Jacksonville, Fla., municipal utility JEA last week signed an agreement with Duke Energy that gives it the option to buy up to 20% of the power generated by Duke Energy’s planned 2,234-MW Lee Nuclear Station when it becomes operational in 2021.

The rupture of a 6-inch steam pipe at Unit 1 of the 1,884-MW coal-fired Homer City Generating Station in Indiana County, Pa., last week tripped the unit and sent six workers to area hospitals with burns.

The power sector saw steady, modest growth of merger and acquisition activity during the last three months of 2010, recently released analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) shows. The largest 25 announced deals decreased 37% in value, to $19.3 billion, compared to $30.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, but financial buyers maintained investments in power deals in 2010 while corporate buyers continue to lead deal activity due to large amounts of cash to invest, PwC said.

The Department of Energy (DOE) on Tuesday issued its first loan guarantee for a transmission project, committing $343 million to develop the One Nevada Transmission Line (ON Line) project. Jointly owned by Great Basin Transmission South and NV Energy, the proposed 500 kV AC transmission line is expected to carry 600 MW nearly 235 miles from Ely, Nev., to just north of Las Vegas.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) today announced it has signed an agreement with Lockheed Martin. The two U.S.-based companies will join forces to design and build what they say will be the world’s most advanced digital control systems and nuclear reactors.

President Obama’s $29.5 billion Department of Energy (DOE) budget for fiscal year (FY) 2012 increases priority for renewable and nuclear energy technology research while cutting subsidies to fossil fuel energy. It also calls for a $1.3 billion cut to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., February 15, 2011 – Can Energy Secretary Steven Chu learn to lobby? The fate of the Obama administration’s budget for his department hangs in the answer to that question. So does the fate of the tattered remnants of the strategy the administration brought to Washington to deal with its apocalyptic […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) last week released additional details of its “SunShot Initiative,” a program that seeks to reduce the total costs of photovoltaic (PV) solar energy systems by about 75% before 2020 so that costs for PV systems can compete with other forms of energy without subsidies.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the selection of Basin Electric Power Cooperative to receive a loan guarantee to construct more than 100 wind turbines to produce 151.5 MW of electricity. The loan guarantee will provide financing for engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning of the PrairieWinds wind farm energy project in central South Dakota.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson were questioned by panels of the House’s Subcommittee on Energy and Power this morning as part of a discussion on draft legislation that seeks to strip the EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gases (GHGs). The legislative hearing’s witnesses also included other major players in the climate change regulatory debate, such as Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.

Canadian companies TransAlta Corp. and TransCanada Corp. are at odds over TransAlta’s abrupt notice on Tuesday that it will close and destroy its Sundance 1 and 2 coal-fired units near Edmonton, Alberta. TransCanada, which buys power from the units under a power purchase agreement (PPA) agreement, said today it had not received validation of TransAlta’s determination that the plants were so corroded that they could not be economically restored to service.

Four investor-owned utilities and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in a high-profile “public nuisance” case in which states and environmental groups allege that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from four investor-owned utilities and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) have contributed to climate change.

State senators in Minnesota and Kentucky passed crucial legislation that could end longstanding bans in those states on the construction of new nuclear plants.

The UK government on Tuesday said it would push forward with legislation to create a new independent statutory body to regulate the country’s nuclear power industry. The new agency, the “Office for Nuclear Regulation” (OCR), will carry out regulatory functions performed currently by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Department for Transport.

A strategic plan to accelerate development of offshore wind energy, released by the Departments of Energy (DOE) and Interior (DOI) on Monday, focuses on overcoming the relatively high cost of offshore wind energy; the technical challenges surrounding installation, operation, and grid interconnection; and the lack of site data and experience with project permitting processes.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., February 5, 2011 – We are all familiar, sometimes too much so, with utility regulation. As customers, we encounter the results regulation every day. Many of us, in our business lives, work with (or against), ponder, and praise (or damn) utility regulation. But none of us has given more thought, […]

New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie (R) on Friday made effective controversial state legislation that promotes the construction of new power plants with a total capacity of up to 2,000 MW by offering developers long-term, ratepayer-subsidized energy contracts. On Monday, in response to the measure, a group of major utilities asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to protect “the integrity of competitive power markets.”

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) last week voted 2-0 to approve an air permit for the 1,300-MW Las Brisas Energy Center. The approval for the $3.2 billion petroleum coke–fired project planned for Corpus Christi, Texas, comes despite objections from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and recommendations by two administrative law judges against the permit’s issuance.

A California Superior Court judge in San Francisco has provisionally ruled that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) did not adequately comply with requirements from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The tentative decision could prevent implementation of a statewide cap-and-trade program due to start next year until CARB addresses those requirements.

Canada’s Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) last week completed the third and final phase of the pre-project design review for the Advanced CANDU Reactor (ACR-1000), making it the first third-generation reactor in the world to have passed that milestone in Canada. The CNSC’s findings mean there are no fundamental barriers to licensing the reactor design from the crown-owned Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), a company whose future ownership is ambiguous.

A massive winter storm on Wednesday that blustered over more than 30 U.S. states, from New Mexico to Maine, shut off the lights for millions around the country. Regional grid operator the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) instituted an energy emergency and instructed utilities to begin rotating blackouts throughout Texas to compensate for 7,000 MW of power plants that were shut down as a result of the cold snap.

Mississippi Power last week announced that its new integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant under construction in Kemper County, Miss., will be named in honor of David M. Ratcliffe, recently retired chairman, president, and CEO of its parent company, Southern Co.

The past week brought a flurry of news from across the nation about challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) measures to curb greenhouse gases (GHGs). Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.) are spearheading separate measures to delay or block the EPA’s authority, and Arizona withdrew its support for the EPA in a massive legal challenge concerning its “endangerment finding.”

A recent Washington Post article attacks coal as a fuel with a dim future. The author points to the large number of plant retirements as evidence of its impending demise. Checking the actual data reveals a much different story.

Wheelift Systems introduced its self-propelled trailers (SPT) in capacities up to 100 tons. They were developed for in-plant operation in congested, confined areas and in narrow intersecting aisles. Highly maneuverable, the Wheelift SPTs feature computerized independent steering, on-center rotating front axles, remote control operation, low-profile design, and on-board power generation. Each SPT has two on-center […]

Efficient boiler operation requires boiler auxiliary equipment to operate in harmony. The air preheater, for example, though it has few moving parts, is vital to maintaining efficient boiler performance. In this second installment of our Power 101 series, we examine performance degradation caused by corrosion and fouling of the air preheater that results from the combustion of coal plus the effects of ammonia and sodium bisulfite injection for SO₃ mitigation.

Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactor design hit several milestones in recent months, prompting speculation that it could take the coveted lead in the charge to deploy the world’s third-generation nuclear power plants.

HD Electric Co.’s new PRX-500 Proximity Voltage Detector is an addition to its voltage detector product line. With nine selectable voltage ranges from 120 V to 500 kV, the PRX Proximity Voltage Detector features an easy-to-use electronic touch pad with large buttons. The PRX provides an audible and visual indication of voltage detected from elbow […]

San Miguel Electric Cooperative selected and installed an automatic sootblowing system for its Unit 1 to minimize clinkers in the boiler that caused semi-annual unscheduled outages. New boiler surface-cleaning equipment and intelligent cleaning software eliminated these expensive outages.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in late December approved—for the ninth time since October 2010—a solar power project to be built on federal lands.