POWERnews

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 […]

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 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 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.

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.

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.

In recognition that downed power lines can cause catastrophic wildfires when winds and temperatures are high, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has proposed to shut off power to a mountainous backcountry area in northeastern San Diego County when conditions warrant the emergency measure. If the proposal is approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), it would be the first such attempt to prevent fires by shutting off power to an at-risk area.

Officials of Tri-State Generation and Transmission still don’t know what caused symptoms that sent a total of 19 contract workers to the hospital on Friday night. Those affected were among 600 workers who are engaged in a six-week outage to upgrade boiler, turbine-generator, and scrubber systems of northwest Colorado’s Craig Station Unit 3.

An op-ed by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis titled “Building the American Clean Energy Economy” ran in six city papers yesterday and today. Selected excerpts follow.

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.

Experts assert that the U.S. grid—already proven by federal agencies to be vulnerable to cyber attacks—has been compromised by spies who tried to map the system and left bugs that could be used to disrupt networks at a time of war or crisis.

A memorandum of understanding last week signed by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chair Jon Wellinghoff clarifies jurisdictional responsibilities and establishes a process through which the two federal agencies will lease, license, and regulate all renewable energy development activities on the Outer Continental Shelf.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last week approved a 20-year license extension for Exelon Corp.’s Oyster Creek Generating Station in Ocean Country, N.J.—the nation’s oldest operating nuclear power reactor.

Southern Co. has notified the Shaw Group and Westinghouse Electric Co. to proceed fully on their engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for two new Westinghouse AP1000 reactors planned for an expansion of the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant near Augusta, Ga.—one of the first new U.S. nuclear construction projects in more than three decades.