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Graham Goes to Bat for Small Modular Reactors in Funding Bill Markup

July 21, 2017

When it comes to nuclear power, the U.S. is not living up to its potential, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told appropriators during a July 20 full committee markup of the Senate’s fiscal year 2018 (FY18) Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill.

“When it comes to nuclear power, we’re just so far behind the times and I think now’s the time to catch up,” Graham said while presenting an amendment that would address language in the bill he believes to be problematic to the future development of small modular reactors.

According to Graham: “The current report language prohibits funds for engineering design or regulatory developing for next generation light water reactor technology. That language is being perceived by those in the small modular reactor world as basically an impediment to producing small modular reactors.”

Graham went to note that the U.S. has not successfully built a new nuclear reactor in decades, and those under development—the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear plant in Graham’s home state of South Carolina and Southern Co.’s…

DOE Won’t Increase Regulation on Gas to Boost Coal, Perry Says

July 19, 2017

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The Trump administration wants to revitalize the coal industry, but they will not do so by imposing regulation on the natural gas industry, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry told reporters July 18 at a joint press conference with International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol.

“Would the Department of Energy (DOE) be a participant in putting regulations into place to protect a particular energy sector?,” Perry said. “The answer is no.”

Though he firmly stated that DOE will not increase regulation on energy sources that compete with coal, he was unclear about how the administration intends to make coal competitive again.

He seemed to suggest that exports, either of coal or technology, would play a large role in a revitalized coal industry. Noting that coal still accounts for roughly 40% of worldwide energy generation, Perry stated: “It’s not like coal has been pushed out of the marketplace, I mean you are going to see coal used in the world. Our goal is for us to use the cleanest technology that we can and generally speaking, that technology is going to come from the U.S.”…

Dynegy Divests Assets as Part of Engie Deal

July 15, 2017

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Dynegy this week announced it will sell three more power plants to reduce debt as it works to satisfy an agreement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reached after the company’s $ 3.3 billion purchase of French energy giant Engie’s U.S.-based assets earlier this year.

Houston, Texas-based Dynegy said it has agreed to sell its 625-MW Lee Energy Facility in Dixon, Ill., in the PJM ComEd region to an affiliate of The Woodlands, Texas-based Rockland Capital for $ 180 million. It also has agreed to sell two natural gas-fired plants totaling 310 MW in Dighton and Milford, Mass., in the Southeastern New England (SENE) capacity zone in ISO-NE to Starwood Energy Group Global of Greenwich, Conn., for about $ 119 million.

The July 12 announcement came just hours after Dynegy said it closed the sale of two other facilities to New York-based LS Power for $ 480 million, a transaction originally announced in February, a few weeks after the deal with Engie was completed.…

NRG’s New Plan: Sell Assets, Change Focus, Raise Cash

July 13, 2017

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NRG Energy said it will sell as much as $ 4 billion in assets as it seeks to lower its debt and cut costs after a revolt by activist investors unhappy with the company’s direction.

Shares of the company jumped 29% to a two-year high on July 12 after NRG announced the moves as part of a “transformation plan” designed to divest most if not all of its NRG Yield renewable energy business along with some of its conventional energy assets, including coal- and natural gas-fired power plants.

NRG, headquartered in Houston, Texas, said it wants to remove $ 13 billion in debt and generate more than $ 850 million in annual free cash flow, with a goal of adding more than $ 6 billion to its balance sheet through 2020 that would be available for new projects and investments.

NRG Energy unveiled a new plan to sell assets and change its focus in an effort to increase the company’s value for shareholders.

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Xcel Moves Forward With Wind Power Expansion

July 9, 2017

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Xcel Energy plans to add about 1,550 MW of wind power to its portfolio in the Upper Midwest with the addition of seven wind farms expected to be operational by year-end 2020. The additions are among 11 new wind farms announced over the past year by Xcel in seven states that would add a total of 3,380 MW to the company’s system. The company said the expansion would increase its wind portfolio to about 35% of its energy mix by 2021.

The Midwest projects, sited in Minnesota, North and South Dakota and Iowa, would increase Xcel’s regional wind output by about 70%, the company said. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved the proposal July 6; the North Dakota Public Service Commission said it would review the plan later this year. Those states, unlike some others, require Xcel to seek state approval to add resources, according to Lisa Kiava, a senior media relations person in Xcel’s Minneapolis, Minn., office. Xcel said the projects would likely run for 25 years.…

Four Things That Are Killing Coal

July 3, 2017

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Although President Trump has been promoting a pro-coal energy agenda, there are four things killing coal that the administration may not be able to remedy.

That was the message Bill Ritter Jr. delivered to American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Power and Energy Conference & Exhibition attendees during his keynote address on June 27. Ritter is the former governor of Colorado, founder of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University, and author of Powering Forward: What Everyone Should Know About America’s Energy Revolution.

“In the United States of America, our power system—our power portfolio—is changing in a fairly dynamic way,” Ritter said. “I would argue, in spite of our November election . . . that transition is still happening.”

The four things Ritter said are likely beyond Trump’s control: state-level actions, municipal-level responses to climate change, corporate power-purchasing activities, and bipartisan cooperation outside of Washington, D.C.

1. State-Level Actions

Although Ritter noted that Congress has not passed a single piece of comprehensive energy legislation in the past 10 years, he said about 4,000 pieces of energy legislation get introduced annually on the state level, of which as many as 600 have gone on to become law each year.…