The Omaha Public Power District’s board voted unanimously to close the 479-MW Fort Calhoun nuclear plant by the end of the year. The closure of the plant, the country’s smallest nuclear facility, affects 700 employees and will lead to a decommissioning effort expected to cost $1.2 billion.
The vote came after management reported that it cost the utility about $71/MWh to generate power at the plant, double the national industry average. The utility can purchase power on the open market for about $20/MWh.
The utility has sunk nearly $700 million into Fort Calhoun over the past decade for upgrades, flood repairs and to extend the plant’s license to 2033. The plant was commissioned in 1973.
More: Omaha World-Herald
Oil Firm Files Lawsuit Over Kemper Delay
Oil exploration firm Treetop Midstream Services sued Southern Co. over the tardy Kemper coal-gasification plant in eastern Mississippi, from which Treetop was committed to buy carbon dioxide to stimulate depleted oil fields.
Treetop is seeking $100 million and punitive damages from Southern, claiming that the utility committed fraud by misleading it on the construction timeline. The Kemper power plant is more than two years behind schedule and is now expected to be operational in the third quarter of this year.
Treetop had signed a contract for 30% of Kemper’s CO2 output to pump into oil fields to tap supplies previously considered uneconomic. The company spent nearly $100 million to construct a CO2 pipeline linking Kemper and its oil-producing area. The plant’s operator, Southern subsidiary Mississippi Power, canceled the Treetop contract earlier this month.
More: Watchdog.org
Consumers Opens 1st Solar Garden on Campus
Consumers Energy has opened its first solar power plant on the campus of Grand Valley State University in Western Michigan. The facility is a 3-MW array that is also the state’s largest community solar project.
The 17-acre Solar Gardens includes Michigan-made solar panels. “This new Solar Gardens location illustrates our commitment to finding new approaches that will sustain our state for generations to come,” Consumers CEO John Russell said.
The company is expecting to open a similar solar garden site about 60 miles away at Western Michigan University later this summer.
More: Consumers Energy
AEP Wins Award for Reconductor Project
American Electric Power won the Edison Electric Institute’s highest award for a project in Texas where it upgraded two 345-kV transmission lines without taking them out of service.
The Energized Reconductor Project in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas incorporated robotic equipment and “energized barehand” work methods, in which the linemen wear conductive suits and come in contact with live wires. Working with contractors Quanta Services and CTC Global, AEP was able to replace 240 miles of line while they remained energized, negating the need for alternate generation during the project. AEP estimated it saved more than $43 million.
“Traditional construction methods would have required taking those lines out of service, but AEP developed an innovative technical solution that permitted the company to successfully upgrade the system while maintaining service and reliability,” said EEI President Tom Kuhn in presenting the company with its 2016 Edison Award.
More: Edison Electric Institute
Lincoln Rejects Request to Disclose Pricing Information
Lincoln Electric System says it will stop publishing breakdowns for the cost of generating electricity at specific facilities in the wake of demand by a wind energy producer to see its financial books.
Gary Aksamit, the head wind power developer Aksamit Resource Management, earlier this year demanded the state’s four largest public power entities disclose their generation costs. The utilities say they gave him thousands of pages of documentation but that revealing certain data would put them at a competitive disadvantage.
LES has historically sold power directly to end users and published details on its generation costs. With SPP’s 2014 implementation of the Integrated Marketplace, the utility now buys and sells electricity in competition with other regional power suppliers.
More: Lincoln Journal Star
Orion Renewable Eyes 250-MW Wind Farm in North Dakota
The Orion Renewable Energy Group says it is planning a 115-turbine wind farm in western North Dakota, capable of generating 250 MW.
The California company has not filed a conditional use permit with county officials, but it said it has completed most of its land leasing and environmental studies. If Orion receives county approval, it will file an application with the state’s Public Service Commission by the end of the year.
More: The Dickinson Press
LG&E-KU Begins Commercial Solar Building Program
Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities launched a new business solar service in which the utilities will construct, own and operate individual solar facilities for commercial and industrial customers.
The ground or rooftop solar arrays ranging from 30 kW to 5 MW will be built on customer property by Kentucky-based Solar Energy Solutions.
“Providing regulated distributed generation through this new customized business solar service will be a new venture for us, but we expect this to be responsive to our customers’ needs,” said John P. Malloy, vice president of LG&E and KU Energy customer service.
More: SurfKY News
Company Proposes 100-MW Solar Farm in Va. Tidewater
Community Energy Solar has filed preliminary applications to develop a 100-MW, 1,200-acre solar farm near the towns of Boykins and Newsoms in Virginia’s Tidewater region. The company said it plans to begin construction of the $175 million Southampton Solar project by the end of 2017.
The company has developed about 1,400 MW of solar in 13 states since 1999 and is building an 80-MW facility in Accomack County, Va., which is expected to come online by the end of this year.
The company’s latest plans were filed with Southampton County, and it will need approval from PJM, the state Department of Environmental Quality and various other regulatory agencies before going forward.
More: The Tidewater News
Seattle Company Applies to Build Floating Wind Farm
Trident Winds applied to build a wind farm off the coast of California in which the wind turbines will be mounted on tethered, floating pylons much like offshore oil drilling rigs, rather than bolted to the sea floor like other proposed offshore U.S. wind projects.
The company wants to construct 100 636-foot floating turbines about 15 miles off the coast of Morro Bay. When completed, the facility would generate up to 1 GW. If it is approved, it would be the largest offshore wind project in the nation.
Because of the technological challenges, the project isn’t expected to go online until 2025.