News

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week issued a final rule amending its Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) to include five more states in the ozone season nitrogen oxide (NOx) program. The final rule adds Oklahoma to the CSAPR program (for its ozone-season NOx emissions only), bringing the total number of states covered by the rule to 28.

Nine months after the Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture was rocked by a magnitude 9.0 quake and an ensuing massive tsunami that plunged it into the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, 25 years earlier, Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, on Friday said in a televised address that the plant’s four afflicted units have been brought to a state of cold shutdown. However, the crisis is far from over, he said.

A report was released last week by the European Commission that outlines possible ways European Union (EU) members can ensure energy security and competitiveness while meeting an ambitious goal of reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 80% to 95% below 1990 levels by 2050.

Duke-American Transmission Co. (DATC) will take charge of the design and development of a proposed 950-mile 500-kV transmission line that would deliver wind energy generated in eastern Wyoming to California and the southwestern U.S.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) stunned officials of Duke Energy and Progress Energy on Thursday when it refused to unconditionally approve a $13.7 billion merger deal of the two companies that would have created the largest U.S. electric utility. The regulatory body cited concerns about the merger’s impact on power markets in North and South Carolina—where both companies are based—for its decision.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today issued its final Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which will require about 40% of all coal-fired power plants in the U.S. to deploy pollution control technologies to curb emissions of mercury and other air pollutants such as arsenic and cyanide within three years. The regulation has been called the “most expensive order” aimed at companies that has been considered by the Obama administration.

The UK’s Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and Environment Agency today issued separate interim design approvals for AREVA and EDF’s EPR and Westinghouse’s AP1000 nuclear reactor designs, saying they are satisfied with how the designers of both reactors plan to resolve a number of remaining issues. The decision establishes that the reactors are acceptable for use in the UK, but reactor vendors must first clear remaining issues and take on board lessons learned from the Fukushima accident before being allowed to build new plants in the UK.

A former chairman of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) who was embroiled in an ethics scandal over helping a former agency counsel apply for a job at Duke Energy while participating in proceedings involving the utility’s costly Edwardsport integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant was indicted on Monday by a grand jury in Marion County.

The Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO) on Thursday approved 215 new transmission infrastructure projects as part of the grid operator’s Transmission Expansion Plan 2011 (MTEP11). The projects include 17 transmission line projects that are estimated to cost as much as $5.2 billion to manage a “severe drop in planning reserve margins” that MISO has forecast could occur in the next years if pending environmental regulations proceed as planned.

An agreement reached between LS Power and environmental groups on Monday ends a decade-long legal battle, but it will force the company to ditch plans to build the 1,200-MW coal-fired Longleaf Energy Station near Blakey, Ga.; shelve plans for at least five years to build the 665-MW Plum Point II coal-fired plant near Osceola, Ark.; and limit pollution from the 900-MW pulverized Sandy Creek plant in Riesel, Texas.

Entergy Corp. last week agreed to divest and then merge its electric transmission business with the nation’s largest independent electric transmission company, ITC Holdings Corp. If the merger is completed, and ITC integrates Entergy’s 15,700 miles of interconnected transmission lines, that company could become one of the largest transmission companies in the U.S. with more than 30,000 miles of transmission lines from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast.

Toronto-based Bruce Power on Monday officially abandoned plans to build a new nuclear power plant in Alberta that has been under consideration by the company since 2007, saying it would instead focus investments on increasing reliability and safety at its existing Bruce Power nuclear generating station in Ontario.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week ruled that the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) discriminated against wind generators when it used its transmission market power to curtail wind power after high river flows and high wind last May and June caused generation on the BPA system to exceed power demand.

NRG Energy brought development of a key offshore wind project off the coast of Delaware to a screeching halt on Monday. Saying the development of a new domestic offshore industry was ridden with “monumental challenges,” the Princeton, N.J., company cited its inability to find an investment partner, a lack of federal loan guarantees, and the looming expiration of wind tax incentives as key reasons behind its decision.

A report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) last week finds that the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) financial condition could hamper its ability to fund capital improvements—including a 20-year plan to meet power demand with more natural gas generation, three new nuclear reactors, and expanding energy efficiency programs.

