News

The Aug. 4–6 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit shed light on the power plights faced by sub-Saharan African countries, but it also highlighted their massive power potential and the array of solutions under consideration to resolve Africa’s energy crisis. Here are a number of key insights gleaned from discussions at the summit—the first a U.S. president has […]

The El Arrayán Wind facility—located about 250 miles north of Santiago on the Chilean coast—was officially opened on Aug. 26 during a ceremony that included Chile’s president, Michelle Bachelet. “El Arrayán is the biggest wind farm in Chile and we are pleased at what we can achieve when we use the natural resources the earth […]

Calpine Corp. has its hands in two deals with large power companies—selling a plant to Duke Energy in Florida while buying a plant from Exelon Corp. in Massachusetts. On Aug. 25, Calpine announced that it has agreed to buy Exelon’s 809-MW Fore River Generating Station, which is located about 12 miles southeast of Boston, for […]

North Carolina’s Legislature last week became the first in the nation to approve a sweeping coal ash bill, but the state’s governor isn’t fully endorsing it.  Both the House and the Senate on Aug. 20 approved the Coal Ash Management Act (S.B. 729), a measure that became an urgent legislative priority after Duke Energy’s February […]

Strategies for compliance with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards led the list of topics covered during the Power Plant Pollutant Control “MEGA” Symposium held Aug. 19–21, in Baltimore, Md., but carbon dioxide (CO2) control solutions and sessions dealing with water problems weren’t far behind. The conference—hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Electric […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) today issued a final rule on continued spent nuclear fuel storage and terminated a two-year suspension of final licensing actions for nuclear power plants and renewals.  The federal regulatory body’s new rule revises the Waste Confidence Decision—which the D.C. Circuit vacated in June 2012—and renames it the “Continued Storage of […]

Regulators in California last week initiated rulemaking to push the state’s three investor-owned utilities to incorporate distributed energy resources (DERs) into the planning and operation of their electric distribution systems. The California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC’s) Aug. 14 Order Instituting Rulemaking establishes rules, policies, and procedures to guide Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, […]

Dynegy Inc.—the Houston-based power company with operations in the Midwestern, Northeastern, and Western U.S.—has signed two separate agreements to acquire generation assets from Duke Energy and Energy Capital Partners (ECP). The acquisition includes a total of 12,313 MW of coal and gas generation, which will increase the company’s total portfolio to nearly 26 GW. Dynegy […]

Duke Energy is scrambling to contain another major river spill—this time, of about 5,000 gallons of diesel. The company on Tuesday reported that the discharge of diesel oil #2 into the Ohio River inadvertently occurred at about 11:15 p.m. during a routine transfer of fuel oil used for boiler ignition sources at the W.C. Beckjord […]

A New Jersey court has ordered the state’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to reconsider its rejection of a $188 million offshore wind farm that is planned along the Atlantic City coast. The Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey on Aug. 18 ruled in favor of Fishermen’s Energy when it gave the […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) will tag $67 million of federal funds for 83 nuclear energy projects across the country in an effort to boost scientific breakthroughs. The agency said the awards announced on Aug. 20 would help provide “crucial funding” for research and development as well as for training and education of the country’s […]

Europe’s third-largest power provider last week revealed it may be forced to shut down more conventional power plants compromising a total of 1 GW and terminate 470 MW in supply contracts if market conditions in Germany do not improve.  RWE has blamed “political intervention” for “making [its] business challenging”—and specifically, the subsidized expansion of renewables […]

The nation’s coal fleet is under threat, alleged Dr. Larry S. Monroe, chief environmental officer and senior vice president for research and environmental affairs with Southern Co. during the keynote plenary session at the Power Plant Pollutant Control “MEGA” Symposium on Aug. 19 in Baltimore, Md. Monroe was part of a four-member panel, which included […]

Low wholesale electricity prices and uncertainty surrounding Australia’s Renewable Energy Target have resulted in the suspension of development at the Mildura Solar Power Station—a concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) project located in Carwarp, about 40 kilometers south of Mildura in Victoria, Australia. The project, which was being developed by Solar Systems Pty. Ltd., received initial funding commitments […]

