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While investor interest in U.S. coal production is seeing a revival, President Donald Trump can do little to directly help the flailing industry, coal producers and investors said at CERAweek by IHS Market, which is taking place in Houston this week. After a period of financial calamity that was prompted by the collapse of natural […]

It was an astonishing event when two MIT nuclear engineering graduate students at the end of 2015 announced they had come up with a revolutionary design for a molten salt nuclear reactor that could solve many of the technological problems of conventional light-water reactors. Cofounders of the firm Transatomic – Leslie Dewan and Mark Massie […]

The epic recovery from the 2011 accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, already predicted to take decades and cost at least $35 billion, is encountering delays as a series of robot probes have failed due to encountering more difficult conditions than expected, plant owner Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said this month. TEPCO’s head of […]

With a vote of 62–37, the Senate on March 2 confirmed former Texas governor Rick Perry as the new secretary of energy. Perry received the support of 10 Democratic senators: Mark Warner (Va.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Tom Udall (N.M.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Jon Tester (Mont.), […]

Regardless of recent federal support for a revitalization of coal in the U.S., “the economics are challenged,” Lynn Good, CEO of Duke Energy, said March 1 during a presentation at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit. “I think coal continues to be an important part of a […]

The U.S. is in around “100th place” worldwide when it comes to efforts to automate the grid, Thomas Siebel, chairman and CEO of C3 IoT, said March 1 during a keynote presentation at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit. “They’re not even in the game, and I […]

Bipartisan lawmakers in Minnesota want utilities in that state to procure 50% of power sold by 2030 from renewable sources. The measure, if passed, could put the state’s renewable efforts on par with California’s. The bipartisan bill introduced in the Minnesota Legislature on February 27 seeks to double the state’s renewable energy standard, which is […]

A bill signed by Minnesota’s Gov. Mark Dayton (D) on February 28 allows Xcel Energy to build a 786-MW combined cycle gas-fired power plant without approval from state regulators. The governor signed Chapter 5, House File 113, a bill that had bipartisan support of the state’s legislators, to allow the Minneapolis-based power company to move […]

The Edward Hyatt hydroelectric plant at the damaged Oroville Dam in northern California, shut down earlier this month after its spillway nearly collapsed, may reopen soon, officials with the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) said on March 1. The plant was forced to shut down after severe erosion from the dam’s spillway deposited large […]

An executive order signed by President Donald Trump on February 27 authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to rewrite a contentious rule asserting federal authority over small bodies of water. The Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule, also known as the “Clean Water Rule,” finalized by the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers […]

The Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) and technology service company Stem Inc. have successfully tested nearly 1 MW of energy storage systems at 29 commercial sites on Oahu, the companies said on January 30. The novel pilot project, which sought “the ability to connect many customers’ energy storage with the utility,” comprises an energy storage “fleet” […]

Several European countries have moved to adopt distinct cybersecurity measures as a result of the increased interconnectivity within Europe’s energy system along with a changing paradigm that includes decentralized power sources, the integration of electric vehicles, new digital infrastructure, and connected operational technology. According to a 2016 survey by the European Commission, at least 80% […]

Construction of four AP1000 units—the first new nuclear reactors in the U.S. in decades—is moving along at Vogtle 3 and 4 in Georgia and at the V.C. Summer nuclear power plant in South Carolina. In January, Westinghouse, which is spearheading construction of the units, marked a key milestone as it placed the first steam generator […]

Rolls-Royce SMR Design Gets Research Center’s Technology Support. Efforts to bring a proposed small modular reactor (SMR) developed by Rolls-Royce to the UK market will have the backing of the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (Nuclear AMRC), a collaboration of academic and industrial partners underpinned by the University of Manchester, and other industry partners, including […]

