Texas

Scorching temperatures during the summer of 2018 forced a swathe of power plants across the world to reduce power or shut down temporarily, owing to warmer-than-usual temperatures of cooling water and other

The Trump administration has revived the discussion of using Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a repository for the nation’s nuclear waste. Nevada officials remain opposed to the idea of putting spent nuclear fuel in long-term storage at a site about 100 miles from Las Vegas. But while a bill to resurrect Yucca Mountain as a […]

NTE Energy on May 21 inaugurated the new Middletown Energy Center in Middletown, Ohio, the latest in a series of natural gas-fired power plants the Florida-based company is developing in Ohio, Texas, and North and South Carolina. NTE touts the 525-MW Middletown combined cycle facility as among the most efficient gas-fired power plants in the […]

The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) latest report on the nation’s power generation inventory expects 32 GW of new capacity will enter commercial service this year, the most in at least at decade. And for the first time in five years, renewable energy sources will not make up the majority of that new generation. Nearly […]

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on April 30 updated its summer 2018 planning reserve margin to 11% based on resource updates, but it warned that the regional grid serving most of Texas could still suffer rotating outages under extreme conditions. In its final Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy (SARA) report for the upcoming […]

To remain competitive in power markets increasingly characterized by disruptions, NRG Energy plans to accelerate its transition from a pure independent power producer (IPP) model to a more simplified customer-driven integrated power model that favors its retail businesses. In a number of presentations showcased on March 27 as part of NRG’s 2018 Analyst Day, company […]

Analysts who spoke with POWER differ slightly on the numbers, but they all agree that U.S. demand for natural gas for power generation will continue to rise. Supply should not be a problem—domestic

CHICAGO (February 22, 2018) —Uptake, the industrial data science and artificial intelligence (AI) software company, today announced that Pattern Energy Group Inc. (Nasdaq & TSX: PEGI) will pilot Uptake’s wind software. Pattern Energy, the seventh largest wind operator in the U.S., will pilot the predictive analytics software at its Logan’s Gap Wind farm in Comanche County, […]

The company will supply 47 units of G132-3.465 MW wind turbines to Sammons Renewable Energy for the Midway wind project and an additional 48 units of the same turbine type to an undisclosed customer for another project. In total, Siemens Gamesa will provide 95 units of its G132-3.465 MW wind turbines. First orders for G132-3.465 […]

U.S. utilities continue to announce closures of financially troubled and older coal-fired power plants even as government officials work on a bailout plan to keep them operating. Owners of a coal plant in Montana that has only been online since 2006 informed the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) last week of plans to shutter the […]

An analysis by the University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute shows wind power generation capacity in Texas may already have surpassed coal-fired capacity in the state, and wind almost certainly will have leapfrogged coal by early next year, as wind farms continue to dot the landscape while more coal plants in the state are […]

Vistra Energy moved to halt a financial hemorrhage stemming from unprofitable conditions in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), announcing plans to shutter two more coal-fired power plants—the 1.1-GW Sandow Power Plant (which includes a 2009-built unit) and the 1.2-GW Big Brown plant—in early 2018. The company’s decision made public on October 13 comes on […]

Utility workers from across the country have been in Texas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, and crews are now staging in Florida in preparation for Hurricane Irma as the storm crosses the Caribbean, with officials expecting property damage and power outages from the massive tropical system. Crews from several areas are converging on the […]

A Houston-based microgrid company has used its on-site generators and underground natural gas pipeline system to enable H-E-B grocery stores in the Houston area to remain open despite power outages and massive flooding during and in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Texas utilities have reported more than 300,000 customers have been without power at various […]

Wind power production continues to increase in the U.S., with a more than 40% increase in the number of wind projects under construction or in advanced development this year compared to the same time last year, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). The group announced the figures during a July 27 meeting in […]

Xcel Energy plans to add about 1,550 MW of wind power to its portfolio in the Upper Midwest with the addition of seven wind farms expected to be operational by year-end 2020. The additions are among 11 new wind farms announced over the past year by Xcel in seven states that would add a total […]

Citing its backing for the long-stalled Yucca Mountain permanent spent nuclear waste repository in Nevada, the Trump administration has asked a federal court to reject a petition filed by Texas in which the state sought a court-supervised process to take over administrative proceedings so as to guarantee licensing and eventual construction of project. Texas filed […]

AUSTIN, Texas, April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has hired E.ON Energy Services (EES) to provide an array of services for its 196.7 MW Bearkat I wind farm in Glasscock County, Texas.  The facility is currently under construction and E.ON Energy Services will provide onsite construction management and project management services for […]

Oral arguments on the merits of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan were concluded before an en banc panel (10 judges, rather than the anticipated three) at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on September 27. West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (No. 15-1363) is arguably the most important environmental case in nearly […]

Wärtsilä has signed a major contract to supply a 225 MW Smart Power Generation plant to Denton Municipal Electric, the locally-owned utility for the City of Denton, Texas. The plant will provide balancing power to the community, which is moving towards a green, low emissions power system, aiming to have 70 % of its energy […]

NRG Energy has taken action to acquire 2.1 GW of utility-scale wind and solar assets owned by bankrupt renewables giant SunEdison with a $144 million auction bid this week. New Jersey–based NRG Energy on Sept. 12 executed a purchase and sale agreement (PSA) to take on 200 MW of SunEdison’s construction-ready, fully contracted solar assets […]

The Sandy Creek coal-fired power plant—a 900-MW facility in Riesel, Texas—won a major victory in court on August 19 when a McLennan County jury agreed that the plant was appraised at a much higher value than justified by market conditions. The appraisal district had suggested the plant be valued at $900 million in 2014 and […]

El Paso Electric Celebrates Milestone, National Environmental Organization Lauds Utility August 03, 2016 11:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time EL PASO, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–El Paso Electric (EPE) (NYSE: EE) today celebrates a milestone as the only utility in Texas and New Mexico to generate electricity 100 percent coal-free. By eliminating the coal generation from the company’s portfolio […]

200-megawatt (MW) Los Vientos IV near Rio Grande City begins operations Together, the five Los Vientos wind projects total 900 MW CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The 426th turbine of the Los Vientos wind power projects is now spinning and serving customers near the Rio Grande in Starr County, Texas. It marks the completion of Los Vientos […]

More than 18.2 GW of wind power capacity is currently under construction or in advanced stages of development in the U.S., according to a report released on July 26 by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). That’s a lot of new capacity. In fact, it’s equivalent to roughly 25% of all currently installed U.S. wind […]

A federal appeals court has stayed a regional haze rule finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) earlier this year that had threatened to close up to 8.4 GW of coal-fired power capacity in Texas. In a unanimous ruling on July 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a motion for […]

  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has unveiled details of the Clean Energy Incentive Program (CEIP), a voluntary measure central to the judicially stalled Clean Power Plan that seeks to provide guidance to states and tribes that want to meet goals under the plan when it becomes effective. The final Clean Power Plan, finalized in […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must halt its drive to help states supportive of the Clean Power Plan to comply with the rule because it defies the Supreme Court stay, the attorneys general for West Virginia and Texas have urged the agency. An April 28 request to the agency by 14 states seeking technical assistance […]

Texas is the latest state to file suit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its recently finalized standards for ozone. The state joins Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wisconsin, which have legally challenged the final version of the EPA’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone since its […]

Attorneys general from three states—Oklahoma, Texas, and West Virginia—stepped forward on May 5 to present their objections to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed Clean Power Plan. During testimony before the Senate Environmental and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey presented three specific problems he sees […]