The Montana Public Service Commission has cleared the way for PPL Montana to sell 11 hydro facilities and a reservoir to NorthWestern Energy for $900 million. The divestitures are separate from PPL’s plan announced earlier this year to spin off its merchant generation. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has already approved the sale of the hydro facilities, which generate 630 MW.
More: HydroWorld
Firms Advance Plan to Build 2-Unit Nuclear Plant in Utah
Westinghouse Electric Company and Blue Castle Holdings have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a new nuclear generating station in Utah. The two companies agreed to work together on all phases of a plan to build a plant using two of Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactors.
Under the agreement, the firms will pursue licensing and permitting while continuing engineering studies. Blue Castle says it does not intend to build the plant, but it wants to develop a comprehensive plan with approvals in place that it can turn it over to a utility or other company to build. Two other projects in the U.S. are using the AP 1000 reactors, as well as two sites in China.
More: PennEnergy
Duke Energy Shuts Down Ohio Plant Ahead of Schedule
The last two coal-fired units at the 60-year-old Beckjord Station in New Richmond, Ohio, were shut down last week, the victim of increasingly stringent emissions regulations, Duke Energy said.
The company had planned to shut down the two units by January but said they had become uneconomical. Four other units at the plant have been shut down in recent years – two in 2012, one last year and one this year. Four other oil-fired units will remain in service. The plant was the site of a spill of about 9,000 gallons of fuel oil last month. The spill briefly shut down traffic on the Ohio River.
More: Charlotte Business Journal
Duke Files to Relicense Hydro Units in NC, SC
Duke Energy is seeking a license renewal for its 867.5-MW Keowee-Toxaway hydro facility on the Savannah River. The facility has components in both North Carolina and South Carolina. Duke is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a license to operate the facility for between 30 and 50 years. It was originally licensed for 50 years in 1966. Duke has been working with regulatory agencies and a group of 16 stakeholder organizations on the relicensing project since last year.
More: HydroWorld (subscription required)
Pa. Appeals Court Throws out Verdict Against PPL in Worker’s Fall
A Pennsylvania Superior Court panel last week threw out a $2.5 million lower-court jury verdict against PPL for injuries sustained by a man who fell 40 feet while painting one of the company’s transmission towers.
PPL argued that it was not liable for the actions of a contractor that employed Vincent P. Nertavich of Berks County, who was disabled from the 2009 fall. Nertavich argued that the accident was PPL’s fault for failing to provide adequate safety equipment. The appeals court ruled that Nertavich’s employer and not PPL controlled how the workers climbed the towers.
More: The Morning Call
Wind Power Advocates Leery of Exelon-Pepco Merger
Wind-power advocates are concerned about Exelon’s proposed takeover of Pepco Holdings Inc., pointing to Exelon’s much-publicized campaign against extending a wind-energy subsidy.
Bruce Burcat, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition, said his group has filed to intervene in the Exelon-Pepco case in Delaware. Delaware has been a supporter of wind energy, and Burcat said Exelon’s opposition to the federal production tax credit impedes wind development.
Exelon is poised to take over Pepco, parent company of Delmarva Power & Light in Delaware and utilities in New Jersey and D.C. Exelon, the nation’s largest reactor operator, has argued that the wind-power tax credit makes it difficult for other energy sources to compete.
More: The News Journal
Pepco Customers File to Stop Tree Cutting
Homeowners in the Potomac Crest neighborhood in Montgomery County, Md., obtained a restraining order to stop Pepco from trimming their trees until a full hearing can be held.
The company said vegetation management is critical to improving the reliability of its electric system, but customers said the company is going too far. One customer even stood in the way of trimming crews in an attempt to stop them. Residents said their land titles say nothing about having to let the company trim the trees.
But a company spokesman said it obtained access to the properties in 1959, 30 years before the neighborhood was built. The company promised to work with customers, but it said it has a right to keep cutting.
More: NBC4 Washington
Workers Sue AEP over Exposure to ‘Toxic’ Ash
Contractors working at AEP’s James M. Gavin power plant in Ohio have sued the company, saying they were exposed to health risks at the plant’s coal ash landfill. Workers say they were inadequately protected from the coal ash, which they called a “radioactive amalgam of hazardous constituents that pose known risks for human health.”
AEP said they have observed all safety guidelines and operate the 246-acre landfill in a responsible manner.
“We have legally and appropriately operated the landfill at Gavin plant,” AEP spokeswoman Melissa McHenry said. “We believe the claims in the lawsuit are without merit and plan to vigorously challenge them.” Gavin, a 2,600-MW plant, is the largest in Ohio.
The suit names 77 plaintiffs, six of whom have died.
More: The Columbus Dispatch