News

The impact of environmental initiatives and the need for transmission infrastructure are among the most important issues facing electric reliability in North America over the coming 10 years, the quasi-public agency North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) said last week in its 2008 Long-Term Reliability Assessment (PDF). Though the total miles of transmission additions have […]

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) last week announced plans to allow geothermal drilling in more than 190 million acres of federal land, spanning 12 Western states. Dirk Kempthorne, secretary of the interior, said that the proposed initiative could increase geothermal power production in the U.S. tenfold. “Geothermal energy will play a key role […]

Exelon has proposed the purchase of all the outstanding shares of NRG’s common stock for $6.2 billion. The combination of Exelon and NRG would form a utility with a generating capacity of about 47,000 MW and create the largest utility in the U.S., dwarfing both American Electric Power with 36,000 MW and Duke Energy with […]

Europe’s first EPR nuclear power plant, the Olkiluoto 3 in Finland, is now three years behind schedule and will not come on-line until 2012, Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) admitted last week. The delay is the fourth announced for the 1,600-MW plant, which has been plagued with faulty materials and planning problems since construction […]

The UK will build only a quarter of the 29 GW of offshore wind farms needed to reach its target to have 15% of energy from renewable sources by 2020 unless the government acts urgently to reduce costs and risks to developers, a government-funded but independent think tank said in a report launched last week. […]

The Indiana Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled against four environmental and consumer groups and upheld a decision by state regulators to allow Duke Energy to build a $2.35 billion integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant at its coal and oil–fired Edwardsport facility in Knox County, Ind. Duke and Southern Indiana Gas and Electric Company […]

PJM Interconnection has approved $1.8 billion in electric transmission system additions and grid upgrades to enhance the reliability of its power supply system. The grid operator’s system serves parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia. On Friday, it said the upgrades and improvements authorized by its board comprised dozens of projects. Most new […]

Belgian utility Electrabel has threatened legal action if the country’s government enacts a bill that would force the its two nuclear operators to pay a € 250 million ($336 million) tax. The one-time levy would force Electrabel and SPE to contribute to the 2008 financial year. If they do not comply, a penalty of 2% […]

A regional system plan for 2008 released Friday by ISO New England Inc. forecasts that the region is likely to have sufficient capacity to meet electricity demand through 2014, but significant challenges—such as major transmission upgrades—remain for the region New England Inc. is the operator of the region’s bulk power system and wholesale electricity markets. […]

As fluid passes through Exact Flow’s new DX-DL dual-rotor turbine flowmeter, the dual rotors become hydraulically coupled due to their counter-rotation. Not only does this allow the rotors to overcome the inertia and drag that typically affect single-rotor turbine flowmeters, it also extends the flow range to 500:1—five times the 100:1 flow range of a […]