POWERnews

  • Blackstone to Acquire Dynegy for $4.8 Billion

    Houston-based Dynegy is to be acquired by an affiliate of private equity firm Blackstone Group in a $542 million deal that includes billions in debt assumption. Under a separate agreement between Blackstone and NRG Energy, NRG Energy could acquire four natural gas-fired assets owned by Dynegy for about $1.36 billion.

  • DOE to Support Revamped FutureGen Plans

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on Thursday announced it would award $1 billion in Recovery Act funds to a revamped FutureGen proposal. The so-called “FutureGen 2.0” project contemplates repowering of an existing Ameren 200-MW coal unit in Meredosia, Ill., using oxyfuel technology—not construction of an integrated gasification combined-cycle facility at Mattoon, Ill., as originally envisioned. The new project still calls for use of the original Mattoon geologic storage site

    to sequester carbon dioxide—however, the city of Mattoon has declined participation

    in the project.

  • OSHA Issues $16.6 M in Fines After Fatal Kleen Energy Explosion

    The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on Thursday cited three construction companies and 14 site contractors for 371 alleged workplace safety violations, and issued a total of $16.6 million in penalties. The fines follow an investigation into the causes of February’s deadly natural gas explosion at the Kleen Energy power plant construction site in Middletown, Conn. The explosion killed six workers and injured 50 others.

  • Concern Mounts About Edwardsport IGCC Project Cost Overruns

    An Indiana state agency representing utility ratepayer interests in cases before regulatory commissions said it has “serious concerns” regarding cost overruns at Duke Energy’s 618-MW integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) facility at Edwardsport.

  • Xcel Energy: Wind-to-Battery Project Tests Show Technology Works

    Xcel Energy claims that preliminary tests of a 1-MW battery-storage technology system shows the technology works. The company announced on August 3 that its wind-to-battery project showed it was possible to reduce the need to compensate for the variability of wind generation.

  • EPA Sues DTE Energy for Alleged Clean Air Violations

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency filed suit against Michigan’s largest energy company, DTE Energy, for alleged violations of the federal Clean Air Act at that company’s  coal-fired Monroe Power Plant in Michigan.

  • BrightSource’s Ivanpah CSP Project Garners Key Approvals

    California-based BrightSource Energy in the past week received two key approvals for its 392-MW Ivanpah concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in the Mojave Desert. The California Energy Commission’s (CEC’s) siting committee issued a proposed decision recommending approval, and on Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the project.

  • UK Sees Increased Attacks on Distribution Network

    A massive increase in organized “attacks” on the distribution power network in central England has resulted in more than a dozen downed wooden poles and thousands of customers without power in a week, E.ON UK said last week.

  • Constellation Energy Eyes 3,000-MW New England Fleet

    Constellation Energy on Monday said it had signed an asset purchase agreement to acquire Boston Generating’s 2,950-MW fleet, consisting of mainly natural gas–fired plants, for about $1.1 billion, or roughly $372/kW.

  • WCI Releases Comprehensive Plan for Regional Cap-and-Trade Program

    California, New Mexico, and three Canadian provinces—partners of the Western Climate Initiative (WCI)—last week released a detailed plan for a regional cap-and-trade program to curb greenhouse gases (GHG) starting in January 2012. If the plan reaches fruition, it would be three times larger than a program under way in 10 eastern states.

  • Hawaii PUC Rejects Smart Grid Proposal

    Hawaii’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) last week denied a request by Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) to extend pilot testing for its advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) project to 5,000 more smart meter because of cost concerns. The move poses a major hurdle for the utility’s overall smart grid initiative.

  • AWEA: New Wind Capacity Additions Plunge in 2010, Outlook Dismal

    Only 700 MW of wind power were added in the U.S. during the second quarter of 2010—a drop of 57% and 71% when compared to second quarter numbers from 2008 and 2009, respectively, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reported last week.

  • N.Y. and Penn. to Sue Coal Power Plant for Drifting Air Pollution

    New York state and Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) plan to sue Homer City Station, a 1,884-MW coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania, for its alleged contributions of the region’s sulfur dioxide emissions.

  • DOE Finalizes Hawaii Wind Guarantee, Offers $17 M to N.Y. Energy Storage Project

    The Department of Energy last week finalized a $117 million loan guarantee for a 30-MW Hawaiian wind power plant, and this week it said it would offer a $17.1 million loan guarantee to support construction of a 20-MW energy storage system using lithium-ion batteries.

