ISO-NE: Summer Supply Adequate in New England
New England is expected to have adequate electricity resources this summer, according to ISO-NE.
Although electricity supplies are expected to be sufficient, construction work on the region’s pipeline infrastructure will limit delivery of natural gas to some power plants and require them to obtain alternative fuel.
Under normal weather conditions, electricity demand is forecasted to peak at 26,704 MW. Last summer, demand for power peaked on July 20 at 24,398 MW.
More: ISO-NE
MAINE
Plant Maintenance Causes Rusty Fallout to Stain Parked Cars
A Calpine power plant in Westbrook that spewed rust from its exhaust stacks after undergoing maintenance will have to pay $300,000 to clean up automobiles parked at a neighboring business.
Calpine said a contractor had sprayed dry ice onto metal boiler tubes to remove rust during a maintenance procedure. When the plant was restarted on April 12, the residue spewed out of the stacks into the atmosphere, which combined with rainfall to stain cars parked at the nearby Idexx Laboratories. Calpine is paying between $1,000 and $1,500 each to have about 300 cars detailed, said John Flumerfelt, a company spokesman.
The company reported the incident to the state Department of Environmental Protection, which did not have concerns about possible health effects.
More: Portland Press Herald
Governor Vetoes Solar Net Metering Bill
Gov. Paul LePage vetoed a solar energy bill Wednesday that did not include a price cap that he demanded.
A request by LePage to cap net metering credits at 10 cents/kWh, which would then decline after 18 months, failed to win legislative support before the bill was passed.
Solar advocates now plan to press lawmakers to override the veto when they reconvene Friday. But the Legislature’s vote to approve the measure fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to overturn the governor’s veto, raising doubts about an override.
More: Portland Press Herald
MARYLAND
Silver Spring Company Launches Community Solar Initiative
A Silver Spring man intends to be one of the first in the state to take advantage of new legislation enabling a community solar concept.
Gary Skulnik’s Neighborhood Sun will allow customers to pay a subscription fee to help fund solar arrays in return for credits on their electricity bills.
He estimates his project will be in the 12- to 14-cent/kW range, and subscribers would save about 10% on their monthly bills.
More: Bethesda Magazine
MISSOURI
PSC Approves Twain Tx Project, But Only if Counties Agree
The Public Service Commission approved Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois’ Mark Twain transmission project last week, but it passed the buck to five counties that must approve the 100-mile 345-kV line.
The PSC ascribed several conditions to Ameren’s certificate of convenience, including the approval of five northeastern counties that the line will cross. Four counties have not taken a position. Marion County Commissioner Lyndon Bode said his county plans on sticking to a 2014 resolution that opposes the line.
Neighbors United, a 400-member group of landowners opposing the line, said while they were disappointed with the decision to award Ameren a certificate of convenience, they were “heartened” that local governments will have effective veto control over the route.
More: Herald-Whig
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Public Utilities Commission Awards Renewable Grants
The Public Utilities Commission awarded $1 million to four renewable energy projects sponsored by the state’s Renewable Energy Fund. The PUC received eight applications with requests for more than $3 million.
Grants were awarded to: the Pemi-Baker Cooperative School District, for $325,000 to install a dry wood chip-fired biomass boiler; Ever Better Hydro, for $200,000 to reactivate a 415-kW hydroelectric station; University of New Hampshire, for $200,000 to install and operate a 200-kW steam turbine generator at its combined heat and power plant that burns landfill gas; and Froling for $300,000 to install a dry wood chi- fired biomass boiler and a continuous feed wood chip drying facility for increasing production of dry wood chips.
The grants will be leveraged with an additional $1.9 million in project funds.
More: New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission
NEW JERSEY
Christie: No Plans to Comply with Clean Power Plan
Gov. Chris Christie’s administration has no plans to draft a proposal to comply with EPA’s Clean Power Plan.
