Duke Energy has announced plans to buy power produced from methane collected from livestock waste.
Duke has contracted with Carbon Cycle Energy, which will build and own a plant that will generate enough electricity from chicken and swine waste to power about 10,000 homes a year.
The plant will likely be located in eastern North Carolina. The state, which falls just behind Iowa as the country’s largest pork-producing state, requires utilities to produce power from swine and poultry waste. The state’s renewable energy law also requires utilities to procure 12.5% of its power from renewable sources by 2021.
More: Insurance Journal
Black Hills Energy Starts Construction on Tx Line
Black Hills Energy has started construction on a 144-mile, $54 million transmission line that will run from northeast Wyoming to Rapid City, S.D.
The 230-kV Teckla-to-Rapid City project is about a year behind schedule because of delays to get permission from property owners, who held out for higher easement payments. The company also needed permission from the federal government to run the line through the Black Hills National Forest.
More: Rapid City Journal; Black Hills Energy
Atlantic Coast Pipeline Sells 96% Of Capacity, Surveys 90% of Route
The operator of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a $5 billion pipeline that will deliver natural gas from Appalachian shale fields to Virginia and North Carolina, has sold 96% of the future pipeline’s capacity and surveyed 90% of the 550-mile route, according to an update from the company.
Dominion Energy President Diane Leopold said 90% of the 2,800 landowners along the route have allowed survey teams on their land and 500 have signed easements. She also said that a Pennsylvania steel mill is set to start manufacturing the pipe in a $400 million contract.
More: The Associated Press
Ex-Austin Energy Chief Confirmed As Seattle City Light’s GM, CEO
The former head of Austin Energy was approved as Seattle City Light’s general manager and CEO, despite criticism over his January remarks that Austin’s utility should be run by an independent board and not the City Council.
The Seattle City Council voted 7-2 to confirm a four-year appointment of Larry Weis to run the city’s electric utility. He will earn $340,000 a year.
Council members made few explicit references to Weis’ time at Austin Energy, but his record was central in the public testimony at his confirmation hearings. His supporters praised him for winning over the union that represents Seattle City Light workers and for his decision to hire a director of environment and sustainability issues.
More: Austin American-Statesman
Lincoln Electric Plan Calls for $453M in Upgrades, Expansions
Lincoln Electric System, the Nebraska public utility serving the state capital region, approved a six-year $453 million capital budget to replace and upgrade infrastructure.
Lincoln Electric, an SPP member that has about 120,000 customers, says it expects to add 9,400 customers, move the overhead service lines for 1,800 customers underground and add 44 MW of new load to its system. Its two most costly projects call for $204 million to update overhead and underground distribution and transmission lines and $152 million for power generation facilities.
Almost $100 million is slated to update power plants to comply with EPA’s Clean Power Plan.
More: Lincoln Journal Star
Two Westar Employees Threatened By Residents When Changing Meters
Two Hutchinson, Kan., residents were arrested in separate incidents for threatening Westar Energy employees who swapped out their old electric meters.
County officials charged a resident who held a Wester employee at gunpoint with aggravated assault and kidnapping. Four days earlier, deputies arrested another Hutchinson resident who threatened bodily harm to a Westar employee who had changed his meter.
More: The Hutchinson News
Duke Energy’s California Deal Expands its Solar Stable
Duke Energy Renewables has purchased a proposed 20-MW solar project in California from EDF Renewable Energy. The project, to be built in San Bernardino County near Barstow, will be called the Longboat Solar Power Project.
The output and the renewable energy credits are being sold to Southern California Edison in a 20-year power purchase agreement.
The project, which is expected to come online by the middle of this year, will bring Duke’s solar stable in California to 130 MW. Duke’s regulated and commercial businesses have invested more than $4 billion in solar and wind generation over the past eight years.
More: Duke Energy
Dynegy Announces Closure Of Wood River Plant in June
Dynegy’s coal-fired Wood River plant in Illinois will be shuttered in June after a MISO study concluded it was no longer needed to ensure reliability in the region.
The company said the plant was unprofitable under MISO’s “poorly designed” capacity market. About 90 jobs will be lost when the plant closes. The plant also pays about $1.6 million in community property taxes.
Dynegy anticipates that cleaning up the West Alton plant’s coal ash ponds will cost $18 million. The plant produced 465 MW from its two units, which went into service in 1954 and 1964.
More: The Telegraph