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.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is giving states an extra year to develop air quality plans related to the 2015-National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone. In a June 6 letter sent to U.S. governors, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that the extended deadline for promulgating initial area designations for the rule issued […]
Mississippi Power’s Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) project is now expected to be in service by the end of June, but the company expects it will need post in-service improvements. It also said timing of when it will file a case to address the recovery of costs not currently reflected in rates is uncertain. […]
Dominion Energy told POWER it will begin a “strategic reassessment” of its plans for the 2,111-MW Millstone Nuclear Power Station in Connecticut after state legislators effectively blocked a bill that would have provided it a mechanism to bid for state contracts reserved for renewables. Dominion waged a tough campaign to push the bill through the […]
Southern Co. announced yet another lag beyond a new in-service date for its Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) project. Along with concerns about delays and mounting cost increases afflicting the plant’s coal gasification component are how it will be used in the face of cheap gas prices. The company’s subsidiary Mississippi Power last […]
Power News Don't miss these POWER magazine resources: Post Jobs | View Jobs | Buyers' Guide [UPDATE]Trump to Pull U.S. Out of Paris Agreement President Donald Trump will pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, making the nation one of only three in the world not a party to the agreement, […]
The world’s offshore wind sector, which has been at near-standstill in the U.S. owing to high costs and technical limitations, is poised to see a fierce developmental gust that can be attributed to several factors. While much of the enthusiasm at the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA’s) WINDPOWER 2017 annual event in Anaheim, Calif., was […]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has given its staff the green light to license Dominion Energy’s Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) proposed for construction at its North Anna site in Virginia. It also approved an uprate at Energy Northwest’s Columbia Generating Station in Washington. The NRC said it authorized issuance of the combined construction and […]
Power News Don't miss these POWER magazine resources: Post Jobs | View Jobs | Buyers' Guide Southern Company Could Delay Plant Vogtle Decision Until Late Summer CEO Tom Fanning told Southern Co.'s shareholders attending the company’s annual meeting on May 24 that a decision on how to proceed with the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion could take […]
Under a proposed restructuring agreement, NRG Energy will hand over 100% equity of GenOn Energy, a wholesale generation company it acquired in a $1.7 billion deal in 2012, to the company’s bondholders once GenOn emerges from voluntary Chapter 11 restructuring. NRG, GenOn, and an ad hoc group of GenOn noteholders reached a mutual cooperation agreement […]
Two nuclear plants owned by Exelon Corp. in Illinois and Pennsylvania failed to clear PJM Interconnection’s latest annual capacity auction, putting one of those financially crippled units at risk of early retirement. Meanwhile, procurements for solar, wind, and demand response fell dramatically compared to last year, and drastic price declines could roil the market for […]
Power News Don't miss these POWER magazine resources: Post Jobs | View Jobs | Buyers' Guide Senate Committee Takes on Regulatory Reform The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs May 17 advanced a number of bills that could have significant impacts on the future of energy regulation in the future. Four of the […]
Finnish technology firm Wärtsilä has acquired Greensmith Energy Management Systems, a firm that specializes in energy storage optimization and integration software, for an undisclosed amount. Greensmith, which has designed and deployed more than 180 MW of energy storage at 50 sites globally, has developed a software platform, GEMS, which optimizes the performance of energy […]
Virginia’s governor has directed the commonwealth’s environmental quality agency to establish regulations to curb its carbon emissions from power plants via a carbon trading scheme by the end of this year. Executive Directive 11 signed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) on May 16 instructs the Department of Environmental Quality to develop a proposed rule to […]
India’s government has given the state-owned Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd. (NPCIL) the green light to develop 10 new domestically designed pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs). The approval means that NPCIL, the entity that owns and operates India’s 22 nuclear reactors—a total of 6.2 GW—can begin to site and build 10 more 700-MW PHWR […]
Detroit-based DTE Energy wants to slash its carbon emissions by more than 80% from 2005 levels by 2050, a reduction it said is in line with broad targets identified by scientists to address climate change. The company said on May 16 that it plans to substantially increase investments in renewables, transition its baseload capacity from […]
