Business

A recent encounter with a newspaper from 1901 got me thinking about the price of electricity over time and how it compares with price changes for other goods and services. Price Changes Over a Century The

Kelly Speakes-Backman Every day there is increasing evidence that we need to accelerate our nation’s transition to a cleaner energy infrastructure. The American Climate Prospectus released by the Risky

Eskom, South Africa’s largest utility, was established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission and was converted into a public company, wholly owned by the government, in July 2002. Eskom produces about

In the latest move shaking up the gas turbine business, Siemens agreed to acquire oil and gas services company Dresser-Rand for $7.6 billion in cash. Dresser-Rand manufactures turbines and compressors for the oil and gas sector, and is a major supplier for upstream natural gas firms and pipeline companies. The deal comes after Siemens acquired […]

Power companies will retire more coal-fired generating capacity and retrofit much fewer units with environmental controls than estimated just two years ago, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reveals in a new report. The report released on Tuesday finds that in response to shifting market conditions and four Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules (not including the […]

Regulators from six states shared starkly different views on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed carbon rules for existing power plants at a House hearing on Tuesday. Some state-level officials said the EPA’s overall emission targets and suggested means to achieve them are based on unworkable and unrealistic assumptions about how state and regional power […]

The Montana Public Service Commission (MPSC) on Sept. 4 approved Northwestern Energy Corp.’s request to purchase 11 hydroelectric power plants in the state from PPL Montana for $880 million. The plants, which comprise PPL Montana’s entire hydroelectric profile, total 630 MW of generation. Nine are run-of-river plants; the other two, the Mystic Lake Dam in […]

They call themselves “Fractivists.” Environmental and community activists fearful of relatively new natural gas and oil drilling technologies that have transformed the U.S. energy economy have launched a high-profile, highly hyped campaign to shut down new natural gas production. But their prospects of success look dodgy. Ground Zero in the debate over fracking—shorthand for the […]

Cybersecurity threats facing the power industry have escalated dramatically in the past few years, as state-sponsored, organized crime, and hacktivist groups all seek to infiltrate U.S. energy infrastructure for cyber-espionage and sabotage purposes. A recent example of the severity of this threat can be seen in operation “Energetic Bear”—a Russian campaign to infect U.S. and […]

The Aug. 4–6 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit shed light on the power plights faced by sub-Saharan African countries, but it also highlighted their massive power potential and the array of solutions under consideration to resolve Africa’s energy crisis. Here are a number of key insights gleaned from discussions at the summit—the first a U.S. president has […]

EU Doles Out €1 Billion in Funding for Renewable Projects Under NER 300. The European Commission on July 10 awarded €1 billion ($1.34 billion) to 19 renewable energy projects and a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project under its NER 300 program. The projects will cumulatively raise European Union (EU) renewable energy production by about […]

Calpine Corp. has its hands in two deals with large power companies—selling a plant to Duke Energy in Florida while buying a plant from Exelon Corp. in Massachusetts. On Aug. 25, Calpine announced that it has agreed to buy Exelon’s 809-MW Fore River Generating Station, which is located about 12 miles southeast of Boston, for […]

Geographically and politically, Texas and Germany are on opposite sides of the world, but both believe strongly in competitive energy markets, and both have largely deregulated their power industries. Now both are reconsidering their market designs. Its easy to think that Germany and Texas could not be more different. One is northern, cold, and Old […]

Dynegy Inc.—the Houston-based power company with operations in the Midwestern, Northeastern, and Western U.S.—has signed two separate agreements to acquire generation assets from Duke Energy and Energy Capital Partners (ECP). The acquisition includes a total of 12,313 MW of coal and gas generation, which will increase the company’s total portfolio to nearly 26 GW. Dynegy […]

Europe’s third-largest power provider last week revealed it may be forced to shut down more conventional power plants compromising a total of 1 GW and terminate 470 MW in supply contracts if market conditions in Germany do not improve.  RWE has blamed “political intervention” for “making [its] business challenging”—and specifically, the subsidized expansion of renewables […]

The nation’s coal fleet is under threat, alleged Dr. Larry S. Monroe, chief environmental officer and senior vice president for research and environmental affairs with Southern Co. during the keynote plenary session at the Power Plant Pollutant Control “MEGA” Symposium on Aug. 19 in Baltimore, Md. Monroe was part of a four-member panel, which included […]

American Electric Power (AEP) has agreed to close a coal plant and make changes at two others to resolve alleged Clean Water Act (CWA) violations. According to consent decrees filed in two West Virginia federal district courts, the company on Friday agreed to settle allegations from numerous citizen groups that the coal-fired John E. Amos, Kammer, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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S. Korea Extends Renewables Target Deadline. South Korea’s government on June 9 said it would push back the target for mandatory use of renewable energy by two years to ease requirements for the

Argentina’s 692-MW Atucha 2 nuclear reactor achieved criticality in early June, marking a major milestone for the country’s third reactor, development of which began nearly four decades ago. A pressurized

Indonesia, the world’s leading exporter of thermal coal, in June again suggested it could limit coal production and further tighten its control on exports to protect supply for domestic power plants

The 2014 POWER Plant of the Year makes history, both as a project and as our cover story. The Plant of the Year award goes to the most interesting, usually new, plant in the previous year. Sometimes it’s a

Zeng Ming, Duan Jinhui, Wang Liang, Gu Shanshan In 2013, urbanization in China reached 53.73%. Urbanization has become an important field for national reform. On the one hand, urbanization is effective for

California has set an ambitious target of connecting 1.3 GW of energy storage to the grid by 2020. In October 2013, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) mandated that 200 MW of this goal come in

Consensus is that the locus of world energy demand has shifted away from the U.S. and Europe to Asia, driven by the soaring economies of the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Interest in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) carbon pollution standards for existing power plants—the “Clean Power Plan,” proposed under the authority of the Clean Air Act Section 111(d)—was so high that the agency had to add double the days and double the rooms at all four locations this week. At all locations, power industry speakers […]

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. […]

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) June 2–proposed carbon rule for existing power plants favors nuclear, renewable, and natural gas combined cycle sources, but it also grants coal-heavy states wide flexibility to meet carbon goals with continued coal use, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told lawmakers at a Senate oversight hearing on Wednesday.  Six Democrats and six […]