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FirstEnergy Suffers Steep Losses, Will Close Massive Coal Plant

February 21, 2018

FirstEnergy Corp. bled $ 2.64 billion from its competitive businesses over 2017, financial losses exacerbated by marked declines in contract sales, higher operating expenses, and costs associated with asset impairment and plant exit.

The Akron, Ohio–based company, which in January received a $ 2.5 billion equity injection from four private investment groups to boost its transition to a fully regulated utility company, on February 20 reported full-year 2017 losses of $ 1.7 billion on revenues of $ 14 billion. In 2016, the company recorded losses of $ 6.2 billion on revenues of $ 14.6 billion.

The losses, though significant, are indicative of progress for the company, which has, since 2016, announced the sale or closure of 2,471 MW of competitive generation operated in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Closure of a 1.3-GW Coal-Fired Power Plant

On February 16, FirstEnergy announced it had notified PJM Interconnection of a plan to deactivate its 1979-built Pleasants Power Station in Willow Island, West Virginia. The 1,300-MW plant will be sold or closed on January 1, 2019.…

Dubai Awards Contract for Phase 4 of Massive Solar Park

September 18, 2017

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Dubai’s government on September 16 said its state energy utility has awarded a $ 3.9 billion contract for construction of a 700-MW solar power plant at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. The government said the project includes an 850-foot-tall tower that will receive focused sunlight, the world’s tallest such structure in a solar park.

The contract was awarded to a consortium of Shanghai Electric and Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power. A spokesperson for ACWA Power in an email to POWER said the new plant is the fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which ACWA says is the largest single-site concentrated solar power (CSP) facility in the world, with plans to produce 5 GW of solar power by 2030. The first phase of the solar park, a 13-MW solar farm built by First Solar, opened in October 2013. The second phase, a 200-MW solar plant built by ACWA Power and Spain’s TSK, began operations in March 2017.…

Massive Fire Forces DTE Energy’s St. Clair Power Plant Offline

August 13, 2016

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A massive fire broke out at DTE Energy’s St. Clair Power Plant in the early evening on August 11.

Firefighters reportedly received the call for assistance at around 6:30 p.m. and fought the blaze well into the following morning.

Video taken during the incident shows flames in several spots on the north end of the plant’s roof, extending well to the south. There is smoke coming out of vents throughout the entire length of the facility, which has six operational units with a total capacity of 1,547 MW.

The plant invoked emergency procedures and shut down all units onsite by 7:01 p.m. DTE Energy said employees were evacuated safely and that there were no known injuries at the plant.

Firefighters from St. Clair and Marine City were first on the scene, but as many as 30 departments, including Port Huron, which is nearly 20 miles to the north, were said to have been involved in extinguishing the fire.

In a statement released at 8:26 a.m.…