News

Courtesy: OKG At noon on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2013, Oskarshamn Unit 3 (O3) was manually shut down due to a large amount of jellyfish present at the cooling water intake. Operations management chose to disconnect the facility from the grid as a preventive safety measure rather than risk an automatic shutdown due to insufficient cooling […]

A report issued on Friday, Sept. 27 by a working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) essentially confirms the conclusions drawn by previous reports that human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels, are largely responsible for climate change. Working Group 1’s “Contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report Climate Change 2013: […]

Jordan’s First Nuclear Reactor Gets Construction Green Light. Jordanian regulators on Aug. 20 granted permission for construction to begin at the Jordan Research and Training Reactor (JRTR) at the Jordan

The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) $3.6 million to research and develop virtual, cloud-based cybersecurity management tools for small, resource-constrained utilities. NRECA and Honeywell Corp. will provide matching funds for a total of $4.7 million. NRECA will collaborate with Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, Carnegie Mellon University, Honeywell […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday issued a revised proposal to curb carbon emissions from new power plants that sets separate standards for new gas-fired and coal-fired power plants. The agency also revealed it is developing new carbon standards for existing power plants. Separate Standards for Coal and Gas and Forthcoming Existing Plant Standards […]

Republicans in the House and the Senate introduced a new bill on Wednesday that would place new restrictions on the power of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Reorganization Plan Codification and Complements Act (NRC Reorganization Act) would guide the NRC’s policy and rulemaking actions and “clarify” the role and scope of […]

Before this month, it’s likely few Americans had even heard of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), let alone understood what it does. An unprecedented battle over Ronald Binz, the former head of the Colorado Public Utility Commission (CPUC) whom President Obama nominated in June to replace outgoing FERC chairman Jon Wellinghoff, may have changed […]

An unusual extreme heat wave spanning two days this week combined with local equipment issues in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania forced regional grid operator PJM Interconnection to take localized emergency measures to avoid the possibility of an uncontrolled blackout over a larger area. Soaring temperatures on Tuesday (Sept. 11) and Wednesday (Sept. 12) pushed […]

Solar trade remedies set by U.S. Department of Commerce determinations are weakened by Chinese solar producers who fail to show they are “free of Chinese government control,” Oregon-based SolarWorld argues in an appeal filed in an international trade court last week. The move is the latest development in an escalating trade war between the U.S. […]

China’s historical solar photovoltaic (PV) price advantage is driven by economies of scale and supply chain development—not direct government subsidies or low labor costs, as is the prevailing belief—suggests a new study from the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The study recently published in the […]

A failure in one of the Venezuelan national grid’s transmission lines reportedly cut power to nearly half of the oil-rich country, including in much of its capital, Caracas, on Tuesday. The widespread blackouts reportedly affected the Capital District and 12 of Venezuela’s 23 states at about 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, cutting the lights in the […]

Dominion Virginia Power is the provisional winner of the Interior Department’s second competitive lease sale of federal land off the coast of Virginia to develop an offshore wind farm. The company bid $1.6 million to win the lease for 112,800 acres. In a statement on Wednesday, the Dominion subsidiary said it will use the land […]

In response to a pivotal federal court decision in August, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last week said it will seek comments on how to restart the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain permanent nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The request will help the NRC “ensure the most efficient and productive use of the approximately […]

A discussion draft of a preliminary cybersecurity framework posted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) last week outlines several functions to protect industrial control systems, but it acknowledges that the power sector already engages in several cybersecurity practices and recommends that utilities opting to use the framework should leverage these rather than […]

Duke Energy will retire four coal units and possibly two oil-fired units under terms of a settlement reached between the company and four citizen and environmental groups over outstanding air permits for the company’s Edwardsport Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) project. The agreement resolves a long-standing dispute over air permits for the now-operational IGCC plant […]

In a decision that sets precedent, a federal court last week ruled that residents neighboring a Pennsylvania coal-fired power plant may sue for property damage even though the plant fully complies with state and federal emissions rules. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit sided with two named plaintiffs in a class action […]

