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The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) last week upheld a decision by the state’s Department of Public Utilities (DPU) that a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between Cape Wind and utility National Grid would be a cost-effective use of ratepayer money. The decision means Cape Wind is closer to building North America’s first offshore wind farm.

Pennsylvania’s Sunbury Generation, a company that owns the Shamokin Dam plant—the nation’s oldest coal-fired power plant—last week reportedly said it would close five of its six coal-fired generation units and replace them with two natural gas–fired turbines by 2015. The company cited stricter regulations on power plant emissions.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) on Thursday approved a 275-MW solar plant in California and a 104-MW wind farm in Oregon that will be built on private lands and use power lines that cross public lands to connect to their respective grids. The projects are the 26th and 27th renewable projects approved by the DOI in the past two years.

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) plans to begin construction of six new 500-kV overhead transmission lines at the Grand Coulee Dam—the nation’s largest hydropower facility—next month, the public service organization said last week. The new lines will help ensure continued safe and reliable transmission of power between Grand Coulee Dam’s third power plant and the BPA’s vast high-voltage power grid.

PJM Interconnection on Sunday began operational control of the transmission systems of Duke Energy Ohio and Duke Energy Kentucky, both subsidiaries of Duke Energy, and began administering open, competitive wholesale electricity markets in those areas, the regional grid operator said on Jan 1.

Gas turbines are expensive. Although peaking units aren’t as costly as baseload units, letting them sit idle is still a waste. Yet that is what peaking units spend nearly all their time doing. Some operators only fire up their units a few days a year. That is like putting money in the bank and collecting interest a few hours at a time, rather than all year round. That strategy only works when the payback is extremely high for those short periods.

As demonstrated by last fall’s unexpected snowfall in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, and the ensuing lengthy outages and public outrage, crisis communications is a hot topic for power utilities. And in addressing that topic, the role of social media is getting attention as a tool for disaster management.

Welcome to "Workplace Drama," a new, regular MANAGING POWER column by noted communications and human resources expert Marlene Chism. Her column will appear in each issue, and as the column progresses, we hope to hear from you with real-world situations and questions, to which Marlene will respond.

How much taxpayer money should be used to support renewable and clean energy projects? And is federal government getting a good deal for its money? In a time of fiscal distress, with the government facing a huge debt and deficit, policy experts (and the public) are increasingly taking a closer look at these important issues.

Utility organizations are struggling to find a way to more effectively and efficiently communicate with their customers about basic information, including their amount due, ways to lower energy usage, and promotions.