The Tennessee Valley Authority has purchased a 700-MW gas-fired combined-cycle plant in Ackerman, Miss., from Quantum Choctaw Power. The plant is a two-one-one configuration and is the sixth combined-cycle plant TVA has purchased or built since 2007. TVA said in February, when it announced board approval of the purchase, that it would pay $340 million for the plant. The authority is retiring many of its coal units and either building or purchasing gas-fired generation in an attempt to meet emissions mandates.
Quantum Choctaw was owned by Quantum Utility Generation, an independent power producer that has coal- and gas-fired plants in Florida, Virginia and Mississippi, a solar project in Guam, and wind energy projects in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maine and Minnesota.
More: The Chattanoogan
TVA Has No Plans to Restart Construction of Bellefonte
The Tennessee Valley Authority’s 20-year plan for electricity generation sees the possibility of uprates at existing, operating nuclear stations and probably more natural gas and renewable generation, but its dormant Bellefonte nuclear plant doesn’t fit into any of those plans. The authority’s draft integrated resource plan is the subject of public hearings before it goes to the TVA board for a final vote in August.
Construction of the Bellefonte plant began near Hollywood, Ala., in 1974, but was abandoned in the 1980s after an investment of about $4.5 billion. The authority voted to restart construction of the plant in 2011, but that plan was killed in the face of slumping power demand the next year. The authority decided to go ahead with plans to complete Watts Bar Unit 2, another reactor that had been started in the previous century and then stopped. It is currently scheduled to go online by the end of this year.
More: Huntsville Times
National Grid Starts Construction on Advanced-Technology Solar Project
National Grid is starting construction of a 650-kW solar facility in Massachusetts that will test advanced technology ahead of the company’s plan to build 16 MW of solar generation in 19 sites in that state. The pilot project will test the use of new inverters, a vital component of the process of feeding solar energy into the grid. The move is part of the utility’s effort to contribute to the state’s goal of having 1,600 MW of solar by 2020. Much of the company’s efforts so far have been on connecting third-party solar generation to the grid, although it has solar generating facilities in five Massachusetts towns.
More: FierceEnergy
AWEA: Wind Industry Added 23,000 Jobs in 2014
The wind industry added 23,000 jobs in 2014, raising the total to 73,000 positions, according to the American Wind Energy Association. In its 2014 report, AWEA said 12,700 MW of wind projects were under construction as this year began. “These results show that extending the Production Tax Credit for wind power in 2013 was good for business in America,” AWEA CEO Tom Kiernan said. “We’ve got a mainstream, Made-in-the-USA product that supports jobs in every state and is gaining momentum. With a more predictable policy, we can add more jobs and keep this American success story going.”
More: PennEnergy
FirstEnergy’s Beaver Valley Loses Unit to Bad Pump Bearing
One of the reactors at FirstEnergy’s Beaver Valley nuclear station near Shippingport, Pa., went offline Wednesday when a pump supplying non-radioactive water to the steam generators shut down, probably due to a bad bearing. One of the two pumps serving Unit 1 showed signs of failing, and workers shut the reactor down at about 4 a.m. Repairs will take several days, a company spokeswoman said Thursday. Company officials said the other pump could serve the reactor at only 50% capacity.
More: PennEnergy
FE Delays Bruce Mansfield Decision Because of Possible PJM Auction Delay
FirstEnergy has decided to put off a final decision on whether to invest in a dewatering facility for coal ash control at its Bruce Mansfield coal-fired power plant until it knows when PJM’s annual capacity auction will be held. The company wants to see if the plant would clear the auction before deciding whether to invest in the dewatering facility. PJM has asked FERC for permission to delay the annual action, usually held in May, pending final commission rulings on its Capacity Performance proposal. FirstEnergy says it will now make the decision sometime this summer.
More: Pittsburgh Business Times
FirstEnergy Closes 3 Ohio Coal Plants
FirstEnergy, saying it was better to retire aging coal plants than retrofit them to make them conform to emissions mandates, has closed three coal-fired plants in Ohio.