“It’s not in our DNA. We don’t need EPA’s re-engineering,” said John Giordano, an assistant commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The state has joined a lawsuit with 27 others to block the carbon reduction effort.
More: NJ Spotlight
NEW YORK
Degraded Baffle Bolts Found at Indian Point
The number of degraded bolts found at the Indian Point nuclear plant was the largest seen to date at a U.S. reactor, according to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission blog post. Specialists found 227 of 832 stainless steel alloy bolts, which hold together baffle plates, were degraded.
Inspection of the bolts in pressurized-water reactors became a priority after cracking was identified in baffle-former bolts in the 1980s in France. The degradation is caused by irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking. The bolts measure about 2 inches in length and five-eighths of an inch in diameter. Baffle plates help direct water up through the nuclear fuel assemblies, where it is heated.
Entergy, the plant’s operator, is analyzing the condition and replacing the degraded bolts during a refueling outage. It will also assess any implications for Indian Point Unit 3, though that reactor is believed to be less susceptible. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has stated he wants Indian Point shut down because of its proximity to New York City.
More: Nuclear Regulatory Commission
NORTH DAKOTA
Lignite Industry Asks State for Increased Help
The state’s coal industry, which is threatened by carbon-reduction requirements of EPA’s Clean Power Plan, will ask the state for more financial help.
“This is no longer a vague threat out there in the future,” Jason Bohrer, president of the Lignite Energy Council, told members at the organization’s annual meeting. The council, which makes recommendations to the Industrial Commission on funding lignite coal-related research projects, has typically been funded with extraction taxes collected from the coal industry.
The industry received a first-ever direct appropriation during the past legislative session of $5 million from the general fund for the Lignite Research Council.
More: The Bismarck Tribune
OKLAHOMA
Commission Approves OG&E $500M Scrubber Plan
The Corporation Commission voted 2-0 to approve Oklahoma Gas & Electric’s third attempt for a $500 million coal scrubber project at its Sooner Generating Station to address tougher emissions regulations. The commission called the project “reasonable.”
The commission last year rejected two previous attempts by OG&E to get preapproval for the scrubbers and other environmental and replacement generation projects. The first case, a $1.1 billion request, would have meant bill increases of up to 19% by 2019. A narrowed, second request was voted down in December.
OG&E’s latest request for a lower-cost solution was supported by the commission’s public utility division, the attorney general’s office and Oklahoma Industrial Energy Consumers. They argued the scrubbers would preserve fuel diversity. OG&E planned to convert the Sooner coal units to natural gas if regulators didn’t approve the scrubbers.
More: The Oklahoman
PENNSYLVANIA
FirstEnergy’s Met-Ed Seeks Rate Increase
FirstEnergy utility Met-Ed is asking regulators for a rate increase that would hike residential customer bills by 13.6% to pay for improvements to the distribution system.
That translates to a monthly increase of $17.52 for a typical residential customer. The utility last sought an increase in 2014, which raised residents’ rates by 10.9%.
More: York Daily Record
WYOMING
Officials Break Ground on Carbon Emission Test Center
Gov. Matt Mead, state officials and utility executives broke ground April 27 on a coal-fired power plant’s test center Wednesday in what they termed a “moon shot” bid to save the coal industry by identifying economic uses for captured carbon emissions.
Officials presented the test center, where teams of scientists will compete to turn carbon emissions into economic products, as the cure to coal’s ills. Mead said the center is evidence the state could help determine the future of the coal industry, saying it would not idle as federal officials imposed new environmental regulations that would make coal uncompetitive.
The $21 million Integrated Test Center will be built adjacent to SPP member Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s Dry Fork Station, one of the newest coal-fired plants in the U.S. Scientists will compete to win a $10 million purse from the X-Prize Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helped launch the private space industry. The winner will take the greatest volume of carbon from the plant’s emissions and turn it into a product with the greatest value.
More: Casper Star-Tribune