POWER Magazine

Staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should expeditiously complete and implement cybersecurity rulemaking for nuclear fuel-cycle facilities, the regulatory agency’s commissioners have ordered. In a March 24 agency memorandum to Mark Satorius, NRC executive director for operations, the commission disapproved the one option, which was the staff’s recommendation, to issue a security order to [...]The post NRC To Begin Expedited Cybersecurity Rulemaking for Nuclear Fuel-Cycle Facilities appeared first on POWER Magazine.

As it decided in a February case involving American Electric Power (AEP), the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) has denied Duke Energy Ohio’s request to charge ratepayers for power from two aging coal plants owned by the Ohio Valley Electric Corp. (OVEC). In an April 2 order, the state regulator approved the Duke Energy [...]The post Ohio Nixes Duke Energy Proposal to Guarantee Income from Coal Plants appeared first on POWER Magazine.

A Gallup poll completed last month found that only 32% of adults in the U.S. worry a “great deal” about global warming or climate change, while 45% worry “only a little” or “not at all.” The survey was taken via telephone interviews conducted during the first week of March using a random sample of 1,025 [...]The post Poll: Americans Are Not Too Worried About Climate Change, Still Favor Solar, Wind, and Nuclear appeared first on POWER Magazine.

More trouble has been reported at one of the four European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) units currently under construction. AREVA announced on April 7 that chemical and mechanical testing conducted on a reactor vessel head and bottom similar to that of the Flamanville EPR (a 1,630-MW unit under construction on the west coast of the [...]The post Material Inconsistencies Acknowledged in Nuclear Reactor Vessel Head and Bottom appeared first on POWER Magazine.

A dip in voltage prompted temporary power cuts to the White House, Capitol Hill, the State Department, and other parts of Washington, D.C., on Tuesday afternoon. D.C. utility PEPCO said in a statement that the disturbance that affected about 8,000 customers and left a wide swath of the nation’s capital in the dark was caused [...]The post Power Cuts Affect Wide Swath of D.C., Including the White House, Capitol appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Renewable energy development company SunEdison announced on Mar. 25 that it had agreed to purchase up to 1,000 vanadium redox flow batteries totaling more than 100 MW of storage capacity from Imergy Power Systems to be used for community minigrid projects in India. SunEdison, which has an equity stake in Imergy, in January received financing [...]The post SunEdison Procures 100 MW of Storage for Indian Minigrids appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The U.S. will seek to cut its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 26% to 28% from 2005 levels by 2025, the White House said on March 31 in a target submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The submission—otherwise referred to as an Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC)—is a formal statement [...]The post White House Formally Submits Climate Pledge to Slash GHGs appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Copenhagen could inaugurate, as early as 2017, a new combined heat and power plant that features a roof-wide artificial ski slope open to the public and blasts smoke rings through a 124-meter chimney. The $611 million Amager Bakke plant is owned by five Danish municipalities and is being built by the Copenhagen-based waste management company Amager [...]The post A Smoke-Ring Blowing Power Plant. April Fools? You Tell Us. appeared first on POWER Magazine.

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The balance in the Zion Nuclear Power Plant decommissioning trust fund was about 30% lower at the end of 2014 than it was the previous year according to a report filed by ZionSolutions with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on March 30. The Report on Status of Decommissioning Funding for Shutdown Reactors—due annually—indicated that there was [...]The post Zion Nuclear Plant Decommissioning Trust Fund Depleting Quickly appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Argentina’s Ministry of Federal Planning in early February signed an agreement with the National Energy Administration of China and China National Nuclear Co. (CNNC) to build Argentina’s fourth nuclear reactor, an 800-MW CANDU design, on the site of the existing Atucha nuclear power plant. Under the agreement, Nucleoeléctrica Argentina—holder of the rights to Canadian CANDU [...]The post China’s Hualong One Reactor Design Gets Argentine Boost appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Stacking perovskites, a crystalline material, onto a conventional silicon solar cell may dramatically improve the overall efficiency of the cell, scientists from Stanford University concluded in a new study. “Right now, silicon solar cells dominate the world market, but the power conversion efficiency of silicon photovoltaics has been stuck at 25% for 15 years,” explained [...]The post Study: Perovskite-Silicon Tandems Provide Big Boost to Solar Efficiency appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Though offshore wind is becoming increasingly important in Europe, with many hundreds-of-megawatts projects in service, the sector has stagnated in the U.S., with no operational facilities—and someThe post One Step Back, One Step Forward for U.S. Offshore Wind appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station led the U.S. in electrical generation in 2014, as it has done for 23 consecutive years, with a total output of 32.3 million MWh. That bested its previous record set in 2012. The Palo Verde plant is located about 45 miles west of Phoenix, Ariz. (Figure 5). It has [...]The post Palo Verde Nuclear Station Sets U.S. Production Record appeared first on POWER Magazine.

