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Voters Back Nuclear Power, Phaseout by 2025 Nixed

November 28, 2018

In a referendum held alongside local elections, the Taiwanese electorate voted overwhelmingly to abolish a stipulation in the country’s Electricity Act that called for all nuclear energy-based power-generating facilities to completely cease operations by 2025.

Many experts considered it a surprising victory for pro-nuclear activists. In January 2016, Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party garnered widespread support in elections, running on a platform that included the elimination of nuclear power by 2025. After the election, leaders quickly passed an amendment codifying the nuclear phaseout.

However, a blackout on August 15, 2017, apparently helped change many people’s views on nuclear power. The outage occurred when a contractor accidentally interrupted the gas supply to the 4,384-MW Tatan power station, Taiwan’s largest gas-fired plant. The interruption caused all six units at the site to shut down, and 6.6 million households and businesses across the island lost power for more than five hours. At the time, three of Taiwan’s six then-operational nuclear reactors were offline for maintenance.…

Regulators Back Settlement for Costs of Failed Kemper IGCC Project

February 7, 2018

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Shareholders of Mississippi Power will have to absorb the majority of outstanding costs resulting from the scuttled Kemper County coal gasification project, as the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) on February 6 approved a settlement for the remaining liabilities associated with the much-touted “clean coal” plant.

Mississippi Power in a statement said it “is pleased with this final order from the Public Service Commission, which effectively settles all costs associated with the Kemper County energy facility.” Anthony Wilson, the company’s CEO, in a statement after today’s vote said, “The economics really didn’t work out and the technology was hard to perfect.”

The PSC in 2017 told Atlanta-based Southern Co. to end construction at Kemper. The gasification project, touted as the future of coal, never was operational, as costs ballooned from an original price tag of $ 2.9 billion to about $ 7.5 billion. The settlement agreement, which was reached last year pending approval, means Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of Southern Co.,…

A Look Back at 2016: The Year of Transition

December 31, 2016

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A tumultuous election year that was marked by market turmoil, the events of 2016 clearly showed that big change is afoot for the power sector.

Many of POWER‘s bold predictions for 2016, such as that the near-simultaneous surge in U.S. natural gas production and recent enactment of environmental rules would reshape the U.S. power sector, and that clean energy drivers would prompt diversification have come to be. But some events that have characterized 2016 were unprecedented and so significant, they are sure to send ripples well beyond 2017.

High Drama on the Legal and Regulatory Front

Twelve months ago, the power sector was emerging from the volatility of 2015, a year that was characterized by landmark decisions and rules, most prominent among them, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) promulgation of the final Clean Power Plan. In 2016, the legal and regulatory front saw tempered, albeit highly significant, activity.

None was as dramatic as the divided U.S. Supreme Court’s issuance in February of an unprecedented one-page order to stay implementation of the Clean Power Plan, pending a decision on its legality in the D.C.…