News

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved a final rule to improve coordination of wholesale natural gas and electricity market scheduling in light of the nation’s increased reliance on natural gas generation.  FERC’s March 2014 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Order No. 809 proposed changes to nationwide gas scheduling practices, but it gave the […]

Implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP) could change the use of the U.S. coal-fired generating fleet from baseload to seasonal peaking—and pose grave implications for plant economics and operating feasibility, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) suggests in new special assessment.   The new report is the second […]

California’s burgeoning renewable generation sector, given renewed vigor with a proposed increase in its renewables mandate, means it will need robust energy storage capacity going forward, said speakers at a session at the Electric Power Conference and Exhibition April 22 in Rosemont, Ill. Much of that storage capacity may be provided by a mammoth combined […]

Investor-owned electric utilities in the U.S. spent $16.9 billion in 2013 to build transmission infrastructure, a report recently released by the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) shows. The ninth annual publication of the EEI’s Transmission Projects: At a Glance  highlights a cross-section of more than 170 major transmission projects completed in 2014 or planned over the […]

In what could be an industry first, Nebraska’s largest electric utility plans to replace an existing coal-fired boiler with one that uses hydrogen fuel. The Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) said on April 17 that it plans to fuel its Sheldon Station plant in Hallam, Neb., with hydrogen produced by Monolith Materials as a co-product […]

Dominion Virginia Power will close all its coal ash ponds at power plants in Virginia to comply with standards established by state and federal regulations. The company announced on April 17 that it would close ponds at four locations: Bremo Power Station in Fluvanna County, Chesapeake Energy Center in Chesapeake, Chesterfield Power Station in Chesterfield […]

Bills to eliminate incentives that have accelerated the expansion of wind power found momentum in Texas and Oklahoma last week.  Texas Moves to Nix RPS, CREZ The Texas Senate on April 14 approved, by a 21–10 vote, legislation that would end the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and its Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ) program. […]

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan is feasible in its ultimate goals, but getting there will take a lot of work and some rethinking of how the targets are achieved, according to speakers at the Environmental Mega Session, Rebalancing the Electric System for Environmental Consideration, at the Electric Power Conference and Exhibition  on […]

The U.S. energy infrastructure needs not just substantial investment for the future but also considerable rethinking about its role and functions in order to be positioned to deal with a rapidly changing energy landscape and evolving threats from cyber attack and climate change. That was the message from William F. Hederman, Jr., Department of Energy […]

Ontario’s four largest local electricity distribution companies are working to form a large new utility Enersource Corp., Horizon Utilities Corp., Hydro One Brampton Inc., and PowerStream Inc. have made a commitment to merge and create a new utility. The companies said in a joint statement on April 16 that the proposed merger would allow a […]

An emergency action proposed by Maryland regulators on Friday will require 14 coal-fired units in the state to minimize nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions every day during the 2015 summer ozone season, starting as soon as May 1.  The rule submitted on April 17 by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) to the Joint Committee […]

The chairman and ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) presented conflicting progress reports on the status of Fukushima task force recommendations during a committee oversight hearing held on April 15. “You haven’t done really anything since Fukushima, as far as I can tell,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), […]

A Japanese court has blocked plans to reopen two reactors that had been previously cleared to resume operations by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA).  Local residents in western Japan’s Fukui Prefecture, where Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Takahama nuclear plant is located, successfully petitioned a court to issue an injunction halting plans to restart Units 3 […]

The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and Portland, Ore.­–based utility PacifiCorp announced on April 14 that they had signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the possibility of PacifiCorp joining the ISO as a participating transmission owner. The move would be a big one for both entities. PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE), […]

Electricity generation from existing coal-fired power plants will increase from 2012 levels through 2025, according to the Reference case presented in the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook 2015, released on April 14. In addition to the Reference case, five alternative cases—Low and High Economic Growth cases, Low and High Oil Price cases, and […]

