May 31, 2018 DOJ, FERC Back Illinois in Nuclear Subsidy Fight The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on May 29 told the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that Illinois’ nuclear subsidy program does… Read More Sponsored Content Microgrids have the Potential to Reduce Power Outages and Electric […]

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on May 29 told the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that Illinois’ nuclear subsidy program does not preempt federal statute, siding with the state and Exelon Corp. in a contentious legal fight that has divided the power sector. The case, now […]

First-fire has been achieved at NET Power’s supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO₂) power plant—a test facility in La Porte, Texas, to demonstrate the potentially revolutionary natural gas–fueled Allam Cycle. The project is designed to produce low-cost electricity from natural gas while generating near-zero atmospheric emissions, including full CO₂ capture. NET Power, which is based in Durham, […]

Public power utility Salt River Project (SRP) will launch Arizona’s first battery energy storage project to provide flexible peaking capacity. Energy storage firm Fluence will supply a 10-MW, four-hour duration system to AES Corp., which has a 20-year agreement with SRP for the project to be built in Chandler. AES owns Fluence in partnership with […]

May 24, 2018 Exelon: Record Amount of Nuclear Capacity Failed to Clear PJM Auction Exelon Corp.’s Three Mile Island, Dresden, and all but a small portion of its Byron nuclear plants failed to clear PJM Interconnection’s latest annual capacity auction—despite an average 83% surge… Read More Cash-Starved Southern Sells Florida Assets to NextEra NextEra Energy […]

Exelon Corp.’s Three Mile Island, Dresden, and all but a small portion of its Byron nuclear plants failed to clear PJM Interconnection’s latest annual capacity auction—despite an average 83% surge in capacity prices compared to last year. While coal and gas made moderate gains, demand response, energy efficiency, wind, and solar emerged as the auction’s […]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is poised to approve a revised reliability standard to ensure reliability during geomagnetic disturbances (GMDs). FERC staff on May 17 issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) urging its commissioners to approve Reliability Standard TPL-007-2, which the North American Electric Reliability Corp.(NERC)  developed in response to FERC’s September 2016-issued Order […]

Higher-than-average temperatures forecast for much of the U.S. this summer won’t affect reliability in most regions, though concerns remain for Texas and Southern California, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Presenting the “Summer 2018 Energy Market and Reliability Assessment,” on May 17,  FERC staff said that most entities that are part of the […]

A relatively new cyberattack threat activity group dubbed “XENOTIME” is intent on compromising and disrupting industry safety instrumented systems globally, and cybersecurity experts are warning it is “easily the most dangerous threat activity publicly known.” According to  global industrial control system (ICS) cybersecurity firm Dragos Inc., XENOTIME is behind TRISIS (also known as TRITON), the […]

Dominion Energy will provide seed money to further work of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s (GEH’s) BWRX-300, a 300-MWe small modular reactor design (SMR). Dominion has “no plan at this time to build one at any of its commercial nuclear stations,” but the funding could help bring the SMR design closer to commercialization, GEH said in […]

May 17, 2018 GE Sets Sights on MHPS and Siemens Customers Drawing on decades of gas turbine experience, GE’s Power Services business announced on May 16 that it is expanding its cross-fleet service offerings to a broader portion of the F-class… Read More Sponsored Content Microgrids have the Potential to Reduce Power Outages and Electric […]

Wind power capacity in the U.S., whose explosive growth has tripled since 2008—even overtaking hydropower to become the nation’s largest source of renewable electricity—could face a period of stagnation once the production tax credit (PTC) is phased out in 2021. Analysts at WINDPOWER 2018 in Chicago last week called the period between 2021 and 2026 […]

Cybersecurity threats are outpacing the energy sector’s “best defenses,” and costs of preventing and responding to cyber incidents are straining company efforts to protect critical infrastructure, the Department of Energy (DOE) warned as it released a comprehensive five-year cybersecurity strategy for the industry. The Multiyear Plan for Energy Sector Cybersecurity, dated March 2018 but which […]

GE will buy Alstom’s stakes in three energy joint ventures (JVs) the companies formed when GE acquired Alstom’s energy business nearly three years ago. Alstom and GE on May 4 signed an agreement that essentially sets out a plan for Alstom to exercise put options on JVs it formed with GE pertaining to their renewables […]

