Tag: power

Two Deals Shake Up Northeastern Power Landscape

November 4, 2016
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TransCanada—a leading North American energy company—has struck deals to sell its U.S. Northeast Power business. LS Power will acquire three principally natural gas–fired power plants and a wind farm from TransCanada, while ArcLight Capital Partners will buy 13 hydropower facilities located in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.

“The sale of our merchant U.S. Northeast Power business to fund a portion of our acquisition of [Columbia Pipeline Group Inc.] will further enhance the stability and predictability of our earnings and cash flow streams and support a strong and growing dividend,” said Russ Girling, TransCanada’s president and CEO.

The plants being acquired by LS Power are Ravenswood, a 2,480-MW multiple-unit facility with dual-fuel-capable steam turbine, combined cycle, and combustion turbine units located in Queens, N.Y.; Ironwood, a 778-MW combined cycle plant in Lebanon, Penn.; Ocean State Power, a 560-MW combined cycle plant in Burrillville, R.I.; and Kibby Wind, a 132-MW wind farm in Franklin County, Maine. LS Power, through its affiliate Helix Generation, will pay TransCanada $ 2.2 billion in cash for the 3,950-MW portfolio.…

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France’s Nuclear Storm: Many Power Plants Down Due to Quality Concerns

November 2, 2016
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[Note: This article will appear in the forthcoming December 2016 print issue of POWER.]

The discovery of widespread carbon segregation problems in critical nuclear plant components has crippled the French power industry—20 of the country’s 58 reactors are currently offline and under heavy scrutiny. France’s nuclear safety chairman said more anomalies “will likely be found,” as the extent of the contagion is still being uncovered.

With over half of France’s 58 reactors possibly affected by “carbon segregation,” the nation’s nuclear watchdog, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN) has ordered that preventative measures be taken immediately to ensure public safety. As this story goes into production in late October, ASN has confirmed that 20 reactors are currently offline and potentially more will shut down in coming weeks.

The massive outages are draining power from all over Europe. Worse, new questions continue to swirl about both the safety and integrity of Électricité de France SA’s (EDF’s) nuclear fleet, as well as the quality of some French- and Japanese-made components that EDF is using in various high-profile nuclear projects around the world.…

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Idaho Power Pursues Accelerated Depreciation of North Valmy Coal Plant

October 31, 2016
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Idaho Power—co-owner with NV Energy of the two-unit 522-MW North Valmy Generating Station near Battle Mountain, Nevada—filed a request with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (IPUC) last week seeking to accelerate the depreciable life of the power plant from 2031 for Unit 1 and 2035 for Unit 2 to 2025 for both units.

In Idaho Power’s 2015 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), the company said its preferred portfolio included retirement of the North Valmy plant at year-end 2025. The timing matched the expected completion date of the Boardman to Hemingway transmission line project, which will add a new connection to the Pacific Northwest. The preferred portfolio included the addition of 60 MW of demand response and 20 MW of ice-based thermal energy storage in 2030, and the addition of a 300-MW combined cycle combustion turbine in 2031.

The 2015 IRP included a 2016 action item to continue working with NV Energy “to synchronize depreciation dates and determine if a date can be established to cease coal-fired operations” at North Valmy Units 1 and 2.…

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PSEG Will Retire Two New Jersey Coal Power Plants

October 11, 2016
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Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) will close the 620-MW Hudson Generation Station in Jersey City, N.J., and the 632-MW Mercer Generation Station in Hamilton Township, N.J., on June 1, 2017.

“The sustained low prices of natural gas have put economic pressure on these plants for some time. In that context, we could not justify the significant investment required to upgrade these plants to meet the new reliability standards,” Bill Levis, president and COO of PSEG Power, said in a statement released on October 5. “The plants have been infrequently called on to run and neither plant cleared the last two PJM capacity auctions. The plants’ capacity payments have been critical to their profitability and PSEG’s ability to continue to invest in modernizing them.”

PSEG said it is committed to working with union representatives to limit the impact of the closures on the 200 affected employees, roughly split between the two facilities.

