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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

If only we had something that could transfer power between regions...? Although the map is looking pretty red everywhere - maybe ERCOT could be exporting? 🔌💡

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Gonna be a long hot night on the east coast. @gridstatus.io Check out the prices in NYISO - almost $1,500/MWh.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

China just surpasses 1 TW of solar - installed nearly 100 GW just last *month* 🔌💡 @jmijin.bsky.social War is evil.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

@gridstatus.io - great shot of the heat wave driving up prices across the Eastern Interconnect. But Texas? Doing just fine thanks to solar, wind and storage - prices are muted even at 6:00 Central. 🔌💡 Also, war sucks.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Check out the ERCOT Large Load queue. F*ing wild. 156GW on an 80 GW system, more than *doubled* since December. 20 GW under study (pretty firm!).

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

The Spanish authorities circulated a report yesterday that brings some conclusion to the Spanish blackout story. Turns out it was a voltage problem, not a frequency problem. urldefense.com/v3/__https:/... 💡🔌 🧵

urldefense.com

Se presenta el informe del Comité de análisis de la crisis eléctrica del 28 de abril

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Now that we know the Spanish grid instability was a voltage control issue, will Bjorn Lomborg retract his terrible OpEd in the WSJ where he blamed solar and wind and a lack of inertia? I doubt it. 🔌💡 www.wsj.com/opinion/the-...

wsj.com

Opinion | The Physics Behind the Spanish Blackout

Madrid knew solar and wind power were unreliable but pressed ahead anyway.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Here's Adam Keech, VP at PJM, stating that inter-regional transmission won't help PJM "because other regions don't have excess capacity" - has he not hear of coincident peak? This is from the FERC conference on Resource Adequacy last week.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Here's a great visual from EIA on Natural Gas prices in the short term. Check out the upper bound!

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Darn. Doesn't seem like an energy emergency? US produced more energy than it ever had in 2024..yet we have an "energy emergency" Executive Order? www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...

eia.gov

In 2024, the United States produced more energy than ever before - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

I know there's a lot going on right now, but NYMEX natural gas futures for January are $5/MMBtu. This is going to mean price increases for electricity for Americans, and is the worst possible time to be slowing down wind and solar deployment by taking away tax credits. 🔌💡

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Hello Journalists! Please stop calling curtailed energy "wasted." Curtailment is a feature, not a bug, of high RE systems and a signal we need more transmission and/or batteries. This article says "3,400 GWh" which sounds big, but its only 7% of solar gen. 🔌💡 www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol...

canarymedia.com

Chart: California is wasting more and more clean energy

The state produces more clean energy than its grid can handle, forcing it to curtail the extra wind and solar power it can’t use. There are ways to fix…

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Look at this gorgeous chart from @gridstatus.io on the energy transition in California. Those that said solar would not be able to replace gas were wrong. The drop in gas from 2023 to 2024 is real, but it also includes a change in the way @californiaiso.bsky.social tracks gas generation. 🔌💡

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Does anyone care about Bjorn Lomborg anymore? It is worth pushing back against this horrible WSJ OpEd he just wrote on Spain? I love this title - "the physics behind the Spanish Blackout" - last time I checked, Bjorn was not a physicist. #EnergySky governorswindenergycoalition.org/the-physics-...

governorswindenergycoalition.org

The Physics Behind the Spanish Blackout - Governors' Wind Energy Coalition

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Five years ago we released our 2035 Report, laying out a roadmap for getting the US Power sector to 90% carbon free by 2035. It was a simple and pragmatic approach, keep existing carbon free generation like nuclear and hydro, add a lot of wind, solar and batteries, #EnergySky 2035report.com

h2035report.com

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Transmission Congestion 101. This is the snapshot of the Entergy New Orleans load shed event. Look at the negative pricing (dark blue) just ~200 miles away from the $2,000/MWh (dark red) in Southern LA #EnergySky @gridstatus.io

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

A great visualization of how the @californiaiso.bsky.social grid has changed dramatically. Here's the 2020 load shed event (Aug 15-16 - left) compared to the same days 4 years later. Look at how much solar and storage have changed the power mix - so much less imports and gas. @gridstatus.io

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

I remember when it was 0.1%. That wasn't so long ago!

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Was camping in the Feather River last weekend. The 300 MW hydro system is called the "staircase of power" This is where PG&E lines sparked both the Camp and Dixie fires, two incredibly destructive wildfires. All the transmission facilities routed from the 5 hydro powerhouses are now all rebuilt.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Jesus. Let's hope SunZia and TransWest Express meets the placed in service date to qualify for tax credits. I'm sure folks at both companies are stressed about project timelines at this point. #EnergySky

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Capacity accreditation is deep and nerdy and super important. What happened last PJM auction cycle was an ironic shift: gas underperformed in winter storm Elliot, so PJM assigned much lower capacity values to gas - dropping from ~90% to %60%. Now we had less capacity, so prices shot up #EnergySky

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Affordability of electricity is crucial if we are going to use the grid to decarbonize other sectors. Distribution system capital deployment continues to outstrip other sectors (generation, transmission). Not clear what we are getting for all those $$. #EnergySky

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

@nathanielbullard.com and team at Halycon made a cool new data product - helping all of us understand what the "real" cost of a new natural gas turbine is. Super important - if you are using NREL ATB or EIA data you would be 100-150% low in your cost estimate. #EnergySky halcyon.io/blog/gas-pow...

