Michael Watt

How have recent wildfire’s impacted California ISO (CAISO)? California has seen a persistent heat wave this July, setting record high temperatures across the west, along with a new peak load record for the Western Interconnection of ~168 GW. In addition to the heat, many wildfires have impacted the region. Last Wednesday evening in particular, the Park fire was started by suspected arson near Chico in northern California. This fire has since become one of the largest in the state's history, burning over 380,000 acres in the last week alone. The fire threatened large amounts of imports to the state and several the Northern CA interties were curtailed. In response, CAISO issued an Energy Emergency Alert Watch (EEA) for the remainder of Wednesday evening and real-time prices soared, exceeding $1000 at the Northern California hub, NP15, and $800 for the Southern California hub, SP15. A Restricted Maintenance Operations (RMO) alert was also issued by the ISO for Thursday, cautioning utilities and transmission operators to avoid taking equipment offline for maintenance. Wildfires have continued to have material impacts on the western #powermarkets and Wood Mackenzie’s CAISO analyst team is ready to help support trading decisions surrounding these events. For more information please visit: https://okt.to/guDaWH

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"The top line: The artificial intelligence-powered software platform Rhizome announced today the launch of gridFIRM, alongside a $1 million investment from venture capital firm Convective Capital. The “FIRM” in the tool’s name stands for Fire Ignition Reduction and Mitigation, and it is designed to help utilities limit their wildfire risks. The nuts and bolts: The gridFIRM tool is available to utilities in Australia, Canada, and the United States. It uses machine learning to process geographic and historical datasets about utilities’ assets — and to determine their likelihood of sparking a wildfire. Additionally, utilities can use the tool to determine whether mitigation techniques such as insulating bare conductors or undergrounding are the safest or most effective for a specific asset. The market grounding: In recent months, using AI for wildfire mitigation and response has been gaining traction. Convective Capital itself is a $35 million venture capital fund solely dedicated to funding solutions to wildfires, which Bill Clerico, its founder, describes as an “existential risk” for U.S. utilities. They cause “bankruptcies, fines, and regulatory actions and [have cost] the industry over $100 billion in the last 10 years,” he said."

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If measurement-informed inventories, OGMP 2.0, or emissions monitoring technology are of any interest to you, bookmark this for our webinar on May 9. Should be a very informative session.

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In 2024, wind farm costs have increased and many projects canceled as developers struggle with opaque regulations and determined opposition. But there is still great opportunity for economic growth in the #WindEnergy industry.

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