In a Monday morning session at the annual meeting in Austin of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), panelists and commissioners traded comments on challenges and successes related to integrating increasing levels of renewables while ensuring reliable grid operation. David Boyd, VP of government and regulatory affairs for the Midcontinent Independent System Operator […]

The 400-MW coal-fired Sunbury Power Plant in Snyder County, Penn., retired in 2014, will be replaced with a three-unit, 1.1-GW combined cycle plant, private equity firm Panda Power Funds announced on Oct. 28. The four-unit Sunbury facility, which began operations in 1949, was shuttered last year after 65 years of operation. Originally built for Pennsylvania […]

Battery storage has emerged from the fringes of the power sector to challenge both industry conventions and traditional generation. Where it goes from here, however—the future of battery storage technology—is a matter of some debate. Both storage firms and energy storage experts at the Energy Storage North America (ESNA) conference in San Diego Oct. 13-15 […]

Energy storage needs better energy storage policy. Speaking at the Energy Storage North America (ESNA) conference in San Diego on Oct. 12, Garrett Fitzgerald, senior associate with the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), was frank about the challenge facing energy storage technologies: They’re starting to get well ahead of the regulatory regimes that are needed to […]

  Current Issue | Find a Job | Post a Job U.S. Power Mix: Gas Replacing Coal Faster Than Expected Coal has been the dominant source of electricity in the U.S. power mix for more than a century, but that may be coming to an end sooner than expected. For only the second time ever, […]

Coal has been the dominant source of electricity in the U.S. power mix for more than a century, but that may be coming to an end sooner than expected. For only the second time ever, but also the second time this year, gas generated more electricity in the U.S. than coal. According to statistics from […]

Battery energy storage has exploded in deployment over the past several years, but the majority of it by capacity, especially in North America, is deployed at grid scale. That may be a problem, because a new study from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) suggests the greatest value to the system lies with behind-the-meter batteries—distributing battery […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Oct. 1 released the final version of new National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone, cutting the current limit of 75 ppb to 70 ppb. The move sets the stage for a battle with Congress, the states, and a range of industries that have warned the new ozone […]

After years of stressing the conventional virtues of geothermal power production—reliable, baseload renewable energy from geological sources—the geothermal industry and the U.S. government are looking at ways technology can change the hot rocks game and give a boost to an often-overlooked resource. Legendary venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, who made a pile of money in information […]

Duke Energy announced on Sept. 29 that it had agreed to pay a $7 million fine to resolve all groundwater issues with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) relating to its 14 facilities in the state. The settlement comes after Duke appealed a proposed $25.1 million fine the NCDEQ levied in March. The […]

Another coal plant in the heart of coal country is shutting down after Owensboro Municipal Utilities, Kentucky’s largest municipal electric retailer, said it would retire Unit 1 of the Elmer Smith Power Plant in Owensboro some time between 2019 and 2020. The 163-MW Unit 1 opened in 1964. The larger 282-MW Unit 2, which came […]

The global concentrating solar power (CSP) sector, criticized by some observers for high costs and uncertain technology, is poised for significant growth and a key role in the power mix—provided markets are structured to properly value their ability to store and dispatch renewable energy, three senior CSP executives said on Sept. 16. Speaking at the […]

Speaking at the Solar Power International (SPI) conference in Anaheim, Calif., on Sept. 16, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden hailed the nation’s progress in expanding its solar generation capacity and announced several new investments in solar power technology as part of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Sunshot Initiative. In an enthusiastic and animated address to […]

Power News Current Issue | Find a Job | Post a Job Controlling Schedule, Quality, and Costs for New Gas-Fired Plants Gas-fired power is hot, at least in North America, and quite a few smaller utilities and generators that have never owned a gas turbine plant have begun looking at building one. For large investor-owned […]

Exelon Corp.’s embattled nuclear fleet got some good news on Sept. 10 when the company announced that it was deferring a decision on whether to retire its Quad Cities and Byron plants by at least a year. Both plants cleared PJM’s capacity auctions this summer despite concerns about their profitability. As a result, Exelon is […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said on Sept. 2 that it was increasing its oversight of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant as a result of an inspection finding stemming from an unplanned shutdown in January. The action moves the plant into the Repetitive Degraded Cornerstone Column, indicating multiple problems in meeting one of the NRC’s […]

