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Utilities Cutting Cord to Coal

It’s not personal. It’s just business.

With coal’s troubles piling up, so too are stories about the industry’s “bleak” future in the United States – a casualty of cheap natural gas, thinning coal seams, and the pursuit of lower-carbon alternatives. Just as conspicuous: utilities, which have long allied themselves with the coal developers, are retiring their older coal units in droves.

The Driving Ambition of Elon Musk

An electric car in every driveway, a battery in every garage.

Tesla’s Elon Musk is driving the electric car off the lot and onto the premises of America’s electric utilities, proposing to build and sell energy storage batteries on both a residential and grid-wide scale – ideas that the chief executive will fully flesh out at the Edison Electric Institute’s annual meeting in New Orleans this June.

Digest (May 2015)

Sonoma Clean Power will build the largest floating solar array in the U.S., scheduled to be completed in 2016 and will create enough energy to power 3,000 houses; GE announced the construction of two service centers focused on the operation and maintenance of wind turbines in Brazil; Open Systems International was awarded a contract by Seattle City Light to implement a new energy management system; FirstEnergy expects to invest about $225 million on distribution and transmission infrastructure projects in north-central West Virginia; APR Energy commissioned an expansion of its power plant in Myanmar; The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved Westinghouse Electric’s testing approach for the Westinghouse small modular reactor design; FuelCell Energy agreed to sell a 1.4-MW fuel cell power plant project to NRG Energy; ABB and Samsung SDI signed a memorandum of understanding to promote microgrid solutions globally; And others ...

People (March 2015)

Exelon Generation named Michael J. Pacilio executive v.p. and COO; FirstEnergy made a series of leadership changes involving David J. Karafa, Steven E. Strah, Linda L. Moss, Richard S. Sweeney and Edward L. Shuttleworth; CenterPoint Energy appointed William D. Rogers, executive v.p. of finance and accounting; leadership changes at Black Hills Corporation, Consumers Energy and Duke Energy; California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) named Timothy Sullivan as interim executive director; and others; and others.

Digest (February 2015)

Europe’s largest battery-storage project was officially opened in England; CODA Energy announced operation of the largest behind the meter lithium-ion energy storage system in the Los Angeles basin; FERC approved construction of Constitution Pipeline’s natural gas pipeline to New York and New England markets; FERC approved a facilities construction agreement for Minnesota Power’s Great Northern Transmission Line; General Electric received an order from the Tennessee Valley Authority for two high-efficiency 7HA.02 gas-fired turbine generators; A Renewable Energy Southern Company subsidiary plans to develop a 131- MW PV solar project in Georgia; GE Global Research and others partnered on a research project to improve reliability and resiliency of electricity delivery in northern New York; Duke Energy Renewables acquired the Halifax Solar Power Project from Geenex and ET Solar Energy;  Dominion Resources agreed to purchase Carolina Gas Transmission from SCANA Corp.; and others...

Microgrids: Friend or Foe for Utilities?

For many, it’s the next logical step for smart grid technology.

A small, but growing, number of utilities are embracing these technologies. Microgrids offer a networking platform that the utility can both aggregate and optimize.

Transactions (February 2015)

ONEOK Partners completed its acquisition of assets from Chevron affiliates for about $800 million; Dominion Resources agreed to purchase Carolina Gas Transmission from SCANA Corp. for about $492.9 million; Entergy subsidiaries acquired the Union Power Station for $948 million; ALLETE Clean Energy acquired a 108-MW wind generation facility; Duke Energy Renewables acquired the Halifax Solar Power Project from Geenex and ET Solar Energy; Pattern Energy Group acquired the 200-MW Logan’s Gap Wind project in Texas for about $113 million; An affiliate of Starwood Energy Group Global agreed to acquire a 369-MW portfolio of three natural gas facilities from Lakeside Energy; NextEra Energy and Hawaiian Electric Industries agreed to combine.

 

 

 

Keeping a Lid on Coal Ash

EPA’s rule said to favor repurposing and recycling – over landfills or disposal ponds.

The EPA’s new final rule marks a turning point in the handling of coal fly ash. EPA has tried to balance the needs of utilities with existing coal ash deposits and the needs of communities that are worried that such ponds will leak into waterways, or even worse, burst open and wreak havoc. In the process, it’s pleased few.

People (January 2015)

NRG Energy appointed Steve McBee as the first president and CEO of NRG Home; Atlantic Power appointed Teresa M. Ressel to its board of directors; Marvin McDaniel becomes senior v.p., revenue group, and president and CEO of Northern States Power Co.-Minnesota at Xcel Energy; plus management changes at Southern Co., Duke Energy, Entergy Nuclear, and AES; appointments at the U.S. Department of Commerce, NARUC, Nexant, and the OpenADR Alliance; and others.