Industry News | EnergyNorthwest.com

GE Will Pay $200M Penalty for Power Business Violations

December 15, 2020

The post GE Will Pay $ 200M Penalty for Power Business Violations appeared first on POWER Magazine.

General Electric (GE) has agreed to pay a $ 200 million penalty to settle claims by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the company misled investors when it failed to disclose material information related to its power and insurance businesses.

In an order on Dec. 9 capping an investigation that the SEC opened in January 2018, the federal agency said GE misled investors when it failed to disclose that more than a quarter of GE Power’s reported profits in 2016, and almost half of its reported profits in the first three quarters of 2017, resulted from reductions in estimates of the cost to complete multiyear agreements to provide repairs and service for customers’ power turbines.

The order outlines a series of events related to the claim, starting with a May 2015 investor conference, when GE’s then-CEO Jeff Immelt described a framework for future earnings growth, even as GE Power was undergoing substantial changes.…

Economic Factors Drive Wind and Solar Growth

December 13, 2020

| No Comments

| Industry News

The post Economic Factors Drive Wind and Solar Growth appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) have found that a combination of lower capital, operating, and finance costs, in addition to better equipment performance, and longer useful lives, have driven power purchase agreement (PPA) prices and the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for utility-scale wind and solar projects to all-time lows. The findings were presented by Mark Bolinger, research scientist in the Electricity Markets and Policy Department at LBNL, during a webinar focused on trends in deployment, cost, performance, pricing, and market value for utility-scale wind and solar.

A Decade or More of Phenomenal Growth

Bolinger noted that from 2006 to 2019 wind power capacity operating on the U.S. grid had grown by nearly an order of magnitude—from 11.5 GW to 106 GW. The percentage increase in utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity, which researchers define as ground-mounted systems with capacities greater than 5 MW_AC, has been even greater, increasing from 1.7 GW in 2012 to 29 GW at the end of 2019.…

Vogtle Receives First Shipment of Nuclear Fuel

December 11, 2020

| No Comments

| Industry News

The post Vogtle Receives First Shipment of Nuclear Fuel appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The two-unit expansion of the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia reached another milestone as Georgia Power received the first shipment of nuclear fuel for Unit 3 of the project.

The utility on Dec. 9 said receipt of the fuel follows completion and inspection of several construction areas at the site in Waynesboro, Georgia. Those areas included the fuel vault and spent fuel pool. The fuel handling area of Unit 3 has been turned over to the operations staff; Georgia Power said the Vogtle site has “implemented specific and comprehensive policies, procedures and security measures to safely receive, handle and store the nuclear fuel.”

The Vogtle expansion is adding two, 1,100-MW AP1000 reactors to the nuclear plant, where two other reactors—Units 1 and 2—have operated since 1987 and 1989, respectively. The team leading the expansion, a project which would provide the U.S. with the country’s first new large-scale nuclear reactors in more than 30 years, earlier this year successfully completed the pre-startup review process conducted by the World Association of Nuclear Operators.…

EPA Retains Soot Standards; Drastic PM Reductions Already Achieved, Industry Says

December 9, 2020

| No Comments

| Industry News

The post EPA Retains Soot Standards; Drastic PM Reductions Already Achieved, Industry Says appeared first on POWER Magazine.

In a significant but controversial final action, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Dec. 7 retained its existing National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for both fine and coarse particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10).

While the EPA said the decision came “after careful review and consideration of the most recent available scientific evidence and technical information, consultation with the agency’s independent scientific advisors, and consideration of more than 60,000 public comments on the proposal,” environmental groups largely viewed the action as a dereliction of the agency’s regulatory duty.

The power sector, meanwhile, supported the measure, underscoring its success at slashing PM and precursor air pollutant emissions and pointing to future reductions from electrification of the transportation and industrial sectors.

Why the Final Action Is Notable

Fine particles (PM2.5), which are 2.5 micrometers in diameter and smaller, are emitted by a variety of sources, including smokestacks, vehicles, and fires, but they also form when gases emitted by power plants, other industrial processes, and gasoline and diesel engines react in the atmosphere.…

How to Monitor Assets Remotely Today

December 7, 2020

| No Comments

| Industry News

The post How to Monitor Assets Remotely Today appeared first on POWER Magazine.

As long as products have had ethernet ports, people have been asking for remote access to them. They believed they could just plug the devices into the internet, and it would all work. At first, there wasn’t necessarily a clear path to making this dream a reality without assistance from the user’s IT department. IT would need to set up networks and give access through their firewalls, granting the proper access to those who needed it. This raised all types of security and maintenance concerns and the IT departments simply wouldn’t allow these holes in their firewalls.

As more software tools became available and internet speeds increased, capable users found ways to give themselves access to their assets. But there was still a catch—one needed a dedicated computer for the system.

With today’s products, an operator has numerous options for products that he or she can install into a system that creates a remote access portal without needing to use a dedicated computer.…

Continued Toll on Coal; More Companies File Bankruptcy

December 5, 2020

| No Comments

| Industry News

The post Continued Toll on Coal; More Companies File Bankruptcy appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The struggling U.S. coal industry, decimated by falling demand for the fuel from the power generation sector, and hit hard by low prices during the coronavirus pandemic, saw two more mining companies declare bankruptcy this week.

White Stallion Energy, which operates in Indiana and Illinois, and Lighthouse Resources, a coal company with mines in Wyoming and Montana, filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, on Dec. 2 and Dec. 3, respectively. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has reported that the nation’s power sector consumed 30% less coal in the first half of 2020 than during the same period last year, as demand for electricity fell due to the pandemic, and natural gas and renewable energy continued to take market share from coal.

“In light of the challenging market conditions and other impacts on our business from COVID-19, we have been required to reduce costs and reorganize our business, resulting in the reduction of our workforce in Montana,” Lighthouse CEO Everett King said in a statement.…