Iberdrola USA and UIL Holdings have closed their merger and adopted “Avangrid” as the name for the U.S. operations arm of Spanish conglomerate Iberdrola. It began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday under the symbol AGR.
The combined company has eight electric and natural gas utilities with a rate base of approximately $8.3 billion serving 3.1 million customers in New York and New England. Its renewable energy subsidiary is the second largest wind energy producer in the U.S. with 5.6 GW of wind generation capacity sited in 53 wind farms in 18 states.
James P. Torgerson, CEO of UIL Holdings, became CEO of Avangrid.
More: Avangrid
AES Gets Access to 1 GWh of Batteries
AES announced it is gaining access to 1 GWh worth of lithium ion batteries from Seoul-based LG Chem, which it plans to deploy in its Advancion platform, which provides large-scale grid energy storage to utility companies.
The energy storage business is “definitely moving to a new level this year,” says John Zahurancik, president of AES Energy Storage. AES says large batteries can displace peaker plants and reduce emissions.
GTM Research says AES could deploy hundreds of megawatts in Ireland and California as early as 2016. It forecasts that the U.S. will deploy a record 192 MW of energy storage in 2015.
More: AES; The Washington Post
Duke to Bury Coal Ash in Landfill at SC Site
Duke Energy Carolinas filed plans to construct a lined, on-site landfill to bury 2.2 million tons of coal ash at the W.S. Lee Station in Belton, S.C. The company plans to excavate coal ash now contained in two ash basins and a structural fill area on the property.
The new contained system will keep the coal ash from polluting the surrounding soil and groundwater, the company said.
The company already is in the process of shipping nearly 1.4 million tons of coal ash from one ash pond at the site to a landfill in Homer, Ga.
More: Duke Energy
Alliant, We Energies Reach Accord on New Power Plant
Alliant Energy says it has settled a dispute with We Energies concerning a $700 million natural gas-fired power plant it plans to build in Beloit, Wis.
WE was trying to block the project, arguing that Alliant should instead purchase power from its Port Washington plant. Alliant said it wouldn’t be able to meet its long-term energy needs through that plant.
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Alliant said it would create opportunities for joint ownership of power plants in the future with WE’s parent company, WEC Energy Group. Alliant said the agreement also provides for joint development of renewable energy projects.
More: Journal Sentinel
NEI CEO Fertel Retiring at End of Next Year
Marvin Fertel, who helped lead the nuclear industry’s response to the Fukushima accident in Japan, will retire at the end of next year as president and chief executive of the Nuclear Energy Institute. Fertel has led the trade group since 2009.
Fertel has been with the organization since its formation in 1994 and became vice president of Nuclear Economics and Fuel Supply at that time. He was named senior vice president and chief nuclear officer in 2003. NEI is looking to hire a successor.
More: NEI
Kipp, 48, Takes over as El Paso Electric’s CEO
Mary Kipp, the first female chief executive in El Paso Electric’s 114-year history, and also its youngest, assumed leadership of the West Texas utility last week.
“It feels really good” to be CEO, the 48-year-old Kipp said a few hours after taking over the company’s top job. She has overseen several departments during her seven years at the company and said she plans no big changes.
The company’s board of directors appointed her in September 2014 as the successor to Tom Shockley, 70, who retired Dec. 15 after almost four years in the job.
More: El Paso Times
ALJ says OCC Should Support OG&E’s Proposed Solar Tariff
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission should approve Oklahoma Gas and Electric’s plan to levy demand charges on customers who install rooftop solar and other distributed generation, an administrative law judge recommended Dec. 14.
Judge Jacqueline Miller also said the commission should direct OG&E to provide further evidence of the costs distributed generation customers impose on the grid in its upcoming rate case. In the meantime, Miller recommended the commission allow the utility to impose the proposed tariffs on distributed generation customers for one billing cycle, subject to refund. She faulted OG&E for not providing enough information from a checklist developed last year by the commission’s public utility division for distributed generation issues.
