranging interview about the California electricity grid, a wider Western day-ahead market, managing the huge influx of energy storage coming on to the CAISO grid, and CAISO's competition with Southwest Power Pool over a Western RTO. You won't want to miss this in-depth episode!
Mar 06, 2024•24 min•Ep. 90
Join us in Part 2 of the latest episode of Energy West, where NewsData's Dan Catchpole and Grid Strategies' Rob Gramlich continue to discuss the design and development of transmission projects throughout the West. Gramlich also discusses new technologies that may benefit the electric grid in the future.
Feb 23, 2024•17 min•Ep. 89
If the West is going to electrify cars and buildings, decarbonize the grid and keep the lights on, it needs more high-voltage transmission, a lot more. One of the nation’s top transmission experts, Rob Gramlich, talks with NewsData reporter Dan Catchpole about how the West can build more and bigger transmission projects. Rob is founder of GridStrategies and coined the mnemonic device, the 3 P's of transmission: planning, permitting and paying. If you solve the 3 P's, you can build more transmiss...
Feb 05, 2024•31 min•Ep. 88
In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, Clearing Up's Dan Catchpole and California Energy Markets' Jason Fordney talk about efforts to jumpstart transmission construction in the West, how the upcoming solar eclipse likely could effect the Western grid and how battery inverter faults could cause big problems for the grid. Read more about what’s happening in the power industry in the West at Newsdata’s Clearing Up and California Energy Markets . Follow us on X/Twitter: @CUnewsdata , @CEM...
Oct 12, 2023•28 min•Ep. 87
In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, Clearing Up's Dan Catchpole and California Energy Markets' Jason Fordney talk about the California Independent System Operator’s decision to delay the launch of its extended day-ahead market from 2025 to 2026, Xcel’s plans to invest $15 billion in its energy transition in Colorado and the need for more transmission in the West . Read more about what’s happening in the power industry in the West at Newsdata’s Clearing Up and California Energy Mark...
Oct 05, 2023•19 min•Ep. 86
In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, Clearing Up's Dan Catchpole and California Energy Markets' Jason Fordney talk about an 11th hour push to form a day-ahead market in the West that includes California AND is independently governed . The initiative drew widespread support from potential participants–and lots of questions about legal feasibility . They also discuss an interview with Southwest Power Pool executive Bruce Rew about the market operator’s expansion of its comprehensive m...
Sep 28, 2023•21 min•Ep. 85
In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, Clearing Up's Dan Catchpole and California Energy Markets' Jason Fordney talk about the western United States’ second comprehensive energy market , the future of offshore wind in the West , long-duration battery storage’s arrival , and more. Read more about what’s happening in the power industry in the West at Newsdata’s Clearing Up and California Energy Markets . Follow us on X/Twitter: @CUnewsdata , @CEMnewsdata , @dcatchpole and @fordneyenergy...
Sep 21, 2023•27 min•Ep. 84
The West is getting a second RTO (or regional transmission organization). The Southwest Power Pool is launching a western branch of its existing RTO , which covers much of the Midwest. Nine Rocky Mountain utilities and power marketers have committed to launching the western branch in 2026. An RTO manages the transmission grid and wholesale electricity market for its participants. Right now, the only market operator in the West is the California Independent System Operator (or CAISO). Since the 1...
Sep 20, 2023•28 min•Ep. 83
In the latest Energy West podcast, California Energy Markets Editor Jason Fordney speaks with CEM Associate Editor Abigail Sawyer about the emerging Western wholesale energy market, a push by Western state regulators to move forward with a regional transmission organization, and a recent forum held in Las Vegas by the California Independent System Operator on its extended day-ahead market proposal.
Sep 11, 2023•29 min•Ep. 82
In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, Clearing Up's Dan Catchpole discusses this week's top stories from the energy industry in the West, including the California Independent System Operator asking federal regulators to approve a Westwide day-ahead energy market, PacifiCorp's plans to convert coal-fired power plants to burn natural gas, and more. You can find the Energy West podcast on NewsData's podcast page , Apple podcasts , Spotify and other major podcast plat-forms....
Aug 31, 2023•11 min•Ep. 81
In the latest episode of the Energy West podcast, Clearing Up's Dan Catchpole looks at the hot temperatures that recently scorched the West, including Arizona’s heat emergency , a new record high peak demand in the Northwest , new research that says climate-driven droughts will lead to more greenhouse gas emissions , offshore wind of Oregon , and more. Read more about what’s happening in the power industry in the West at Newsdata’s Clearing Up and California Energy Markets . Follow us on Twitter...
Aug 24, 2023•11 min•Ep. 80
After more than 30 years at NewsData, publisher Mark Ohrenschall is retiring. Before he leaves, he talks with Jason Fordney, Abigail Sawyer and Dan Catchpole about his time at the company, journalism and the energy industry.
Aug 18, 2023•51 min•Ep. 79