The Ashtabula plant on the shores of Lake Erie, Lake Shore and Eastlake plants, all in northern Ohio, were shuttered last week. They were part of a list of nine the company announced in 2012 it would be retiring. Six of those nine have been decommissioned already. These are the last of that original list. The retirement of the final three was delayed until improvements could be made to transmission lines to accommodate the transmission of power in the absence of those plants. That work was completed at the cost of about $263 million, company spokeswoman Stephanie Walton said.
“There will be a period of shutdown activity, then the plant will be put into a safe and environmentally secure mode,” Walton said, describing the process for the Ashtabula plant.
More: Star Beacon
PPL Retiree Loses Bid to Have NRC Review Nuke Transfer Decision
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has denied a request made by a former PPL employee to have the commission review its decision to transfer the operating licenses for the company’s sole nuclear plant to a projected merchant generation spinoff. Douglas B. Ritter asked the commission to hear arguments on the transfer, which the commission just formally approved.
PPL and assets associated with Riverstone Holdings are spinning off and forming Talen Energy. Ritter had raised questions about the Susquehanna nuclear plant’s operation under the new ownership, and about the plant’s decommissioning funds and waste storage. The commission based its decision on the lack of “admissible contention” in Ritter’s request.
“I’m disappointed that those issues have not been addressed publicly by the NRC,” said Ritter, who worked for 34 years at PPL and lives about four miles from the plant. “I feel like we the public are being kept in the dark by the NRC, but that’s big business, I guess.”
PPL said it expects to close on the Talen arrangement by the end of the second quarter.
More: The Morning Call
PPL Montana to Sell Retired Plant, Equipment
PPL Montana announced that it wants to sell the land, buildings and equipment of its retired J.E. Corette Steam Electric Station. The 153-MW plant, on 74 acres along the Yellowstone River near Billings, was built in 1968 and shut down last month. The company said its decision to retire the plant was based on the high cost of upgrades that would have been necessary to make it comply with emissions rules.
More: Great Falls Tribune
NextEra to Build 81-MW Solar Plant in Arkansas
NextEra Energy Resources is building an 81-MW solar plant in Arkansas County, Ark. The facility, in the Grand Prairie region of the county, will be the largest solar facility in the state. Entergy Arkansas has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement to buy the plant’s electricity, and a new substation will be constructed to transmit the power to Entergy Arkansas’ system. NextEra has applied with the state Public Service Commission to gain approval for the plant. Entergy and NextEra said the plant will be operational by mid-2019.
More: Entergy
ATC Names Mike Rowe as New CEO
Mike Rowe, an expert in asset management and construction, has been named the new CEO of American Transmission Co. Rowe will be taking the position of John Procario, who has headed up ATC since 2009. Procario announced his plans to retire last year.
Rowe has been with the Pewaukee, Wis.-based company for the past eight years, where he started as the vice president of construction, and later moved on to head the Asset Management, System Operations and Transmission Planning departments. He was promoted to executive vice president and chief operating officer in 2012. Before coming to ATC, Rowe was director of Engineering & Asset Management for Kansas City Power & Light. Before that, he spent 22 years with Commonwealth Edison in Chicago.
More: American Transmission Co.
NRG Pumps More Capital into Residential Solar
While many utilities are fighting the expansion of residential solar through challenges in state legislatures, NRG Energy is doubling down on its investment in that area. Having already fielded a company that specializes in home solar installations, NRG Home Solar, the energy giant announced it is pumping yet more money into the business. The company and its investment arm, NRG Yield, have formed a partnership that will invest up to $150 million in cash into Home Solar.
“With the completion of this partnership between the companies, we initiate a new phase in the growth strategy of the NRG Home business unit and NRG Yield,” says David Crane, CEO of NRG and chairman and CEO of NRG Yield.
More: Solar Industry
MYR Group Buys Eversource’s Transmission and Distribution Co.
