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FirstEnergy Fires CEO as Nuclear Bailout Probe Continues

November 1, 2020

The post FirstEnergy Fires CEO as Nuclear Bailout Probe Continues appeared first on POWER Magazine.

FirstEnergy Corp. President and CEO Charles “Chuck” Jones was fired late Thursday after an internal review found Jones and two other company executives violated company policies in connection with an alleged bribery scheme.

The case is connected to a legislative bailout of the state’s nuclear power plants that occurred in 2019. The law, known as House Bill 6 (HB 6), meant state electricity ratepayers would pay more in their bills to subsidize the state’s nuclear plants, along with two coal-fired power plants jointly owned by the state’s utilities.

Thursday’s action came after two of the four lobbyists charged in the federal racketeering probe entered guilty pleas in the case.

Federal agents in July arrested Larry Householder, an Ohio Republican lawmaker and former Speaker of the House, and four other men, including lobbyists for FirstEnergy and its former subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions, now known as Energy Harbor.…

Black & Veatch: No More Coal Construction

October 30, 2020

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Black & Veatch is ending the company’s participation in coal-based power market design and construction, saying it will allow the company to focus on clean energy technologies. The engineering and construction giant’s announcement Oct. 29 comes just more than a month after another major energy company, General Electric, said it would exit the new-build coal power market.

“We are an employee-owned company, and we do not make decisions based on what the market wants to hear, or how the market will react,” said Mario Azar, president of Black & Veatch’s power business, in an interview Thursday with POWER. “We make decisions based on the values of our company. We’ve been around for more than 100 years, and we want to be around for another 100 years or more.

“That’s how we make decisions as the executive committee of Black & Veatch,” he said. “It’s really centered around our values and our future.…

Technology for Advanced Asset Inspections

October 28, 2020

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The post Technology for Advanced Asset Inspections appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Netze BW GmbH is the largest distribution system operator (DSO) in Baden-Württemberg, which is the third-largest state in Germany. Netze BW is responsible for high-, medium-, and low-voltage networks across the state. Its power lines stretch over 100,000 kilometers (more than 62,000 miles), and like all power utilities, it faces a constant challenge of monitoring, inspecting, and maintaining the network.

Without rigorous asset inspection, the utility cannot ensure a stable, secure, and safe supply to customers. However, detailed inspection over such a large, disparate area is extremely resource intensive, which creates a tension with the need to control operational costs. Historically, Netze BW has struck a workable balance in this respect; however, times are changing for DSOs.

The Challenge: A Time of Transition

The traditional approach to inspection has been to deploy teams of engineers to manually inspect assets, traveling around the state and climbing utility poles—a job not without danger.…

More Delays for Vogtle Plant Expansion

October 26, 2020

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The post More Delays for Vogtle Plant Expansion appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Georgia Power said it still expects to meet a state regulatory deadline for commercial operation of the first of two new reactors at its Vogtle nuclear plant expansion. The utility, though, on Oct. 22 acknowledged it has pushed back some aspects of the project, including delaying the loading of nuclear fuel for the first reactor another four months, to April 2021.

The utility in its latest project filing with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) said it now expects to conduct an important system test at the site three months later than outlined in its previous plan, which was filed in July. It’s the third delay this year for the hot functional testing procedure. Georgia Power said that test could now occur in January 2021, but could be moved back to March of next year. The utility in the Oct. 22 filing said fuel loading also may be delayed to mid-year 2021.…

Energy Deals Shift to Renewables and U.S. Shale Bargains

October 24, 2020

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The post Energy Deals Shift to Renewables and U.S. Shale Bargains appeared first on POWER Magazine.

At a time when deal activity in the energy and natural resources sector has slowed dramatically—down 26.2% globally year-on-year—one development in particular may define the industry’s near-term future.

In mid-May 2020, French oil major Total opted not to pursue a deal, announced in 2019, to purchase the African assets of Anadarko Petroleum, a U.S. producer that was being acquired by Occidental Petroleum. Two weeks after it withdrew its $ 8.8 billion proposal for offshore oil and gas properties in Ghana, Total announced it would spend about $ 3.8 billion for a majority stake in a renewable energy project in the British North Sea. Total’s decision to move away from traditional oil and gas investments could be an indicator of what lies ahead for the industry.

The oil and gas sector was already on the brink of radical change before the COVID-19 pandemic crushed global demand for energy.…

Coal-Fired Power in 2021: A Recovery or a Reckoning?

October 21, 2020

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The post Coal-Fired Power in 2021: A Recovery or a Reckoning? appeared first on POWER Magazine.

This has been the year from hell for coal-fired power and the coal industry. If current projections hold, coal generation in 2020 will be 21% lower than last year and 62% lower than the 2007 peak. The coal share of the generating mix, which for decades hovered around 50%, will finish the year at 20%, the lowest on record. Coal production will be the lowest since 1964 and down by a quarter just from 2019.

The new year may bring relief. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) projects that coal generation will recover most of its 2020 losses in 2021, bringing some stability to coal plant operators and coal miners. The key factor behind a coal power recovery is higher prices for natural gas, which indeed appear likely in 2021. Nonetheless, a coal recovery in 2021 is highly contingent on other dynamics.…