Business

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday proposed four reforms intended to reduce the time and cost to process transmission interconnection requests from generating facilities of 20 MW or smaller. The reforms would boost reliability by increasing energy supply and remove hurdles in the development of new renewable power sources, FERC said.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is the latest key administration official who plans to step down after the beginning of President Barack Obama’s second term on Jan. 21.

More than 107 GW of operating capacity in the U.S. electric power market were bought and sold over 2012, mostly as a result of three large mergers or acquisitions, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) found in an analysis of power plant capacity purchases released on Wednesday.

The announced resignation of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson may as soon as this week be followed by one from Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Last week, meanwhile, Senate Republicans announced new committee assignments.

The fourth quarter of 2012 saw continued growth in gas power development, with at least 8 GW of new projects announced for the U.S. alone.

With gas supplies looking strong and a variety of factors exerting negative pressure on other generation resources, 2013 looks to be a solid year for gas-fired power.

Not everyone is thrilled to have a power plant go up in their neighborhood, but residents of a Michigan town in need of jobs and investment are celebrating theirs.

Hiring an owner’s engineer may add some upfront expense to your O&M budget, but over the long term, it can reap big savings in successfully navigating planned and unplanned outages.

As 2013 opens, the coal industry is waiting anxiously on a variety of proposals for regulating coal ash. A reclassification as hazardous waste could deal another blow to coal, but some industry observers suspect the worst is not yet to come.

A 2007 study sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security confirmed some of the industry’s worst fears about the grid’s vulnerability to terrorist attack. That study has remained under wraps until recently–and its findings are even worse than you may suspect.

Combined heat and power offers many advantages for distributed generation. But leveraging them requires some careful planning and forethought.

When the Kissimmee Utility Authority needed to fire up its customer outreach, it was time to turn up the gas and get cooking.

The pendulum has recently swung back against nuclear as gas-fired power has surged in response to low prices and abundant supplies. Can nuclear ever regain its edge?

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently kicked off a new era in its cap-and-trade program designed to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) when it held its first GHG emissions allowance auction on November 14. While CARB pronounced the auction a success, the low price and lukewarm demand for allowances evidences market reticence to fully embrace the program.

North American shale gas was supposed to realign the generation fleet here and abroad (thanks to anticipated exports) far into the future. Turns out, that’s not exactly how the near term is shaping up. Despite stagnant (and even putrid) economies and legislative bodies in the U.S. and EU, there promises to be sufficient market volatility to keep everyone alert.

Exports of natural resources have given Russia increased global political and economic clout. But domestically, the world’s fourth-largest generator of electricity has had to embark on the most ambitious reforms ever undertaken to modernize dilapidated Soviet-era power infrastructure and incentivize a massive capacity expansion to support a revived economy.

Solar flares have proven destructive effects on transmission grids, but there are many other “black swan events” that threaten modern civilization. Experts disagree about which protective steps should be taken today.

Texas could again see tight power supplies in the summer of 2013 and beyond—with reserve margins dropping to 2.8% by 2022—even though the outlook has improved, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) warned in its latest long-term outlook released on Monday.

Fuel for power generation will account for about 55% of demand-related energy growth through 2040, ExxonMobil forecasts in its freshly released annual energy forecast. Like several other forecasters, the Irving, Texas–based oil and gas company also predicts that natural gas will emerge as the leading source of electricity generation by 2040. Among key findings in […]

Following up on its series of conferences on gas-electric coordination this past summer, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission appears ready to find some real solutions in 2013.

Despite controversies over macro energy policies, it looks to be a sure bet that the need for job creation will foster continued state and federal support for shale gas development.

Georgia Power Completes 2,500-MW Coal-to-Gas Conversion. Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power on Oct. 28 put online the third and final 840-MW natural gas combined cycle unit at Plant McDonough-Atkinson in Smyrna, Ga. The first gas plant went online in December 2011 and the second on April 26. Bringing the plant’s capacity to 2,500 MW, the […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced an award to support a new project to design, license, and help commercialize small modular reactors (SMR) in the U.S. The project supported by the award will be led by Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) in partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority and Bechtel.

A new report from the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) challenges claims by Mississippi Power Co. (MPC) that its 582-MW Kemper Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant under construction in Kemper County, Miss., is 70% complete, and suggests that the project is over budget and behind schedule in several respects.

Despite growing concern about cybersecurity both in and outside of Washington, the Senate’s cybersecurity bill died a second time on Nov. 13. The apparent inability of Congress to pass legislation designed to protect critical U.S. infrastructure could lead to President Barack Obama implementing some of the bill’s provisions via executive order. A day after the bill failed to gain 60 votes for passage, a recently declassified report was released that finds the U.S. power grid is vulnerable to attacks that could be more destructive than natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy.

On Monday, as First Wind announced its 69-MW Kawailoa Wind Project had gone into commercial operations on Oahu, other news underscored the difficulty the island state faces in trying to substitute renewables for expensive, imported fossil fuels.

The Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii) oversees a $508 billion initiative to establish 6,500 square miles of concentrated solar power plants in the vast African and Middle Eastern deserts. Those plants are expected to furnish a fifth of Europe’s power needs by 2050, but in recent weeks the Dii has seen the exit of two of its 57 partners from 16 countries and a project held up by the Spanish government.