MYR Group is buying E.S. Boulos, Eversource Energy’s electrical contractor that specializes in transmission, distribution and substation design and construction. ESB is headquartered in Westbrook, Maine. It was purchased by Eversource in 2001 and operated as a non-regulated company. Industry reports say the Illinois-based MYR is paying $11.4 million for the company.
More: Virtual Strategy
Millstone Nuke Worker Says He Was Fired for Reporting Co-worker’s Drug Use
A worker at Dominion Resources’ Millstone nuclear station in Connecticut told Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials that he was fired in retaliation for reporting a co-worker’s narcotic use. “I got fired for bringing up a safety issue, and you, the NRC, need to support me,” Stephen Lavoie said during the agency’s annual meeting with the Connecticut Nuclear Energy Advisory Council. NRC officials promised to look into Lavoie’s allegation. But Millstone spokesman Ken Holt said Lavoie was laid off because the demand for insulation workers had dropped. An independent investigator looked into Lavoie’s claim and found nothing to substantiate it, Holt said.
More: The Day; CBS Connecticut
Dominion Boosts Solar Fleet with Purchase of 20-MW Georgia Facility
Dominion Resources has purchased a 20-MW solar facility in Georgia, bringing the total amount of solar generation in its stable to 364 MW at sites throughout the U.S. Dominion paid an undisclosed amount for the Richland Solar Center in Twiggs County, Ga., from HelioSage Energy. It also secured a 20-year power purchase agreement with Georgia Power. David A. Christian, CEO of Dominion Generation, said the company wants to have 625 MW of contracted solar generation by the end of 2016. Dominion has set a goal of developing up to 400 MW of solar generation in Virginia alone by 2020.
More: Atlanta Business Journal; Street Insider
EPRI Names Gil Quiniones New Board Chairman
The Electric Power Research Institute has elected Gil Quiniones chairman of its Board of Directors. Quiniones is president and CEO of the New York Power Authority, the nation’s largest state-owned electric utility. Current board member Patricia Vincent-Collawn, CEO of PNM Resources, was elected vice chair. Five new members were also elected: Lisa Johnson, CEO of Seminole Electric Coop.; Warner Baxter, CEO of Ameren; Mark McCullough, executive vice president of generation at American Electric Power; William Spence, CEO of PPL; and Dr. Seok Cho, CEO of Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power.
More: EPRI
Investor in McClendon Firm Settles Chesapeake Claim for $25M
Energy & Minerals Group has settled a trade secrets lawsuit by paying Chesapeake Energy $25 million. Chesapeake claimed that former CEO Aubrey McClendon stole trade secrets from Chesapeake when he left to form his own firm, American Energy Partners. EMG is a major investor in American Energy Partners.
EMG had earlier described the claims against McClendon as meritless and has invested nearly $3 billion in McClendon-directed ventures. Chesapeake claimed that the information was used to acquire Utica Shale field drilling rights. The settlement releases one of American Energy Partners’ affiliates, American Energy-Utica, harmless in exchange for the $25 million and drilling rights to 6,000 acres.
The full terms of the settlement remain confidential, but the settlement size says a lot, one expert says. “Nobody settles a lawsuit by paying $25 million and signing over 6,000 acres of valuable oil and gas leases unless they are at least a little bit troubled by what they have learned,” said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan.
More: Reuters
Dynegy CEO Says Coal Plants Ready to Meet Emissions Regs
Dynegy CEO Robert Flexon said in an interview last week with Bloomberg News that its coal-fired generation fleet is ready to meet the looming increased emissions rules. While other companies, such as American Electric Power, are retiring aging units, Dynegy has gone on a buying spree of coal-fired generation or already retired aging plants in advance of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards implementation.
“Coal accounts for 48% of Dynegy’s generating capacity of 25,758 MW, which is enough to power 21 million homes,” Flexon said. “All of the plants are compliant with the MATS rules and the EPA’s cross-state pollution regulations that started to get implemented this year,” he said.
He also said he expects PJM to receive approval to delay its annual capacity auction while Capacity Performance rules are finalized.
More: Bloomberg News
Compiled by Ted Caddell