The Tennessee Valley Authority, releasing its 20-year integrated resource plan, said it anticipates no new major power generation projects after the Watts Bar 2 nuclear facility, which is scheduled to start operations at the end of the year.
According to the plan, TVA predicts slow load growth and says it will be able to replace retiring coal plants with purchased power, energy efficiency or moderate construction plans. It said 26 of its 59 coal-fired plants will retire by the end of next year. There are no plans to restart construction at the Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant in Alabama, where it has already invested $6 billion.
“We really don’t see an immediate need for any new large baseload capacity beyond what we already have underway,” TVA Vice President Joe Hoagland said.
More: Chattanooga Times Free-Press
Fire at Xcel’s Black Dog Station Injures Worker
A fire in a coal bunker last week at Xcel Energy’s Black Dog Generating Station in Burnsville, Minn., injured one worker and forced the evacuation of dozens of others, but operations at the 538-MW plant were unaffected.
The cause of the fire and explosion in the Unit 4 coal bunker is under investigation. The same plant experienced a fire and explosion in 2010 that destroyed 200 feet of the plant’s west wall. Three firefighters were injured in that blaze.
More: PennEnergy
Philip Morris, Dominion Building Largest Solar Facility in Virginia
Dominion Virginia Power and Philip Morris USA are building a 2.4-MW solar plant on the grounds of a Philip Morris facility in suburban Richmond.
The 8,000-panel solar farm will be Virginia’s biggest. Dominion has built and operates 4.8 MW of solar generation in Virginia. It plans to increase solar capacity up to 200 MW by 2020.
More: PennEnergy
PSEG Takes Salem 1 Offline After Missing Repair Deadline
PSEG Nuclear took Salem Unit 1 offline after missing a Nuclear Regulatory Commission-imposed repair deadline.
Workers at the 1,150-MW unit were unable to restart one of five cooling units in the containment area. NRC regulations say if one cooling unit remains inoperable for seven days, the reactor must be shut down.
Salem 1 is the oldest of three units that PSEG Nuclear operates at its site on Artificial Island on the Delaware River in southern New Jersey. The company did not say when the plant would go back into operation.
More: The News Journal; NJ.com
NextEra Proposes 150-MW Wind Farm in North Dakota
NextEra Resources has begun to reach out to property owners about its plans to build a $250 million 150-MW wind project in eastern Stark County, N.D.
According to an application filed with the state Public Service Commission, NextEra would spread 87 wind turbines over about 61 square miles. It has secured a 30-year power purchase agreement from Bismarck-based Basin Electric Power Coop. for the output.
NextEra has 11 North Dakota wind farms.
More: Dickinson Press
AEP Wins Permission to Cut Customers’ Power Remotely
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio last week granted American Electric Power’s request to remotely disconnect delinquent electricity customers, becoming the first Ohio utility to use its smart meters to shut off service without conducting a home visit.
AEP said it will not apply the policy to some vulnerable customers, including those with mental disabilities or who rely on medical equipment. Customers still will receive several warnings before their power is shut off. Consumer advocates opposed the change, saying it will lead to an increase in disconnections.
The new policy, which applies to 132,000 customers, will go into effect Aug. 1 and last for two years, when AEP will have to reapply.
More: Columbus Dispatch
Williams Gets Green Light for Rock Springs Expansion
Williams has received federal approval to construct and operate a $79.5 million, 11-mile expansion to its Transcontinental Pipeline to deliver gas to Old Dominion Electric Coop.’s new Wildcat Point Generating Facility in Cecil County, Md.
The Rock Springs Expansion Project is expected to provide 192,000 dekatherms daily of firm natural gas transportation service to the power plant.
FirstEnergy Wants to Ship Mansfield’s Ash to Hatfield’s Ferry Plant Site
FirstEnergy wants permission to ship the coal ash from its Bruce Mansfield Plant in Beaver County, Pa., to an existing dump at a closed power station in Greene County to the north.
The Akron company faces a 2016 deadline to close the current landfill that receives Bruce Mansfield’s waste, but its first choice for an alternative, a closed strip mine in neighboring Fayette County, needs a dewatering facility that has not yet received permits. Until the strip mine site is built, FirstEnergy wants to deliver the ash to the Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station site, where the power plant closed in 2013, but its ash landfill still has “several years” of capacity, a company spokeswoman said.
More: Pittsburgh Business Times
— Ted Caddell