New Mexico could host the nation’s first buried long-distance high voltage direct current (HVDC) electric transmission network if an ambitious project proposed by Tres Amigas LLC gains traction. The merchant transmission entity whose mission it is to unite the nation’s three power grids to achieve its renewable energy goals unveiled the 2,000-MW New Mexico Express […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has fully allocated funds to support Babcock & Wilcox’s (B&W’s) initial project period for its mPower small modular reactor (SMR) technology. The North Carolina–based company was the only winner selected in November 2012 of the DOE’s competitively bid SMR Licensing Technical Support Program, an initiative designed to boost the accelerated […]

Two federally sponsored reports submitted to the Eastern Interconnection States’ Planning Council (EISPC) suggest that the rapid expansion of natural gas could force the closure of between 35 GW and 60 GW of U.S. coal power capacity over the next five years and weaken market forces that now bolster existing nuclear plants. An Energy Department–funded […]

The embattled Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Vernon, Vt., will be permanently shuttered in the fourth quarter of 2014 after its current fuel cycle, plant owner Entergy Corp. announced on Tuesday. The decision to close the 41-year-old boiling water reactor was based on a number of financial factors, including sustained low natural gas prices […]

Oklahoma will seek a rehearing of its regional haze case against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before the full 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, state Attorney General Scott Pruitt confirmed on Wednesday. On July 19, a divided three-judge panel threw out the state’s claims  that the EPA had “impermissibly rejected” a State Implementation Plan (SIP) […]

North Carolina on Friday sought a state Superior Court order to force Duke Energy to address groundwater and wastewater violations at 12 power plant sites that the utility uses to store coal ash residuals. The state’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) filed two lawsuits for injunctive relief against Duke Energy Progress Inc. and […]

An enforcement action filed in federal district court by the Department of Justice last week alleges Luminant Generating Co. made unauthorized changes to its Big Brown and Martin Lake coal-fired power plants in Texas that violated the Clean Air Act. The case filed under seal in the Northern District of Texas (Dallas division) follows a […]

Europe’s Gas Power Plant Carnage Intensifies Another 1.2 GW of gas-fired generation has been idled in Germany as utilities scramble to rein losses that are pegged to falling wholesale electricity prices and a surge in renewable power generation. Norwegian power company Statkraft put into “wet reserve” the 800-MW Knapsack 1 and 417-MW Herdecke power plants, […]

Entergy Corp. can continue operating Unit 2 at its two-reactor Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan, N.Y., until the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) decides whether to renew the unit’s operating license—even after it expires on Sept. 28. The federal regulator notified Entergy on Monday that it is “clear” the NRC will not issue a […]

A recently published standard has been adopted globally to address risks arising from the use of business information technology (IT) cybersecurity solutions to address industrial automation and control systems (IACS) cybersecurity in complex and dangerous manufacturing and processing applications. The ISA-62443 series of standards, being developed by the ISA99 committee of the International Society of […]

The state of Vermont cannot force Entergy to shutter the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled on Tuesday. The federal appeals court partially upheld a prior lower court decision stemming from a lawsuit filed by Entergy Corp., the owner of Vermont’s only reactor. In his January […]

The first ever lease application received to test ocean current energy equipment in the U.S. has been greenlighted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The Department of the Interior agency that oversees energy activities on the Outer Continental Shelf on Monday announced availability of a revised environmental assessment (EA) and its finding of […]

President Obama on Friday signed into law two bills that are designed to boost hydropower production in the U.S. H.R. 267, the “Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013,” modifies the Federal Power Act and the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act to promote and facilitate the development of hydroelectric power capacity. The law directs the Federal […]

Installed prices for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the U.S. in 2012 fell for the third straight year by a range of roughly 6% to 14% compared to the prior year. In its latest edition of “Tracking the Sun,” the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) reports installed prices for PV systems fell […]