POWER news – December 2013 %%PLUGIN_WEB VERSION: 215058-Web Version-POWERnews%%

The Department of Energy (DOE) last week said it would enter negotiations with Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) for the sale of the depleted uranium hexafluoride inventory after it selected the GE-Hitachi division’s proposal to build and operate a laser enrichment facility at the shuttered Paducah enrichment site in Kentucky. The DOE will also enter into […]

A final rule issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Nov. 22 allowing energy storage projects to connect with the electric grid could boost the energy storage industry’s presence as a backup power source for intermittent energy sources, industry experts say. FERC Order No. 792 amends Order No. 2006—the pro forma Small Generator […]

Nine Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states on Monday urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to model state programs to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the market-based cap-and-trade regulatory program in which the states participate.  The EPA should recognize the RGGI model as an “effective system” of emission […]

Addressing climate change and improving air quality will be among the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) foremost objectives over the next four years, a draft strategic plan recently released by the federal agency shows. The 86-page Draft FY 2014-2018 EPA Strategic Plan was released for public review and comment on Nov. 19 as part of a […]

POWER news – November 2013 %%PLUGIN_WEB VERSION: 215058-Web Version-POWERnews%%

Integrating large quantities of variable energy resources into the North American bulk power system will require fundamental electricity system planning and operational changes to ensure continued reliability, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) says in a new report that it prepared in collaboration with the California Independent System Operator Corporation (ISO). The assessment, “Maintaining Bulk-Power […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Monday directed agency staff to complete the long-delayed safety evaluation report (SER) for the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) license application to build the Yucca Mountain permanent waste repository. Reflecting the Obama administration’s opposition to the repository, the DOE in 2010 withdrew from the NRC its June 2008–submitted application to […]

So long as the federal government has no viable alternative to Yucca Mountain as a repository for nuclear waste, nuclear power ratepayers should not be charged an annual fee to cover the cost of that disposal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled on Tuesday. Finding for petitioners that include the National Association […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will retire more than 3 GW at eight coal units in Alabama and Kentucky to address “challenging trends” that point to lower power demand, a slow economy, uncertainty in commodity pricing, and tougher air pollution rules. The U.S. corporate agency’s board of directors on Nov. 14 approved plans to retire all […]