A segment of the long-awaited Tres Amigas transmission project in New Mexico is expected to begin transmitting power to CAISO in early 2017. A company executive confirmed that construction of a 35-mile portion of the line called the Western Interconnect began after FERC approved the project last December and is expected to be completed at the end of the year.
“It’s a huge win for New Mexico: that much wind developed here and going all the way to California [is] a great business development piece, and a great asset for the state,” Tres Amigas CFO Russell Stidolph said.
The Broadview and Grady wind farms will be allocated 497 MW of the line’s 1,100 MW of capacity.
More: Albuquerque Business First
NextEra to Sell $1.5B in Equity to Help Finance Oncor Purchase
NextEra Energy said it will sell $1.5 billion of equity units to Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Mizuho Securities.
Each equity unit will be issued for $50 and will consist of a contract to purchase NextEra common stock in the future and 5% interest in a $1,000 NextEra Energy Capital Holdings debenture, a bond without collateral, due Sept. 1, 2021. The proceeds of the sale will go toward financing the company’s acquisition of Oncor, it said.
More: NextEra Energy
Alliant Eyeing Wind Development in Wisconsin
After announcing it would spend $1 billion on wind projects in Iowa, Alliant Energy’s CEO said the company will also consider investing in wind buildout in neighboring Wisconsin.
“We are also evaluating additional wind energy purchases and future investments for Wisconsin customers,” Alliant CEO Pat Kampling said during an earnings call. “This will add economic and stable energy to our fuel cost and allow us to offset market purchases of energy.”
Alliant reported net income of $86.4 million ($0.37/share) for the second quarter this year, compared to $67.6 million ($0.31/share) for the same period last year.
More: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Dynegy Posts Q2 Loss, New Company Logo
Dynegy reported a net loss of $800 million for the second quarter this year, compared to net income of $388 million for the same period last year.
The announcement comes as Dynegy completed a “rebranding,” with a new logo and redesigned website, in recognition of becoming one of the country’s largest independent power producers after purchasing 17 power plants from Paris-based ENGIE.
Solar Mosaic Raises $220M for Solar Installation Loans
Solar Mosaic, a six-year-old California company that acts as a middleman between residential customers and solar installation companies, raised $220 million to finance installations around the U.S. The company provides loans with fixed interest rates to residential customers, with an average loan of about $30,000.
The company has previously secured about $200 million in debt in April and said that it would support loans for about 5,000 customers. More than 250 solar companies use Solar Mosaic to arrange funding for their customers.
More: Reuters
Exelon, PHI Hire New Communications Execs
Exelon has named Maggie FitzPatrick, formerly of Johnson & Johnson, as its senior vice president of corporate affairs, philanthropy and customer engagement, effective Aug. 29. She takes the place of Jamie Firth, who is retiring at the end of this year.
FitzPatrick will oversee communications, brand strategy and the disbursement of charitable giving out of D.C., where Exelon’s headquarters moved following its acquisition of Pepco Holdings Inc. She also takes a seat on Exelon’s executive committee.
Exelon’s Pepco subsidiary hired Clarissa Beyah-Taylor as its vice president of communications to oversee public outreach for the three PHI utilities: Atlantic City Electric, Delmarva Power and PEPCO.
More: Exelon
El Paso Electric Touts Coal-Free Status
El Paso Electric officials said the company has become coal-free and no longer is using the fossil fuel, making it the only electric utility in Texas and New Mexico without any coal-fired generation.
EPE recently completed the sale of its part ownership in the Four Corners coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Indian Reservation near Farmington, N.M., the company’s sole source of coal power. The company received 5% of its power this year from the plant, which has been replaced with natural gas-fueled generators and solar power.
More: El Paso Times
ExxonMobil to Invest $15M in Renewable Energy Research
ExxonMobil announced it invested $15 million in the University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute to research integrating renewable energy sources into the nation’s current portfolio to reduce the impact on water, air and climate. The research will take advantage of the school’s renewable energy, battery technologies and power grid modeling.
More: Houston Business Journal
PECO Gives Customers a Glimpse into Neighbors’ Homes
PECO Energy has embarked on a behavioral experiment to reduce power consumption by sharing customers’ usage with their neighbors.
The utility plans to provide the reports every other month for two years. All customers, regardless of whether they were chosen to receive the mailed reports, can view the data online.
The plan is part of PECO’s effort to cut 2 million MWh and lower peak demand by 161 MW by 2021.
More: The Philadelphia Inquirer
Black Hills Energy in Midst of $20M Tree-Trimming Effort
South Dakota’s Black Hills Energy has invested more than $10 million during the past three years trimming trees and other vegetation along its electricity lines and intends to spend $10 million more in 2016-17, according to a report approved Aug. 2 by the state’s Public Utilities Commission.
The five-year project to trim vegetation along 69-kV rights of way stems from a 2012 agreement between the company and the commission to protect the utility’s distribution system. Outages caused by trees numbered 116 in 2011 but fell to 38 in 2014.
PUC Chairman Chris Nelson said the results looked good but expenses have been “surprisingly” more than expected. “The numbers are higher than we had been anticipating, and we have been given an explanation why that is.”
More: Rapid City Journal
Once Fastest-Growing Austin Firm, Solar Company Faces Bankruptcy
Austin-based Revolve Solar, formerly one of Texas Hill Country’s largest clean-tech companies, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The company’s CEO, Tim Padden, said the bankruptcy filing was the result of a billing dispute with a vendor and that he was optimistic the matter could be resolved. Revolve filed a voluntary petition for bankruptcy on July 31 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas.
The bankruptcy comes less than a year after Revolve was honored as the second-fastest-growing Austin company, with revenue of more than $10 million from 2012 to 2014. During that time, the company said its revenue grew from $1.76 million in 2012, the year it was founded, to $15.9 million in 2014.
More: Dallas Business Journal
AEP Buys EnSync Hawaiian Projects
American Electric Power purchased a series of solar and energy storage projects in Hawaii from EnSync Energy Systems. Neither AEP nor the Wisconsin-based company put a price tag on the acquisition, but EnSync said the projects were the “major portion” of its investment of $13 million.
EnSync is switching to a business model according to which it will be more reliant on projects using power purchase agreements, rather than selling its energy storage equipment.
AEP’s subsidiary, AEP OnSite Partners, sees more opportunity in Hawaii. “Hawaii provides ideal conditions to create customer value with solar resources combined with energy storage,” said Joel Jansen, COO of AEP OnSite Partners. “These projects are the first integrated solar and storage projects in Hawaii.”
More: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
EFH Creditors See Industry Vet as Luminant, TXU Energy CEO
Energy Future Holdings creditors filed court papers last week that said energy veteran Curtis Morgan would become CEO of power generator Luminant and retailer TXU Energy once their parent company emerges from bankruptcy.
Morgan has 35 years of experience with Reliant Energy, NRG Energy and EquiPower Resources, and he was an operating partner at Energy Capital Partners. He has served on a committee of private equity consultants advising Dallas-based EFH as it winds its way through one of the largest bankruptcies in U.S. history.
If the company’s bankrupty reorganization is approved later this year, Luminant and TXU Energy will break away from EFH as a tax-free spinoff. EFH’s other main business, distributor Oncor, is expected to be sold to NextEra Energy for $18.4 billion.
More: The Dallas Morning News