halcyon.io

Our First Data Product

Nat Bullard introduces Halcyon AI's first data product for energy professionals: a regularly updated US gas power plant cost tracker

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Great takeaway from Aurora and @douglewin.bsky.social modeling what would happen should TX pass this awful bill. Killing clean energy will drive up prices, and likely more than than this, because more gas demand will also drive gas prices us (h/t to @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social for pointing this out)

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

Battersea Power Station. 500 MW of art deco power. Highly recommended if you are in London. Bar in the old control room! Lift to the top of one of the smokestacks! #EnergySky

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Touring Great Britain’s energy sector to learn about Flexibility with seven super sharp state commissioners. Hot takes coming soon. #EnergySky

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Elons $50B pay package is equivalent to $333,000 per employee. It’s just obscene.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

🔌💡 #PJM published its final RRI list of "Queue Jumping" projects. Less batteries than the previous (now just 2.2 GW), and less gas upgrades (just 2 GW). 6 GW of new gas. Check out ~900 MW of new nuclear - that's Three Mile Island restart! Nearly 12GW of new resources online by 2030/31.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

🔌💡So nice to see some yellow in #MISO and #PJM energy mix today. 12 GW of solar in each RTO! It's starting to get significant.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

@zeitlin.bsky.social gets it wrong here. We don't know if inertia would have helped (we don't really know anything yet). When the interconnection to France went down, Spain was *exporting* 2.5GW: the system would have gone into *high* frequency first, which could have kicked some plants off line.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

What happened in Spain is unknown, so we really need to wait until the post mortem to understand. That hasn't stopped folks for calling on Spain as an example for why we need "more dispatchable" resources. This is incredibly wrongheaded and lacks basic understanding of grid physics. #EnergySky 🧵

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

What's up with the lack of batteries in PJM's queue? PJM has a queue jumping proposal (RRI) and 7.5 GW of batteries used RRI to jump to the head of the queue. This is the silver lining to the RRI, 10.5GW of gas is the dark cloud, luckily ~half of that is uprates at existing facilities.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Happy Spring - MISO now at 12.5GW of solar, up nearly 10 GW from 2024. PJM closing in on 12 GW of solar. Let's get those queues unblocked and new clean resources online. Thanks to @gridstatus.io

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Great ShiftKey episode with my old friend @joannalewis.bsky.social on Chinese industrial policy. Joanna is so smart on this stuff and she also knows the best places to eat in Beijing. Trust me.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Both the plane tickets that I purchased a month ago dropped 50% in price this week. Yes, crude dropped some but I think it’s a mainly a huge demand drop. Shit is about to get bad.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

I had to stop 15 minutes into the #BoilingPoint podcast from @sammyroth.bsky.social with @severinborenstein.bsky.social and Brad Heavner. It was ugly and personal. Sammy - I love your journalism - maybe find two less polarizing figures to talk about rooftop solar?

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

The Toyota Prius Prime charging schedule is utter garbage. Useless.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

Pablo Vargas misspoke at House E&C: “Yes, that plan [EPA 111d] had risked more than 14,000 megawatts of existing coal plants that are serving the grid today, they would be at risk and that would be a significant reliability concern.” There are only about 8 GW online today. Lots offline. #EnergySky

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Here come the batteries! 26 GW of batteries! This installation curve is steeper than the early 2000's gas boom. It's the battery boom! #EnergySky

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

#ERCOT screaming away at over 85% Carbon free again today, with negative prices. Fun to be in Austin for #ESIG when the grid is flexing like this. @gridstatus.io #EnergySky

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

@jdeely.bsky.social any idea why @californiaiso.bsky.social is spiking over $1000/MWh right now? It's all over CA - so doesn't seem like it's congestion. Imports are strong. WHat's going on?

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

@sammyroth.bsky.social says the fighting over rooftop solar is a colossal waste of time. I disagree. If we are going to decarbonize California, we want people to adopt heat pumps and EV's - and they won't do that if rates continue to skyrocket. A 🧵 #EnergySky www.latimes.com/environment/...

latimes.com

Commentary: California's rooftop solar infighting is a colossal waste of time

This would be a great time for Gov. Gavin Newsom to meet the moment.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

@ezrakleinbot.bsky.social short piece for NYTimes is fantastic. This is a message that Democrats can rally around - a positive rubric. Blue states need to show that they can build again: housing, high speed rail, clean energy. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | There Is a Liberal Answer to the Trump-Musk Wrecking Ball

Right-wing populism thrives on scarcity. The answer is abundance. But a politics of abundance will work only if Democrats confront where their approach has failed.

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

I want to keep a running tally of how much solar you could have installed on TSLA lost market capitalization. So since peak, it's lost 700 GW of solar. (roughly $B per GW).

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

It is endlessly frustrating to hear how #PJM needs new gas because they can't rely on all the variable sources in their queue. Their *record* of variable generation as a percentage of load? A measly 24%. ERCOT is 76%. SPP is 90%. MISO is 44%. Come on PJM, you can do better! #EnergySky

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

@californiaiso.bsky.social - has only 16 GW of utility scale solar online, almost 10 GW less than #ERCOT (but if you add rooftop back in, CA is probably close to TX?). CA's record utility scale solar is ~19GW. But Solar is 60% of load in CA - only 50% in TX. #EnergySky @gridstatus.io

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Hot Damn. 25 GW of solar in #ERCOT. Over 50% of generation. @gridstatus.io #EnergySky

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Ric O'Connell @ricoconnell.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Daylight savings time is possibly the only thing I’m in agreement with Arizona on.

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