Stricken by falling prices, producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are looking to exploit an emerging trend that integrates the fuel source with power generation. According to Houston-based international law firm Baker Botts, an increasing number of LNG power projects are emerging worldwide as a “new, viable medium” that offers a rapid but long-term power […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the next four years is going to be a very different beast than the EPA under the presidency of Barack Obama, newly confirmed EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said on February 25 while addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). “We’re going to restore power back to the people. We’re […]

California utility San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) on February 24 officially put into service what is currently the largest lithium-ion storage battery in the world, wrapping up a fast-track procurement process that began less than a year ago. The 30-MW, 120-MWh system (Figure 1) supplied by AES Energy Storage and located in Escondido about […]

Full operation of CGN Power’s Taishan nuclear power plant, an $8.7 billion effort to construct two EPR reactors in Guangdong province, China, has been pushed back six months, the company said in an announcement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange February 20. Completion of Taishan Unit 1 had been expected in the first half of […]

The Donald Trump administration can look to the energy sector to increase federal revenue and offset the national debt in numerous ways, but there are pros and cons to everything, according to a panel presenting at the Cato Institute February 22. Carbon pricing has long been the preferred economic means of mitigating carbon emissions. A […]

Southern Co.’s Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) project, stricken by steep cost increases and an in-service date delayed again to mid-March, isn’t economically viable in the face of projected long-term natural gas prices, the company said. Southern Co. subsidiary Mississippi Power reported that integrated operation of the facility’s two gasifiers and combustion turbines […]

Financially hemorrhaging in 2016 due to uneconomic power plants in its fleet, FirstEnergy Corp. said it may exit the competitive generation business by mid-2018, and shutter its nuclear plants in Ohio, even though it will back legislation to subsidize nuclear power. In a fourth quarter earnings call on February 22, officials from the Akron, Ohio–based […]

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Fossil Energy has awarded a total of $5.9 million to seven projects focused on novel uses of carbon dioxide (CO2). The projects were selected under the DOE’s carbon storage program. “This portfolio will develop and test novel approaches that convert CO2 captured from coal-fired power plants to […]

More than 7,500 pages of emails and other records released by the Oklahoma attorney general’s office to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) reveal a “close and friendly” relationship between the former office held by Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) new administrator, and the fossil fuel industry, the CMD alleged. The emails […]

In a final 52–46 vote, the Senate on Friday confirmed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The vote was mostly along party lines. Every Republican present except Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) voted for Pruitt (Sen. John McCain [R-Ariz.] did not vote because he is at […]

A state court ordered Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to turn over more than 2,500 emails his office withheld from open records requests relating to communications with coal, oil, and gas corporations. The order came a day before the Senate is poised to confirm him as President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection […]

Security issues are second only to cost concerns when energy generators consider the risks related to implementing connected technology at their power plants, according to a February 15 poll of the audience at POWER’s Connected Plant Conference. However, continued improvements in available cybersecurity systems are quickly reducing those risks, Stan Schneider, CEO of Real-Time Innovations, […]

The utility owners of the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) in Arizona have voted to shut down the 2,250-MW coal-fired power plant in December 2019. The decision to close the plant on tribal land near Page along the border with Utah was based on the “rapidly changing economics of the energy industry,” which has seen natural […]

A large swath of the central U.S. set a North American wind penetration record of 52.1% early in the morning on February 12, the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) reported. The regional transmission organization (RTO), whose footprint spans 550,000 square miles from the Canadian border in Montana and North Dakota to parts of New Mexico, Texas, […]

A group of power companies have filed a federal lawsuit against the State of Illinois, challenging a recently enacted law that creates subsidies for Exelon’s uneconomic nuclear power plants. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed on February 14 in the Northern District of Illinois are the Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA), Dynegy, Eastern Generation, NRG […]

Remote and online monitoring of plant performance parameters is an important step toward a fully connected plant, but alone it’s not enough to exploit the real value in the Industrial Internet of Things, speakers at POWER’s inaugural Connected Plant Conference on February 15 in Dallas said. Randy Bickford, president and CTO of software firm Expert […]