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Power Industry Continues to Face Uncertainty and Change [PODCAST]

April 7, 2018

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) CEO Bill Johnson in an exclusive interview with POWER suggested that the power industry continues to face an uncertain future. Johnson said that during his 40-year career, he has seen more change in the last five years than in the previous 35 combined. Several indicators imply that will continue going forward.

According to Johnson, one thing driving change is declining demand for power, which has resulted from efficiency improvements, a shift toward a more-service-oriented economy, and lower population growth, among other things. Johnson said customers are interested in cleaner, more-flexible sources of power and information. The challenge for utilities is to figure out how to integrate new behind-the-meter resources after having focused for so long on big centralized power stations.

Other power industry changes include a shift away from coal-fired generation. Johnson said TVA generated about 60% of its energy from coal 10 years ago, but by the end of the decade that figure will be down to only 20%.…

More U.S. Coal Units Closing Despite Possible Market Pricing Change

November 22, 2017

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U.S. utilities continue to announce closures of financially troubled and older coal-fired power plants even as government officials work on a bailout plan to keep them operating.

Owners of a coal plant in Montana that has only been online since 2006 informed the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) last week of plans to shutter the facility early next year if they can’t find a buyer. The news comes at the same time Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities (LG&E-KU) said it would close two long-running coal-fired units at the E.W. Brown Generating Station near Harrodsburg, Kentucky, in February 2019.

The announcements are the latest in a series of closures announced in recent months, including three large coal-fired plants in Texas—two operated by Vistra Energy and another by Luminant, a Vistra subsidiary—that generate about 4.2 GW of electricity, or about 12% of the state’s coal-fired generation capacity. Another large Texas plant, CPS Energy’s 840-MW Deely station in San Antonio, is scheduled to close in 2018.…

NRG’s New Plan: Sell Assets, Change Focus, Raise Cash

July 13, 2017

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NRG Energy said it will sell as much as $ 4 billion in assets as it seeks to lower its debt and cut costs after a revolt by activist investors unhappy with the company’s direction.

Shares of the company jumped 29% to a two-year high on July 12 after NRG announced the moves as part of a “transformation plan” designed to divest most if not all of its NRG Yield renewable energy business along with some of its conventional energy assets, including coal- and natural gas-fired power plants.

NRG, headquartered in Houston, Texas, said it wants to remove $ 13 billion in debt and generate more than $ 850 million in annual free cash flow, with a goal of adding more than $ 6 billion to its balance sheet through 2020 that would be available for new projects and investments.

NRG Energy unveiled a new plan to sell assets and change its focus in an effort to increase the company’s value for shareholders.

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