The long-awaited restart of Bruce Power’s Unit 2 at Bruce A on Friday was delayed again for months after an issue was identified within the electrical generator on the non-nuclear side of the Ontario plant just an hour before synchronization with the grid was scheduled to occur.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week issued a policy statement explaining how it will advise the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on requests for extra time from generators to comply with the agency’s recently finalized Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).

To counter generator-announced plans to retire nearly 14,000 MW of generation between May 2012 and the end of 2015 and boost reliability, the PJM Interconnection Board last week approved nearly $2 billion in transmission upgrades.

An explosion on Sunday night at a coal bunker at DTE Energy’s St. Clair Power Plant in Michigan left one worker with a minor injury and caused minor damage to the plant. The cause of the explosion is under investigation.

Japan’s trade minister last week approved a ¥1 trillion ($12.5 billion) capital injection to avert the collapse of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). The move is effectively a nationalization of Japan’s largest utility and owner of the crisis-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Citing the need for local and regional transmission reliability and affordability, Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission (PSC) last week voted to grant a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for an approximately 48-mile 345 kV electric transmission line between Alma, Wis., and Holmen, Wis., that is part of the $2 billion CapX2020 initiative.

FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co.’s (FENOC) Beaver Valley Power Station Unit 1 in Shippingport, Pa., was returned to service on Saturday morning, following a shutdown on April 9 for refueling and maintenance.

Investigations are ongoing into a fire that occurred just after midnight on Thursday at the 840-MW Mettur thermal power plant in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The fire that devastated the plant’s conveyor system killed one worker and injured two others.

An investigation into the failure of one of North Anna nuclear plant’s four emergency diesel generators following last summer’s earthquake has alleged that plant personnel did not establish and maintain appropriate maintenance procedures for the plant’s generators. Dominion’s plant near Richmond, Va., faces increased regulatory oversight as a result, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said on Monday.

On Monday, Convert Italia and solar module maker Solaria Corp. announced they had begun operating in Puglia, Italy, what they called the largest low-concentrating solar PV power plant in the world.

The State Grid Corp. of China has begun construction of an 800-kV ultra-high-voltage direct current (UHVDC) transmission line that will run 2,210 kilometers (1,373 miles) from Hami Prefecture in China’s western province of Xinjiang to the north-central industrial city of Zhengzhou. When completed in 2014, the $3.7 billion line will have a transmission capacity of 8 GW.

Enriched uranium fuel supplier USEC on Tuesday struck a deal with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA, a federal agency), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA, a federally owned corporation), and Energy Northwest (a municipal corporation of Washington State) to extend uranium operations at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Ky., for at least another year.

A proposal launched on Tuesday by Senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) could bar Chinese-made solar panels from qualifying for the existing 30% tax credit that U.S. individuals and businesses receive for purchasing and installing solar panels.

A Texas District Court judge on Monday signaled his intent to reverse and remand to the state a key air permit granted to the proposed $3.2 billion Las Brisas Energy Center (LBEC).

The power industry has not done a good job grooming and mentoring the next generation of leaders and, as a result, is facing a leadership gap as the current generation approaches retirement, two executive search professionals told MANAGING POWER. While prospects for entry-level recruitment have improved, it will be five to 20 years before this cohort is ready to lead. In the near term, a renewed focus on grooming future leaders is critical.

A new study from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should reevaluate the formula with which it calculates nuclear reactor decommissioning costs. In an analysis of 12 of the nation’s 104 reactors, decommissioning costs calculated for five reactors were 76% less than what would be required, Congress’ investigative arm says.

Lack of customer participation—or outright customer resistance—is likely to kill at least one of your utility’s strategic initiatives. Perhaps it already has. But utilities can take a variety of easy steps to prevent the wounding or premature death of strategic initiatives such as smart meters, new rate and efficiency programs, or capital construction projects.

Duke Energy and Progress Energy customers would not shoulder charges for costs of about $450 million related to the utilities’ proposed $26 billion merger if the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) speedily approves the deal, according to an agreement between the companies and the state regulatory body that was disclosed Monday.


Section 203 of the Federal Power Act requires certain mergers and acquisitions to be “consistent with the public interest.” Since its 1996 Merger Policy Statement, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has applied this standard by assessing a merger’s effect on competition, rates, and the effectiveness of regulation. Does its approach need updating?

Utility-scale solar generation projects require significant upfront expenditures on photovoltaic panels and other equipment. The success of such projects largely depends on whether the system performs as promised by the manufacturers. This puts a premium on properly evaluating and effectively negotiating equipment warranties.

One of the most important communication skills for leaders and managers is listening.    In your professional life, listening is at the heart of effective leadership, and in your personal life, listening is an act of love.

Washington’s greenhouse gang has learned that global warming is a losing issue. They’re back with a new strategy.


Despite a quiet 2011, this year promises to be one of the biggest for power industry mergers in quite some time—if FERC lets it happen.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia heard oral arguments last week in a case that examines whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should be required to continue the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository proposed for Nevada.

No timetable has been set for the restart of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) despite “erroneous reports” in the media that referred to June dates, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chair Gregory Jaczko said on Monday.

Scaling back and outright expiration of government subsidies will make financing renewable energy projects more difficult in the future, according to experts at the law firm of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo. But there will still be a greater appetite for renewables than there is supply, so it should still be possible to find the funds to build the projects.

Texas will have 74 GW of generation resources available this summer, including nearly 2 GW of capacity that had been mothballed—but the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) still expects tight reserves and expects calls for conservation to deter rolling blackouts, the Texas grid operator said last week.

Consider state clean energy funds as potential replacement funding sources for future clean energy projects.

Vermont’s House last week voted 10–36 to give final passage to a bill that could make the state the first in the nation to ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.

The end of the long-running flap over access to markets for rare earth minerals may be in sight, driven by a combination of political and diplomatic pressure at high levels and the normal workings of the marketplace.