Latest

  • FPL Closes Coal Plant, Brings More Solar Online

    Florida Power & Light (FPL) began the new year by opening four new solar power plants, along with officially retiring one of its two remaining coal-fired plants in the state. The utility on January 8 said the four solar plants began operating on January 1, 2018. They are the Horizon Solar Energy Center, in Alachua […]

  • TVA Retires Aging Johnsonville Coal-fired Plant

    The Johnsonville Fossil Plant in Humphreys County, Tennessee, came online in 1951, and provided power for generations of Tennesseans as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) vast coal-fired fleet. But the end of 2017 also marked the end of an era for Johnsonville, as the TVA shut down the last operating unit at the […]

  • FERC Rejects DOE’s Proposed Grid Resiliency Rule

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has rejected the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) controversial proposed rule on grid reliability and resilience pricing, initiating instead a new proceeding that will examine the resilience of the bulk power system. The DOE’s “Grid Resiliency Pricing Rule” proposed on Sept. 29 directed FERC—an independent regulatory government agency that is […]

  • Commentary: Pressing Forward With Vogtle, a Nuclear MVP

    Georgia wasn’t looking for an award or recognition when we set out to build new nuclear reactors in our state. Yet we now find ourselves as the last team on the field as our commissioners unanimously voted to move forward with a new cost and schedule for the Plant Vogtle new nuclear units—keeping the project […]

  • Brookfield Business Partners to Acquire Westinghouse from Toshiba Corp.

    Westinghouse Electric Co., a company that is emerging from a bankruptcy stemming from the half-built AP1000 reactor projects in Georgia and South Carolina, is to be acquired from Toshiba Corp. by business services and industrials company Brookfield Business Partners. Brookfield, a company of Toronto-headquartered Brookfield Asset Management, announced on January 4 that it entered into […]

  • FERC Proposes Mandatory Reporting of Attempted Cybersecurity Compromises

     The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has proposed a revision of the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Reliability Standards to enhance awareness of existing or developing cybersecurity threats to the nation’s energy infrastructure. FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) on December 21 that directs the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) to broaden CIP-008-5 […]

  • Despite New Jersey Senate Vote on Nuclear Subsidies, Bill May Not Clear Lame-Duck Session

    New Jersey’s full Senate is scheduled on January 4 to vote on a bill to subsidize two of the state’s nuclear power plants. However, industry observers posit that the measure won’t clear the full Assembly before the state legislature’s lame-duck session ends on January 9. S.3560 was introduced on December 14 after a preliminary hearing earlier […]

  • Signs of Aging in Boilers

    All power plant equipment has a limited lifetime, but not all components age at the same rate. Some equipment may outlast the useful life of a plant, while other machinery may be replaced more than once

  • Dominion Will Buy SCANA in $14.6B Deal, Writing Off Failed Nuclear Expansion Assets

    SCANA Corp., a company reeling from a decision to abandon two half-built nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer project in South Carolina, is getting a lifeline from Dominion Energy, one of the nation’s largest utilities. The two companies on January 3 announced an agreement to combine in a stock-for-stock merger. The proposed deal is valued […]

  • What Is the Future of Independent Power?

    Merchant markets for independent power producers in the U.S. are unfavorable, and many companies in the sector have slumping profits—even big losses—as they ponder where to go in the months and years