  • Texas Appeals EPA’s Disapproval of Flexible Permits Program

    Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on Monday legally challenged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) disapproval of the state’s flexible permits program, a system which allows power plants, factories, refineries, and other industrial plants to exceed emission limits in certain areas as long as they stay within overall limits.

  • Hoosier Energy, EPA Settle Alleged NSR Violations

    Hoosier Energy, an Indiana-based rural cooperative, on Friday reached an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) to resolve alleged New Source Review (NSR) violations of the Clean Air Act.

  • Tampa Electric to Test Carbon Capture Technologies at Big Bend, Polk Stations

    Tampa Electric said on Monday it is participating in two DOE-funded demonstration projects at the company’s Big Bend and Polk Power Stations. The projects are designed to advance carbon dioxide capture technologies and could lead to the development of technologies on a large scale.

  • Federal Court: Public Nuisance Suits Not the Way to Regulate Air Quality

    A federal appeals court on Monday reversed a January 2009 ruling by a North Carolina U.S. District Court that had declared emissions from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) coal plants in eastern Tennessee and Alabama a public nuisance in North Carolina and ordered the nation’s largest public power provider to install expensive control technologies. The appeals court said the ruling was “flawed for several reasons.”

  • Taylorville IGCC Project Gets Record $417M Tax Credit

    The $3.5 billion Taylorville Energy Center (TEC), a proposed integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant with carbon capture and storage (CCS), has been awarded a $417 million investment tax credit under a program jointly administered by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Treasury Department. The tax credit is believed to be the largest ever granted to a single project.

  • PPL to Appeal Riverbed Rent Case for Mont. Hydroelectric Dams

    PPL Montana will reportedly ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review an order from the Montana Supreme Court that requires it to pay “rent” for use of the riverbeds on which the company’s hydroelectric dams are built.

  • DOE Unable to Gauge Maturity of CCS Technologies, Says GAO Report

    The Department of Energy’s (DOE) failure to systematically assess development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies renders it unable to gauge their maturity and to provide resources required to move these technologies toward commercial demonstration, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a report released to the public last week.

  • Senators Ready for Carbon Debate

    With only about 13 days remaining before the U.S. Senate’s month-long summer recess is scheduled to begin, concerns are mounting about whether it may be too late to delve into an “energy-only bill,” let alone a “utility-only” carbon-curbing bill.

  • Terrorists Attack Hydropower Plant in Russia

    At least four militants reportedly stormed into a hydropower plant in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region early this morning, shooting dead two security guards before detonating four bombs in a turbine hall and shutting down the plant.

  • IEA: China Has Overtaken U.S., Become World’s Largest Energy User

    The International Energy Administration (IEA) alleges, based on preliminary data, that China has overtaken the U.S. to become the world’s largest energy user. But China on Tuesday rejected that report, saying the IEA’s data is unreliable. The IEA said that China consumed 2.252 billion tons of oil equivalent in 2009—4% more than the 2.17 billion […]

  • Australian Government Shuts Down UCG Trial on Fears of Water Contamination

    A project piloting underground coal gasification (UCG) technology in Australia was last week shut down for tests by the Queensland Government for carcinogenic chemicals in nearby water bores.

  • DOE Files NRC Appeal in Yucca Mountain Fight

    The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday filed a 48-page appeal asking the five-member board at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to set aside an application for the Yucca Mountain waste repository project. The agency said that Energy Secretary Steven Chu had the authority to halt the project.

  • SDG&E Clears Permitting Hurdles for 120-Mile Calif. Transmission Superhighway

    The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) on Tuesday approved a San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) 120-mile transmission line from remote areas in southern California’s Imperial Valley to residences and businesses in the San Diego area.

  • Enel Inaugurates World’s First Hydrogen-Fueled Power Plant

    Italy’s Enel on Monday inaugurated its hydrogen-fueled combined-cycle power plant at Fusina, near Venice. The €50 million project, the first industrial-scale facility of its kind in the world, uses 1.3 metric tons of hydrogen per hour to generate 60 million kWh a year of electricity as well as heat. It reportedly has an overall efficiency of about 42%.

  • Shaw, Toshiba, and Exelon to Pursue Saudi Arabia Nuclear Plants

    Shaw Group, Toshiba Corp., and Exelon Corp. unit Exelon Nuclear Partners on Monday announced an agreement to jointly pursue opportunities to design, engineer, build, and operate new nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia.

  • Report: China to Build 10 AP1000 Reactors

    China is reportedly looking to build 10 nuclear reactors using AP1000 technology, including the four under construction at Sanmen in coastal Zhejiang province and at Haiyang, Shandong province.