May 3, 2018 Facing a Supply Crunch, ERCOT to Revamp Reserve Margin Targets The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on April 30 updated its summer 2018 planning reserve margin to 11% based on resource updates, but it warned that the regional grid… Read More More Gas, Renewables in Dominion’s Future Dominion Energy plans to […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) over the past two weeks has made a string of funding announcements, including nearly a half-billion dollars of new investment in power-related initiatives. The funding backs advancements in cybersecurity, advanced nuclear, solar, bioenergy, fuel cells, geothermal, and energy storage. $25 Million for Cybersecurity.On April 16, the DOE’s Office of […]

  Despite the recent retirement of “blackstart” units, grid operators have sufficient resources to quickly restore systems in the event of widespread outages, suggests a new report by staff at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). The report—“FERC-NERC-Regional Entity Joint Review of Restoration and Recovery Plans”—released May […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued an official timeline for rulemaking that would potentially revise the Obama administration’s 2015 effluent limitations guidelines and standards (ELGs) for steam electric power plants. In its May 2-released Final 2016 Effluent Guidelines Program Plan, the EPA said it will potentially revise the stringent Best Available Technology (BAT) effluent […]

A three-year-long initiative spearheaded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in collaboration with industry has yielded a blueprint that establishes best operational and safety practices and recommended technologies for flying commercial drones beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS). As part of the FAA’s 2015-chartered Pathfinder Initiative, the agency partnered with three private companies to […]

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on April 30 updated its summer 2018 planning reserve margin to 11% based on resource updates, but it warned that the regional grid serving most of Texas could still suffer rotating outages under extreme conditions. In its final Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy (SARA) report for the upcoming […]

April 26, 2018 Report: Technology, Renewables Will Grow Turbine Market The growth in power generation from renewable energy sources, along with the continued shift from coal-fired generation to natural gas, is expected to drive the global market for turbines over… Read More Sponsored Content Microgrids have the Potential to Reduce Power Outages and Electric Costs […]

Despite pleas by environmental groups for more time to review recent dumps of groundwater monitoring data from power companies, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is forging ahead to finalize a proposed overhaul of the Obama administration’s 2015 final Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) rule. The EPA’s 45-day comment period for the agency’s March 1 proposed rule, […]

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is taking steps to more quickly enable flights of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) beyond visual line of the operator’s sight (BVLOS), though no changes are planned to a rule that governs visual line of sight in aircraft operations. The agency that is responsible for the safety of civil aviation under […]

Future regulatory actions issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will treat biomass from managed forests as carbon neutral when used for energy production at stationary sources, an agency policy statement declares. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who revealed the policy statement  on April 23 during a meeting with Georgia forestry leaders, also said the […]

April 19, 2018 Alarming Increase in Cybersecurity Threats Prompts Spate of Government Action Lawmakers, industry, and government entities, including the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), this week released a string of measures responding to mounting… Read More Sponsored Content Microgrids have the Potential to Reduce Power Outages […]

Lawmakers, industry, and government entities, including the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), this week released a string of measures responding to mounting cybersecurity attacks by state-sponsored actors. A Revised Cybersecurity Framework On April 16, the Commerce Department’s NIST, a federal standards laboratory, released an updated version of […]

Russian state-sponsored cyber actors are exploiting routers and other network infrastructure devices worldwide to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks that specifically target critical infrastructure providers and other sectors, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the FBI, and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned in a new joint technical alert. In the U.S. Computer Emergency […]

  Defense-in-depth is a concept that is already widely deployed by many organizations within their IT infrastructures. However, many organizations do not apply it to their industrial control system (ICS) operations, owing mostly to obscure protocols. But as IT and ICS architectures converge and high-profile cybersecurity incidents mount, a robust, holistic defense-in-depth solution may be […]

New Jersey’s Assembly and Senate in separate actions on April 12 passed bills to ensure continued operation of PSEG’s Salem and Hope Creek nuclear power plants. Lawmakers also passed bills to modify the state’s renewable portfolio standards and for support of a pilot offshore wind farm. Legislation (S-2313/A-3724) directing the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) […]

April 12, 2018 Under Competitive Pressure, Nuclear Industry Doing All It Can, NEI Head Says The nation’s paramount nuclear power trade group has launched a wide-ranging strategy to help generators stay profitable in tight markets, the head of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) told Wall… Read More Sponsored Content Are You Doing All You Can […]