OG&E filed its case under Senate Bill 1456, which Gov. Mary Fallin signed last year. It allows regulated utilities to propose new tariffs if they can show distributed generation customers are being subsidized for their grid-connection costs by other customers.
More: The Daily Oklahoman
PSO to Replace Smart Meters in Tulsa Area Following Recall
Public Service Company of Oklahoma said last week it is replacing “a small number” of Tulsa-area smart meters because of a manufacturer’s defect “that could cause the screen to go blank.”
PSO sent a letter to nearly 25,000 customers Dec. 14 announcing the recall. The Tulsa-based utility said only residential meters are at issue, and fewer than 10% are affected by the recall. PSO installed roughly 300,000 smart meters in the area this year, about 240,000 at residential properties. None of the General Electric meters have failed, but PSO said it wants to get ahead of any potential issues.
The smart meters have been controversial with some customers, who claim they pose a threat to health, privacy and safety. In October, an administrative law judge recommended approval of PSO’s plan to allow residential customers to opt out of smart meters. The recommendation is pending with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
More: Tulsa World
Kinder Morgan Joining with Mystery Company to Build Plant
FERC filings indicate that Kinder Morgan is partnering with a company to build a natural gas-fired generation plant in New York state, but there’s no clue as to the name of the company or the location of the proposed plant.
A Kinder Morgan spokesman said the agreement with the other company and other details are subject to a confidentiality agreement. Kinder Morgan has proposed a pipeline in New York, the Northeast Energy Direct project. The power plant would probably be a customer of the pipeline.
Tennessee Gas Pipeline, a unit of Kinder Morgan, is seeking FERC approval for the pipeline in the fourth quarter of 2016, with construction starting in January 2017 and an in-service date of Nov. 1, 2018. The company estimates the project will cost $5.2 billion.
More: The Daily Star
NRG says Waukegan Station will Keep Burning Coal
NRG Energy confirmed that its Waukegan Generating Station in Illinois will continue using coal as a fuel source, despite protests by environmentalists.
The plant on Lake Michigan’s waterfront was subject to protests by environmentalists who attended a Waukegan City Council meeting last week. The protests spurred Waukegan Mayor Wayne Motley to promise to arrange a meeting with the plant’s owner.
NRG spokesman David Gaier said Waukegan is included in the company’s long-term plan to invest $567 million in its Illinois assets. “We made it very clear what we are going to do [in Waukegan],” he said, adding that “we continue to operate the plant effectively and safely” using coal. “They’re welcome to express their opinions,” he said of the protesters, “but we make our plans based on the market.”
More: Chicago Tribune (subscription required)
Duke Contends New Solar Projects Competitive
Duke Energy assured North Carolina regulators that the new solar projects it is building are competitive with those its affiliate, Duke Energy Progress, purchased through a competitive bidding process.
Duke wants to transfer to its own fleet the certificates of need that are required to build a 60-MW plant and a 15-MW project. Those projects were secured initially by a bidding process that included independent developers.
Duke argued that it can build the projects itself, providing better benefits to customers. “We have the option of really investigating the site and deciding what makes sense for us to build in each case,” a company spokesman said. “We can scale it up or drop it some, depending on what we need.”
More: Charlotte Business Journal
PSE&G Names Bridges VP Electric Operations
John A. Bridges, who has held various positions with Public Service Electric & Gas since 1987, was named vice president of electric operations. Since starting with the company, Bridges has been a supervising engineer, construction manager, operations and resource manager and division manager.
“He understands what it takes to provide our 2.2 million electric customers with safe, highly reliable service during blue-sky days and in severe weather,” said Ralph LaRossa, PSE&G president and chief operating officer.
More: PSE&G
Eversource Sets Reliability Record
Eversource Energy says the past year was the most reliable on record.
Outages were less frequent and power was restored more quickly than in any previous year in which those events were tracked, according to statistics released by the utility.
Since 2012, the frequency of outages across Eversource’s service area has decreased by 18% and restoration times have decreased by 26%, according to a company spokesman.