POWERnews

Japanese utility Chubu Electric Power Co. on Monday agreed to shut down all units at its Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture as soon as possible on safety concerns. The action includes idling Unit 4 and Unit 5, an advanced boiling water reactor that started commercial operation in 2005. The company, which is in the process of mothballing Units 1 and 2, said it would also postpone restarting Unit 3, which has been shut down for maintenance since November 2010.

 Marine energy technology firm Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) on Monday said it had begun ocean trials of the first of its new generation utility-scale PowerBuoy device, the PB150. The ocean trials are being conducted at a site approximately 33 nautical miles from Invergordon, off ScotlandÂ’s northeast coast, and are expected to last up to three months.

Dominion will at the end of next year close the 515-MW State Line Power Station in Hammond, Ind. The coal-fired plant has two units: The first fired up in 1955 and the second, in 1962.

In the latest of a string of mergers in the utility sector, Exelon on Thursday said it would buy Constellation Energy in a $7.9 billion deal. The agreement would bring together Exelon’s large nuclear fleet and Constellation’s “customer-facing” business, creating a platform for growth, the companies said in a joint statement.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) plans to conduct a large-scale grid security exercise later this year that will involve bulk North American power system owners and operators.

The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) on Tuesday filed draft rules with the state Legislature that could require large wood-burning power producers to meet strict greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards before they can receive state financing. The rules were modeled on conclusions reached in a June 2010 study that burning forest trees for power is not carbon neutral.

A law signed by Governor Chris Gregoire on Friday phases out coal-fired power production in Washington State with the closure of two coal boilers at TransAlta’s Centralia power plant.

In the past week, Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano separately rejected suggestions that Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) could be exempt from liability for damages at its crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant caused by the magnitude 9 quake and 14-meter tsunami wave on March 11.

Workers are scrambling to contain highly radioactive water and prevent another explosion at the quake-devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, the situation—which still remains “very serious,” according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—has improved only incrementally, the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) told lawmakers.

Seventeen industry groups, including the Biomass Power Association (BPA) and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, last week petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to put on hold rules for industrial boilers while the agency reconsiders them.