 While fuel switching may be the easiest option for hitting the 2020 and 2030 goals set by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed Clean Power Plan, it may impede reaching longer-term climate targets said experts at an April 8 symposium hosted by the Central Texas Association for Energy Economics and the Energy Institute at the […]

Workers at San Diego’s General Atomics (GA) on April 10 began the years-long process of winding the 1000-ton superconducting electromagnet that will power the ITER fusion reactor under construction in Southern France. The $16 billion ITER project, a consortium of the U.S., the European Union, Russia, China, Japan, and other nations, aims to test reactor-scale […]

Danish firm DONG Energy will take over RES Americas’ rights to develop more than 1 GW of new offshore wind capacity off the coast of Massachusetts.  RES secured the rights to develop one of two leases that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) awarded at its Jan. 29 offshore wind auction. Following approval from […]

Staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should expeditiously complete and implement cybersecurity rulemaking for nuclear fuel-cycle facilities, the regulatory agency’s commissioners have ordered.  In a March 24 agency memorandum to Mark Satorius, NRC executive director for operations, the commission disapproved the one option, which was the staff’s recommendation, to issue a security order to […]

As it decided in a February case involving American Electric Power (AEP), the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) has denied Duke Energy Ohio’s request to charge ratepayers for power from two aging coal plants owned by the Ohio Valley Electric Corp. (OVEC).  In an April 2 order, the state regulator approved the Duke Energy […]

A Gallup poll completed last month found that only 32% of adults in the U.S. worry a “great deal” about global warming or climate change, while 45% worry “only a little” or “not at all.” The survey was taken via telephone interviews conducted during the first week of March using a random sample of 1,025 […]

More trouble has been reported at one of the four European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) units currently under construction. AREVA announced on April 7 that chemical and mechanical testing conducted on a reactor vessel head and bottom similar to that of the Flamanville EPR (a 1,630-MW unit under construction on the west coast of the […]

A dip in voltage prompted temporary power cuts to the White House, Capitol Hill, the State Department, and other parts of Washington, D.C., on Tuesday afternoon.  D.C. utility PEPCO said in a statement that the disturbance that affected about 8,000 customers and left a wide swath  of the nation’s capital in the dark was caused […]

Renewable energy development company SunEdison announced on Mar. 25 that it had agreed to purchase up to 1,000 vanadium redox flow batteries totaling more than 100 MW of storage capacity from Imergy Power Systems to be used for community minigrid projects in India. SunEdison, which has an equity stake in Imergy, in January received financing […]

The U.S. will seek to cut its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 26% to 28% from 2005 levels by 2025, the White House said on March 31 in a target submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  The submission—otherwise referred to as an Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC)—is a formal statement […]

Copenhagen could inaugurate, as early as 2017, a new combined heat and power plant that features a roof-wide artificial ski slope open to the public and blasts smoke rings through a 124-meter chimney.  The $611 million Amager Bakke plant is owned by five Danish municipalities and is being built by the Copenhagen-based waste management company Amager […]

$1.9B Pan-African Renewable Energy Platform Launched. Renewables company Mainstream Renewable Power and private equity firm Actis on Feb. 17 launched a pan-African renewable energy platform dubbed Lekela Power, with ambitions to provide between 700 MW and 900 MW of wind and solar power across Africa by 2018. Mainstream will take responsibility for the full end-to-end […]

The balance in the Zion Nuclear Power Plant decommissioning trust fund was about 30% lower at the end of 2014 than it was the previous year according to a report filed by ZionSolutions with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on March 30. The Report on Status of Decommissioning Funding for Shutdown Reactors—due annually—indicated that there was […]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave its approval to two deals that will see shifts in electricity markets in Hawaii and the Midwest. On Mar. 27, FERC approved Duke Energy’s proposed sale of its merchant generation business to Dynegy for $2.8 billion. The deal, announced last August, covers 11 power plants in the Midwest […]