The federally owned Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) announced this week that it was eliminating more than 2,000 jobs as part of its ongoing effort to stem a tide of red ink. The cuts are not as draconian as they might appear, since more than half of the jobs represent vacancies that will now not be […]

Judging by the long-running dispute between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State of Texas over greenhouse gas permitting under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program, one might assume GHG permitting in Texas has been stalled, or at least slowed. That assumption would be wrong according to an announcement from the EPA this […]

This supplement to “Strategies for Inspecting HRSGs in Two-Shift and Low- Load Service” in the August issue includes additional discussion of the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) Inspectors Toolkit and HRSG Inspection Guide sections of the main article plus additional photos of damage caused by rapid startups and two-shifting of units over time. More Tools […]

A significant reform of Germany’s aggressive renewable energy laws passed its final hurdle on July 11, setting the country on a more market-based path toward future growth. The bill was developed and approved by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats. Because they are the two largest parties, the legislation was […]

A combination of falling natural gas prices, greater integration of renewable generation, and advancing technology has meant changing roles for many plants, particularly gas turbine combined cycle plants. (See “Managing the Changing Profile of a Combined Cycle Plant” in the June 2014 issue.) The added wear and tear on plant equipment, and the changing maintenance […]

The 135-MW Quinto Solar Project, a solar photovoltaic (PV) plant under construction in California’s Central Valley, officially broke ground on July 29. San Jose–based SunPower Corp. is building the plant in Los Banos, and will sell power from the facility to Southern California Edison under a 20-year power purchase agreement. The project is due for […]

Duke Energy Progress announced on July 28 that it was buying out the interests owned by North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency (NCEMPA) in two nuclear plants and two coal plants in North Carolina for $1.2 billion. The sale between Duke Energy Progress, Duke Energy’s Carolina subsidiary, and NCEMPA represents all of NCEMPA’s generation assets. […]

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) on July 21 formally requested permission from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to enter into a power purchase agreement (PPA) with NRG Energy for up to 633 MW from the proposed Carlsbad Energy Center. The move is what SDG&E and NRG hope is the last chapter in a […]

The California Energy Commission (CEC) issued a solicitation for proposals earlier this month to fund projects that will demonstrate the feasibility of renewable energy and storage–powered microgrids. A total of $26.5 million in funding is available for three groups of potential projects: low-carbon-based microgrids for critical facilities, high-penetration renewable-based microgrids, and advanced smart and bidirectional […]

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When GenOn Energy (now part of NRG Energy) announced in March 2012 that it would retire the 1950s-era coal-fired Shawville Generating Station in western Pennsylvania—blaming the impending Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS)—the reaction was swift and bitter. “Pragmatic energy policies should not guillotine coal from the nation’s energy grid,” then-state Rep. Bud George, who […]

Nevada utility NV Energy’s net metering program does not significantly impact homeowners without rooftop solar, according to a study prepared for the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (NPUC) this month.  The study was conducted by San Francisco–based Energy and Environmental Economics (E3) at the request of the NPUC after the passage of a Nevada law last […]

After bottoming out at 822 billion cubic feet (Bcf) the week ending Mar. 28—the lowest level since April 2003—U.S. inventories of natural gas in underground storage have risen sharply this summer, though levels remain below recent averages, according to Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. Following a severe winter in which the country burned through a […]

Florida Power & Light (FPL), Florida’s largest utility, announced on June 25 that it was looking to invest directly in natural gas exploration and production as a means of securing future gas supplies and guarding against price volatility. NextEra Energy subsidiary FPL, the largest consumer of gas in the state, has been rapidly expanding its […]

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Gina McCarthy said on Tuesday that the agency’s proposed carbon emissions rules are specifically designed to support nuclear plants that are struggling with profitability. In Chicago to campaign for support from business leaders, McCarthy said the agency has focused on about 6% of the nation’s nuclear fleet that is in […]

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering the imposition of nationwide reporting requirements for chemicals and mixtures used in fracking operations. On May 19, 2014, the EPA published an Advanced Notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register seeking public input on the development of such a rule, including whether reporting should be mandatory […]

Duke Energy on Monday signed an agreement with the state of North Carolina and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to clean up the Dan River coal ash spill that occurred in February. Significantly, the agreement is financially open-ended in that it does not set a cost cap on the amount Duke must spend to […]

In a major setback for efforts to support demand response, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order 745, finding that the rule overstepped state authority to regulate retail electricity markets. FERC Order 745, issued in 2011, required the nation’s Independent System Operators (ISOs) […]

Despite relatively low interest in cybersecurity issues among power industry professionals, the threat of cyber attacks on generation systems is real, as the latest report by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) group reveals. The January–April report from the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) notes that the DHS group recently received […]

Ending a decade of often-contentious negotiations, Russia and China on May 21 signed a 30-year, $400 billion deal that will initially send around 38 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year to Chinese markets, with plans to later expand that to 60 bcm/yr as pipeline capacity expands. The agreement was finalized by Chinese President Xi […]

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Substantial new gas-fired and solar generation that have been added to the California grid over the past year are expected to take up the slack this summer as an ongoing severe drought has led to substantial limitations on hydroelectric generation, according the summer 2014 assessment from the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). According to the […]

Rebounding from the loss of the Crystal River nuclear plant, Duke Energy Florida announced plans on May 13 to replace the lost capacity with a new 1,640-MW combined cycle plant on the same site. Duke will also add two combustion turbines, totaling 320 MW, to the Suwannee plant near Live Oak and increase the capacity […]

General Electric’s (GE’s) $16.9 billion bid for rival Alstom’s power and grid divisions has set in motion a drama that seems certain to shake up the generation sector worldwide. GE and Alstom announced the all-cash offer, consisting of $13.5 billion in enterprise value and $3.4 billion in net cash, on April 30. Rumors of the […]

On Friday, April 25, approximately two dozen intervenors filed comments regarding PacifiCorp’s proposed amendments to its Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) to permit its participation in the California Independent System Operator Corp.’s proposed Energy Imbalance Market (“EIM”). The CAISO EIM is the first proposed organized market structure across a multi-state footprint in the West, which […]

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook 2014 (AEO), released on May 7, projects slow growth in electricity demand through 2040, with natural gas and renewables taking an increasing share of the generation mix while coal and nuclear continue to decline. The 2014 AEO sees the current weak growth in electricity demand continuing through […]

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Though often lumped together under the term “energy storage,” the field is in fact a wide range of technologies ranging from well established to speculative, each with different functions, advantages, and drawbacks. The discussion below focuses on existing grid-scale (greater than 1 MW rated power) projects and is generally ordered by level of deployment. Pumped […]

In a major ruling on Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) authority to regulate power plant emissions across state lines under the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had struck down the CSAPR in 2012, finding that the EPA had exceeded its […]