Vattenfall last week scrapped a much-awaited €1.5 billion ($2 billion) carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration project it planned to build and begin operating by 2015 in the German federal state of Brandenburg, blaming “insufficient will in German federal politics.”

Rules proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that could require operators of new and existing boilers burning coal, oil, natural gas, and biomass to install a “maximum achievable control technology (MACT)” and limit air pollutants were revised on Friday to offer more flexibility.

Days after the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) warned in a new assessment that new federal air quality rules could stress the nation’s power grid, the Department of Energy (DOE) released its own report examining the potential impact of two standards on electricity reliability. Those rules would prompt the closure of 29 GW of coal-fired capacity, but they should not create resource adequacy issues or unmanageable reliability challenges, the DOE finds.

A Texas District Court today dismissed two appeals challenging air quality permits granted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) last December for the 600-MW coal-fired Tenaska Trailblazer Energy Center under development near Sweetwater in Nolan County.

CMS Energy Corp.’s Consumers Energy, which has the oldest fleet of coal plants in the nation, with an average age of 50 years, on Friday said it was immediately abandoning plans to build a $2 billion, 830-MW clean coal plant project near Bay City, Mich., and was planning to suspend operations at seven smaller coal-fired units in 2015.

Texas will be short 2,600 MW during the summer 2012 peak, and reserve margins will dip to 12% owing to decisions to mothball some generation units, several delays in planned generation, and a higher load forecast, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said on Thursday.

A report unveiled on Monday by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on the future of the smart grid over the next two decades finds that the U.S. grid can stand up to the challenge of integrating electric vehicles as well as new sources of distributed and intermittent power generation—as long as certain policy changes are made.

Last week, as Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) announced he would propose a federal Clean Energy Standard (CES) bill early next year, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released an impact analysis that examines how such a policy would affect the nation’s power profile and carbon emissions.

Germany’s government has decided to shutter all 17 of its nuclear plants (23 reactors); eight plants are now closed for business, six more will be closed by 2021, and the final three will close by 2022. What is lacking is an honest discussion of the rising cost Germans will pay for electricity for what The Economist describes as “the greatest change of political course since unification.”

Sierra Instruments has introduced a new lineup of its popular transit-time ultrasonic flow meters, which now include improved next-generation Innova-Sonic 203, 205i, and portable 210i models. The Innova-Sonic 205i is Sierra’s highest performing dedicated clamp-on instrument. It incorporates the latest developments in digital signal processing to offer excellent accuracy and repeatability for a wide variety […]

Hendrix Wire & Cable, a provider of overhead and underground power distribution products, introduced its Spacer Cable Systems, a “green” solution for overhead distribution circuits. Because Spacer Cable is more compact and can withstand temporary contact with branches without causing outages, Hendrix Spacer Cable Systems can help reduce the amount of vegetation that must be […]

Oil Eater Naturals is a new line of eco-friendly absorbent pads made of natural plant by-products. Featuring woven construction, the pads are designed to provide a safer and cleaner workplace and help users meet OSHA and EPA requirements. The line includes Oil-Only Pads and Rolls that soak up oil and repel water; Universal Pads and […]

Harrington Hoists launched the RHN Series, a new line of electric wire rope hoists, offered in two configurations: the deck/base-mounted hoist in 2–20 metric tons and ultra-low-headroom trolley hoist in 2–15 metric tons. Both versions are dual speed. The deck/base-mounted hoist features a compact, modular design that is perfect for stationary applications or combined with […]

Ashcroft A2, A2X, and A4 pressure transmitters answer the call for an accurate, rugged, and reliable heavy-duty sensor. Available in accuracies up to +/-0.25% full scale, the A2 is offered with a wide variety of electrical connections, analog output signals, and pressure ports to meet the requirements of most any industrial application. The A2X (explosion/flame proof) […]

Advanced graphical interface technology provider DiSTI Corp. unveiled Replic8, a new software tool to effortlessly create interactive virtual training content from Autodesk’s 3D Studio Max. Replic8 allows users to easily produce compelling 3-D interactive training content through a simplified development process. (The image is a Relic8-generated 3-D Cummins 855 Diesel Engine.) The software tool works […]