In South Korea, the second unit at Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power’s (KHNP’s) Shin-Wolsong reactor (Figure 3) was finally connected to the grid in late February. 3. Finally connected. Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power’s Shin-Wolsong 2 was grid-connected in late February, nearly two years after it was completed. Courtesy: KHNP Though the reactor was completed [...]The post Two Years Later, S. Korea Finally Puts Shin-Wolsong 2 Online appeared first on POWER Magazine.

As this month marks the compliance date for the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), it’s a good time to take a step back from the many months of concern and consideration of options to see how coal-fired power plants are actually responding to the new rule. It’s also a good time to acknowledge that [...]The post The State of U.S. Mercury Control in Response to MATS appeared first on POWER Magazine.

It’s been called “filling the duck pond,” and it’s the increasingly common challenge worldwide of balancing supply and demand when variable renewables are not feeding power to the grid. Gas-fired generation is often filling the pond, but the technology mix matters. The growing portfolio of renewable power generation around the world has made the selection [...]The post Are Simple Cycles or Combined Cycles Better for Renewable Power Integration? appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Since the beginning of the U.S. commercial reactor industry, regulatory agencies have required that nuclear power plant designs take into account the potential threats posed by natural hazards such as earthquakes and floods. The tsunami-caused disaster in Japan in 2011 prompted renewed attention worldwide on these hazards. Given the devastation caused at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi [...]The post Seismic Hazard Resiliency at U.S. Nuclear Power Plants appeared first on POWER Magazine.

