POWERnews

The Dan River coal ash spill has forced some serious discussions about the future of Duke Energy’s North Carolina coal fleet. Duke Energy President and CEO Lynn Good said in a March 12 letter to Gov. Pat McCrory (R) and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary John Skvarla that the company is planning […]

NuScale Power LLC and Enercon Services Inc. have joined forces, announcing a strategic partnership to support deployment of NuScale’s small modular reactor (SMR) technology. Enercon got its start in 1983, supporting nuclear plant startups and operations. In 2005, the company created its New Plant Services division to focus on deployment of new nuclear plants. The […]

A massive coronal mass ejection (CME)—commonly known as a solar storm—in July 2012 could have rivaled the worst recorded event from 1859 had it hit the Earth, according to a study published Mar. 18 in Nature Communications. Research at the University of California, Berkeley, and by Chinese scientists into a magnetic storm on July 23, […]

A federal court has denied the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) petition for the full court’s review of a November 2013 decision suspending payments into the Nuclear Waste Fund.  The decision culminates a legal dispute initiated by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and the industry group, Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), in 2010. The […]

Germany’s biggest utility E.ON will shutter nearly 13 GW of capacity—more than a quarter of its conventional fleet in Europe—to offset the “negative effects of a difficult economic and regulatory environment” in the European Union (EU), CEO Johannes Teyssen said on Wednesday.  The company released gloomy financial year results for 2013, reporting a 14% drop […]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Friday directed the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to develop reliability standards requiring owners and operators of the bulk power system to address risks due to physical security threats and vulnerabilities.  The standards will require owners and operators of the bulk power system to take at least […]

Janet McCabe, a top air regulation official at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defended the agency’s carbon rule for new power plants at a House hearing on Wednesday, even as industry witnesses countered that technology does not yet exist to meet the regulatory requirements. The EPA’s acting assistant administrator for air and radiation reiterated the […]

When California’s solar power production peaked at 4,093 MW on Mar. 8, it set a new record, supplying nearly 18% of the state’s electricity demand at the time. California is the largest producer of solar power in the nation with 5,231 MW of installed capacity. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, 2,621 MW of […]

March 11 marked the third anniversary of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck the east coast of Japan. Within days of that event, with no backup power, cooling systems failed at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO’s) Fukushima Daiichi plant, leading to meltdowns and hydrogen explosions at Units 1, 2, and 3.  But […]

A federal bankruptcy judge in New York gave final approval to Edison Mission Energy’s (EME’s) Chapter 11 reorganization plan on Mar. 11, one that involves the sale of all assets and subsidiaries to NRG Energy for $2.6 billion. The deal—involving 42 plants and 8.9 GW of net generation nationwide—makes NRG the largest merchant plant owner […]