Business

RWE Abandons Hard Coal Construction Project. RWE scrapped plans to complete the 800-MW Block D of the Hamm hard coal plant in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia on December 18, citing damage and delays

Europe’s largest generator of renewable power will no longer invest in new offshore wind projects and may postpone some international hydro plants. Norwegian state-owned power company Statkraft will stop

Nuclear ambitions fostered by some countries were tested by a variety of events at the end of 2015. Work Continues on Turkey’s Russian-Built Akkuyu Plant. Reports that Russia has halted construction of

A summary of POWER’s legal affairs conference on power industry regulations.

Fusion provides the energy of the sun and all stars, but harnessing fusion for civilian electric power has proven exceptionally difficult. For over 50 years the U.S. government has pursued

The historic winter storm that buried the Eastern U.S. in snow over the weekend shut the lights off for more than a million customers from Arkansas to Massachusetts as it downed power lines and hampered operations at some power plants. According to the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, at one […]

For over 30 years, MPW Industrial Water Service has worked to provide customized and expert solutions for our clients that chop operating costs in half. We offer professional water services that rise to the occasion during an emergency, or to provide long-term purified water needs that rank as some of the best in the industry.
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Entergy has asked a federal court to invalidate a November 6 New York state (NYS) objection to a certification needed for the 20-year license extension of its Indian Point nuclear facilities by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The state’s Department of State (DOS) claimed in its decision that Entergy’s twin nuclear reactors, which supply nearly 25% […]

Calpine Corp. will idle a 578-MW natural gas–fired combined cycle (CCGT) power plant in northern California for likely the remainder of the year. The Houston-headquartered company told POWER on January 15 that it will put the 2001-built Sutter Energy Center in Yuba City in “cold layup.” That means that while will the plant will not […]

Wholesale power prices across the nation plunged between 27% and 37% at major trading hubs last year compared to 2014, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported. The agency said on January 11 that the drop was driven largely by lower natural gas prices. Natural gas spot prices in 2015 at the Henry Hub averaged $2.61 […]

In his final State of the Union (SOTU) address on January 12, and arguably less so than in any other address he has given over the last seven years, President Obama made sparse mention of energy and climate change. The president dedicated most of the energy references in his address to “clean” energy, encapsulating wind […]

Malware has apparently been used for the first time to prompt a large-scale power blackout. An attack was tied to a Dec. 23 blackout affecting about 1.4 million Ukrainians living in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, reported Ukrainian news media outlet TSN. However, Slovakian information security firm ESET later confirmed that the reported case “was not an […]

Georgia Power (GP) announced on Jan. 4 that the owners of the expansion project at the Vogtle nuclear power plant (GP, Oglethorpe Power Corp., the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, and Dalton Utilities) have settled all pending litigation with the original project contractors, Westinghouse and CB&I. According to GP, the settlement resolves “all claims currently […]

Wind production in the U.S. hit record highs in October 2015, natural gas prices hit record lows, and solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption is continuing to grow to unprecedented levels. Energy storage prices are

The near-simultaneous surge in U.S. natural gas production and recent enactment of environmental regulations will usher U.S. power supply from reliance on coal to increased usage of natural gas and renewables

All power generating companies and plant operators value reliability, but they may be paying too little attention to a critical variable: people. One million. That’s the approximate number of people in the sky over the U.S. as you read this article. Remarkably, all will land safely. Aviation achieves among the highest reliability of any industry. […]

In mid-November, current members of POWER’ s Generating Company Advisory Team responded by email to a set of questions about their concerns, challenges, and new initiatives as they plan for the year ahead

Another megatrend has hit the power generation industry: the Internet of Things (IoT)—countless devices with embedded electronics, sensors, and connectivity to digitally communicate with one another and

From issuance of the final Clean Power Plan to mammoth mergers, 2015 will be remembered as a tumultuous year. Twelve months ago, as folks were emerging from an eventful 2014, POWER made some bold predictions, including that fuel economics will drive 2015 U.S. power markets, and the labor crunch will complicate the gas turbine arms […]

POWER‘s monthly infographic sheds light on power sector trends globally, and in 2015, it highlighted changes in plant retirements, sector revenues, rule costs, workforce, emissions technologies, and electricity costs, among other subjects. January 2015: Baseload Retirements How coal plant retirements compare with retirements of other baseload generation sources. February 2015: Power Revenues How revenues for fossil power […]

Portland General Electric (PGE) assumed engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) responsibility for the Carty Generating Station on Dec. 18, following the original EPC contractor’s default on its construction agreement. Construction began on the Carty plant on Jan. 9, 2014. It is being built in Oregon next to PGE’s existing Boardman Plant, which is scheduled for […]

A status update and forecast for solar photovoltaic power in Greece, Croatia, and Italy.

A slowing of the Chinese economy and the diversification of its power sector, combined with a worldwide trend toward policies that favor renewable energy and the retirement of older, less-efficient coal-fired facilities, trumped growth in India and the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries, resulting in a decline in coal consumption in 2014, which […]

Coal ash utilization, which had stalled between 2009 and 2013 as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prepared a final federal coal ash rule, increased significantly in 2014. According to the American Coal Ash Association’s (ACAA’s) most recent “Production and Use Survey,” 62.4 million tons of coal combustion products were beneficially used in 2014—up from 51.4 […]

American Electric Power (AEP), one of the biggest coal generators in the U.S., is withdrawing funds and staff resources from heavy lobbying efforts against the Clean Power Plan, sinking them instead into preparations for compliance with the controversial climate rule. The company has informed the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that it will not be […]

FirstEnergy Corp., which may enter into a settlement with Ohio to safeguard the future of its Davis-Besse nuclear plant—a deal critics have blasted as “corporate welfare”—just got the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s permission to operate the 1978-built reactor until 2037. The 20-year license extension marks a milestone for Akron-headquartered FirstEnergy, which has warned it might have […]

New rules from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have several unintended consequences for the power sector, an expert said at a POWER magazine event on Dec. 7. Floyd Self, an attorney with Florida-based law firm Berger Singerman, said that the bevy of new EPA rules have helped forged mergers between electric and gas utilities and necessitated […]

Shaken financially by low natural gas prices and subsidized renewables, the nuclear industry has launched a new initiative to reduce nuclear power plant operating costs to make them more economically viable. Industry group the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) said on Dec. 8 it is coordinating a multifaceted effort in tandem with member utilities, the Institute […]

NRG Energy announced on Dec. 3 that David Crane is stepping down as president and CEO of the company effective immediately. Crane had served in the position since 2003. During more than 12 years at the helm of NRG, he led the company through its emergence from bankruptcy to its current position as a leader […]

Germany’s largest power generator RWE, following in the footsteps of its competitor E.ON, plans to split its company to bank on renewable energy and grid operations, which it says is the future for utility companies. If approved by RWE’s supervisory board, the Essen-headquartered company that produces more than 40% of its power from hard coal […]