NextEra Energy consists of a traditional, vertically integrated electric utility with a heavy reliance on nuclear and natural gas—Florida Power & Light—and an aggressive foray into renewable energy outside of Florida—NextEra Energy Resources. Given its recent bid for Hawaii’s electric utility, which has a legacy of oil-fired generation and a state commission pushing renewables, NextEra [...]The post NextEra Energy: A Tale of Two, and Maybe Three, Companies appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave its approval to two deals that will see shifts in electricity markets in Hawaii and the Midwest. On Mar. 27, FERC approved Duke Energy’s proposed sale of its merchant generation business to Dynegy for $2.8 billion. The deal, announced last August, covers 11 power plants in the Midwest [...]The post FERC Okays NextEra-HEI, Duke-Dynegy Deals appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Plant officials from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) Watts Bar nuclear facility said during a senior management meeting presentation that Unit 2—currently under construction—is expected to reach commercial operations on Dec. 13, 2015. Assuming it does, the unit will be the first nuclear reactor added to the U.S. fleet since Watts Bar Unit 1 was [...]The post First New Nuclear Unit in U.S. in Nearly 20 Years Is on Track to Begin Operating in 2015 appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Department of the Army for Civil Works announced on March 24 that the three agencies would continue to collaborate on hydropower development for at least another five years. The agreement extends a memorandum of understanding (MOU) the three agencies originally signed in [...]The post Government Agencies Continue Partnership to Advance Hydropower Technology appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Adds Moniz’s March 25 comments on the future of the nation’s nuclear waste beyond Yucca Mountain. As four bipartisan U.S. senators unveiled a bill that tasks a new independent agency with permanent disposal of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Ernest Moniz on Tuesday outlined steps the agency would take to [...]The post UPDATED: DOE and Senators Separately Outline Steps to Manage U.S. Nuclear Waste appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Numerous announcements of plant closures during the past week are painting a grim picture for the future of the coal industry. On March 20, several news outlets reported that American Electric Power (AEP) had sent Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, notices to workers at half a dozen coal-fired plants. Employees at the [...]The post Industry in Turmoil: Coal Plants Shutting Down Around the World appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The ongoing record drought in California has caused significant changes in the state’s power mix as water available for hydroelectric generation becomes increasingly scarce, according to a recent report from Oakland-based nonprofit the Pacific Institute. The California Independent System Operator warned last year that water shortages were likely to substantially impact the state’s generation, with [...]The post Drought Continues to Challenge California Grid appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Four Japanese utilities last week announced that they would retire five older reactors rather than implement strict and expensive safety requirements mandated by new nuclear regulations. Kansai Electric Power Co. on March 17 said it will close two reactors (340 MW and 500 MW) at its Mihama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture. On the same [...]The post Japanese Utilities to Retire Five Nuclear Reactors appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Several gigawatts of solar energy faded from European grids during the two-hour solar eclipse that shadowed the continent, as well as parts of Northern Africa and Asia, on Friday morning. But according to the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E)—an organization representing 41 transmission system operators (TSOs) from 34 European countries—grid operators [...]The post Total Solar Eclipse “Blacks Out” Europe appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The consortium behind the Nordlink high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) link between Germany and Norway on Mar. 19 awarded the construction contract for the project to Swiss firm ABB. The $2 billion, 525-kV transmission line will be, at 623 kilometers (km), the longest HVDC connection in Europe. It will transit the North Sea across the Skagerrak strait, [...]The post Nordlink Consortium Chooses ABB appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Cyberattacks on Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power’s (KHNP’s) computer systems last December were committed by a group of North Korean hackers, an interim South Korean investigation has concluded. The Seoul central prosecutors office said in a March 16 statement that the malicious codes used for the nuclear operator hacking were “the same in composition and [...]The post S. Korea Points to N. Korea for Nuclear Plant Hacking appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Global emissions of carbon dioxide from the energy sector were unchanged from the preceding year—marking the first time in 40 years in which there was a halt or reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases that was not associated to an economic downturn, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said. The Paris-based autonomous organization said in a [...]The post IEA: For First Time in 40 Years, World Energy Sector GHG Emissions Stalled in 2014 appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The reliability support service agreement (RSSA) that would rescue the R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant in western New York from an early retirement has come under fire from a group of about 60 large electricity customers—industrial, institutional, and commercial entities—who on Mar. 6 asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reject the proposed deal, [...]The post Ginna Reliability Deal Draws Fire appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The Egypt Economic Development Conference (EEDC) in Sharm El-Sheikh resulted in some big agreements for the Egyptian government including a reported $10.5 billion deal with Siemens and a $1.7 billion order with GE. The conference was held March 13–15, 2015, and was purported to be a key milestone of the government’s medium term economic development [...]The post Siemens and GE Ink Big Orders with Egypt appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Delays and other contested costs are expected to push the price for two new units being constructed at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station up by $980 million, a petition freshly filed by South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. (SCE&G) with the Public Service Commission of South Carolina (SCPSC) shows. SCE&G made the filing to [...]The post V.C. Summer Nuclear Expansion Costs to Surge by Nearly $1B appeared first on POWER Magazine.

While developers in the U.S. celebrated financial closing for the 15-MW Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island—the would-be first offshore wind farm in the U.S.—Germany said this month that it expects to commission about 2 GW of new capacity in 2015, adding to its total of 1,048 MW at the end of 2014. Though [...]The post German Offshore Wind Capacity Surging appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released 2015 scheduled capacity additions and retirements on Mar. 10, and the news was not good for the coal industry. As has been the trend for several years, coal-fired generation accounts for the majority of expected retirements (12.9 GW of the nearly 16 GW total). However, most of the [...]The post Wind, Natural Gas, and Solar Continue to Nudge Coal to the Curb appeared first on POWER Magazine.

