News

Illinois regulators on Tuesday rejected Ameren Illinois’ $625 million plan to deploy smart grid improvements in its service territory, saying the company not only failed to show it could deliver a cost benefit to customers, but that the deployment plan was “vague and incomplete” and bordered on being more a “general statement of intention to install smart meters in some parts of its service territory.”

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should examine the benefits of mandating that nuclear plants in the U.S. add probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) to methods used to evaluate and prepare for natural hazards, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds in a new report.

Just weeks after the U.S. Commerce Department slapped a 31% tariff on 61 Chinese crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) cell producers and exporters, it imposed preliminary duties of as high as 26% on imports of utility-scale wind towers from China.

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to hear a case filed by several states and citizen groups against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that contends that FERC Order 697, issued in 2007 to improve market-based rate regulations, exceeds FERC’s authority under the Federal Power Act (FPA).

Planning reserve margins in California and Texas will be "tight" this summer, and New England generators could face uncertain supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG), the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (NERC’s) newly released 2012 Summer Reliability Assessment finds.

Over the next five years, at least eight advanced large-scale demonstration carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects will enter operation—five in North America and three in Europe, a Bloomberg New Energy Finance analysis shows. Leading the pack is Pennsylvania-based Air Products & Chemical’s CCS demonstration at a refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, a project that could be operational as soon as next year.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Tuesday said it renewed the operating license for the 1972-commissioned Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass., for 20 more years despite objections by outgoing NRC Chair Gregory Jaczko.

Finding in a preliminary determination that crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) cells are being sold in the U.S. at below-market prices that harm domestic manufacturers, the Commerce Department slapped a 31% tariff on 61 Chinese PV producers and exporters with slight variations by company. All other Chinese producers and exporters of the cells will be subject to a tariff of nearly 250%. The decision has incited mixed, heated reactions from the solar industry.

Compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS) by April 2015 will require coal generators in the Midwest to install retrofits at a pace and scale that exceeds “historical demonstrated capability,” and it will impose taxing bottlenecks on the nation’s power sector labor, equipment, and supply chain, a new study suggests.

A new report shows that the reserve margin for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) could plunge to 9.8% as soon as 2014, to 6.9% in 2015, and to a negative margin by 2022—well below the grid operator’s 13.75% target for electric generation capacity that exceeds the forecast peak demand on the grid.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chair Gregory Jaczko on Monday announced his resignation after more than seven years as a member and three years as head of the federal regulatory body. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) last week suggested that Jaczko could be re-nominated if a successor is not confirmed by June 20, 2013, when the chairman’s first term ends.

The long-awaited restart of Bruce Power’s Unit 2 at Bruce A on Friday was delayed again for months after an issue was identified within the electrical generator on the non-nuclear side of the Ontario plant just an hour before synchronization with the grid was scheduled to occur.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week issued a policy statement explaining how it will advise the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on requests for extra time from generators to comply with the agency’s recently finalized Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).

To counter generator-announced plans to retire nearly 14,000 MW of generation between May 2012 and the end of 2015 and boost reliability, the PJM Interconnection Board last week approved nearly $2 billion in transmission upgrades.

An explosion on Sunday night at a coal bunker at DTE Energy’s St. Clair Power Plant in Michigan left one worker with a minor injury and caused minor damage to the plant. The cause of the explosion is under investigation.

Japan’s trade minister last week approved a ¥1 trillion ($12.5 billion) capital injection to avert the collapse of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). The move is effectively a nationalization of Japan’s largest utility and owner of the crisis-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Citing the need for local and regional transmission reliability and affordability, Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission (PSC) last week voted to grant a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for an approximately 48-mile 345 kV electric transmission line between Alma, Wis., and Holmen, Wis., that is part of the $2 billion CapX2020 initiative.

FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co.’s (FENOC) Beaver Valley Power Station Unit 1 in Shippingport, Pa., was returned to service on Saturday morning, following a shutdown on April 9 for refueling and maintenance.

Investigations are ongoing into a fire that occurred just after midnight on Thursday at the 840-MW Mettur thermal power plant in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The fire that devastated the plant’s conveyor system killed one worker and injured two others.

An investigation into the failure of one of North Anna nuclear plant’s four emergency diesel generators following last summer’s earthquake has alleged that plant personnel did not establish and maintain appropriate maintenance procedures for the plant’s generators. Dominion’s plant near Richmond, Va., faces increased regulatory oversight as a result, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said on Monday.

On Monday, Convert Italia and solar module maker Solaria Corp. announced they had begun operating in Puglia, Italy, what they called the largest low-concentrating solar PV power plant in the world.

The State Grid Corp. of China has begun construction of an 800-kV ultra-high-voltage direct current (UHVDC) transmission line that will run 2,210 kilometers (1,373 miles) from Hami Prefecture in China’s western province of Xinjiang to the north-central industrial city of Zhengzhou. When completed in 2014, the $3.7 billion line will have a transmission capacity of 8 GW.

Enriched uranium fuel supplier USEC on Tuesday struck a deal with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA, a federal agency), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA, a federally owned corporation), and Energy Northwest (a municipal corporation of Washington State) to extend uranium operations at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Ky., for at least another year.

A proposal launched on Tuesday by Senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) could bar Chinese-made solar panels from qualifying for the existing 30% tax credit that U.S. individuals and businesses receive for purchasing and installing solar panels.

A Texas District Court judge on Monday signaled his intent to reverse and remand to the state a key air permit granted to the proposed $3.2 billion Las Brisas Energy Center (LBEC).

Vermont’s House last week voted 10–36 to give final passage to a bill that could make the state the first in the nation to ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.

A new report funded by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) that examines historical and current federal incentives in energy markets suggests that current solar industry incentives are consistent with previous development-stage energy sources subsidized by the U.S. government.

A new study from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should reevaluate the formula with which it calculates nuclear reactor decommissioning costs. In an analysis of 12 of the nation’s 104 reactors, decommissioning costs calculated for five reactors were 76% less than what would be required, Congress’ investigative arm says.

Duke Energy and Progress Energy customers would not shoulder charges for costs of about $450 million related to the utilities’ proposed $26 billion merger if the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) speedily approves the deal, according to an agreement between the companies and the state regulatory body that was disclosed Monday.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia heard oral arguments last week in a case that examines whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should be required to continue the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository proposed for Nevada.