Duke Energy last week announced five executive appointments — effective at varying dates between now and year-end — with the goal of strengthening its regulatory and economic development initiatives.
Clark Gillespy, currently South Carolina state president, will become senior vice president of economic development. Alex Glenn, currently Florida state president, will become senior vice president of state and federal regulatory legal support.
Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe, currently a senior vice president of state and federal regulatory legal support, will take over Gillespy’s role. Harry Sideris, currently a senior vice president of environmental health and safety, will take over Glenn’s role. Paul Draovitch, currently a senior vice president for fossil-hydro operations, will take over Sideris’ role.
More: The Charlotte Observer
PG&E Hit with Federal Lawsuit over Pension Benefits
Three Pacific Gas and Electric workers filed a lawsuit Nov. 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California accusing the utility of wrongly classifying them as independent contractors to deny them pension benefits.
The lawsuit alleges that PG&E adopted different and conflicting interpretations of its pension plan and stopped asking its counsel for advice “when it did not like the results.”
Emails and memoranda that allegedly support the workers’ allegations are attached to the court filing. The internal documents came to light during another worker’s pension lawsuit settled by PG&E in 2013.
More: Pension & Benefits Daily
Swiss Companies to Supply Battery Storage System for PJM
Swiss Green Electricity Management Group, which invests in energy storage projects, has announced a partnership with fellow Switzerland-based company Leclanché to supply a 20MW/10MWh battery storage system for PJM’s frequency regulation market.
Leclanché will act as SGEM’s engineering, procurement and construction partner and supply the battery storage system, which will be constructed in Marengo, Ill.
In August, the two signed an agreement that gives SGEM right of first offer for Leclanché projects, which are expected to grow to more than 85 MWh in 2017.
More: Energy Storage News
American Electric Power Seeks Coal Delivery Bids
American Electric Power is seeking bids by Nov. 9 for delivery of up to 500,000 tons of coal for one or more of its generating stations.
Delivery would begin in January 2017 and end in March 2017.
More: American Electric Power
Duke Energy, Siemens Team Up for Wind Farm Services
Duke Energy Renewables and Siemens’ wind power and renewables division are teaming up to provide operations and maintenance services for wind farms whose turbines have multiple manufacturers.
Under their agreement, the companies can bid separately on services at wind projects. If either company wins a contract, it will bring the other in for appropriate work.
The partnership establishes “one-stop shopping” for wind farm owners who would otherwise need to make separate contracts with each original equipment supplier, Duke Renewables spokeswoman Tammie McGee said.
More: Charlotte Business Journal
GE to Supply Converter Stations For Plains & Eastern Clean Line
GE Energy Connections will supply three HVDC converter stations to Clean Line Energy Partners for its $2.5 billion Plains & Eastern project, which will deliver 4,000 MW of wind power generated in the Oklahoma panhandle over a 720-mile system to a terminal near Memphis, Tenn.
Clean Line selected GE as the exclusive provider of the stations, which will convert electricity from DC to AC. The stations will be located in Pope County, Ark.; Texas County, Okla.; and Shelby County, Tenn. Construction could begin in the second half of 2017.
GE described HVDC transmission as “the most efficient means of connecting wind generation to distant end-use customers.”
More: Arkansas Business
Marcellus Shale Partnership Ends For Noble Energy, Consol Energy
Noble Energy and Consol Energy announced last week that they have ended their shale exploration partnership in the Marcellus drilling region.
In 2011 the companies agreed to jointly explore and develop 669,000 acres across Pennsylvania and West Virginia, producing 1.07 Bcfd of natural gas equivalent.
Noble will keep 363,000 acres, producing about 450 Mcfd of natural gas equivalent and pay Consol $205 million. Consol will keep 306,000 acres producing 620 Mcfd.
More: Fuel Fix
Amazon Plans Ohio Wind Farm To Power Cloud Computing Business
Amazon announced last week that it is planning a wind farm in Hardin County, Ohio, to help power its cloud computing business.
The wind farm, scheduled to open in December 2017, will be the fifth renewable energy project undertaken by the company’s cloud computing division and its second wind farm in Ohio.
The new wind farm will generate 530,000 MWh of wind energy per year and feed into the grid connected to the division’s Ohio and Virginia data centers.
More: The Seattle Times
Utilities Partner to Share Equipment During Disasters
A group of utilities in the Southeast have created a program to identify spare transformers and other transmission equipment that they can obtain from each other if disasters should strike.
Southern Co., Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities, PPL Electric Utilities and Tennessee Valley Authority last week announced the Regional Equipment Sharing for Transmission Outage Restoration (RESTORE) program, which would make needed transmission equipment available for purchase by the participating utilities.
The companies are interested in expanding the voluntary program to include others in the region.
More: Southern Co.
Blair Named New President, CEO of ITC Holdings
Linda H. Blair was named the new president and CEO of ITC Holdings effective Nov. 1, succeeding Joseph L. Welch.
She will be responsible for the strategic vision and overall business operation of ITC and its subsidiaries.
Most recently, Blair was ITC’s chief business unit officer. She has served in several leadership roles with ITC since the company’s inception in 2003.
More: Crain’s Detroit Business
FirstEnergy Must Save $200M To Preserve Credit Rating
FirstEnergy must find cost savings of about $200 million to preserve its credit rating — and possibly stay independent after receiving about half of a special rate rider it requested from Ohio’s Public Utilities Commission.
“We’re evaluating everything we do as a company to try and find a way to close that gap. Because [what’s been done so far] is not enough to get us into the position with the credit rating agencies that we need to be in,” CEO Chuck Jones said.
FirstEnergy’s stock is trading at 12 times the company’s earnings, with many of its competitors’ shares trading at 20 times their earnings, Jones said.