The first of two 800-MW units at Luminant’s new Oak Grove Power Plant in Robertson County, Texas, is now online, the Dallas-based company said on Monday. The coal-fired unit is the second Luminant has entered into service in Texas in the past six months. two

Allegheny Energy and American Electric Power (AEP) on Tuesday said they had requested withdrawal of an application to run parts of the proposed Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) through Virginia because data from a regional grid operator showed that the project would not be needed in 2014 to resolve reliability problems on the grid.

A South Korean consortium last week won a $20.4 billion deal to build four nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates—beating bids from a French consortium including Areva, GdF Suez, Électricité de France, and Total and a U.S.-Japanese consortium including General Electric and Hitachi. The consortium that won the first nuclear project awarded by […]

The U.S. Energy Department last week outlined plans to invest $366 million in three key energy areas: production of fuels directly from sunlight; improving energy-efficient building systems design; and computer modeling and simulation for the development of advanced nuclear reactors.

Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on Tuesday approved an air permit for an 830-MW coal-fired power plant in Hampton Township—with the condition that its proposer, Consumers Energy, will retire up to 958 MW of coal-fired generating capacity from seven of the company’s oldest existing coal plants in the state.

Duke Energy this week agreed under a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to spend $93 million to resolve Clean Air Act violations at its coal-fired 560-MW Gallagher Station in New Albany, Ind.

A motion submitted to an administrative judge last week by Seminole Electric Cooperative states that the Florida-based electricity supplier has decided “not  to go forward with construction and operation” of a 750-MW coal-fired unit planned for the Seminole Generating Station—a 2009 POWER Top Plant—in Palatka, Fla. The company cited regulatory and legal uncertainties.

A year-long 1-MW pilot test demonstrating postcombustion carbon capture technology for coal-fired power plants has reportedly captured more than 90% of carbon dioxide from a slipstream of flue gas at FirstEnergy Corp.’s R.E. Burger Plant near Shadyside, Ohio.

Texas has added some 3,140 MW of new generation capacity since May, mostly from coal and natural gas–fired power plants, the grid operator for most of the state said in a capacity, demand, and reserve update released last week.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last week approved Southern California Edison’s (SCE’s) application to build segments of  the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission (TRTP), a major transmission project and the first in that state specifically designed to access multiple renewable generation sources from remote renewable-rich resource areas.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week said that its decision to regulate coal ash waste from power plants, expected this month, will be delayed for a “short period” because of the “complexity of the analysis” underway at the agency.

By Kennedy Maize Plug-in hybrid electric cars? Phooey. They don’t make economic sense.  They don’t represent “green” technology. But they do help the electric utility industry, which has been pushing them hard for a decade, as a way to get some load and revenue from power that otherwise would be dumped. Now, my curmudgeonly view […]

General Electric last week won a $1.4 billion contract to supply wind turbines for the 845-MW Shepherds Flat wind farm proposed by independent power producer Caithness Energy. If built, the 338-turbine Oregon wind farm would be the largest in the world.

World leaders have begun arriving in Copenhagen days before the international conference’s close on Dec. 18 to sign a comprehensive pact to curb climate change, but disagreements—mostly on rich-poor lines—among the 193 attending nations on issues from emissions reductions to technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) could mean there may be nothing to sign.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Monday said she would file a disapproval resolution to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) under the Clean Air Act.

Last week, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) unveiled a “basic framework for climate action” that combines caps on greenhouse gas (GHG) with offshore oil and gas exploration and an emphasis on nuclear power. At the same time, Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine.) introduced legislation to cap the amount of fossil carbon sold but reduce the role of Wall Street in carbon markets.

NRG Energy’s $1.2 billion plan to build a 744-MW pulverized coal unit at its Limestone Electric Generating Station near Jewett, Texas, got a boost last week as the Texas Commission on Environment Quality (TCEQ) approved air permits for the plant.

Sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants across the U.S. fell 52% compared with 1990 levels, and they are already below the statutory annual emission cap of 8.95 million tons set for compliance in 2010 under the Acid Rain Program, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported last week. The EPA’s annual national analysis of the Toxics Release Inventory showed similar decreases by electric utilities for chemicals released into the air, land, and water.

Alberta will not stand in the way of new nuclear builds, but it will not invest public dollars in power proposals, the province’s Energy Minister Mel Knight said on Monday after a government-sponsored consultation showed that 45% of Albertans prefer that nuclear power plants be considered on a case-by-case basis.

By Kennedy Maize Having just returned from three weeks of vacation, where I paid no attention to power issues, here are some items I’ve discovered since my return. I hope my take will spark some conversations. First, “Climategate.” This flap of major proportions, threatening to unravel the alleged scientific consensus behind global warming, blew up […]

Erosion can significantly reduce the operational life of boiler components. Abrasion-resistant ceramic parts can be a sound alternative to expensive metallic parts when replacing boiler components.

If the basic science related to man’s contribution to a warming planet is based on flawed fundamental science, a conscious circumventing of the peer review process, political expediency, and refusing to release the fundamental data used by a computer program that has yet to replicate actual ambient temperatures, then it’s time to pause, take a breath, and regroup.

When the Łagisza power plant began commercial operation in late June 2009, it marked the beginning of a new era in the evolution of circulating fluidized bed (CFB) technology. At the heart of this 460-MW plant is the world’s largest CFB boiler, which is also the world’s first once-through unit supercritical CFB boiler.

Certain small utilities with some of the nation’s highest carbon dioxide emission rates want to change the climate bill pending before Congress to give themselves more allowances to emit carbon dioxide (CO₂). This would be the ultimate “cash for clunkers” program for dirty power plants, with one key difference: Unlike the real program, in this case the clunkers would get to stay on the road. The Senate should reject this change.

The commentary "No ‘Cash for Clunkers’ in Climate Bill" creates a fictitious history of climate change and seriously harms good faith efforts within the industry to address the legitimate issues many utilities have raised with the Waxman-Markey bill.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has adopted final rules tightening emissions limits for coal preparation and processing plants and imposing new reporting requirements on those facilities.

In a major air regulatory development, the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to issue rules by November 2011 to reduce mercury and other hazardous air pollution from coal- and oil-fired power plants under a settlement agreement resolving a lawsuit filed by a host of environmental organizations.

The Environmental Protection Agency has decided it will reconsider the 2008 ozone standards issued by the Bush administration, with the agency suggesting in a court that it would toughen the standards because it has concerns about whether standards “satisfy the requirements of the Clean Air Act.”

There are four approaches to measuring fly ash content and, therefore, the quality of fuel combustion in a boiler. Before choosing one, you should understand their relative levels of complexity and accuracy.

India and Russia signed another key nuclear cooperation deal on Monday in Moscow, opening the way for Russian state-owned nuclear company Rosatom to play a major role in the subcontinent’s plans to expand its nuclear capacity tenfold by 2020.