Power News Don't miss these POWER magazine resources: Post Jobs | View Jobs | Buyers' Guide No Firm Date for Watts Bar 2 Return to Service Yet Watts Bar 2, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) nuclear unit that began commercial operation last October, has been shut down indefinitely owing to a major issue with a condenser […]
Watts Bar 2, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) nuclear unit that began commercial operation last October, has been shut down indefinitely owing to a major issue with a condenser revealed this March. TVA spokesman Jim Hopson told POWER on May 11 that the reactor—the first new nuclear unit to begin operations in the U.S. in more than […]
The flood of cheap Marcellus Shale gas driving massive construction of new natural gas power generation capacity could wreak havoc in the PJM power market, Moody’s Investors Service suggests in a new report. Two of the nation’s largest power markets, Texas and California, already pose a “distressed environment” for unregulated power companies owing to declining […]
Dominion Resources, one of the nation’s largest power generators, has changed its name and the names of key subsidiaries, including Dominion Virginia Power. The Richmond, Va.–headquartered company that has a power portfolio of 26.2 GW, sizable transmission assets, as well as natural gas storage systems and pipelines, will now be known as “Dominion Energy.” The […]
President Trump on Monday made two nominations to fill vacancies at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which, if confirmed, would restore the agency’s quorum and ability to take action. Neither nominee was a surprise. Both names had long circulated in Washington. The mystery was why it took so long—three months—for the administration to fill […]
Coal Power Direct Current Issue | Find a Job | Post a Job D.C. Circuit Halts Clean Power Plan, Mercury Rule Litigation In two separate actions over the past 24 hours, the D.C. Circuit granted the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) request to suspend cases challenging the Clean Power Plan and the Mercury and Air […]
Power News Don't miss these POWER magazine resources: Post Jobs | View Jobs | Buyers' Guide Vogtle, V.C. Summer Project Owners Buy More Time to Mull Fate of Nuclear Units The owners of the Vogtle and V.C. Summer nuclear expansions separately secured a few more weeks to allow work to continue onsite at each project […]
Solar Plus Storage Distributed Energy Resource System Project to Power Oceanic Time Warner Telecom Facility on Island of Hawaii MILWAUKEE, May 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — EnSync, Inc. (NYSE MKT: ESNC), dba EnSync Energy Systems, a leading developer of innovative distributed energy resource (DER) systems and internet of energy (IOE) control platforms for the utility, commercial, […]
Valmet Oyj’s trade press release on May 4, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. EET Valmet’s Advanced Process Control (APC) application, Valmet DNA FBB Combustion Manager, has improved combustion for the biomass boiler at WestRock‘s Covington mill in Virginia, USA. By optimizing combustion, the mill has been able to maximize and increase the main steam output of […]
Wärtsilä Corporation, Press release, 4 May 2017 at 12 noon EET The technology group Wärtsilä will supply 73 MW capacity equipment for an extension to a power plant owned by Yesilyurt Enerji Elektrik Uretim A.S, an Independent Power Producer (IPP) in Turkey. The equipment will be delivered during the coming months, and the extended power […]
Fast, trailer-mounted solutions will bring 200 megawatts (MW) of power, the equivalent needed for up to an additional 15% of Angola’s population Includes GE’s Asset Performance Management software solutions from Predix GE Power for Angola program to provide technology and services for additional power to grid May 02, 2017 07:46 AM Eastern Daylight Time LUANDA, […]
Coal and nuclear energy sources reduced to near-complete standby Berlin, May 3, 2017: A combination of breezy and sunny weather in the north and warm weather in the south saw Germany’s May 1 holiday weekend powered almost exclusively by renewable resources, according to the Agora Energiewende Initiative. Most of Germany’s coal-fired power stations were not […]
Global wind turbine orders collected from July through December from 24 countries and 11 vendors total nearly 15,000 MW, report finds May 4, 2017 – Boulder, CO – A new report from Navigant Research tracks all publicly announced wind turbine orders between July and December 2016, providing details on orders placed by region, […]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced it is working on guidance to give states the flexibility in implementing programs for the management of coal combustion residuals (CCR) disposal. In an April 28 letter to state governors, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt described the agency’s steps to implement a “new authority” for authorizing state CCR management […]
The owners of the Vogtle and V.C. Summer nuclear expansions separately secured a few more weeks to allow work to continue onsite at each project while they decide how to proceed with the half-built AP1000 reactors after Westinghouse’s financial debacle. In Georgia, owners of the project to expand Plant Vogtle extended an interim assessment agreement […]