T&D

Despite record low temperatures and widespread generation outages during the polar vortex, bulk power system reliability was maintained, says the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) in a newly released analysis of the extreme cold weather event that engulfed most of the nation this January.  The Jan. 6–7, 2014, weather condition that resulted in temperatures […]

A 7,100-MW±600-kV high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) line that runs 2,375 kilometers (km) from new hydropower plants on the Madeira River in the Amazon Basin to major load centers in southeastern Brazil

A coalition of four companies are proposing to build a 2.1-GW, $8 billion project that would comprise the world’s largest wind farm in Wyoming, a huge compressed-air energy storage (CAES) system in Utah, and a 525-mile transmission line that would supply up to 9.2 TWh per year of electricity to Southern California. Pathfinder Renewable Wind […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) will designate $8 million for seven microgrid projects to help cities and towns better prepare for extreme weather events and other power disruptions. The funding will help develop advanced microgrid controllers and system designs for microgrids of less than 10 MW. Each projects includes a company cost-share, ranging from 20% […]

Geographically and politically, Texas and Germany are on opposite sides of the world, but both believe strongly in competitive energy markets, and both have largely deregulated their power industries. Now both are reconsidering their market designs. Its easy to think that Germany and Texas could not be more different. One is northern, cold, and Old […]

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 […]

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 […]

A standard to enhance physical security at critical power system facilities submitted by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) will need modifications before it can be approved, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said last week.  FERC ordered NERC on March 7 to develop and submitnew reliability standards requiring owners and operators of the […]

British Columbia (BC) has long enjoyed some of the lowest electricity costs in North America, but when in August 2013, a draft of the BC Rates Plan which proposed a 26% rate increase by 2016, was leaked, this was met with such a backlash of protest that the government was forced to reconsider the proposal. […]

At the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) annual meeting this week in Las Vegas, the tone was one of collaboration with partners from Washington to distributed generation companies. Those partnerships will be needed as the investor-owned utility (IOU) industry fights not so much a war on coal as a war for mindshare and wallet share in […]

Anyone who follows either the energy industry or the military knows that all branches of the U.S. military have aggressive goals for renewable energy and for improving energy security and independence. Microgrids are a key part of that plan. When I wrote about military microgrids in “The Military Gets Smart Grid” back in January 2012, […]

Aside from places where microgrids have a track record—educational, industrial, and commercial campuses—commercial and community microgrids are still the domain of early adopters, but the number of people wanting to travel the trail they are blazing is increasing. A microgrid is any collection of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources within clearly defined electrical boundaries […]

If you’re looking for the easiest place to deploy microgrid technology, look at islands. That was the general consensus of presenters at the 4th Military & Commercial Microgrids Summit in Washington, D.C., held June 17-19. In addition to a presentation about a microgrid being developed for Necker Island—owned by Sir Richard Branson, founder of the […]

If, as Navigant Research suggests, the global microgrid market will exceed $40 billion annually by 2020, where is all the capacity going, and what’s fueling it (literally and figuratively)? Peter Asmus, a long-time researcher of smart grid technologies at Navigant, shared that market projection and others at the 4th Military & Commercial Microgrids Summit in […]

South Africa’s critical power situation has been the subject of much talk and speculation since 2008, when the country experienced its first electricity crisis after enjoying a surplus of cheap electrcity since the 1980’s. Download the report.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) should have classified and protected a sensitive grid-related document created by its staff, the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said in a memorandum on Wednesday.  Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) requested that the inspector general investigate sensitive information leaks suspected to have originated […]

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on Tuesday issued a final rule that revises a 42-year-old construction standard for electric power line work to make it more consistent with general industry standards.  The final rule, which is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on April 11 and becomes effective 90 days after that, […]

Investor-owned electric utility companies spent $14.8 billion in 2012 to upgrade transmission infrastructure, and investments in 2013 and 2014 are expected to soar even more, peaking at about $17.5 billion, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) says in a new report.   The eighth annual publication of the EEI’s report “Transmission Projects: At  A Glance,” estimates more […]

The energy industry, already familiar with the latest iteration of the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) reliability standards, should take note: Meeting

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Friday directed the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to develop reliability standards requiring owners and operators of the bulk power system to address risks due to physical security threats and vulnerabilities.  The standards will require owners and operators of the bulk power system to take at least […]

Brazil’s electricity market is vast: the largest in Latin America and 10th largest in the world, with an installed capacity of 121,000 MW. Download the report.

The Don A. Campbell geothermal power plant—a 16-MW base load complex located in Mineral County, Nev.—began full capacity operation on Dec. 6, 2013. The plant, named after the geologist who discovered the resource, is supplying electricity to Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA) under a Power Purchase Agreement. SCPPA, in turn, resells the power to […]

A land of lakes and rivers, Quebec benefits today from an abundance of clean and green energy, vastly generated by means of hydro power, which is increasingly complemented by the province’s eastern wind energy farms. Download a pdf of this report.

The business environment for generating companies worldwide continues to become increasingly complex, and not just as a result of regulations. Even in the U.S., the concerns and constraints faced by generators

Beginning with its landmark Order No. 888 in 1996, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has aggressively pursued policies designed to foster planning and construction of new transmission facilities

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 […]

About $30 million will be spent on the development of new tools and technologies to strengthen protection of the nation’s electric grid and oil and gas infrastructure from cyber attack, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced today. The funds will go to 11 projects undertaken by energy sector organizations in California, Georgia, New Jersey, North […]

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 […]

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 […]

P at Wood III —former head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Texas Public Utility Commission, and current consultant and non-executive chairman of Dynegy—addressed a packed house at the