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Heavy damage to a transmission substation in San Jose, Calif., resulting from gunfire during an apparent vandalism on early Tuesday morning prompted the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) to urge residents and businesses in the Santa Clara and Silicon Valley region to conserve electricity in an effort to maintain reliability.

More than two years after an earthquake and tsunami caused catastrophic damage at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), still struggles to ensure stability at the site. In the latest unwelcome development, the site has experienced leaks of contaminated water from storage pools and is running out of space to store radioactive water.

On Monday, NRG Energy Inc. announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the Gregory cogeneration plant in Corpus Christi, Texas. The transaction with a consortium of affiliates of Atlantic Power Corp., John Hancock Life Insurance Co. (U.S.A.), and Rockland Capital LLC is expected to close in the third quarter.

The increasing cost of natural gas relative to coal is expected to increase coal’s share of total generation from 37.4% in 2012 to 39.9% in 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) April release of its Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). Though that would leave coal’s percentage below its 42.3% share in 2011, it indicates that gas may not be on an inevitable path to overtake a significantly greater share of the generation pie.

Polish utility PGE scrapped plans to build two 900-MW coal-fired power units worth $3.6 billion at a plant near the southwestern city of Opole, citing falling electricity prices and weak demand.

Dr. Ernest Moniz, President Obama’s nominee for the next Secretary of Energy, appears poised for easy confirmation after responding to questions from the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee on April 9. His remarks indicated support for, among other things, small modular reactors, carbon capture technology research, and moving forward with the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.

The proposed 2014 federal budget that President Obama submitted to Congress on Wednesday includes increases for the Department of Energy in general and for DOE-sponsored research and development (R&D) in particular. It also shows a slight decrease in funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In a preliminary finding released on Wednesday, staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) found that Southern California Edison’s (SCE’s) request for a license amendment that would allow limited operations at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) this summer, does “not involve an increased risk of an accident or create the possibility of a new or different accident from those previously evaluated for its license.”

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) canceled plans to buy power from two planned BrightSource Energy Inc. 250-MW solar thermal plants on the same day that BrightSource asked regulators to suspended permitting for the $2.7 billion project in California’s Inyo County.

Southern Co. has withdrawn plans to seek a $1.5 billion federal loan guarantee for the 582-MW lignite-fired integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant its Mississippi Power Co. unit is building in Kemper County.