POWERnews

Injection of carbon dioxide began last week at one of the world’s first fully integrated coal-fired carbon capture, transportation, and geologic storage projects. The "Anthropogenic Test" conducted by the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (SECARB) transports carbon dioxide via a 12-mile pipeline from a 25-MW post-combustion carbon capture facility at Southern Co.’s 2,657-MW Plant Barry in Bucks, Ala., and sequesters it within a saline Paluxy Formation at the nearby Citronelle Oil Field operated by Denbury Resources.

Exelon on Tuesday said it plans to withdraw its Early Site Permit (ESP) application for construction of a new reactor at an 11,500-acre tract of land southeast of Victoria, Texas, saying “low natural gas prices and economic and market conditions . . . have made construction of new merchant nuclear power plants in competitive markets uneconomical now and for the foreseeable future.”

The U.S. Trade Representative on Monday asked the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to investigate how U.S.-provided renewable energy services affect development of renewable energy projects worldwide. The ITC’s report, expected by June 28, 2013, will focus on the development, generation, and distribution of renewable energy—specifically onshore and offshore wind and solar energy.

Hurricane Isaac soaked the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi after making landfall Tuesday night with sustained winds of up to 80 mph, leaving thousands without power in five states. On Tuesday, Entergy took its Waterford 3 nuclear plant offline as a precautionary measure.

In a landmark ruling that has been seen as a major victory for thermal generators, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday vacated the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), finding that it violated federal law. The EPA must now continue implementation of the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) until it can promulgate a replacement, which likely will not happen until at least 2014, industry analysts said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday issued an alert warning that industrial Ethernet switches and other devices made by network equipment manufacturer RuggedCom and widely used by power companies could be vulnerable to compromise.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Tuesday approved a full build-out of a 1.5-MW gird-connected wave power station that is planned by Ocean Power Technologies’ (OPT’s) Oregon subsidiary Reedsport OPT Wave Park. The license is the first issued for a wave power station in the nation.

Canada’s nuclear regulator on Friday issued a 10-year nuclear power reactor site preparation license to Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG’s) proposed reactor at its Darlington nuclear site in Ontario. The license, described as "an important milestone in Canada’s nuclear history," is the first of its kind in nearly 25 years.

Four rules recently proposed or finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could prompt power companies to retrofit most coal-fired generating units and retire 2% to 12% of coal-fired capacity. The rules would also likely increase power prices in some regions, though they may not cause widespread reliability concerns, a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) suggests.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) on Thursday said it would suspend, for 18 months, enforcement of part of its carbon trading rule as it applies to electricity imported to the state. The measure would help avoid a "negative" impact on energy supplies and reliability for the power-strapped state, the state air regulator said.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Monday ruled 2-1 that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) overstepped its authority in disapproving Texas’s Flexible Permit Program and that reasons the agency offered for rejecting the program were "arbitrary and capricious."

Implementation of a new federal nuclear spent fuel–handling program starting in 2020 to remove 6,000 metric tons of uranium (MTU) per year for 10 years and 3,000 MTU per year thereafter could allow for full decommissioning of U.S. sites awaiting fuel removal. It would also enable retirement of all private Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations by 2030, and achieve approximately a 10% reduction in average wet pool density, a new study from consulting firm The Brattle Group suggests.

As warmer-than-average waters in Connecticut’s Long Island Sound last week prompted Dominion to shut down one unit at its Millstone Nuclear Plant, an ammonia release caused an evacuation of part of Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Unit 1, and Constellation Energy shut down of its Calvert Cliffs Unit 1 reactor after a control rod unexpectedly dropped into the reactor’s core. Then, on Tuesday, Xcel Energy shut down its Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant and Unit 1 of its Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant for repairs.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a determination on Wednesday that finds construction of Cape Wind’s 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, Mass., would pose no hazard to air navigation. The decision was issued as a congressional House committee probes whether the FAA disregarded safety concerns when it issued a prior approval of the nation’s first offshore wind project.

A new report from the Department of Energy (DOE) highlights sizeable increases in U.S. wind power capacity and recent improvements in the cost and performance of wind power technology, but it says the U.S. continues to trail several countries in wind energy penetration and warns that the industry is facing "serious federal policy uncertainty" looking into 2013 and beyond.

A report that examines and compares sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NOx), mercury, and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions of the 100 largest power producers in the U.S. based on 2010 generation numbers says those companies produced 88% of the nation’s total power plant emissions of those pollutants.

