2018 | EnergyNorthwest.com

POWER’s Top 10 Most-Read Stories from 2018

December 22, 2018

There’s never a dull moment in the power industry, and like most years, 2018 was filled with many interesting developments. As it has been for more than 135 years, POWER was there to break the news. The following 10 articles were the most-read online stories of the year.

#10: New York Denies Air Permit for New Gas-Fired Power Plant (8/7/2018)

Competitive Power Ventures’ (CPV’s) Valley Energy Center—a natural gas-fired power plant in Wawayanda, New York—had planned to ramp up to full operations in August, but the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) denied the plant’s request for renewal of its air state facility permit because it lacked a federal Title V air permit. CPV sued DEC and asked for a hearing on the matter, seeking an injunction that would allow the plant to operate. The state Supreme Court in mid-August said the plant could resume startup tests pending a decision on the federal air permit. The facility achieved commercial operation on October 1, but questions remain regarding the permit situation.…

Gas-Fired Generation Will Top 2018 Capacity Additions

May 13, 2018

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The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) latest report on the nation’s power generation inventory expects 32 GW of new capacity will enter commercial service this year, the most in at least at decade. And for the first time in five years, renewable energy sources will not make up the majority of that new generation.

Nearly all the new generation that came online in the first two months of this year—98% of the 2 GW added in January and February—was renewable, mostly solar and wind. But the rest of the year will belong in large part to natural gas-fired generation; EIA expects about 21 GW of gas-fired power will enter service by year-end 2018, according to planned online dates in EIA’s Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory report.

EIA on May 7 discussed the data in its online Today in Energy report. The agency said that based on project in-service dates, this will be the first year since 2013 that renewable energy sources will not comprise the bulk of new generation.…

PJM: More Than 3,600 MW Will Retire in 2018

April 5, 2018

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Data from regional transmission organization (RTO) PJM Interconnection shows about 630 MW of power generation will be taken offline in the grid operator’s territory in April, with more than 3,600 MW scheduled to be retired this year, according to the organization’s website. This month’s deactivations are scheduled to begin April 16.

Last week, Ohio power company FirstEnergy said its competitive arm would close four uneconomic nuclear units in PJM with generation capacity of 4 GW by year-end 2021. Then over the weekend, FirstEnergy’s coal and nuclear generation divisions filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

FirstEnergy Solutions (FES), FirstEnergy’s power plant subsidiary, on March 29 wrote a letter to Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Rick Perry, asking Perry to “find that an emergency condition exists” in PJM, and wanting the grid operator to compensate coal and nuclear plants in the RTO for their “fuel security and diversity” benefits—akin to the outline of the DOE’s “Grid Resiliency Pricing Rule” proffered last fall that directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to require that independent system operators (ISOs) and RTOs “establish just and reasonable rates for wholesale electricity sales” for power plants that show “reliability and resiliency attributes.”…

Market Conditions Doom Another Nuclear Plant, Palisades, to Closure in 2018

December 8, 2016

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Entergy Corp. has decided to permanently close the Palisades nuclear power plant on October 1, 2018.

The news comes as a bit of a surprise, because Entergy had a power purchase agreement with Consumers Energy—Michigan’s largest utility and the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy—which committed the company to buying nearly all of the power generated at Palisades through April 2022.

Late last year, however, UBS utilities analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith suggested that the contract appeared to be potentially break-even or under water. Terminating the deal early was presumably the best option for both companies.

In a press release, Entergy said Consumers’ customers would save as much as $ 172 million over four years, even after paying Entergy $ 172 million to terminate the contract. The early termination payment is expected to “help assure the plant’s transition from operations to decommissioning.”

The 798-MW plant located about five miles south of South Haven, Mich., faced economic difficulties similar to other single-unit facilities, such as the recently closed Fort Calhoun Plant, and the R.E.…