DTE Energy and Wisconsin Power and Light are looking for buyers of their closed power plants near Cassville in southwest Wisconsin.
DTE Energy is selling its Stoneman biomass plant, which closed in November, while WPL is listening to proposals for its shuttered coal-fired Nelson Dewey Generating Station, which closed at the end of 2015. The closures eliminated about 85 jobs in the area.
A DTE spokesperson said the company plans to demolish Stoneman in 2017. A local commerce group wants the WPL plant, located on 130 acres of Mississippi River waterfront, developed into a port facility. WPL’s parent company, Alliant Energy, has hired a consulting firm to come up with a marketing plan for future uses. The site will require environmental cleanup before it is redeveloped.
More: Dubuque Telegraph Herald
Talen Energy Sells Crane Plant in Md.
Talen Energy has sold the 399-MW C.P. Crane power plant in Maryland to an affiliate of investment firm Avenue Capital Group. Terms of the sale were not released.
The coal-fired plant, near Baltimore, is the second plant sold by Talen recently to satisfy a FERC-mandated plan to mitigate the market effects of the company’s creation from PPL and Riverstone Holdings last year.
Talen says it plans to sell two Pennsylvania hydro plants before the end of the first quarter to satisfy the FERC divestiture requirements: Holtwood, on the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County, and Lake Wallenpaupack in Wayne County.
More: The Morning Call
Hawaiian Electric Cancels Contracts with Troubled SunEdison
SunEdison, once a high-flying solar developer, absorbed another blow when Hawaiian Electric canceled a contract to purchase 148 MW of output because of construction delays.
In a regulatory filing about the contract cancellation, Hawaiian cited SunEdison’s “apparently precarious financial condition” as a cause for numerous missed deadlines. The company’s stock has fallen 92% in the past year.
“SunEdison missed multiple deadlines throughout the process, did not provide adequate assurances that it could secure financing to develop these projects and did not propose viable options to address the significant risks to our customers of not securing lower cost renewable energy,” a Hawaiian Electric spokesman said.
More: Bloomberg
Duke Nuke Fleet Beats National Capacity Average
Duke Energy’s nuclear fleet ran at 94.2% of capacity last year, the company reported, noting that its Oconee Nuclear Station in South Carolina turned in a 98% capacity factor for 2015. The national average for 2015 was 91.2%.
Duke, like Exelon, continues to tout nuclear generation as a carbon-free power source, an important consideration as federal emissions mandates get stiffer. In addition to having plans to build the new, $12 billion Lee Nuclear Station in Gaffney, S.C., Duke intends to seek license extensions ranging from 20 to 40 years for its other plants.
Duke operates 11 nuclear generating stations. Its fleet has operated at better than 90% capacity for 17 consecutive years.
More: Charlotte Business Journal
Oncor Bidders Defend Their Plan from Critics Who Fear a Windfall
The group trying to buy Oncor said its plan to restructure Texas’ largest utility could save electricity customers hundreds of millions of dollars, but critics of the plan say it doesn’t take into account a tax-related windfall that could send $250 million a year to the buyers.
Dallas billionaire Ray L. Hunt leads the group that is seeking to buy Oncor and help take it out of bankruptcy. The group filed a detailed response to the Public Utility Commission of Texas on Feb. 19 that addresses objections raised by several parties, including PUCT staff, former Gov. Rick Perry, the current Oncor chief executive and AARP.
The commission is expected to indicate whether it will approve the Hunt group’s plan at its March 3 meeting. The group wants to put up $18 billion for the business and split it into two new companies.
More: The Dallas Morning News
Sierra Club Files Suit Against 3 Companies over Earthquakes
The Sierra Club filed suit in U.S. District Court against three oil and gas exploration companies, charging that their wastewater disposal in deep injection wells is triggering earthquakes in Oklahoma and Kansas. The suit names Chesapeake Energy, New Dominion and Devon Energy for contributing to a staggering increase of seismic activity.
The suit says the companies “contributed and continue to contribute to the increased seismicity triggered by the waste handling, transport and disposal activities at the injection wells owned or operated by the defendants throughout the state of Oklahoma and southern Kansas.”
The suit asks a judge to curtail the number of gallons of drilling waste being injected into deep rock layers and that the companies pay to protect buildings from earthquake damage. “The oil industry is on its knees, the business models are busted,” said Bloomberg Intelligence Analyst Peter Pulikkan. “And now you have this threat of disposal wells being linked to earthquakes that could put companies with material exposure permanently out to pasture.”
More: Bloomberg