Virginia

Dominion Acquires 80-MW Amazon Solar Farm in Virginia

Submitted by aburr on Mon, 2015-11-30 12:55

Dominion Energy acquired Amazon Solar Farm U.S. East, an 80-MW solar facility in Virginia from project developer Community Energy. Construction is expected to begin later in 2015. The facility would enter service in fall 2016. The facility's construction was enabled through a long-term PPA with an affiliate of Amazon's cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Interconnection agreements have also been secured with Delmarva Power.

The Rise and Fall of Big Transmission

The alternatives may make more sense.

After 10 years of dramatic announcements and proposals, the reality today is that Big Transmission has fallen and it won't be getting up - not even for the Clean Power Plan. And the fall of Big Transmission is not a public policy failure. Rather, it never did make sense.
Byline: 

Steve Huntoon

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Bechtel Breaks Ground on Natural Gas-Fired Power Plant in Virginia

Submitted by aburr on Tue, 2015-08-18 16:58

Bechtel broke ground on a natural gas-fired, combined-cycle power plant in Loudoun County, Virginia. Bechtel is providing project management, engineering, procurement, construction, and startup services, while its consortium partner, Siemens, is responsible for core power elements, including the natural gas and steam turbines, generators, and waste-heat-recovery boilers.

Dominion Virginia Power to Install Virginia's Largest Solar Installation at Philip Morris USA

Submitted by aburr on Wed, 2015-03-25 14:22

Philip Morris USA (PM USA) is the latest company to partner with Dominion Virginia Power under the Solar Partnership Program by hosting what will become the largest solar installation in Virginia to date. Dominion is currently installing about 8,000 ground-mounted solar panels at the PM USA Park 500 facility in Chesterfield County. When completed, the 2,450-kW solar array will generate enough electricity under optimum conditions to power 500 homes. The energy generated by the solar panels is delivered to the power grid.

Digest (March 2015)

Pacific Gas and Electric and automaker BMW are teaming up to test the ability of EV batteries to provide services to the electric grid; MidAmerican Energy completed work on four of five wind farms across Iowa that make up its Wind VIII project; GE received an order from the Tennessee Valley Authority to supply two high-efficiency 7HA.02 gas turbine generators for the new combined-cycle Allen plant; Appalachian Power plans to rebuild the existing South Bluefield-Wythe 69-kV transmission line; Bechtel partnered with Westinghouse Electric to provide decontamination and decommissioning services for nuclear power plants throughout the U.S.; SunEdison and Omnigrid Micropower signed a framework agreement to develop 5,000 rural projects, representing 250 MW of electricity, throughout India; The Tennessee Valley Authority and DuPont partnered to generate power and steam at TVA's Johnsonville site in Tennessee; and others.

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Commenting on Carbon

State PUCs take on EPA and its Clean Power Plan.

Everything about the Clean Power Plan seems surreal. States complain of unfair treatment. Regulators read the proposed rule and sound warnings of a coming apocalypse.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Dominion Virginia Power Planning Major Expansion of Large-Scale Solar in Virginia

Submitted by aburr on Thu, 2015-02-12 13:36

Dominion Virginia Power will develop multiple large-scale solar projects totaling 400 MW of electricity. All projects will be built in Virginia with the involvement of Virginia-based companies and are expected to be operational by 2020. Together, these solar facilities are anticipated to be capable of generating enough electricity at peak capacity to power 100,000 homes.

Planning vs. Partiality

A case study from PJM on competitive procurement of regional transmission under FERC Order 1000.

What happens to FERC Order 1000, and its vaunted quest for fairness and transparency, when regional grid planners ask for competitive bids to solve a pressing transmission need, but then modify some of the project proposals, unilaterally, in an honest effort to improve them?
Byline: 

John Dalton

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Siemens, Bechtel Lands Contract for Stonewall Energy Project in Virginia

Submitted by aburr on Thu, 2014-11-20 12:57

Siemens, in consortium with Bechtel, was awarded the order for the turnkey supply for Panda Power Funds' Sto­­newall Energy Project in Leesburg, Virginia. The natural-gas-fired Leesburg CCPP will have a gross installed electrical capacity of 778 MW. Commissioning of the plant is scheduled for spring 2017.

Transactions (November 2014)

PPL Montana sold its hydroelectric facilities to NorthWestern Energy for $900 million; Chesapeake Utilities sold BravePoint; Echelon completed the sale of its grid operations to S&T AG; Plus a debt redemption from Virginia Electric & Power, a private placement offering from DPL, and an IPO for Dominion Midstream Partners.

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