News

SCANA Corp. and Santee Cooper have ceased construction of Units 2 and 3 at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in South Carolina. The project owners said the decision, prompted by analysis of detailed schedule and cost data, would save customers nearly $7 billion. The project, which was about 64% complete, has been in limbo since […]

SCANA Corp. and state-owned utility Santee Cooper on July 27 said Toshiba has agreed to pay nearly $2.2 billion to cap its liabilities from the unfinished V.C. Summer nuclear project in South Carolina. Toshiba subsidiary Westinghouse, which was building two nuclear units at the Summer site along with the troubled Vogtle nuclear project in Georgia, […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has approved a new service agreement finalized by Westinghouse and Georgia Power for the Vogtle AP1000 units under construction in Georgia, though the agency reached a separate deal with Georgia Power on a loan guarantee agreement that will require the Southern Co. company to provide it with a solid cost […]

Wind power production continues to increase in the U.S., with a more than 40% increase in the number of wind projects under construction or in advanced development this year compared to the same time last year, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). The group announced the figures during a July 27 meeting in […]

A group representing several energy companies and ratepayers said it would appeal a federal judge’s ruling that upholds New York’s plan to subsidize nuclear power plants in the state. U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni on July 25 in Manhattan ruled that federal law does not preempt the state and its Public Service Commission (PSC) from […]

Advanced nuclear technology brought to fruition could produce electricity at an average levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) roughly 40% lower than conventional pressurized water reactors, according to a July 25 study by the Energy Innovation Reform Project and Energy Options Network (EON). “At these costs, nuclear would be effectively competitive with any other option for […]

When it comes to nuclear power, the U.S. is not living up to its potential, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told appropriators during a July 20 full committee markup of the Senate’s fiscal year 2018 (FY18) Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill. “When it comes to nuclear power, we’re just so far behind the times and […]

A Tennessee utility company on July 20 said tests on drinking water in the vicinity of a coal-fired power plant in Memphis showed no detectable evidence of arsenic, lead, and other toxins. The Sierra Club asked state officials to perform the tests after high levels of arsenic were found in monitoring wells at the Allen […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is facing a $528 million cut to its funding under the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill reported out of committee July 18. While Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee expressed disappointment in the deep cut, it could have been worse. The Trump administration’s budget request, released in late May, proposed […]

In negotiating the Senate’s fiscal year 2018 (FY18) Energy and Water (E&W) Development Appropriation’s bill, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development, had no time for President Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to the Department of Energy budget. “We started with an unrealistic budget proposal from the president. […]

The Trump administration wants to revitalize the coal industry, but they will not do so by imposing regulation on the natural gas industry, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry told reporters July 18 at a joint press conference with International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol. “Would the Department of Energy (DOE) be a participant in […]

A spokesman for Dominion Energy said the company will begin working on a new plan for dealing with leaking piles of coal ash at a retired coal plant in Virginia after a federal judge ruled the company’s current remediation at the site is not acceptable. U.S. District Judge John Gibney Jr. on July 13 ordered […]

A federal judge has let stand Illinois’ zero-emission credit (ZEC) program, dismissing challenges filed by power producers who said the initiative subsidizes nuclear power at the expense of other resources. Judge Manish S. Shah of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on July 14 ruled in favor of motions by the […]

Dynegy this week announced it will sell three more power plants to reduce debt as it works to satisfy an agreement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reached after the company’s $3.3 billion purchase of French energy giant Engie’s U.S.-based assets earlier this year. Houston, Texas-based Dynegy said it has agreed to sell its […]

NRG Energy said it will sell as much as $4 billion in assets as it seeks to lower its debt and cut costs after a revolt by activist investors unhappy with the company’s direction. Shares of the company jumped 29% to a two-year high on July 12 after NRG announced the moves as part of […]

House of Representatives appropriators July 12 took up their responses to President Donald Trump’s controversial fiscal year 2018 (FY18) budget requests for the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Both bills were favorably reported out of their respective markups. The House FY18 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, which funds DOE, came […]

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has announced plans to reintroduce legislation called the FUTURE Act, which would extend and expand the federal 45Q tax credit for carbon dioxide capture and sequestration. The bill has the support of both fossil fuel companies and environmental groups. At present, the 45Q provision awards $10 per metric ton […]

The U.S. currently has only one commercial offshore wind farm, the five-turbine, 30-MW Block Island Wind Farm. While the nation is off to a slow start in the offshore wind energy race, it is possible that the U.S. could eclipse the world leader in the industry, Europe, according to Ross Tyler of the Business Network […]

France, which currently gets more than 75% of its electricity generation from nuclear, may close as many as 17 reactors by 2025, according to Minister of Environment Nicolas Hulot. In an interview with RTL radio on July 10, Hulot stated that Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who took office in mid-May, intends to see through the […]

A federal appeals court has ruled the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) should not have denied a 2012 proposal by PJM in which the regional power operator sought to revise its minimum offer price rule (MOPR). The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on July 7 said FERC went beyond its “passive and reactive role” under […]

U.S. officials said Russian government hackers have broken into systems at U.S. nuclear power plants and also have made cyber intrusions into the business systems of other energy companies, according to several reports over the past week. Cybersecurity experts say the threats against U.S. facilities are real and likely to continue, as power plant operators […]

Xcel Energy plans to add about 1,550 MW of wind power to its portfolio in the Upper Midwest with the addition of seven wind farms expected to be operational by year-end 2020. The additions are among 11 new wind farms announced over the past year by Xcel in seven states that would add a total […]

New Jersey officials this week said the state’s Board of Public Utilities is funding feasibility studies for a series of microgrids across the state that could provide needed power to municipalities at times of critical need, such as after a natural disaster. The board said the idea is designed to further the State Energy Master […]

A long-shuttered Tennessee nuclear power plant project has been reborn as a solar farm, with the energy produced there made available for use by local residents and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The Phipps Bend Nuclear Power Plant project in Surgoinsville was canceled by TVA in 1981, a victim of the negative sentiment toward nuclear […]

The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) has set the commonwealth’s much-anticipated energy storage target at 200 MWh to be achieved by January 1, 2020. Last week, it also issued a joint request for proposals for 400 MW of offshore wind energy. The announcements made this week follow an energy bill signed into law by […]

Florida regulators next week will consider whether to support an exemption to a state rule, a move that could speed the approval process for a new 1,163-MW natural gas-fired power plant on the state’s Atlantic coast. Florida Power & Light (FPL), the nation’s third-largest electric utility, has proposed the $888 million power plant for Broward […]

Citing its backing for the long-stalled Yucca Mountain permanent spent nuclear waste repository in Nevada, the Trump administration has asked a federal court to reject a petition filed by Texas in which the state sought a court-supervised process to take over administrative proceedings so as to guarantee licensing and eventual construction of project. Texas filed […]

Behold, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC): Cheryl LaFleur, chairman and sole commissioner. Thanks to a largely feckless Trump administration, the five-member FERC now consists of only one member, leaving the commission, an important energy infrastructure agency, continued partially crippled for lack of a quorum. FERC has been hobbled since early February, when Trump demoted […]

By many indicators, working in the power sector today is safer than it’s ever been. In 2014, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found that utilities had a lower fatal work injury