Eversource Energy and National Grid have completed a three-state $483 million transmission project to serve southern New England.
The Interstate Reliability Project included station upgrades and the installation of a new 345-kV transmission line along 75 miles of existing rights of way in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. “The Interstate Reliability Project improves the efficiency of the grid by eliminating system bottlenecks and improving the flow of power within our region,” said David Boguslawski, vice president of transmission strategy and operations at Eversource.
More: Eversource and National Grid
Fuel Cells to Help Power Research Facility
FuelCell Energy has announced a deal to install a natural gas-powered fuel cell system capable of producing 5.6 MW at Pfizer’s Groton research facility.
The company expects the two fuel cell power plants to be in place and operating by summer. The system will provide electricity and steam for the 160-acre facility under a 20-year power purchase agreement.
FuelCell also said the system would operate in synch with Pfizer’s regular electricity purchases and will be able to provide power during any grid outages. The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.
More: Hartford Courant (subscription required)
Austin Energy GM Calls for Independent Board to Run Utility
Larry Weis, who in his final weeks as Austin Energy’s general manager, says the municipal utility should be run primarily by an independent board and not the Austin City Council, calling the newly elected council “naïve” about utility issues and vulnerable to outside influences. He also called for increased base utility rates for residential customers.
Weis, who earns $315,000 as the city’s highest-paid employee, is leaving the country’s eighth-largest public electric utility later this month to run Seattle’s electric utility.
Weis had some advice for his replacement. “You can’t come here and just do anything you want,” said Weis, 61, who took the reins of Austin Energy in 2010. “You’ve got to play ball with the rest of the city. There are a lot of problems in getting things done that way.”
More: Austin American-Statesman
Southern Reports More Delays, Costs for Kemper Plant Start-up
Southern Co.’s troubled clean coal plant in Kemper County, Miss., is still running into problems, and the company said it might delay the scheduled start-up again. Southern estimated that the plant, the first of its kind in the U.S., would cost $2.8 billion when it was first announced. The price tag is now $6.5 billion.
The plant is designed to turn coal into gas, and capture the resulting carbon dioxide and sequester it in underground storage caverns. Repeated design changes, construction overruns and other cost increases have plagued the project. Southern, while not saying how much longer testing and reconfiguring would take, has acknowledged that each month’s delay costs it $43 million.
“While these tests have confirmed the design of these first-of-a-kind systems, we have also identified some modifications, rework and needed repairs that will be implemented and retested before these systems can be placed in service,” a Southern spokesperson said. “This is not unexpected for systems being commercialized for the first time.”
More: Bloomberg Business
Ameren Warns Dockside Customers Before Discharging Dam
Ameren Missouri opened spill gates at Bagnell Dam in central Missouri last week in order to accommodate flow as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a large amount of rainwater stored 90 miles upstream at Truman Dam. The swollen Truman Reservoir has been building up rainwater since late December.
The water dispatch led Ameren Missouri to warn residents along the shores of the Lake of the Ozarks and the Osage River to shut power off to their docks and other waterside structures until the fluctuating water levels recede.
“We plan to have the spill gates open for up to two weeks,” said Warren Witt, director of Hydro Operations at Osage Energy Center. “When the Truman Dam waters are discharged, Osage Energy Center will remain on heavy generation for another several weeks as we draw down the lake to our annual spring level of 654 feet.”
More: Ameren Missouri
LS Power Announces Expansion of Virginia Energy Center
LS Power wants to expand a generating plant near Kings Dominion, a theme park in Virginia, by building two more combustion turbines to generate a combined 340 MW. Doswell Limited Partnership, which is controlled by LS Power, has applied for permission to construct the two turbines.
There already are four combined cycle turbines on the site generating 665 MW, as well as a simple cycle turbine with a capacity of 171 MW. The company believes there is market demand for more power in the area, especially gas-fired peaking capacity. “It’s driven by a lot of market moves such as coal plants retiring, the price of natural gas and consumers’ demand for power,” said Tony Hammond, asset manager for Doswell.
More: Richmond Times-Dispatch
Duke to Build 17-MW Solar Farm in Indiana
Duke Energy has announced plans to build a 17-MW solar facility on the grounds of a Navy base in Indiana. The 145-acre site at Naval Support Activity Crane, near Plainfield, will have about 76,000 solar panels, according to the company. When completed, it will be one of the largest solar facilities in Indiana.
The company has filed for permits from the Utility Regulatory Commission. The company will make the energy available to Duke Energy Indiana customers, including the naval base.
It would be Duke’s second solar farm on a military base. The company built a 13-MW solar farm at Marine base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
More: Inside Indiana Business
NRG Home CEO McBee Announces Departure
Amid an exodus of executives at NRG Energy, Steve McBee has departed as president and CEO of NRG Home, the company’s retail residential business unit.
The company did not give a reason for McBee’s departure. His exit comes about a month after NRG CEO David Crane stepped down amid a steep downturn of the company’s stock price. Robyn Beavers, founder and leader of a microgrid research and development organization within NRG called Station A Group, also left last month.
NRG Home is NRG’s residential retail division, which includes its solar energy business. McBee came to NRG in December 2014 from a D.C.-based strategic consulting business that he founded.
More: Bloomberg News; Greentech Media
ComEd Teams with Startup to Give Customers Energy Info
Commonwealth Edison has teamed up with a startup created at Northwestern University to provide customers a way to track and change their energy use. MeterGenius allows customers to go online and access their energy-use data collected by ComEd’s smart meters.
A pilot program allows 6,500 ComEd customers to use MeterGenius tools to earn rewards such as gift cards and appliances, and enter competitions to see who can reduce their energy use the most. MeterGenius was started by four Northwestern graduate students in 2013 and now is based in St. Louis.
More: The Daily Northwestern
FirstEnergy Conducting Study on Reopening Hatfield’s Ferry
FirstEnergy is studying whether to reopen a 1,710-MW coal-fired plant in southwestern Pennsylvania that it closed in 2013. The company mothballed the Hatfield’s Ferry plant in Greene County because of low wholesale prices and declining demand in the area, along with anticipated costs of bringing its coal-fired generators into environmental compliance.
The company says it is reconsidering the closure because of evolving market forces and changing regional capacity conditions. “We’re only evaluating whether this would be a feasible option down the road,” said Jennifer Young, FirstEnergy spokeswoman. Young said the company is looking at all options, including the possibility of shifting the plant to use natural gas instead of coal.
The status of a second coal-fired plant that was also shut down in 2013, the 370-MW Mitchell plant in nearby Washington County, is not currently being reconsidered.
More: Observer-Reporter
Exelon Signs Go up on Baltimore Tower
Workers have installed signs denoting a 20-story tower under construction at Harbor Point in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor to be the local headquarters of Exelon.
The tower, which will also have 100 apartment units, is being built on the grounds of the former Allied Signal Chemical Plant between Harbor East and Fells Point. Exelon committed to maintaining a local headquarters when it acquired Constellation Energy. The tower is slated to open later this year.