Alliant subsidiary Interstate Power & Light is retiring or switching five Iowa power plants from coal to natural gas and upgrading two other Iowa coal-fired plants as part of a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Plants in Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Burlington, Clinton and Marshalltown will be switched to burn natural gas or retired, and new emissions controls will be installed at its two largest coal-fired plants, in Lansing and in Ottumwa. “The terms we negotiated in this settlement are consistent with our long-term plan for clean energy,” said Doug Kopp, Alliant Energy president. “We settled with the EPA to avoid unnecessary delays and ongoing uncertainty associated with litigation.”
The settlement closes out litigation in which the EPA said Alliant upgraded plants in 2006 and 2009 without installing required emissions controls. The upgrades will cost about $620 million, the company said, on top of the $6 million it will spend on environmental mitigation projects and a $1.1 million civil penalty.
More: The Gazette; Journal Sentinel
Kinder Morgan Board Gives Go-ahead for $3.3B Pipeline
The Kinder Morgan Board of Directors approved the $3.3 billion Northeast Energy Direct natural gas pipeline that will run from Wright, N.Y., to Dracut, Mass. But the pipeline will have a smaller capacity than originally estimated.
The 30-inch diameter pipeline to be constructed by Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company will carry up to 1.3 billion cubic feet per day, down from initial estimates of 2.2 bcf per day. The company said it would amend its application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission if circumstances dictated the need to increase capacity.
The project is designed to deliver Appalachian shale gas to New England utilities and power plants. The company said the lack of pipeline capacity caused customers of ISO-NE to pay $7 billion more for electricity during the past two winters than they did during the winter of 2011-12.
More: BusinessWire; MassLive
NRG to Switch Sandwich Plant to Natural Gas
NRG’s Canal Generating Station in Sandwich, Mass., will be returning to service, fueled by natural gas, according to Sandwich town officials.
Town manager Bud Dunham said NRG confirmed that the plant would switch from fuel oil to natural gas. The 1,112-MW plant, formerly a Mirant asset, has been inactive for several years. The repowering project is expected to be completed in 2019.
“After many years of anticipation, NRG let us know they are formally announcing plans for a repowering project in Sandwich,” Dunham said. NRG has not yet made a formal announcement.
More: Wicked Local
Birds Block High-Voltage Project in Wisconsin
Xcel Energy, Dairyland Power Cooperative and WPPI Energy will have to submit a new construction plan to Wisconsin regulators for a high-voltage transmission line under construction near La Crosse to halt activity during a sensitive bird nesting season.
Construction stopped last month in an area where state-protected birds were nesting. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said that a 1-mile section of the project must halt during nesting season, but work in areas outside of the nesting zone will be allowed to continue.
The $500 million, 345-kV line will run between La Crosse and Rochester, Minn.
More: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Emera Investing $80 Million in Tiverton Power Station
Emera Energy is investing $80 million to upgrade its 265-MW Tiverton power station in Rhode Island, boosting the output of the combined-cycle gas plant by 22 MW and improving its efficiency.
The upgrades to the plant’s gas turbines will save an estimated $1 million per month in fuel costs, allowing it to be dispatched more often by ISO-NE. The project will be completed during a planned maintenance outage in April.
More: Businesswire
Another Coal Company Falls Victim to Low Prices
Alpha Natural Resources, a Bristol, Va.-based coal producer, says its shares will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange because its stock price is too low.
The company said the exchange suspended trading of its shares, which were priced last at 24 cents. Alpha recently announced it was cutting 800 jobs.
Coal mining companies are under stress, especially those in the East, because of low coal prices, low natural gas prices and competition from other states. Patriot Coal in May filed for bankruptcy for the second time in three years.
More: Casper Star Tribune
Newly Crowned Utility King Yet to Find Castle
WEC Energy Group, the newly created $9 billion merger of Wisconsin Energy Corp. and Chicago-based Integrys Energy, appears to be in no hurry to set up new corporate headquarters.
WEC hasn’t narrowed down a location nor has it hired commercial real estate brokers to assist in the search, WEC spokesman Brian Manthey told the Milwaukee Business Journal. For now, WEC’s center of gravity remains in Milwaukee, the home of the former Wisconsin Energy Corp.
Most of the management in the new WEC Energy consists of Wisconsin Energy executives, including CEO Gale Kappa. WEC said its new headquarters will be in the Milwaukee area but it will retain separate offices for operating units. Wisconsin Public Service Corp., which was owned by Integrys, will keep offices in Green Bay. Integrys’ former Peoples Gas unit will retain divisional offices in Chicago.
More: Milwaukee Business Journal
Xcel’s Monticello Nuclear Plant Running at Increased Output
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted permission for Xcel Energy’s Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant to operate at a higher capacity following upgrades that cost $748 million.
The permission allows the plant in Monticello, Minn., to operate at 671 MW, up 12% from 600 MW.
The NRC action also means Xcel can include the upgrade costs in its next rate case. The cost of the project ballooned from $320 million to $748 million. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission blamed the problems on Xcel’s “imprudent management” and didn’t allow the company to receive a return on its investment. Xcel wrote off $125 million, nearly half of its first-quarter profits.
More: Star Tribune
Help Wanted at Dynegy
Dynegy is on the hunt for corporate employees following a flurry of acquisitions over the last year. The company said it was looking to fill 113 jobs, with some of them needed at its Houston headquarters where about 300 people now work.
Dynegy has made a total of $6.25 billion in acquisitions in the last year. They include the purchase of EquiPower Resources and Brayton Point Holdings. It also snapped up $2.8 billion in commercial generating assets from Duke Energy.
More: Houston Business Journal
Invenergy to Build 200-MW Wind Project in Minnesota
Invenergy announced plans to build a 200-MW wind energy facility near Albert Lea, Minn. The company has been working to obtain landowner agreements for seven years. Invenergy said the 29,000-acre site would have about 100 turbines.
At the same time, MISO is looking at plans to construct high-voltage transmission lines to deliver the power from southern Minnesota to markets.
Invenergy also owns and operates the 357-MW Cannon Falls Energy Center, a natural gas-fired plant that went into operation in 2008.
More: Midwest Energy News
PSEG Long Island Remains Last in Customer Service Ranking
PSEG Long Island remains last in the country among major electric companies in residential customer satisfaction, but it managed to increase last year’s score by 10%, according to a J.D. Power survey.
PSEG Long Island scored 584 out of a total 1,000 points in the survey, which reviews factors such as power quality, billing, affordability and communications. The utility’s score was 52 points higher than in 2014, when Public Service Enterprise Group took over the Long Island Power Authority. In 2013, LIPA scored 519.
Daniel Eichhorn, vice president of customer services at PSEG Long Island, said the figures showed the utility was the most improved among a list of utilities with more than 750,000 customers. “The numbers tell us we’re very focused on customer satisfaction. We are trying to create a better customer experience, to make it easier to do business with us, and improve reliability.”
More: Newsday
ISO-NE says June Saw Lowest Monthly Prices in 12 Years
Wholesale power prices in New England fell in June to under $20/MWh, according to ISO-NE. The regional grid operator said it was the lowest monthly price in the 12 years of the competitive power markets and nearly half of the $37.92 price last June.
“It’s supply and demand,” said Matthew White, chief economist at ISO-NE. “With June’s mild weather, demand for natural gas and electricity were both low, and the pipeline capacity was available to deliver a plentiful supply of exceptionally low-priced natural gas.”
White noted that the dip in prices illustrates the seasonal volatility of prices in the New England market, which he attributed almost entirely to natural gas pipeline constraints.
More: ISO-NE