Legal & Regulatory

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to delay the implementation of seven reliability standards that relate to cybersecurity, training, disturbance monitoring and reporting, generator relay loadability, and coordination of protection systems for performance during faults. In an April 6 filing to FERC, NERC noted the rules […]

Federal regulators with oversight over U.S. power matters have issued a series of actions over recent weeks to respond to the potentially devastating impact that COVID-19, the new coronavirus, could have on North American power workforce operations and reliability. POWER will update this post regularly with COVID-19 response news and documents from federal and state […]

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) unprecedented temporary policy to relax enforcement of noncompliance with certain environmental rules in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has provoked an impassioned response from industry experts, environmental groups, and from the agency itself. As POWER reported, the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) on March 26 adopted a […]

This blog is part of a special series from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the response to the coronavirus. The IMF is an organization of 189 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic […]

The U.S. has 96 licensed-to-operate nuclear power reactors and two reactors under construction. But the average age of the nation’s 96 licensed nuclear units is about 39 years old. That has been of some concern to the nuclear industry, which has provided roughly a fifth of the nation’s power since the 1990s. About 88 of […]

More than 40 years ago, small power production facilities were germinated, fertilized, and have continued to blossom under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), a federal law passed in 1978 as a

The European Commission in December 2019 announced its new European Green Deal, a set of major policy and legislative proposals that position the EU as the global leader on environmental and climate issues. Since then, the Commission has published a draft EU climate law and is seeking stakeholder input on potential revisions to the Energy […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on March 28 told industry that it is prepared to grant requests from individual nuclear generators for exemptions from work-hour controls specified in its rules to help provide more flexibility to the sector as it grapples with workforce issues related to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The objective of the […]

Adopting a new temporary policy that gives it more “enforcement discretion,” the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said March 26 it does not expect to seek penalties for civil violations of the agency’s rules that result from the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy adopted Thursday addresses concerns that regulated facilities are facing potential worker shortages, travel restrictions, […]

Two agencies aligned with the power generation industry, including the group representing state public service commissioners who regulate utility services, including energy, telecommunications, and water, are asking state regulators to designate utility company workers as essential to the nation’s critical infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the National Association […]

Challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. nuclear industry has asked the Trump administration to ensure nuclear workers, suppliers, and vendors will have access to nuclear plants and personal protective equipment (PPE) during the 2020 spring and fall refueling outage seasons and beyond. All but two of the nation’s nuclear sites had scheduled planned outages  […]

The agency that regulates nuclear power in the U.S. is preparing to allow reactor operators to work longer shifts, and could also issue new rules that would let facilities put off some maintenance and plant inspections. The actions are in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Comments during a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) conference call on […]

Oklo, developer of the 1.5-MW Aurora micro-reactor, has submitted the first-ever combined license application (COLA) for an advanced non-light water reactor (LWR) to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The move formalizes the start of a new era for nuclear regulation in the U.S. The Silicon Valley company, which last year received a first-of-its-kind site use […]

Energy Harbor Corp., the new name for the former FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) after FES’s bankruptcy, on March 13 said its Beaver Valley nuclear plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, will remain open. FES in March 2018 had told state regulators it would close the plant in 2021 because it was no longer economic to operate. Energy Harbor […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted a 20-year license extension for Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station Units 2 and 3. The extension authorizes the two reactors—both of which began commercial operation in 1974—to continue operating through 2054. “We are pleased with the NRC’s decision to grant a subsequent license renewal for Peach Bottom Units […]

Florida Power & Light (FPL) on March 3 received approval from state regulators to launch the nation’s largest community solar program. FPL’s $1.8 billion SolarTogether project will more than double the amount of available community solar power nationwide. The program, unanimously approved Tuesday by the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC), adds almost 1.5 GW of […]

The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) proposed changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations to promote “efficient, effective, and timely” NEPA review by federal agencies (85

There’s general agreement among industry analysts that sales of electric vehicles (EVs) will continue to grow. Those same analysts, though, may not agree on the pace of growth. BloombergNEF (BNEF) in its “Electric Vehicle Outlook 2019” report said it expects yearly passenger EV sales will hit 10 million in 2025, up from just more than […]

Catastrophic wildfires have devastated California in recent years. This article seeks to outline a plan wherein neighboring utilities can send energy to support a utility that has shut down critical paths during wildfire mitigation efforts. On the morning of Nov. 8, 2018, the Camp Fire erupted 90 miles north of Sacramento, California (Figure 1). This fire […]

With subsidies running short and emissions regulations still a challenge, the promise of biomass as a sustainable source for utility-scale power generation remains elusive. Yet, there are novel applications

The next decade could belong to energy storage. Project development costs are dropping. Enhanced state and corporate focus on climate-related issues is producing more opportunities for renewable generation and

Endesa on Dec. 27 formally moved to shutter two massive coal-fired power plants—the 1.4-GW As Pontes plant in A Coruña, Galicia, which is the biggest coal-fired power plant in Spain, and the 1.16-GW

Analysis by both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and International Energy Agency shows that achieving a zero-carbon energy system by 2050 will require large-scale deployment of carbon capture

Germany’s federal cabinet on Jan. 29 approved a nationwide phaseout of coal power generation by 2038, paving the way for the country, which has already initiated a nuclear phaseout, to rely even more heavily on renewables. The federal cabinet’s approval of the “Reduction and Termination of Coal Power Generation” (Gesetz zur Reduzierung und zur Beendigung der […]

Citing new technical information gleaned from a more modern modeling analysis, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed to withdraw a federal implementation plan (FIP) to control regional haze from four PacifiCorp coal-fired units in Utah and allow the state to revert to conditions set out in a 2015-submitted state implementation plan (SIP). The agency’s […]

The Arkansas Public Service Commission has approved a plan to retire the Dolet Hills power plant, a coal-fired unit in Mansfield, Louisiana that serves part of the state. The decision, reached in December and announced Jan. 8 by the Sierra Club,  came as part of a settlement agreement in a recently concluded Arkansas rate review, […]

Duke Energy will save about $1.5 billion in coal ash cleanup costs under a settlement between the utility and environmental and other groups announced Jan. 2 by North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The DEQ said Duke Energy will need to excavate about 80 million tons of coal ash currently stored in basins at […]

The past 10 years have been filled with trials and tribulations for both the nuclear and coal power industries. From accidents to plant closures there has been little to cheer about. Still, nuclear and coal power continue to provide reliable baseload generation to billions of customers around the globe. Here’s a look back at the […]

The future of energy in Mexico is being shaped by the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who wants state-owned energy companies to have more influence over the country’s power

Developers and other sellers of electricity have traditionally viewed utilities as creditworthy counterparties. Utilities are longstanding institutions that provide a public service and receive a regulated