POWERnews

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has approved Kyushu Electric Power’s application to make changes to its Sendai reactors, putting them a step closer to resuming operations.  The regulatory agency this July said in a 400-page draft report that Kyushu’s No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at its Sendai plant in southern Japan’s Kagoshima prefecture passed […]

Regulators from six states shared starkly different views on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed carbon rules for existing power plants at a House hearing on Tuesday. Some state-level officials said the EPA’s overall emission targets and suggested means to achieve them are based on unworkable and unrealistic assumptions about how state and regional power […]

The coal supply picture for Midwest power plants darkened again this summer as deliveries of Powder River Basin (PRB) coal to the region fell for a second consecutive quarter due to unreliable rail service, according to a report by SNL Energy. Midwest generators have been plagued by coal supply issues this year because of ongoing […]

The U.S. added 1,146 MW of utility-scale solar generation in the first half of 2014—the most ever for a first- and second-quarter period—but natural gas continued to lead new additions, though its margin may be shrinking, according to Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. Through the first six months of 2014, the U.S. added 2,179 MW […]

The Montana Public Service Commission (MPSC) on Sept. 4 approved Northwestern Energy Corp.’s request to purchase 11 hydroelectric power plants in the state from PPL Montana for $880 million. The plants, which comprise PPL Montana’s entire hydroelectric profile, total 630 MW of generation. Nine are run-of-river plants; the other two, the Mystic Lake Dam in […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday granted the nation’s first four Class VI underground injection permits for carbon sequestration to the federally backed FutureGen 2.0 carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS) project.  The Department of Energy formally committed $1 billion to the $1.68 billion project being developed by the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, a coalition of coal producers, users, […]

The European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) under construction in Finland may not start operating until late 2018—putting the project nearly 10 years behind its initial schedule.  Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) said in a statement on Sept. 1 that the AREVA-Siemens consortium building Olkiluoto 3 had updated its schedule. The schedule review, which “has been going […]

On Aug. 28, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) approved an emergency order allowing Florida Power & Light (FPL) to divert water from the district’s L-31E Canal system to help moderate unusually high temperatures and salinity that are occurring in the Turkey Point cooling canal system (CCS). The CCS—an approximately 5,900-acre network of unlined […]

Revised national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone that are expected from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this December will likely be stricter.  Agency staff from the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards in a 597-page final policy assessment released on Aug. 29 recommend revising the standard to within a range of 60 […]

Nearly four years to the day after eight people were killed in a natural gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, two judges of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) ruled on Sept. 2 that Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) must pay a record $1.4 billion in fines and penalties for its role in the disaster. […]

The El Arrayán Wind facility—located about 250 miles north of Santiago on the Chilean coast—was officially opened on Aug. 26 during a ceremony that included Chile’s president, Michelle Bachelet. “El Arrayán is the biggest wind farm in Chile and we are pleased at what we can achieve when we use the natural resources the earth […]

Calpine Corp. has its hands in two deals with large power companies—selling a plant to Duke Energy in Florida while buying a plant from Exelon Corp. in Massachusetts. On Aug. 25, Calpine announced that it has agreed to buy Exelon’s 809-MW Fore River Generating Station, which is located about 12 miles southeast of Boston, for […]

North Carolina’s Legislature last week became the first in the nation to approve a sweeping coal ash bill, but the state’s governor isn’t fully endorsing it.  Both the House and the Senate on Aug. 20 approved the Coal Ash Management Act (S.B. 729), a measure that became an urgent legislative priority after Duke Energy’s February […]

Strategies for compliance with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards led the list of topics covered during the Power Plant Pollutant Control “MEGA” Symposium held Aug. 19–21, in Baltimore, Md., but carbon dioxide (CO2) control solutions and sessions dealing with water problems weren’t far behind. The conference—hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Electric […]

