markets

To strengthen balance sheets and thwart market woes afflicting generators in competitive markets, Dynegy Inc. and Vistra Energy will merge, creating a company that is projected to have a value greater than $20 billion. Dynegy, which operates a power plant fleet of 27 GW, will merge into Vistra Energy, the parent company of TXU Energy […]

The U.S. wind industry reported 29,634 MW of generation capacity was under construction or in advanced development at the end of the third quarter of 2017, according to the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA) U.S. Wind Industry Third Quarter (Q3) 2017 Market Report released October 26. The 29,634 MW is spread across 149 projects in […]

Criticism for Secretary of Energy Rick Perry’s recent notification of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) directing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to show favor to coal and nuclear plants was in no short supply during an October 12 hearing of the House Subcommittee on Energy. The hearing, which focused on the Department of Energy’s (DOE) missions and […]

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) earlier this year reported that the power sector was poised to add 11.2 GW of new natural gas–fired capacity in 2017. If that forecast proves accurate, it

As Dynegy moved this week to assume full ownership of two struggling Ohio coal plants it co-owns with AES Corp. subsidiary DPL Inc., the company’s CEO reportedly said it is mulling withdrawing its presence from downstate Illinois owing to the state’s intervention to keep its nuclear plants running. Dynegy CEO Robert Flexon told Crain’s Chicago Business […]

PJM Interconnection’s independent market monitor is joining the pushback—spearheaded by a trade group and several generators that operate in competitive wholesale markets—against an Illinois law that props up financially distressed nuclear plants with subsidies. Monitoring Analytics on March 16 filed a motion with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to intervene […]

Several U.S. states have passed, or are mulling, programs that expand state aid to financially distressed nuclear reactors in a bid to keep them open for economic and environmental reasons. Generators that operate in competitive wholesale markets are perturbed by these measures, which they say amount to nuclear “bailouts.” —Sonal Patel, associate editor (@POWERmagazine, @sonalcpatel) […]

A series of acquisitions among major suppliers in the gas turbine market over the past couple of years has changed much of the global landscape for gas-fired power. Several long-standing firms have been swallowed up, while others have gained new prominence thanks to conditions laid on the big deals by regulators. What this means for […]

The U.S. market for electricity is trifurcated. More than half the country is served by competitive generators bidding against each other in wholesale markets. Almost half is served by conventional state-regulated, vertically integrated utilities controlling generation and transmission. The rest, a much smaller portion, consists of government-owned and customer-owned utilities, some of which are generators […]

The Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) launched its 51st State Initiative in 2014 with a simple question: What if there were no predefined electricity market? No rules. No market designs. No policies. No subsidies for any type of energy resource. Just a grid to deliver electric power from a variety of sources. And customers. Plenty […]

While GE-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) confirmed it hasn’t made a formal decision to proceed with licensing or construction of a laser enrichment facility at Paducah, Ky., the Department of Energy (DOE) announced it has agreed to sell depleted uranium to the company over a 40-year period to help produce nuclear power plant fuel. The […]

Look to the East and you’ll see a major initiative to transform New York’s electric grid into a cleaner, more efficient system. Look to the West and you’ll find ambitious clean energy legislation in California. Yet utility executives and federal regulators recently gathered in the Midwest to highlight how this region is ground zero for […]

The second World Nuclear Exhibition was held at a moment in time when the prospects for nuclear power are both tantalizing and frustrating. One thing is clear: The dynamics of the nuclear power industry have changed recently—and so have the solutions proposed for achieving greater certainty. One of the strongest arguments nuclear power has going […]

P OWER Editor Gail Reitenbach interviewed King Lee of Lloyd’s Register on June 29 at the World Nuclear Exhibition in Le Bourget, France. The firm is a “non-profit distributing charity with a public benefit

The annual panel discussion by high-level leaders from diverse power companies is a cornerstone of the ELECTRIC POWER Conference & Exhibition, and it has been consistently emblematic of the state of the

Emerging energy technologies such as rooftop solar, microgrids, and distributed generation could adversely affect reliability of the nation’s grid, a new report from the Electric Markets Research Foundation (EMRF) warns.  The non-profit research entity whose mission it is to fund studies on significant electric market issues notes in its report, “Changing Uses of the Electric […]

The sixth annual ARPA-E Summit wrapped up on Wednesday, and though there were too many sessions to cover in depth, here is a mini-summary by way of selected interesting comments. Speaker photos (where available) follow the comment. “Any disruptive technology will not fit an existing market.” —Brian Janous, Director of Energy Strategy, Microsoft “[The energy […]