The Federal Regulatory Energy Commission (FERC) can mandate transmission provider participation in a regional planning process, a federal court has held. In a 97-page decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Aug. 15 rejected challenges to FERC Order No. 1000 and related orders. FERC’s landmark final transmission-planning […]

Steve Byrne, chief operating officer for South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. (SCE&G), provided an update on the company’s new nuclear construction project at the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station during a conference call held on Aug. 11. On the call, Byrne disclosed that the construction consortium informed SCE&G this month that the substantial […]

The U.S. Department of Energy issued the final Environmental Impact Statement for the Champlain Hudson Power Express transmission line on Aug. 8, clearing the project for final permitting. The $2.2 billion venture is expected to bring up to 1,000 MW of renewable power from Canada to the New York City metropolitan area. The plans call […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is poised to decide on the fate of a coal-fired power plant in Tennessee.  At its next meeting on Aug. 21, the TVA board will likely choose to retire three existing coal-fired units at the Allen Fossil Plant in Shelby County, Tenn., by December 2018 and replace them with a […]

NRG Energy is the latest company in a string of generators choosing to cease burning coal at generating units to comply with environmental rules.   An environmental action plan to reduce air pollution in Illinois released by the New Jersey–based company on Aug. 7 proposes to retire the 251-MW coal-fired Unit 3 at the 761-MW […]

American Electric Power (AEP) has agreed to close a coal plant and make changes at two others to resolve alleged Clean Water Act (CWA) violations. According to consent decrees filed in two West Virginia federal district courts, the company on Friday agreed to settle allegations from numerous citizen groups that the coal-fired John E. Amos, Kammer, […]

A final rule governing continued storage of used nuclear fuel is expected from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) next month. NRC staff on July 24 submitted a draft final rule to replace the court-vacated 2010 “Waste Confidence Decision” and a supporting generic environmental impact statement to the commission for approval. The D.C. Circuit in June […]

A group of 12 states and a coal mining company have filed separate lawsuits in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in an effort to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating CO2 emissions from existing coal-fired power plants. The states—Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, […]

Ongoing service issues with BNSF Railway Co. have resulted in a “coal supply crisis” for several generators in the Upper Midwest. According to a document provided by the government relations staff of Dairyland Power Cooperative, the poor rail service may result in its coal-fired plant in Genoa, Wisconsin, running out of fuel during the upcoming […]

A major environmental settlement will force Southern Co. to repower, convert to natural gas, or shutter several coal units in Mississippi and Alabama. The landmark settlement with the Sierra Club that ends a six-year-long battle over Mississippi Power’s Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) project will reshape the Southern Co. subsidiary’s generation fleet so […]

A significant reform of Germany’s aggressive renewable energy laws passed its final hurdle on July 11, setting the country on a more market-based path toward future growth. The bill was developed and approved by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats. Because they are the two largest parties, the legislation was […]

(click for larger gif. view)

The 2014 POWER Plant of the Year makes history, both as a project and as our cover story. The Plant of the Year award goes to the most interesting, usually new, plant in the previous year. Sometimes it’s a

The era of Big Solar has arrived, and at the moment there are none bigger than Ivanpah. For overcoming numerous obstacles to build the world’s largest solar thermal plant, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is awarded POWER’s 2014 Plant of the Year Award. When the 392-MW Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in Nipton, Calif., […]

A blaze engulfing the coal-fired Ferrybridge C power station in the UK’s West Yorkshire region is a “serious incident” that required 15 fire crews to quell it, plant owner SSE said on Thursday. The fire that broke out at about 2 p.m. and impacted Units 3 and 4 at the power station activated emergency response […]

The past week saw a flurry of Congressional hearings probing how the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed carbon pollution rules will affect grid reliability and the economy.  On Reliability  The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday summoned the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) four sitting commissioners and future chair Norman Bay to testify on […]