POWERnews

On July 2, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a “white” inspection finding to the Wolf Creek Generating Station in Burlington, Kan., in response to a deficiency identified during an emergency preparedness exercise conducted last year. Inspectors observed the biennial exercise on Nov. 5, 2013, to assess if the drill adequately tested elements of the […]

National Hydro Power Corp. (NHPC) and the Renewable Energy College (REC) of Kolkata have partnered to develop a 50-MW floating solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in the Indian state of Kerala, according to a report in the Economic Times. The project would represent the largest floating solar PV plant in the world, dwarfing a 1.2-MW plant […]

Continually falling costs and tightening emissions regulations are set to drive huge growth in global renewable energy capacity despite flagging support for subsidies in Europe and the U.S., says a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). The BNEF report projects global spending on new power generation will be around $7.7 trillion through 2030, […]

A group of hackers apparently based in Moscow has been conducting an “ongoing cyberespionage campaign” against energy sector companies in the U.S. and Western Europe, according to a report released June 30 by computer security firm Symantec. The targets included “energy grid operators, major electricity generation firms, petroleum pipeline operators, and energy industry industrial equipment […]

Under rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on June 2, 2014, existing fossil fuel–fired U.S. power plants must comply with state-specific goals to lower carbon pollution from the power sector by 2030, while modified and reconstructed power plants will be subject to technology-based performance standards. The EPA’s “Clean Power Plan” rule affecting existing […]

RWE AG is Europe’s third-largest electricity and fifth-largest gas marketer, with holdings in upstream oil and gas production, power grids, and energy trading. Its German power subsidiary has been the utility poster child for the effects of the Energiewende, the transformation of the Germany power system away from nuclear and coal toward renewable energy and […]

At the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) annual meeting this week in Las Vegas, the tone was one of collaboration with partners from Washington to distributed generation companies. Those partnerships will be needed as the investor-owned utility (IOU) industry fights not so much a war on coal as a war for mindshare and wallet share in […]

Florida Power & Light (FPL), Florida’s largest utility, announced on June 25 that it was looking to invest directly in natural gas exploration and production as a means of securing future gas supplies and guarding against price volatility. NextEra Energy subsidiary FPL, the largest consumer of gas in the state, has been rapidly expanding its […]

Anyone who follows either the energy industry or the military knows that all branches of the U.S. military have aggressive goals for renewable energy and for improving energy security and independence. Microgrids are a key part of that plan. When I wrote about military microgrids in “The Military Gets Smart Grid” back in January 2012, […]

Aside from places where microgrids have a track record—educational, industrial, and commercial campuses—commercial and community microgrids are still the domain of early adopters, but the number of people wanting to travel the trail they are blazing is increasing. A microgrid is any collection of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources within clearly defined electrical boundaries […]