Gas-fired power is hot, at least in North America, and quite a few smaller utilities and generators that have never owned a gas turbine plant have begun looking at building one. For large investor-owned companies with plenty of institutional experience in power plant construction, it may be business as usual, but for smaller firms that […]

Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station outside Boston just can’t seem to shake its problems with unplanned shutdowns. The most recent one occurred on Aug. 22, when a broken air-nitrogen line caused a main steam isolation valve to close, trigging a reactor scram. This was the plant’s third unplanned shutdown in 2015. Pilgrim was forced offline […]

Exelon’s embattled nuclear fleet got more bad—though far from unexpected—news on Aug. 21 as the Oyster Creek, Quad Cities, and Three Mile Island nuclear power plants failed to clear in the 2018–19 PJM capacity auction. This means that the three plants will not receive capacity payments during that delivery year. This was despite a big […]

Power News Don’t miss these POWER magazine resources: Post Jobs | View Jobs | Buyers’ Guide Costs and Deadlines Continue to Challenge V.C. Summer Nuclear Plant Project With all 40 remaining construction milestones for V.C. Summer Nuclear Station Units 2 and 3 behind schedule (33 by more than 18 months) as of June 30, South […]

Making good on earlier warnings, ScottishPower said on Aug. 18 that it has no choice but to retire the 2,400-MW Longannet power plant in March 2016 because high transmission charges and carbon taxes make fossil generation uneconomic in Scotland. As with generators in the U.S., coal plants in the UK have been challenged by an […]

Power News Current Issue | Find a Job | Post a Job Texas Sets Record for Gas Power Burn, Still Barely Enough The Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on August 10 set a record for electricity demand, topping 69,000 MW twice during the afternoon. The peak came as the Energy Information Administration (EIA) noted […]

The Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on August 10 set a record for electricity demand, topping 69,000 MW twice during the afternoon. The peak came as the Energy Information Administration (EIA) noted that Texas also set a record for gas power burn—natural gas usage in its power sector—reaching an average 4.5 Bcf/d through August […]

Exelon’s Quad Cities nuclear plant in Illinois will not be economically viable despite changes in the PJM capacity market, and the company has to make a decision on closing it before the Illinois legislature can act on possible measures to save it, CEO Chris Crane said in Exelon’s second-quarter earnings call on July 29. Along […]

With the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) expected to issue its final rule on power plant greenhouse gas emissions under the administration’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) early next week, reports strongly suggest the revisions will extend compliance deadlines in response to power sector complaints about a too-aggressive schedule in the proposed rule. A July 28 report […]

The Obama Administration on July 21 threatened to veto a coal ash bill that is currently pending in the House and Senate, saying it would undermine protections in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) recently finalized rule on disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCR). The EPA rule, issued in December 2014, drew mixed reactions from the […]

AES has begun construction of what will be the largest energy storage project in Europe when it comes online later this year in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. The 10-MW/40-MWh Kilroot Advancion Energy Storage Array is being added to the AES UK & Ireland Kilroot Power Station in County Antrim along the country’s east coast. The grid-connected […]

A cyber attack on the U.S. power grid could potentially destroy dozens of generating units, leave 93 million people without power for weeks, and result in nearly $250 billion dollars in economic damage, according to a new report from Lloyd’s of London. Prepared to enable insurers to gauge and prepare for potential risks, the report […]

Power News Current Issue | Find a Job | Post a Job Gas Passes Coal as Top U.S. Power Source King Coal has lost his crown—at least temporarily. Electricity generation data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) for April 2015 showed the U.S. generated 92.5 TWh from natural gas and 88.8 TWh from coal, the […]

King Coal has lost his crown—at least temporarily. Electricity generation data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) for April 2015 showed the U.S. generated 92.5 TWh from natural gas and 88.8 TWh from coal, the first time the nation has gotten the largest share of its power from anything other than coal. That represents a […]