GE Power & Water announced Mar. 5 that it had achieved 50.1% electrical efficiency with its gas-fired J920 FleXtra reciprocating engine during a test run at the Jenbacher facility in Austria. This is the first time a reciprocating engine has reached 50% efficiency. The 9.5-MW J920 FleXtra, introduced for 50-Hz applications in 2013 and 60-Hz [...]The post GE Tops 50% Engine Efficiency as Gas Engine Market Heats Up appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) may further reduce its coal-fired capacity and scrap its unfinished Bellefonte nuclear power plant, the utility’s long-awaited draft power generation strategy unveiled on March 9 shows. 
 The federally owned corporation has been developing its 2015 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), essentially a power planning roadmap to 2033, since fall 2013. The [...]The post TVA’s Draft Strategy Hints at Future Energy Efficiency Boosts, Coal Retirements appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Florida Power and Light (FPL) wants to buy a 250-MW coal-fired facility in Florida to shut it down. The Juno Beach, Fla.–based company filed a petition with the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) on Friday requesting approval to acquire the Cedar Bay Generating Plant for $520.5 million. FPL has had a long-term power purchase agreement [...]The post FPL Seeks to Acquire and Phase Out Coal-Fired Power Plant appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced on Mar. 4 that, after completing an acceptance check, it has concluded that an application to certify the Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400) reactor design for use in the U.S. is complete enough to begin a full design certification review. The application—submitted collaboratively by Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power [...]The post New Nuclear Reactor Plant Designs: One NRC Review Begins, One Is Suspended appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released state electric power sector CO2 emissions data on Mar. 4 exposing Texas facilities as the largest emitters of CO2 gases in the country—more than twice the total of Pennsylvania, which ranked second. The most recent data was from 2012 and showed that electric power plants in Texas released [...]The post Texas Leads the Nation in Power Sector CO2 Emissions appeared first on POWER Magazine.

French nuclear firm AREVA’s dismal financial results for 2014 are indicative of the continuing stagnation of nuclear operations, a lack of competitiveness, and the company’s difficulties in managing the risks inherent in large projects, CEO Philippe Knoche said today. The company reported a loss of €4.9 billion ($5.6 billion) for 2014 in line with a [...]The post AREVA Points to Stagnating Nuclear Operations for Dismal Financial Results appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Rooftop solar company SolarCity on Mar. 2 filed suit in federal court in Arizona seeking to overturn a new rate structure approved by the Salt River Project (SRP) that levies additional charges on customers with rooftop solar panels. On Feb. 26, the SRP board voted to approve a change in how it bills customers who [...]The post SolarCity Files Antitrust Suit Over SRP Rooftop Solar Fee appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Plans for a massive coal mine in New South Wales, Australia, which is being developed by Chinese coal mining giant Shenhua Group, were thrown into doubt as the federal environmental minister opted to delay a decision on its final approval. The Watermark mine, which could cost $1.2 billion and produce more than 250 million metric [...]The post Australia Puts Huge Chinese-Backed Coal Mine Project on Hold appeared first on POWER Magazine.

A bipartisan group of Illinois legislators have introduced bills that propose a market-based solution to curb carbon emissions and ensure continued operation of the state’s nuclear power plants. The bills SB 1585 and HB 3293 introduced in the state Senate and House would enact the Illinois Low Carbon Portfolio Standard. That measure, like a renewable [...]The post Illinois Mulls Low Carbon Portfolio Standard appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Here are selected thought-provoking (and even unexpected) comments made by presenters at the 10th annual MIT Energy Conference on Feb. 27 and 28 in Cambridge, Mass. Comments are summarized and paraphrased unless presented in quotes. For more on the event, see “Exelon: The Utility of the Future Views Change as Enabling, Not Disruptive” and the [...]The post 10 Industry Leaders Comment on the Future of Energy, Electricity, and the Grid appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Integrating more variable generation and storage, but no new nuclear units, are among the characteristics Exelon sees in the utility of the future, as outlined by Chief Strategy Officer William A. Von Hoene Jr. at the MIT Energy Conference, held Feb. 27–28. He began his Saturday address by saying that innovation is “absolutely indispensible.” Old, [...]The post Exelon: The Utility of the Future Views Change as Enabling, Not Disruptive appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Contact Energy fully commissioned New Zealand’s largest geothermal power plant last year, nudging installed geothermal capacity to a shade over 1 GW. Nearly 80% of the country’s electricity is sourced fromThe post New Zealand’s Geothermal Industry Is Poised for the Future appeared first on POWER Magazine.