Portland General Electric said Friday it will explore joining CAISO’s Energy Imbalance Market (EIM).
The EIM currently provides least-cost dispatch in California and parts of Oregon, Washington, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, with Nevada-based NV Energy scheduled to join Nov. 1. Puget Sound Energy in Washington and Arizona Public Service plan to join in October 2016.
Also last week, the CAISO Board of Governors approved a proposed governance structure for the EIM. The governing body would have five members charged with representing real-time market participants’ interests, regardless of location. Changes in EIM market rules would have to be approved by the governing body and the ISO board before being filed with FERC.
More: CAISO
Atlantic Coast Pipeline Files for Construction Permit with FERC
The owners of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline filed a formal request to FERC to construct the $5.1 billion, 564-mile pipeline to transport natural gas from the shale region of West Virginia to the Virginia and North Carolina coasts.
The owners, led by Dominion Resources and including AGL Resources and Piedmont Natural Gas, pre-filed the application about a year ago. Dominion, the operator, said it hopes to begin construction by the second half of 2016 and to complete it by the end of 2018.
The 30,000-page application asks FERC to declare the pipeline as a public benefit and necessity, which would allow the project to use eminent domain to obtain rights of way. Dominion says it has completed about 85% of the surveying for the project.
More: Richmond Times-Dispatch
NRC Downgrades Arkansas One, Pilgrim Nuclear Plants
A look at the 99 operating nuclear generating stations in the U.S. in the first half of 2015 showed that 75 were operating at high levels and within all security and safety parameters, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A further 21 needed to resolve one or two low-significance safety items and will need an additional inspection, according to the commission.
But Arkansas Nuclear One Units 1 and 2 and Pilgrim nuclear plant were ranked substantially lower, on the commission’s “Multiple/Degraded Cornerstone Column,” or Column IV. Column V is “Unacceptable Performance Column” and calls for a plant to be shut down.
Pilgrim was marked down because of long-standing low-to-moderate safety findings. The plant’s operators are considering whether they can afford the costly upgrades and repairs required. If not, they say, they may shut down the plant.
Entergy, owner of Arkansas One, is set to brief the commission on steps it has taken to prepare for a major inspection of the plant. An NRC spokesman said about two dozen inspectors are expected to work “many weeks” to perform the full inspection.
NRC issued the poor rating for the plant after a fatal accident in March 2013, when a 500-ton generator part fell and crushed a worker and injured others. The incident also resulted in flooding in some parts of the plant.
More: Power Engineering Magazine; KUAR; The Boston Globe
Obama Administration Pledges $120 Million for Solar, Renewables
The Obama administration has pledged $120 million in funding to advance solar and other renewable energy technologies. The Department of Energy will oversee most of the programs, which are aimed at boosting solar in 24 states.
The White House noted that 734,000 homes now have solar panels, compared to 66,000 when President Obama came into office.
“President Obama and Vice President Biden are committed to promoting smart, simple, low-cost technologies to help America transition to cleaner and more distributed energy sources, help households save on their energy bills and to address climate change,” the White House said in a fact sheet outlining the efforts.
More: The Hill
Nevadans Show up to Question NRC Report on Yucca Mountain
Nearly 100 people turned out at a public meeting to dispute a recently released Nuclear Regulatory Commission report that concluded that there would be “a negligible increase” in health risks if the Yucca Mountain underground nuclear waste repository were completed.
Richard Bryan, chairman of the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects, said the state was “steamrolled” into accepting the site, and said he’s not ready “to gamble on the health and safety of Nevadans” when it comes to Yucca Mountain.
The project is at a standstill, after the Obama administration cut off its funding in 2010.
More: Las Vegas Review-Journal
FERC, NRC Holding Joint Meeting in October
FERC and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are holding a joint meeting Oct. 21 at FERC headquarters in Washington. The two sets of commissioners will hold discussions during the first portion of the meeting, followed by staff presentations.
Representatives of the North American Electric Reliability Corp. are also expected to participate.
More: FERC
NRC says PSEG’s Salem 1 Shutdown Issues Addressed
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that it is satisfied that PSEG Nuclear had addressed the issues that caused a series of unplanned shutdowns at the company’s Salem 1 station in Lower Alloways Creek Township, N.J., which prompted a higher level of attention from the regulatory agency.
NRC regulations call for a full review if a plant has more than three unplanned shutdowns in 7,000 hours of operation. Salem 1 had a fourth shutdown on Oct. 19. NRC said the company added new employee training to address the issues. The level of NRC oversight at the plant has dropped back down to normal levels.
More: NJ.com
Nation’s Utilities Perform Well After Fed Interest Rate Ruling
The stock prices of the nation’s electric utilities outperformed every other industrial sector following the Federal Reserve’s decision not to raise interest rates on Thursday.
The industry and investors were watching for the decision because utility stocks historically perform poorly when interest rates increase. The industry is capital-intensive, and utilities typically have to wait for rate increases to catch up with any interest rate increases.
“Interest rate increases are historically negative for utility stocks,” said Kit Konolige, a Bloomberg Intelligence senior utility analyst. “They react a lot like the way the bond market does when interest rates rise, which is negative.”
More: Bloomberg Business