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RWE Will Close Wales Plant, Leaving UK With Four Operating Coal Units

August 4, 2019

German utility RWE on August 1 announced it will close its last coal-fired power plant in the UK. The closure of the Aberthaw B power station in south Wales, scheduled by the end of March 2020, means just four coal plants will be operating in the UK. The plant originally was scheduled to be shuttered in 2021.

Roger Miesen, chief executive of RWE’s generation business, said in a statement Thursday: “This is a difficult time for everyone at Aberthaw power station. However, market conditions made this decision necessary.”

The UK has been moving on from coal-fired generation over the past few years, and less than 5% of the country’s power came from coal last year. The UK earlier this year went a week without using any electricity from coal.

The UK government has said all coal-fired generation in the country must end no later than 2025 to help meet climate targets. Several plant closures have been announced in recent months; EDF Energy, the London-based utility, in February said it would close its Cottam coal plant in September.…

TEPCO Says It Will Decommission Second Fukushima Nuclear Plant

July 25, 2019

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Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on July 24 said it will decommission its Fukushima Daini nuclear station. The plant is located just south of the larger Fukushima Daiichi plant, site of a meltdown in March 2011 after an earthquake and tsunami heavily damaged the Daiichi facility.

The four reactors at Daini automatically shut down after the earthquake, reaching cold shutdown two days later. The reactors have not operated since.

Permanent closure of the Daini units would mean 21 reactors in Japan are scheduled for decommissioning. There were 54 operating reactors in the country prior to the 2011 disaster.

Nuclear power provided about 30% of Japan’s power prior to the earthquake. The country idled all its reactors in the wake of the meltdown, and only eight have been restarted, though several are continuing with a relicensing process required due to the country’s new operating standards after Fukushima.

Japan has relied on imported liquefied natural gas and thermal generation from imported coal to replace the lost nuclear generation since 2011.…

Watch Stack Come Down at Florida Power Plant

July 21, 2019

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JEA, the electric utility in Jacksonville, Florida, has been decommissioning the St. Johns River Power Park over the past year. A third implosion as part of the decommissioning occurred July 19, as a 640-foot-tall stack and two steam generating boilers were demolished.

Friday’s work followed similar implosions in June 2018, when the plant’s two, 464-foot-tall cooling towers were taken down, and in April of this year when four selective catalytic reactors were destroyed.

The coal-fired plant, which was closed in January 2018 after operating since March 1987, is scheduled to be fully decommissioned in June 2020. JEA has said it will keep at least some of the 2,000-acre site for a future power station, and also for coal ash disposal. The plant was co-owned by JEA and Florida Power & Light.

Total Wrecking & Environmental, a demolition and remediation company based in Buffalo, New York, was awarded a $ 14.5 million contract to demolish the plant and provided video of Friday’s blast.…

Rhode Island Rejects Burrillville Gas-Fired Plant

June 25, 2019

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A proposed 900-MW gas-fired power plant was rejected by Rhode Island regulators on June 20, leaving project developer Invenergy pondering its options for the planned facility in Burrillville.

Rhode Island’s Energy Facility Siting Board, after a daylong hearing in Warwick, said the plant is not needed. Chicago, Illinois–based Invenergy can appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court. The company has 10 days from the date the siting board finalizes its order to decide whether to appeal the decision.

“We will review the written decision and evaluate our options,” Invenergy spokeswoman Beth Conley said in a statement.

The Burrillville plant, known as the Clear River Energy Center, was first proposed four years ago, before falling power prices in the region and across New England brought questions about the economic viability of new power generation projects. Invenergy originally planned to bring the plant online this year; that date had been moved to 2023 pending state approval. A lower court in Rhode Island in April upheld a water agreement Invenergy had with the city of Johnston.…

POWER Notebook: GE Plant in France, Targeted for Job Cuts, Will Not Close

June 5, 2019

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The head of GE’s operations in France told a Paris newspaper that a French factory targeted for more than 1,000 job cuts will not close. GE last week said it wanted to make its operations in France more efficient and said changes would come at the Belfort plant in eastern France, which handles technology for GE Power’s hydro, gas, steam, and nuclear technology.

Bruno Le Maire, France’s economy minister, had said he would try to save jobs at the plant after GE’s announcement on May 28. Job cuts were expected to be negotiated with the plant’s labor unions. GE had said it could cut up to 1,044 jobs at Belfort, where it employs about 4,300 workers, including 1,900 in the gas power unit. GE had said 792 job cuts could come from that unit, with other positions eliminated in support divisions.

Hugh Bailey, general manager of GE in France, in an interview published June 2 in the Paris-based Le Journal du Dimanche, was quoted as saying, “I want to be clear, Belfort will not close.…

[UPDATED] EPA Sets Schedules for Long List of Power Plant Regulatory Actions

May 26, 2019

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will act on a spate of power plant rules over the next year, its newly released agenda of regulatory and deregulatory actions shows.

The May 23-released “Spring 2019 Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions” lists 35 new actions, along with 57 actions that it considers “deregulatory.” The list includes new rules governing coal ash, new insights and timelines for final effluent limitations guidelines and mercury rules, action on “boiler MACT” rules, monitoring and record-keeping clarifications for the mercury and other rules, changes to New Source Review permitting, and an amendment to a rule governing stationary combustion turbines at power plants.

Rule	First time on agenda	Proposed rule	Final rule
Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELG) and Standards		June 2019	August 2020
Rules Governing Definition of “Waters of the U.S.”		July 2017 (supplemental in July 2018)/February 2019	August 2019/December 2019
Coal ash: Amendments to the National Minimum Criteria (Phase 2)		July 2019	December 2019
Coal ash: Federal Coal Combustion Residuals Permitting Program	Yes	July 2019	May 2020
Coal ash: Revision of cease receipt of waste deadline for CCR surface impoundments; response to court	Yes	July 2019	December 2019
Coal ash: Alternative demonstration for unlined surface impoundments/ request for comment on legacy units; response to court	Yes	July 2019	December 2019
MATS: Reconsideration of Supplemental Cost Finding and Residual Risk and Technology Review		February 2019	November 2019
MATS technical corrections, reporting revisions, clarifications		November 2019
NESHAP:Stationary Combustion Turbine Residual Risk and Technology Review		April 2019 (comment period ends on May 28)	January 2020
(Boiler MACT):NESHAP: Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional Boilers and Process Heaters Amendments		September 2019
Review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter		March 2020
Project emissions accounting under PSD and non attainment NSR		July 2019
Standards of Performance for Stationary Compression Ignition (CI) Internal Combustion Engines Amendments		June 2019	Direct final rule, June 2019
Technical Revisions to the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule		December 2019	December 2020
Clean Air Act Benefit-Cost Reforms	Yes	December 2019
Revisions to the Petition Provisions of the Title V Permitting Program		August 2016	August 2019
Financial responsibility requirements for power sector		July 2019	December 2020
Accidental release prevention requirements		May 2018	August 2019
General revisions to emissions monitoring and reporting requirements for fossil generators		November 2019	April 2020

The agenda shows “continued progress in reducing regulatory burden” envisioned by President Trump’s proposed regulatory reforms, the agency said in a statement.…