Business

Investments into Australia’s power sector enable the industry to meet the collective goal of becoming a cleaner, greener nation. Download the report.

NRC Poised to Rule on SCE Proposal to Restart San Onofre Unit 2. Southern California Edison (SCE) on April 5 submitted a voluntary request to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a license amendment to support restart of Unit 2 of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, and the NRC later said in a […]

The history of electric power has been stained by several devastating incidents triggered by natural hazards, technological failures, malicious actions, and human error.

URS recently performed a combined cycle repowering study to determine the feasibility and economics of repowering an existing steam turbine that went into service in the 1950s. The competing option was building a new combined cycle unit. The results of the study provide insight for others considering the same alternatives.

Lawrence J. Makovich, PhD, IHS CERA’s vice president and senior advisor for Global Power, predicts a rebound in electricity consumption from recession levels. Specifically, the rebound will be stronger than government projections, led by growth in electricity use by industry.

New England’s big push toward gas-fired power collided hard with its historical pipeline constraints this past winter, leaving multiple generators unable to respond to start-up requests from ISO-New England during a major storm. In the wake of the episode, the region is looking for some long-term solutions.

Decisions about design and operational options often are determined by one metric: the impact on the cost of electricity produced. An enhanced screening algorithm for power generation system total ownership cost (capital and operating) and thermal performance (output and efficiency) simplifies the analysis.

A combination of factors, including a relative scarcity of projects, has cut demand for skilled labor in the power generation sector. Despite the lull, workforce retirements are still expected to challenge the industry.

MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., a unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is buying NV Energy Inc. for $23.75 a share in cash, or around $5.6 billion. The companies said the deal was unanimously approved by both boards of directors and could be completed in the first quarter of 2014, pending shareholder approval as well as approval by state and federal regulators.

A carbon tax or cap-and-trade programs could raise trillions of dollars within the first 10 years of their enactment and avert climate change effects, but without accounting for how these revenues will be used, they could take a toll on the U.S. economy, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says in a report released on Tuesday.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), in a special reliability assessment released on Wednesday, called for a number of changes to address the increased reliance on natural gas for power generation, among them incorporating gas availability and gas supply issues into electric reliability assessments.

A final rule issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday orders the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) to develop, by the end of the year, reliability standards that address the impact of geomagnetic disturbances (GMD) on the nation’s bulk power system. Those standards will likely require generators and grid operators to develop and implement operational procedures and conduct continuing assessments on equipment to mitigate GMD effects.

Freeport LNG Expansion LP and FLNG Liquefaction LLC received conditional authorization on May 17 to export U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Freeport LNG Terminal on Quintana Island, Texas, making it the second project to receive federal approval. Meanwhile, Canada is considering a proposed LNG export terminal in British Columbia.

The full Senate last week confirmed Ernest Moniz as Energy Secretary while a divided Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) voted 10–8 to send the nomination of Gina McCarthy as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. Republicans agreed to lift their boycott on the McCarthy vote only after the EPA agreed to meet a number of transparency commitments.

Cost overruns of nearly $1 billion to build the 582-MW Kemper integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant in Kemper County, Miss., were underscored on Monday as Mississippi Power’s Board of Directors took the dramatic step of replacing the Southern Co. subsidiary’s leadership.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced on May 9 that it will hold a commission meeting on May 16 to address the difficulties posed by inadequate alignment between how natural gas and electricity markets operate.

The experience of telecommunications giant Verizon shows why taglines that promise clear, relevant benefits to customers can be invaluable, as long as the company follows through.

Far from precipitating a crisis in high-tech manufacturing, the Chinese attempt to corner the market on rare earth minerals has instead inspired some healthy competition and adaptation.

The global energy sector will need to invest half of current world gross domestic product over the next two decades in order to address a number of critical issues and expand and adapt the energy infrastructure, the London-based World Energy Council (WEC) says in its recently released World Energy Issues Monitor. Here are the most […]

Cuadrilla Delays UK Fracking Project to Conduct More Assessments. The UK’s largest shale gas explorer, Cuadrilla Resources Holdings, on March 14 said it would delay hydraulic fracturing operations at its Anna Road project until 2014, after data it had gathered from exploration of the Bowland Basin Shale in Lancashire confirmed assessments that the 1,200-square-kilometer license […]

China has gone through three periods of nationwide power shortages since 1978. The previous two shortages were mostly caused by the lack of installed generation capacity. However, the third—which has severely restricted economic development—is a consequence of institutional problems that must be corrected.

The challenges of running a coal plant are many and varied. But putting one to bed for good can be just as big a job.

With the ink barely dry on Version 4 of NERC’s critical infrastructure protection (CIP) standards, a new iteration is on the way, bringing with it some major changes in the way the standards will work.

The potential of offshore wind generation in the U.S. is being held back by a regulatory no-man’s-land.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week proposed a rule that it says could strengthen cybersecurity for the bulk electric system. The rule intended to improve the security posture of responsible entities was submitted in January 2013 by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), and it constitutes version 5 of the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Reliability Standards.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week voted 21-1 to approve the nomination of Dr. Ernest Moniz to be Secretary of Energy. Moniz, a physicist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is expected to win full Senate approval this week—with some minor hurdles.