Sonal Patel is a national award-winning multimedia journalist and senior editor at POWER magazine with nearly two decades of experience delivering technically rigorous reporting across power generation, transmission, distribution, policy, and infrastructure worldwide.
June 21, 2018 Analysts: Coal Generation Will Plummet More Than 70% About half the world’s power will be generated by wind and solar resources by 2050. Generation from coal will drop more than 70% from today’s levels. That’s according to research… Read More Sponsored Content MD&A Integrated with PW Power Systems' Division Mechanical Dynamics and […]
June 28, 2018 GE CEO: Company ‘Finished’ with Restructuring General Electric (GE) saw its stock price surge more than 7% on June 26 after the company said it would dissolve its stake in oil services company Baker Hughes and… Read More Trump Administration’s ‘All-of-the-Above’ Strategy Stresses Export Role for Natural Gas The Trump administration, which […]
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on July 2 denied ISO-New England’s (ISO-NE’s) request for a tariff waiver to keep two gas-fired units—a total capacity of 1,700 MW—at Exelon’s Mystic Generating Plant in Boston, Massachusetts, running to address “fuel security risks.” The commission instead gave the grid operator a year to submit permanent tariff revisions […]
In a 3–2 decision, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rejected approaches filed by PJM Interconnection to reform its capacity market, whose integrity and effectiveness has been increasingly and “untenably threatened” by state subsidies for preferred generation resources, the federal regulatory body acknowledged. The June 29 order sharply divided the commission, prompting Democrat Commissioners Cheryl LaFleur […]
The Trump administration, which is considering subsidizing baseload coal and nuclear power for resiliency and “national security,” is pursuing an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy that emphasizes natural gas exports, said Energy Secretary Rick Perry at the World Gas Conference this week in Washington D.C. In a keynote speech on June 26, Perry described the shale gas […]
A bill codifying the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) role in addressing industrial control systems (ICS) cybersecurity has cleared the U.S. House of Representatives. While H.R. 5733, “DHS Industrial Control Systems Capabilities Enhancement Act,” contains no mandates for the private sector, it directs the DHS’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) to develop and maintain […]
Puerto Rico’s energy infrastructure must be redesigned and rebuilt with an emphasis on resilience—and that will require wide-ranging, long-term efforts, the Department of Energy (DOE) says in a new report. In its June 20 report, “Energy Resilience Solutions for the Puerto Rico Grid,” the agency lists a number of recommendations for the government of the […]
American Electric Power’s (AEP’s) proposed $4.5 billion Wind Catcher Energy Connection project—the largest single-site wind project in the nation—has garnered approval from the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC). The LPSC on June 20 approved a settlement agreement related to the project, which is proposed by AEP subsidiary Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO). Under the proposal, […]
For the first time since it began conducting sector outlooks, Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the regulated utility sector from stable to negative. The new outlook reflects a surge in financial risks in the sector as more individual companies in the regulated space funnel funds to debt. Using an analysis of 42 of the largest […]
June 14, 2018 Siemens Reportedly Considering Sale of Gas Turbine Business Siemens AG, the parent company of Siemens Power and Gas, is contemplating the sale of its lucrative but lately troubled gas turbine business, according to one major news outlet. Citing… Read More Sponsored Content Is It Time to Modernize Your Power Generation Control Systems? […]
The U.S. Department of the Treasury on June 11 slapped sanctions on five Russian firms and three Russian individuals for several “significant” malicious cyber-enabled activities, including cyber intrusions in the U.S. energy grid. The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said the sanctions are authorized under President Obama’s Executive Order 13694, “Blocking the Property of Certain […]
Tests of a boiler combustion tuning system employing artificial intelligence (AI) at a Taiwanese coal-fired power unit verify improvements to fuel economy that could ultimately reduce costs by up to $1 million annually, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) announced on June 11. Verification testing of the AI-enabled combustion tuning system was conducted at Unit 2 […]
Employees at Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s 385-MW coal-fired Dry Fork Station are all safe after a tornado touched down at the plant’s site in Gillette, Wyoming, on June 1. The company described the harrowing hour before and after the tornado hit the plant and surrounding area. Though the plant “mostly avoided damage,” employee safety protocol […]
June 7, 2018 Exelon CEO Clarifies Headline-Grabbing No-Grid-Emergency Comment Chris Crane, CEO of Exelon Corp., seemed to take umbrage with the way comments he made on June 5 were reported by Utility Dive. The website published the headline “Exelon… Read More Sponsored Content Microgrids have the Potential to Reduce Power Outages and Electric Costs With […]
A long-stalled plan to repower NRG Energy’s coal-fired 435-MW Dunkirk power plant in Chautauqua County, near Buffalo, New York, to natural gas may be scrapped, owing to uncertainty involving New York Independent System Operator’s (NYISO’s) interconnection process, the company said. NRG mothballed all four units at the plant by January 2016 during four years of […]
The Trump administration’s attempt to prop up uneconomic “fuel secure” generators in competitive markets is just the latest in a string of recent “extra-market” interventions that experts said imperil independent organized markets for electricity. In a recent white paper, Raymond Gifford and Matthew Larson, energy partners at Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP, said the restructured administrative […]
Optimization through advanced testing and modeling tools will increase NuScale Power’s small modular reactor (SMR) capacity by 20%, which could make it “even more competitive with other electricity generation sources,” the Portland, Oregon, company announced on June 6. The breakthrough would boost the power capacity of a 12-module SMR plant currently planned by Utah Associated Municipal […]
Few entities have expressed approval of the Trump administration’s plan that includes a directive for system operators to buy or arrange purchase of energy or capacity from designated “fuel secure” power plants for two years until the Department of Energy (DOE) can address “grid security” challenges. The 41-page draft memo dated May 29—which was presumably authored […]
Reactions from U.S. energy and legal and regulatory groups began pouring in minutes after the White House confirmed on June 1 that President Trump has directed the Department of Energy (DOE) to act immediately to stop the loss of uneconomic coal and nuclear plants. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a June 1 […]
A draft memo circulated by the Trump administration before the National Security Council urges federal action to force grid operators to buy power from uneconomic coal and nuclear plants. Bloomberg on May 31 first pointed to the existence of the 41-page memo, which is dated May 29 and distributed Thursday. The memo outlines plans for a […]
The U.S. is pouring funding into developing new fuel technology for advanced nuclear reactors in a bid to help the flagging industry. On April 27, it awarded General Atomics (GA) $3.2 million for two projects that the San Diego, California-based company is developing, including an accident tolerant fuel (ATF) solution that the company says is […]
In a bid to tamp down pollution, India’s government in December 2015 notified the country’s coal generators they would need to meet—for the first time—new emissions limits for nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and mercury, as well as tightened limits for particulate matter (PM) and water consumption. The gazetted notification gave new plants until […]
As required for the first time by a new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule mandated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act and Item 402(u) of Regulation S-K, public companies in early 2018 began disclosing ratios that compare total compensation paid to principal executive officers (PEOs), such as a CEO, to the median of the annual […]
Nameplate renewable capacity surged to more than 2,000 GW worldwide at the end of 2016, constituting more than 28% of total generating capacity (Figure 6). Most (56%) was hydropower, followed by wind (23%), and then solar, mostly from photovoltaic (PV) at about 15%. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) the expansion was fueled […]
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 […]