A fire sparked by a conveyor belt at a coal-fired power plant in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu has killed four workers and seriously injured four others, news media reported on Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Tuesday announced that 106 projects in 29 states, Guam, and Puerto Rico would receive $8.7 million in loans and grants to produce renewable energy and make energy efficiency improvements under the federal agency’s Rural Development’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).

Congress kicked up action on several measures last week before it adjourned for a five-week recess. Two new bills were introduced: One calls for communities to generate at least 20% of their own power needs in preparation for grid emergencies, and the other seeks to put into legislative language recommendations regarding the nation’s nuclear waste storage policy that was finalized this January by the Blue Ribbon Commission. The House, meanwhile, advanced its “No More Solyndras Act.”

The owners of 13 reactors at seven nuclear power plants located Texas, California, Arizona, and Kansas last week formalized an alliance that they say would “leverage the strengths” of their plants and collaboratively focus on improving their operational, regulatory, and financial performances. Chief nuclear officers of the seven plants formally signed and agreed to the formation of a limited liability company, the STARS Alliance LLC.

Senate Republicans last week voted down the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 offered by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), citing concerns that the bill would burden businesses with unnecessary regulations.

Review of the TransWest Express, a 725-mile transmission line running from Cheyenne, Wyo., to Las Vegas, Nev., has been delayed at least six months, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said last week. Developers of the Tres Amigas Superstation in New Mexico are meanwhile, reportedly tackling funding troubles, while U.S. grid operator PJM Interconnection formally announced it would axe the $1.8 billion PATH transmission line.

Seven solar and wind energy projects with a total nameplate capacity of 5 GW in Nevada, California, Arizona, and Wyoming will be expedited under President Obama’s “We Can’t Wait” initiative, the White House announced on Tuesday.

Black Hills Corp. (BHC) is the latest power company to announce slated closures at fossil fuel–fired power plants. The company’s subsidiary Black Hills Energy/Colorado Electric will suspend operations at its 42-MW W.N. Clark coal-fired power plant in Cañon City, Colo., and natural gas–fired steam units 5 and 6 in Pueblo, Colo., by the end of 2012. Another subsidiary will shut down the 25-MW Ben French power plant in Rapid City, S.D., by Aug. 31, 2012, as well as the 34.5-MW Osage and 22-MW Neil Simpson 1 coal-fired power plants on Mar. 21, 2014. The company cited “environmental regulations” and changing energy demands as reasons for the measures.

An explosion in the B coal bunker at Kansas City Power and Light’s (KCP&L’s) 651-MW Iatan  Power Plant Unit 1 near Weston, Mo., on Wednesday morning required the brief evacuation of 250 personnel onsite at the facility. No employees or contractors were injured, and the fire was quickly contained, the company said.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Tuesday put a hold on all final licensing decisions—include those for 19 construction and operating licenses (COLs), 12 license renewals, and one operating license—until the federal body can hash out how it will deal with spent nuclear fuel. The order comes on the heels of an Aug. 3 federal court ruling that puts off a decision on whether to force the NRC to act on the Yucca Mountain permanent nuclear waste repository’s long-pending license application.

Progress Energy Carolinas, which recently became a Duke Energy subsidiary, on Friday said it would accelerate the retirement of its 316-MW Cape Fear coal-fired plant, located near Moncure, N.C., and the 177-MW H.B. Robinson Unit 1 coal-fired plant, located near Hartsville, S.C., due to “pending changes in the environmental regulations and other rising costs for smaller, older technology plants.”

Back-to-back transmission grid failures in India plunged nearly 670 million people—roughly 10% of the world’s population—into darkness on Monday and Tuesday, paralyzing transport networks and crippling the country’s economic ambitions. Larger than both the August 2003 North American blackout and the March 1999 southern Brazil blackout, the unprecedented Indian grid failures are among the world’s worst.

A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lacks centralized information on New Source Review (NSR) permits typically issued to fossil fuel-fired power plants by states, though the agency has spearheaded enforcement efforts for noncompliance. The report, which concedes that the NSR permitting process is “complex and controversial,” also suggests that a "substantial number" of existing generating units may not have complied with requirements to obtain NSR permits.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last week issued a bulletin to all holders of nuclear plant operating licenses in the U.S., alerting them to a potential design vulnerability discovered at Exelon’s Byron Nuclear Generating Station in January that it says "could have damaged the plant’s emergency core cooling system."