POWERnews

UniStar Nuclear Energy last week confirmed that its Calvert Cliffs Unit 3 nuclear energy facility was among four projects chosen by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to enter the final phase of due diligence for a portion of $18.5 billion in federal loan guarantees for advanced nuclear projects. The selection positions UniStar to move forward with detailed negotiations leading to a conditional commitment under the program.

American Electric Power (AEP) and Allegheny Energy on Tuesday said they had jointly filed an application seeking authorization to build a proposed electric transmission line in West Virginia.

As IEEE celebrates its 125th anniversary on May 13, it is also addressing the challenges ahead. The Center for Energy Workforce Development estimates that 45% of engineers in electric utilities will be eligible for retirement, or may leave for other reasons, in the next five years. What’s more, the educators of new engineers are also […]

The Kansas Senate last week approved by a 37–2 vote an energy bill that will allow Sunflower Electric Power Corp. to build a long-delayed coal-fired power plant near Holcombe. The bill’s approval comes days after Kansas’ new governor, Mark Parkinson, and Sunflower Electric Power Corp. reached a compromise that would scale down the company’s plans […]

Saskatchewan and Montana officials last week said they would partner on the development of one of the largest international carbon capture and storage demonstration projects in the world. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate on the construction of a “technology neutral CO2 plant at […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday signed an enforceable agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to oversee the removal of coal ash at the TVA Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant in Roane County, Tenn., where more than 5 million cubic yards of coal ash spilled last December. Under the Administrative Order and Agreement […]

UK energy regulator Ofgem last week said it would temporarily relax the rules governing the nation’s electricity networks to speed up connections for low-carbon power generators. The temporary relaxation applies to rules for connection to and use of the high-voltage electricity networks. It means any generator (renewable or thermal) wanting to seek an earlier connection […]

President Obama’s $26.4 billion Department of Energy (DOE) budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2010 substantially increases new cash for the development of renewable energies, energy efficiency, and for measures to curb carbon dioxide emissions, but it cuts funding to coal and nuclear programs—fuels that produce 70% of the nation’s electricity. The proposed FY 2010 […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has reportedly dropped Luminant’s Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant’s expansion planned in Texas from its list of new nuclear projects being considered for the first round of federal loan guarantee. Four projects now remain on the DOE shortlist. New reactors at Southern Co.’s Vogtle plant in Georgia, Scana Corp.’s Summer […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is committed to issuing proposed regulations for the management of coal combustion waste by utilities by the year’s end, a senior agency official told the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee Thursday. Rules could include tightened restrictions on contaminants in wet scrubber wastewater streams.

LS Power has abandoned a proposed 750-MW pulverized coal power project in Midland, Mich., citing economic and regulatory uncertainties.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) last week said it would continue pushing for regulatory approval of its proposed Bellefonte nuclear plant, though the NuStart consortium had shifted priority to another project, while Progress Energy Florida delayed the commercial start of its proposed Levy County plant by almost two years while it awaits a combined construction and operation license (COL)  from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

Kansas’ new governor, Mark Parkinson, and Sunflower Electric Power Corp. have reached a compromise that would allow that company to build an 895-MW coal plant in the western part of the state in exchange for Republican support for a state bill that encourages production of more renewable energy.

Legislation introduced last week by members of the House of Representatives and the Senate could spur development of U.S. marine and hydrokinetic energy resources—a sector in which the U.S. has lagged behind other countries.

Ramped-up concerns about the security of the U.S. power grid and media reports that said cyberspies had infiltrated it have prompted the introduction of a congressional bill that would increase the authority of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to help reduce the grid’s vulnerability.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has renewed the first ever 40-year-operating license of a nuclear facility in the U.S., granting it to AREVA NP’s nuclear fabrication facility in Richland, Wash.

The Department of Energy (DOE) last week said it would provide $93 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support further development of wind energy in the U.S., as well $100 million from the act for facility and infrastructure improvements at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

The UK will not permit new coal-fired power plants without equipment to capture and store at least 25% of carbon emissions from day one and 100% by 2025, when carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is expected to be technically and commercially proven, the country’s climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, said last week.

Changes to a state bill that would have allowed AmerenUE to charge customers during the construction of a second nuclear plant at Callaway in Missouri last week prompted the company to pull the plug on the $6 billion project.

Executives of North American utility companies are nearly split on whether President Obama’s proposed energy initiatives will have a significant impact on the structure of the electricity sector, according to the third annual Platts/Capgemini Utilities Executive Study just released. But there is greater executive agreement that environmental regulation and electricity prices for end users will be increasing.

Spurred by New York’s target to meet 45% of its electricity needs through renewable resources by 2015, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) last week issued a call for proposals to develop offshore wind projects of up to 120 MW in New York State waters of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

The performance of automated systems designed to protect infrastructure from damage during severe system conditions must be addressed to limit the scope and severity of bulk power system disturbances in North America, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) told stakeholders in a letter last week.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to reconsider an air permit it awarded last July to the 1,500-MW coal-fired Desert Rock Energy Facility project proposed for construction by Sithe Global Power, LLC on the Navajo Nation tribal reservation in New Mexico.

The estimated $30 billion that electric utilities have paid since 1982 to the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund for the construction and operation of the federal nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain could be returned to them if a Senate bill introduced on Thursday passes.

The U.S. may never need new nuclear or coal-fired power plants because renewable energy and improved efficiency can meet future power demand, Jon Wellinghoff, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chair, last week reportedly said.

After a thorough scientific review ordered in 2007 by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a proposed finding on Friday that greenhouse gases contribute to air pollution that may endanger public health or welfare.

The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) on Tuesday approved the $4.5 billion acquisition of nearly half of Constellation Nuclear, the indirect owner of three nuclear power plants in upstate New York, to a wholly owned subsidiary of Électricité de France S.A. (EDF), the world’s largest nuclear power plant owner.

After 14 hearings and 15,000 comments, the Department of Energy has decided to pull the plug on any domestic involvement in the three-year-old Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), which the U.S. initiated to focus on reprocessing spent commercial nuclear fuel.

On Thursday, while visiting Jefferson City, Mo., with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Vice President Joe Biden announced that, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, more than $3.3 billion in smart grid technology development grants and an additional $615 million for smart grid storage, monitoring, and technology viability were being made available.

On tax day, Dominion and BP Wind Energy announced full commercial operation of Phase I of the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm in Benton County, Ind. Of the 400-MW facility, BP and Dominion are partners on approximately 300 MW. The two companies could expand the facility to a total of 750 MW in the future.