News

GenOn has begun its transition back into a standalone power generation company after NRG Energy—which acquired it in a $1.7 billion deal just five years ago—struck a comprehensive restructuring agreement with GenOn’s creditors, and GenOn filed for Chapter 11 protection. A June 14 financial filing confirms that NRG, GenOn, and an ad hoc group of […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) is offering approximately $28 million in cost-shared funding for research and development of advanced energy systems.  According to three separate funding opportunity announcements (FOAs), the department is looking for research into advanced combustion systems, advanced turbines, and gasification. “Advanced energy conversion systems are designed to enable efficient, low-cost, and near-zero […]

The administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reportedly left a Group of Seven summit on climate in Bologna, Italy, after the opening session of the two-day event, just days after President Donald Trump said the U.S. would pull out of the Paris climate agreement. Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general before being tapped […]

A nuclear plant construction project in Georgia that is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget has been given a lifeline that at least temporarily eases concerns about its future. Toshiba, the parent company of Westinghouse, and Southern Company subsidiary Georgia Power, majority owner of Plant Vogtle near Augusta, on June 9 reached […]

Minnesota Power and Wisconsin’s Dairyland Power Cooperative announced plans to co-develop a combined cycle natural gas–fired power plant, a 550-MW facility designed to provide backup power for the utilities’ efforts to expand their use of renewable energy sources. The Nemadji Trail Energy Center would be built along the Nemadji River in Superior, Wis., a location […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is giving states an extra year to develop air quality plans related to the 2015-National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone. In a June 6 letter sent to U.S. governors, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that the extended deadline for promulgating initial area designations for the rule issued […]

Mississippi Power’s Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) project is now expected to be in service by the end of June, but the company expects it will need post in-service improvements. It also said timing of when it will file a case to address the recovery of costs not currently reflected in rates is uncertain. […]

Dominion Energy told POWER it will begin a “strategic reassessment” of its plans for the 2,111-MW Millstone Nuclear Power Station in Connecticut after state legislators effectively blocked a bill that would have provided it a mechanism to bid for state contracts reserved for renewables. Dominion waged a tough campaign to push the bill through the […]

Kansas City Power & Light Co. (KCP&L) plans to retire five coal-fired generating units at two stations by the end of next year. It will also close, by December 31, 2019, a unit that was just converted from coal to gas last year. The decision is part of “the company’s commitment to a sustainable energy […]

Southern Co. announced yet another lag beyond a new in-service date for its Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) project. Along with concerns about delays and mounting cost increases afflicting the plant’s coal gasification component are how it will be used in the face of cheap gas prices. The company’s subsidiary Mississippi Power last […]

The world’s offshore wind sector, which has been at near-standstill in the U.S. owing to high costs and technical limitations, is poised to see a fierce developmental gust that can be attributed to several factors. While much of the enthusiasm at the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA’s) WINDPOWER 2017 annual event in Anaheim, Calif., was […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has given its staff the green light to license Dominion Energy’s Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) proposed for construction at its North Anna site in Virginia. It also approved an uprate at Energy Northwest’s Columbia Generating Station in Washington. The NRC said it authorized issuance of the combined construction and […]

Although I’m sure some readers will consider the title of this column hyperbole, coal is back. It’s back in the public discourse, and that’s largely due to the Trump administration. President Trump was

In May, GE’s Power Services and Ansaldo Energia separately completed initial validation of two gas turbines designed for high efficiency and flexibility: the 9EMax and the GT36. GE also announced first fire

Coal generation in Europe was walloped—twice—in April. Early in the month, members of EURELECTRIC, a pan-European power sector association of more than 3,500 companies, announced that it would cease

India Joins IEA as an Association Country. India joined the International Energy Agency (IEA) as an association country on March 30, marking a significant move for the country into global energy affairs. The

A unique collaborative effort by a consortium of Icelandic power companies and the Icelandic government to determine whether using supercritical geothermal fluids would improve the economics of power

Southern California Edison (SCE) put online the world’s first battery–gas turbine hybrid system on March 30 in Norwalk, Calif., pioneering a new direction in the way power could be generated and stored

Global renewable energy generation capacity surged 161 GW in 2016, marking its strongest year ever for new capacity additions, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) said in a new report released at

President Donald Trump will pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, making the nation one of only three in the world not a party to the agreement, joining Syria and Nicaragua. While campaigning, Trump vowed to “cancel” the agreement, the first international climate agreement to include developing as well as developed […]

Exelon Corp. said it plans to retire the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power plant around September 30, 2019, unless policy reforms are enacted in Pennsylvania. The company used a similar ploy in Illinois to pressure lawmakers into passing the state’s Future Energy Jobs bill, which provides subsidies for nuclear power plants. In that case, Exelon […]

China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) completed the dome lift at Fuqing Unit 5—the world’s first power plant being constructed utilizing the HPR 1000 (also known as the Hualong One) reactor design—15 days ahead of schedule on May 25. The feat was no small accomplishment. The dome weighs about 340 metric tons and has a diameter […]

Under a proposed restructuring agreement, NRG Energy will hand over 100% equity of GenOn Energy, a wholesale generation company it acquired in a $1.7 billion deal in 2012, to the company’s bondholders once GenOn emerges from voluntary Chapter 11 restructuring. NRG, GenOn, and an ad hoc group of GenOn noteholders reached a mutual cooperation agreement […]

CEO Tom Fanning told Southern Co.’s shareholders attending the company’s annual meeting on May 24 that a decision on how to proceed with the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion could take several more months. The Vogtle expansion—one of two new nuclear construction projects underway in the U.S. utilizing Westinghouse’s AP1000 technology—has been in limbo, albeit still in […]

The renewable energy sector employed 9.8 million people in 2016, up 1.1% percent from 2015, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA’s) “Renewable Energy and Jobs Annual Review 2017”, released May 24. “Renewable energy employment worldwide has continued to grow since IRENA’s first annual assessment in 2012, but the last two years have seen […]

Two nuclear plants owned by Exelon Corp. in Illinois and Pennsylvania failed to clear PJM Interconnection’s latest annual capacity auction, putting one of those financially crippled units at risk of early retirement. Meanwhile, procurements for solar, wind, and demand response fell dramatically compared to last year, and drastic price declines could roil the market for […]

President Donald Trump wants to balance the federal budget in 10 years, and it appears he believes that to do so, deep cuts to the nation’s energy research funding are needed. The administration’s fiscal year 2018 (FY18) budget request, released Tuesday, May 23, cuts funding for the Department of Energy (DOE) by $1.7 billion, a […]

Glenn Schleede, one of the most significant and least known figures in U.S. energy policy over the past 50 years, died May 7. He was 83. The cause of death was glioblastoma, a brain cancer he had been fighting for several years. Glenn Schleede Schleede served as a policy analyst and advisor to three Republican […]

In 1957, legendary Calypso singer and civil rights activist Harry Bellefonte recorded “Jamaica Farewell,” which became a major hit in the U.S. The song’s chorus: “Sad to say, I’m on my way, won’t be back for many a day.” That looks like the theme song for nuclear power in the U.S. (and perhaps Western Europe […]

Ohio-based FirstEnergy’s plan for a rescue of its two uncompetitive Ohio nuclear plants took a nosedive May 17, as the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee suspended action on the company’s proposal to charge its customers a fee to subsidize the plants. FirstEnergy’s plan mimics programs adopted in Illinois and New York to create “zero energy […]