Dive Brief: Almost every major independent system operator in the U.S. has reformed its capacity accreditation process, or has started to in the wake of more frequent severe weather and the growing adoption of intermittent energy resources, Wood Mackenzie Senior Analyst Patrick Huang said during a Wednesday panel discussion. As a result of these reforms, most types of energy resources — from renewables and energy storage to thermal generation — have seen, or will see, their capacity accreditation downgraded, Huang said. The reforms have made resource planning more complicated, increasing demand for more flexible generation resources, according to Karl Meeusen, Wärtsilä’s director of markets, legislative and regulatory policy for North America. Dive Insight: Beyond rewarding utilities that adopt an “all-of-the-above” approach to energy resources, capacity accreditation reforms at U.S. ISOs could also spur utilities to take a closer look at more novel generation technologies previously considered too expensive, Meeusen said during Wednesday’s discussion, hosted by consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. Reciprocating internal combustion engines have not been adopted in large numbers by utilities in the past due to the relatively high upfront capital cost. But they could offer a greater return on investment within ISOs that have adopted capacity accreditation reforms, Meeusen said. The reciprocating engines can ramp up or down more quickly than gas turbines, which allows them to better complement intermittent resources like wind and solar, and their modular design comes with potential reliability benefits, he said. For example, a utility might choose to add 100 MW of capacity to its portfolio by deploying five reciprocating engines, or two peaker gas turbines. If one of the turbines goes down, the resulting outage will be significantly larger than if one of the five reciprocating engines goes offline, Meeusen explained. And that odds of all five engines going down at the same time are significantly

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), increased by 3.5 million barrels from the week ending January 17 to the week ending January 24, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report. The report, which was released on January 29 and included data for the week ending January 24, showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 415.1 million barrels on January 24, 411.7 million barrels on January 17, and 421.9 million barrels on January 26, 2024. The EIA report highlighted that data may not add up to totals due to independent rounding. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 394.8 million barrels on January 24, 394.6 million barrels on January 17, and 357.4 million barrels on January 26, 2024, the report showed. Total petroleum stocks – including crude oil, total motor gasoline, fuel ethanol, kerosene type jet fuel, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, propane/propylene, and other oils – stood at 1.608 billion barrels on January 24, the report revealed. This figure was down 13.6 million barrels week on week and up 19.2 million barrels year on year, the report outlined. “At 415.1 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about six percent  below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA noted in its report. “Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 3.0 million barrels from last week and are slightly below the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories and blending components inventories increased last week,” it added. “Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 5.0 million barrels last week and are about nine percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA continued. “Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 7.9 million barrels from last week

Dive Brief: First Public Hydrogen, or FPH2, a public utility created by the California cities of Lancaster and Industry, began the process of selecting hydrogen suppliers at a Jan. 13 board meeting, following the finalization of the 45V clean hydrogen production tax credit guidance. Although FPH2 aims to avoid dependence on the 45V tax credits, the incentives are critical to driving hydrogen adoption, according to R. Rex Parris, mayor of the City of Lancaster and chair of the FPH2 board. By acting as a public intermediary between buyers and sellers of hydrogen, FPH2 aims to make hydrogen more accessible, affordable and transparent, Parris said in an interview with Utility Dive. Dive Insight: California has a series of advantages for producing hydrogen — including an exemption from the energy procurement standards set earlier this month by the final 45V hydrogen tax credit guidance. While the tax credit played a key role in the timing of when the cities of Lancaster and Industry chose to launch FPH2, Parris said he believes there is a path for other municipalities to follow suit. “While there are challenges at the national level, we believe the combination of 45V incentives and state-level initiatives will drive the necessary growth in renewable energy and hydrogen production to achieve scale,” Parris said. “That said, collaboration between states, the federal government, and private industry will be essential to ensuring sufficient supply.” FPH2, which launched in December, has set a goal to secure 20,000 tons of clean hydrogen by July. The hydrogen utility plans to serve as an aggregator between suppliers of hydrogen and would-be customers, including municipalities, other public utilities, transit agencies, and private sector companies in industries such as logistics, shipping and transportation, Parris said. FPH2 will partner with private industry leaders to build out the physical infrastructure needed to