In a sweeping ruling that will upend a nation that depends on coal for 60% of its electricity, the Supreme Court of India ruled on Monday that the country’s previous process for awarding coal mine contracts was illegal. Under the mine licensing process that ran from 1993 to 2010, mining blocks were handed out by […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) today issued a final rule on continued spent nuclear fuel storage and terminated a two-year suspension of final licensing actions for nuclear power plants and renewals.  The federal regulatory body’s new rule revises the Waste Confidence Decision—which the D.C. Circuit vacated in June 2012—and renames it the “Continued Storage of […]

Regulators in California last week initiated rulemaking to push the state’s three investor-owned utilities to incorporate distributed energy resources (DERs) into the planning and operation of their electric distribution systems. The California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC’s) Aug. 14 Order Instituting Rulemaking establishes rules, policies, and procedures to guide Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, […]

Dynegy Inc.—the Houston-based power company with operations in the Midwestern, Northeastern, and Western U.S.—has signed two separate agreements to acquire generation assets from Duke Energy and Energy Capital Partners (ECP). The acquisition includes a total of 12,313 MW of coal and gas generation, which will increase the company’s total portfolio to nearly 26 GW. Dynegy […]

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) employees fell victim to email “phishing” attempts three times in the past few years, allowing intruders into the agency’s email system, according to an internal report by the Office of Inspector General obtained by news site Nextgov.com. The internal NRC investigation revealed that twelve employees clicked on a link in […]

Duke Energy is scrambling to contain another major river spill—this time, of about 5,000 gallons of diesel. The company on Tuesday reported that the discharge of diesel oil #2 into the Ohio River inadvertently occurred at about 11:15 p.m. during a routine transfer of fuel oil used for boiler ignition sources at the W.C. Beckjord […]

A New Jersey court has ordered the state’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to reconsider its rejection of a $188 million offshore wind farm that is planned along the Atlantic City coast. The Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey on Aug. 18 ruled in favor of Fishermen’s Energy when it gave the […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) will tag $67 million of federal funds for 83 nuclear energy projects across the country in an effort to boost scientific breakthroughs. The agency said the awards announced on Aug. 20 would help provide “crucial funding” for research and development as well as for training and education of the country’s […]

Europe’s third-largest power provider last week revealed it may be forced to shut down more conventional power plants compromising a total of 1 GW and terminate 470 MW in supply contracts if market conditions in Germany do not improve.  RWE has blamed “political intervention” for “making [its] business challenging”—and specifically, the subsidized expansion of renewables […]

The nation’s coal fleet is under threat, alleged Dr. Larry S. Monroe, chief environmental officer and senior vice president for research and environmental affairs with Southern Co. during the keynote plenary session at the Power Plant Pollutant Control “MEGA” Symposium on Aug. 19 in Baltimore, Md. Monroe was part of a four-member panel, which included […]

Low wholesale electricity prices and uncertainty surrounding Australia’s Renewable Energy Target have resulted in the suspension of development at the Mildura Solar Power Station—a concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) project located in Carwarp, about 40 kilometers south of Mildura in Victoria, Australia. The project, which was being developed by Solar Systems Pty. Ltd., received initial funding commitments […]

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 […]

Oregon’s Department of State Lands (DSL) on Aug. 18 formally denied Ambre Energy’s application to build a coal export terminal in Boardman on the Columbia River. The project would have shipped up to 9 million tons per year (mtpa) of coal by barge to Port Westward near Clatskanie, where it would be loaded on bulk […]

Steve Byrne, chief operating officer for South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. (SCE&G), provided an update on the company’s new nuclear construction project at the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station during a conference call held on Aug. 11. On the call, Byrne disclosed that the construction consortium informed SCE&G this month that the substantial […]

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 […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is poised to decide on the fate of a coal-fired power plant in Tennessee.  At its next meeting on Aug. 21, the TVA board will likely choose to retire three existing coal-fired units at the Allen Fossil Plant in Shelby County, Tenn., by December 2018 and replace them with a […]