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The Natural Gas Flame Continues to Burn Bright

April 6, 2021

The post The Natural Gas Flame Continues to Burn Bright appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The natural gas sector is well aware of the challenges facing the fossil fuel industry, but analysts say gas has attributes that will keep it a big part of the U.S. and global energy mix.

Natural gas has moved to the front burner of power generation discussions. The fuel’s future has been a topic of debate for months, with the U.S. industry concerned about potential drilling limits from the Biden administration, and a move toward increased electrification in the U.S. and globally that could reduce demand for gas outside of the electricity sector.

The fallout from a severe winter storm that wreaked havoc on Texas’ gas supply in February, and left millions of Texans without power and heat, also raised questions about reliance on natural gas. That’s an issue raised by the Trump administration when it argued for propping up coal and nuclear power, saying the natural gas supply could be disrupted by external events.…

IHS: Natural Gas Prices Will Fall Below $2/MMBtu in 2020

September 14, 2019

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The post IHS: Natural Gas Prices Will Fall Below $ 2/MMBtu in 2020 appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Average natural gas prices at Henry Hub in 2020 could fall to below $ 2/MMBtu —a level “not seen in decades”—owing to a persistent oversupply, a new report from information and analytics firm IHS Markit suggests.

Prices could fall despite strong demand for natural gas, both domestically, including for power generation, as well as for exports. Demand for gas has increased 14 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) annually on average over the past two years, and the U.S. is expected to export an additional 3 Bcf/d of liquified natural gas (LNG) in 2020. IHS forecasts that nearly all growth in U.S. natural gas demand over the next few years will come from LNG exports to other countries.

Production, however, has grown by more than 14 Bcf/d since January 2018, and IHS Markit expects production will average more than 90 Bcf/d in 2019 and 2020.…

Pipeline Deal Means More U.S. Natural Gas for Mexico Power Plants

August 29, 2019

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Mexico is preparing to import more U.S. natural gas to supply the country’s gas-fired power plants and industrial facilities after the Mexican government reached a deal that will allow several stalled pipeline projects to be completed.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador on Aug. 27 said his administration’s deal with Canadian pipeline operator TC Energy; IEnova, a Mexican subsidiary of San Diego, California–based utility company Sempra Energy; and Mexican construction firm Grupo Carso ends a $ 3 billion stalemate over contracts for a handful of pipelines that will bring natural gas to Mexico from the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas and the Permian Basin of West Texas.

Grupo Carso is owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. He said Tuesday that the agreement will give Mexico access to cheap natural gas, some of which can be used to further the development of natural gas-fueled vehicles in Mexico.

“This will allow us to substitute diesel and gasoline, which are not only more expensive but more polluting,” Slim said.…

Tampa Electric Will Convert Big Bend Coal Plant to Natural Gas

January 14, 2018

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An executive with the parent company of Tampa Electric said the utility plans to seek regulatory approval to convert its Big Bend Power Station in Florida, the oldest and last major coal-fired facility in its fleet, to natural gas.

Rob Bennett, speaking at a breakfast gathering in Tampa on January 12, said an engineering analysis of the switch has been underway for a few years. “It’s a big decision,” said Bennett, who was named CEO of newly formed Emera Technologies last month after overseeing Emera Inc.’s integration with TECO Energy, which Emera Inc. acquired in July 2016. TECO has operated Tampa Electric for many years. “It has to work. It has to make sense for 35 or 40 years,” Bennett said of the plan.

Big Bend has four coal-fired units, the first of which came online in 1970; Unit 4 began operation in 1985. The 1,730-MW plant in Apollo Beach, south of Tampa across Tampa Bay, has a troubled history; most recently, five workers at the plant, including a senior plant manager and four contract workers, were killed in an accident June 29, 2017, which occurred as the workers were trying to clean hardened slag, a by-product of burning coal, from the bottom of a tank where slag cools.…

DOE Grid Study Points Finger at Natural Gas

August 27, 2017

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In a long-awaited study of electricity markets and grid reliability, the Department of Energy has called out natural gas as the No. 1 reason for retirements of coal and nuclear plants, breaking from the Trump administration’s prior talking point blaming regulations and renewables for the nation’s shrinking coal and nuclear fleets.

The report attributes four factors to the increase in coal and nuclear retirements: low-cost natural gas; low growth in electricity demand; an increase in variable renewable energy (VRE); and regulatory compliance.

“The biggest contributor to coal and nuclear plant retirements has been the advantaged economics of natural gas-fired generation,” the report says, noting that natural gas surpassed coal as the largest source of electricity generation in the U.S.

The study goes on to conclude that: “The increased use of natural gas in the electric sector has resulted in sustained low wholesale market prices that reduce the profitability of other generation resources important to the grid. The fact that new, high-efficiency natural gas plants can be built relatively quickly, compared to coal and nuclear power, also helped to grow gas-fired generation.”…

Mississippi PSC: Kemper Facility Should Operate Using Only Natural Gas

June 25, 2017

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The Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC) at an open meeting on June 21 unanimously passed a motion instructing its counsel to prepare an order pursuing potential solutions regarding the Kemper County Power Generation Facility.

In a press release, the MPSC said the “Kemper Facility should operate using only natural gas.” The commission said it wanted to remove risk from ratepayers for the lignite coal gasifier and related assets, and ensure no further rate increases were incurred by Mississippi Power Co. customers. (In fact, the commission strongly encouraged rate reductions, particularly for residential customers.)

Mississippi Power issued a statement on the MPSC decision. It said, “The PSC provided several guidelines to consider for the negotiations, including the possibility of the project only operating as a natural gas-fueled combined cycle plant. We expect the process for any negotiations and this new docket will be formally addressed as part of a proposed order the Commission will consider at their July 6 meeting. We look forward to reviewing the order.”…