Hess Corp. grew its net oil production in Guyana by 52 percent to 195,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the same three-month period in the prior year, according to quarterly results it released Wednesday. The New York City-based company’s net production in the United States’ Bakken shale also rose seven percent year-on-year to 208,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boed). Bakken and Guyana, specifically the Stabroek block, drove an increase in Hess’ proven reserves to 1.44 billion boe at the end of 2024 from 1.37 billion boe at the end of 2023, the oil and gas exploration and production company said. Besides the onshore Bakken, the Gulf of Mexico also contributed to Hess’ U.S. production with 30,000 boed. In Southeast Asia, Hess derived 62,000 boed from the North Malay Basin and the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area. Hess’ net production in the October-December 2024 period totaled 495,000 boed, compared to 418,000 boed in the fourth quarter of 2023. Higher production drove a 7.56 percent year-over-year increase in adjusted net earnings to $542 million, or $1.76 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2024. That beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate, which averages projections by brokerage analysts, of $1.51 per share. Hess has now surpassed the Zacks estimate for the fourth consecutive quarter. Lower realized selling prices and higher exploration expenses offset the effect of higher volumes. Hess’ realized crude oil selling prices averaged $72.1 a barrel in the fourth quarter of 2024, including the effect of hedging. The corresponding figure in the fourth quarter of 2023 was $76.63 per barrel. The average realized natural gas liquids selling price was $23.05 per barrel, up from $20.92 per barrel in the comparable period a year ago. Hess sold natural gas at an average realized price of

Lee Zeldin has been confirmed as administrator of the U.S. EPA. The Senate confirmed the appointment 56-42 on Wednesday. Zeldin, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2023, will take the helm of an agency that the Trump administration has vowed to take in a different direction than the Biden administration. “We will take great strides to defend every American’s access to clean air, clean water, and clean land,” Zeldin said in a statement issued after his confirmation. “We will maintain and expand the gold standard of environmental stewardship and conservation that President Trump set forth in his first administration while also prioritizing economic prosperity.” Zeldin’s supporters see him as the right fit for prioritizing economic growth while still protecting the environment. Democrats who opposed the nomination say Zeldin is too aligned with oil and gas company interests that could exacerbate climate change. Zeldin takes the helm “a critical time for EPA, which in recent years has targeted the power sector with unlawful and unachievable regulations,” National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson said in a statement. “Administrator Zeldin now has the opportunity to reconsider these rules and replace them with commonsense policies.” Matheson said repealing and replacing EPA’s power plant greenhouse gas rule “is a top priority for electric cooperatives.” During a confirmation hearing Jan. 16,  Zeldin said he would work with longtime EPA staff, as well as Republicans and Democrats, to familiarize himself with important environmental issues, especially as they impact the U.S. economy. He said he would prioritize compliance and help the agency “be better stewards of tax dollars.” “We can, and we must, protect our precious environment without suffocating the economy,” he said. “A big part of this will require building private sector collaboration to promote common sense, smart regulation that will allow

Newly imposed requirements by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator could disqualify all of Voltus’ 450 MW of demand response resources from the grid operator’s upcoming capacity auction, according to a complaint filed on Friday by the company at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. MISO’s tariff requires that market participants give the grid operator the results of “real power tests” to register demand resources as load modifying resources for capacity auctions if they do not have performance results from an actual MISO event, Voltus said in its complaint. The market participant must also have contractual rights to the demand resources, according to Voltus. On Dec. 19, MISO changed its testing methodology days before the deadline for conducting the tests for the grid operator’s 2025/26 planning year, according to Voltus. On Jan. 15, MISO changed the testing requirements again and set contracting requirements for “aggregators of retail customers,” such as Voltus, according to the complaint. Utilities face a different standard, Voltus said. “MISO’s beyond the eleventh hour changes to these requirements will have catastrophic impacts on market participants,” Voltus said. Load modifying resources face a March 1 deadline to be registered for MISO’s next capacity auction, according to the complaint. It is unlikely that contracts between demand response aggregators and their customers will include the exact information MISO now requires, and it will be impossible to renegotiate contracts ahead of auction deadlines, Voltus said. Hundreds of megawatts will be unable to participate in the auction, reducing resource adequacy and driving up clearing prices, according to the demand response company. MISO’s changes should have been made through its tariff, not by a market notice and at a stakeholder meeting, Voltus said. The company urged FERC to order MISO to revise its demand response-related requirements by changing its tariff. Voltus asked FERC to make a decision