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Dominion Resources Changes its Name to Reflect Market Evolution

May 15, 2017

Dominion Resources, one of the nation’s largest power generators, has changed its name and the names of key subsidiaries, including Dominion Virginia Power.

The Richmond, Va.–headquartered company that has a power portfolio of 26.2 GW, sizable transmission assets, as well as natural gas storage systems and pipelines, will now be known as “Dominion Energy.”

The names of Dominion Energy’s three operating segments—through which the company manages its daily operations and that the company uses in its financial reporting to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission—have been also revised. Power Delivery Group, Power Generation Group, and Gas Infrastructure Group will replace Dominion Virginia Power, Dominion Generation, and Dominion Energy, respectively, the company said.

Several customer-facing entities are also seeing name changes. Questar Corp., a gas pipeline, storage, and local distribution company acquired by Dominion last year in a $ 4.4 billion deal, will now be known as the “Dominion Questar Corp.” The company also has a new logo.

The name changes recognize the company’s “focus on the evolving energy marketplace and to unify our brand after last year’s merger with Questar,” said Thomas F.…

Report: Cheap Natural Gas Poised to Roil PJM Power Market

May 13, 2017

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The flood of cheap Marcellus Shale gas driving massive construction of new natural gas power generation capacity could wreak havoc in the PJM power market, Moody’s Investors Service suggests in a new report.

Two of the nation’s largest power markets, Texas and California, already pose a “distressed environment” for unregulated power companies owing to declining market prices, the credit ratings agency said. Now, a glut of new gas generation in PJM—where new plants are expected to add up to 100 TWh, boosting gas power capacity 25%, by 2021—is poised to increase supply “amid little prospect of growth in demand,” it said.

The agency noted that PJM’s latest forecast report indicates load growth has declined over the last decade, with system load falling to 790 TWh in 2015 from 822 TWh in 2005. Peak demand has also fallen to 143 GW in 2015 from 154 GW in 2005. “Over the past few years PJM has also repeatedly cut its forecasts, and the grid operator currently projects weather-adjusted peak demand growth of only 0.2% per year over the next 10 years,” the report says.…

THE BIG PICTURE: Pumped Storage

May 7, 2017

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The post THE BIG PICTURE: Pumped Storage appeared first on POWER Magazine.

POWER Magazine…

Vogtle, V.C. Summer Project Owners Buy More Time to Mull Fate of Nuclear Units

May 1, 2017

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The owners of the Vogtle and V.C. Summer nuclear expansions separately secured a few more weeks to allow work to continue onsite at each project while they decide how to proceed with the half-built AP1000 reactors after Westinghouse’s financial debacle.

In Georgia, owners of the project to expand Plant Vogtle extended an interim assessment agreement with Westinghouse until May 12. But Georgia Power’s parent company Southern Co. also revealed it is negotiating a new service agreement that could engage Westinghouse to provide design, engineering, and procurement services in the event Southern Nuclear Operating Co.—Southern Co.’s nuclear unit operations arm—takes over management of construction at Units 3 and 4.

And in South Carolina, owners of the project to expand V.C. Summer extended a similar agreement through June 26. The project owners detailed their concerns and options in a recent ex parte briefing at the South Carolina Public Service Commission (PSC)

Vogtle Agreement Extended Until May 12

Georgia Power and Vogtle’s other owners on April 28 extended an interim assessment agreement with Westinghouse before it was set to expire, giving them until May 12 to assess the project.…

D.C. Circuit Halts Clean Power Plan, Mercury Rule Litigation

April 29, 2017

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In two separate actions over the past 24 hours, the D.C. Circuit granted the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) request to suspend cases challenging the Clean Power Plan and the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).

The orders are the latest in a series of similar actions over the past month by the D.C. Circuit that paused other major cases challenging Obama-era environmental rules to give the Trump administration more time to review them.

On April 11, the court granted the EPA’s motion to indefinitely delay a decision on challenges to the agency’s 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone in Murray Energy Corp. v. EPA (No. 15-1385). On April 24, it shelved oral arguments in challenges to the EPA’s rule that requires 36 states to revise emissions exemptions in their state implementation plans for startup, shutdown, and malfunction events at power plants and other facilities. That case, Walter Coke, Inc., et al v. EPA (No. 15-1166), may be reopened depending on the action the EPA decides to take.…

Drought Has Big Impact on California Power Market

April 27, 2017

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Rain and snow has returned to California, ending the record-setting drought with record-setting precipitation.

The drought led to forest fires, dead orchards, and brown lawns. It also took a big bite out of ratepayers’ wallets and increased global warming emissions, due to the loss of low-cost, zero-emission hydropower.

In a study released April 26 by Peter Gleick—a noted water expert at the Pacific Institute in Oakland—researchers found that lower hydropower production cost California ratepayers almost $ 2.5 billion in higher power prices, and may have raised power sector carbon dioxide emissions 10%, due to increased output from gas-fired generators (see Figure 2). Gleick’s team used data through September 2016 to calculate the figures.

Courtesy: Pacific Institute

California has 14 GW of hydro capacity, with little growth in recent decades due to environmental, economic, and political constraints. While hydro typically supplies about 18% of California’s power, the drought dropped production to as low as 7% in 2015, the driest year of the drought.…