Calpine has agreed to buy the 12-year-old Granite Ridge Energy Center in Londonderry, N.H., for $500 million, or about $671/kW, the company said last week.
The 745-MW combined-cycle, gas-fired plant is located 45 miles north of Boston in ISO-NE. The acquisition will bring the company’s generation resources in the region to about 2,000 MW.
The plant, which went into operation in 2003, features two combustion turbines, two heat recovery steam generators and one steam turbine.
More: Calpine
Xcel Completes Segment of $2B, 800-Mile Tx Project
Xcel Energy has completed its 90-mile, 345-kV segment between Minnesota and Wisconsin of the CapX2020 Hampton-Rochester-La Crosse transmission project. The project is 800 miles and begins in the Dakotas with two separate lines that converge in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The new segment terminates in Holmen, Wis., but the project will eventually extend to Madison.
The $2 billion project is expected to be completed in 2016. It is the area’s biggest upgrade of the transmission system in decades, according to project developers.
More: Post-Bulletin
165 MW of Solar Power Coming Online in New Mexico
By the end of 2016, New Mexico will be producing another 165 MW of solar electricity from three large-scale generating facilities scheduled to go into service near Roswell and Deming.
Xcel Energy subsidiary Southwest Public Service has signed a long-term power purchase agreement with NextEra Energy Resources to build and operate two 70-MW solar sites, which will be the largest photovoltaic facilities in the state.
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, a wholesale power supplier for 44 electric cooperatives in New Mexico and three other states, also announced a deal with D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments and Denver-based TurningPoint Energy for a 25-MW solar facility in southeast New Mexico.
More: Albuquerque Journal
Ameren Adds Luminant’s Flores to Board of Directors
Rafael Flores, senior vice president and chief nuclear officer for Texas generator Luminant who is scheduled to retire at the end of the year, has been elected to Ameren’s board of directors effective Nov. 1. Flores’ election increases St. Louis-based Ameren’s board from 11 to 12.
Warner L. Baxter, Ameren’s chief executive, said Flores’ extensive nuclear operating experience will help guide Ameren, whose Callaway Energy Center is “a critical nuclear generation resource in providing safe, lean, reliable and reasonably priced energy.”
Flores has announced his retirement effective Dec. 31 after 32 years with Luminant. He oversees operations of the Comanche Peak nuclear plant southwest of Fort Worth and is active with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and the Nuclear Energy Institute. He also serves on various committees and working groups in the nuclear industry.
More: Ameren
Westar Announces 3 Gas Plants to Shut Down by Year’s End
Westar Energy announced plans last week to shut down three of its older gas-fired peaking units in Kansas by the end of the year. The move will mean the loss of 40 jobs, though Westar indicated it would give employees positions within the company.
Westar will close a 50-year-old, 167-MW combustion turbine at the Hutchinson Energy Center. It is also decommissioning a gas generator installed in 1962 at the Tecumseh plant near Topeka and another operating since 1954 in Lawrence.
“People are using less energy, so we no longer need these old, small generating units to meet peak electrical demand,” said John Bridson, Westar senior vice president of generation. “Plus, the current price to add more renewable energy is a reasonable alternative, so we’ll add more renewable energy, as needed.” The utility said its emission-free energy will equal more than 40% of its retail demand next year.
More: The Hutchinson News; Westar
BNE Erects Connecticut’s First Wind Farm Project
BNE Energy and Connecticut political leaders celebrated the launch of the state’s first commercial wind project by putting a mammoth turbine into service in Colebrook.
Two of the three turbines that were approved for the site have been erected at the 10-acre property, which is 1,500 feet above sea level. Once both wind turbines are operational, they will produce about 5 MW. BNE will not erect the third turbine until it secures a contract for the electricity that unit produces.
BNE Energy has a 20-year contract to sell the power produced by the two turbines to Eversource Energy. From 2011 to 2014, Connecticut was the only state in the country to ban wind farm development.
More: New Haven Register
DTE Plans to Close its 40-MW Biomass Plant
Citing market conditions, DTE Energy announced it is closing a 40-MW biomass plant in Cassville, Wis. DTE bought the E.J. Stoneman Electrical Station, a former coal-fired power plant, in 2008 and converted it to burn wood waste in 2010.
The power from the station was sold to Dairyland Power Cooperative. DTE said the plant was under pressure to generate affordable energy in the face of falling electricity prices from renewable energy projects in the region.
More: Biomass Magazine
FirstEnergy Progressing on $260M Dewatering System
FirstEnergy is working to complete a dewatering facility at its giant Bruce Mansfield plant in Pennsylvania, which is expected to resolve the plant’s coal ash disposal issues. FirstEnergy has to complete the system in order to keep the 2,490-MW plant running after a Jan. 1, 2017, deadline for various emissions and ash-storage mandates.
“It’s a challenge, but we like challenges,” said James Fitzgerald, FirstEnergy manager of special projects. The facility will be able to handle between 2.5 million and 3 million tons of coal ash slurry per year. Once the ash is dried, it will be trucked to a number of company-owned disposal sites. The final destinations have not yet been decided, but one could be at the company’s Hatfield’s Ferry station in Fayette County, Pa. That power plant was retired in 2013.
The dewatering project is estimated to cost $260 million, up from initial estimates of $200 million.
More: TribLive
NRC Launches Inspection of Dominion’s Millstone
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission initiated an inspection of Dominion Resources’ Millstone Unit 2 nuclear station in Connecticut after a leaking relief valve was found. The discovery triggered the declaration of an “unusual event” Oct. 4 at the plant, the lowest of four emergency classifications.
Millstone was preparing to power down for a refueling outage when the event occurred. NRC officials said the event raises questions about operator performance, and so it ordered an inspection.
More: Associated Press