“These plants have played a critical role in powering the growth and economic expansion of New Jersey and PSEG is grateful to our employees who have played a part in building and running them for the past 50 years,” said Levis.…

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Watts Bar Unit 2 Nuclear Plant Completes Power Ascension Testing

October 4, 2016
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The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has reached another milestone in its effort to bring Watts Bar Unit 2 into commercial operation: The unit completed its final power ascension test—a 50% load rejection from full power—and safely returned to full power on September 30.

The testing had been halted on August 30 due to a switchyard transformer fire. Although the fire did not affect Unit 2’s systems, which responded to the event as designed, the affected transformer had to be replaced before testing could resume. The TVA said a rigorous and detailed inspection, repair, and testing process was performed before the transformer was returned to service on September 26.

Power ascension testing included more than 40 required tests at various power levels up to 100% output, with pauses at 30%, 50%, and 75% (Figure 1). The gradual increase in power provided data, which was used to verify that the unit was operating as designed.

1. Watts Bar Unit 2 power ascension testing plan.
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SLIDESHOW: An Alarming Trend Affecting U.S. Baseload Power

September 18, 2016
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States, regulators, and market participants have in recent years called attention to a trend concerning uneconomic baseload generation in organized wholesale markets, specifically in ISO New England, New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), MISO, PJM, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and the California Independent System Operator (CAISO).

Cheap natural gas, low power demand growth, increasing operating costs owing to state and federal rules, and market design issues are affecting bottom lines and forcing some power companies to withdraw generating capacity or reconsider participation in these competitive markets.

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<strong>1. An alarming trend. </strong><br> <br> This baseload exodus could have a worrying impact on reliability, as shown by summer planning reserve margin projections (%) from the North American Reliability Commission's <em>2015 Long-Term Reliability Assessment. Source: POWER </em> <strong>2. Goodbye, Ohio. </strong> <br> <br>On Sept. 14, American Electric Power (AEP) agreed to sell four Midwestern power plants—a total 5.2 GW for about $ 2.17 billion—in an effort to become a fully regulated company. The plants include the 1,186-MW natural gas–fired Lawrenceburg Generating Station in Lawrenceburg, Indiana; the 840-MW natural gas–fired Waterford Energy Center in Waterford, Ohio; the 507-MW natural gas–fired Darby Generating Station in Mount Sterling, Ohio; and the 2,665-MW coal-fired Gen. James M. Gavin Plant in Cheshire, Ohio. <br> <br> Duke Energy in 2014 made a similar move when it announced it would transition its generating fleet away from volatile organized wholesale markets. <br> <br> Pictured: AEP's 2,665-MW coal-fired Gen. James M. Gavin Plant in Cheshire, Ohio, is one of the largest in the U.S. <em>Courtesy: Analogue Kid/Wikimedia Commons </em> <strong>3. ISO New England. </strong> <br> <br>Entergy Nuclear closed the 620-MW Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in December 2014, owing to increased costs and market conditions, even though the unit had received a license renewal to operate until 2032. In October, Entergy said it will also retire its 680-MW Pilgrim nuclear plant in Massachusetts by 2019, citing low wholesale power prices and low gas prices. <br> <br> Pictured: Entergy's Pilgrim nuclear plant. <em>Courtesy: Entergy</em> <strong>4. NYISO. </strong><br> <br>On August 1, New York’s financially struggling upstate nuclear power plants—Exelon's 610-MW Ginna and 1,761-MW Nine Mile plants, and Entergy's 838-MW FitzPatrick plant (which Exelon agreed to acquire for just $ 110 million)—received a much-needed lifeline with passage of the New York State Public Service Commission's Clean Energy Standard. The Clean Energy Standard requires all six New York investor-owned utilities and other energy suppliers to pay for the intrinsic value of carbon-free emissions from nuclear power plants by purchasing “Zero-Emission Credits.” The plants will begin receiving subsidies in 2017. <br> <br> Pictured: Entergy's James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant, a single-unit facility located in Scriba, N.Y., that the company planned to shut down by January 2017 for economic reasons, but which Exelon will buy and likely keep open. <em>Courtesy: Exelon </em> <strong>5. PJM. </strong><br> <br>AEP Ohio and FirstEnergy are continuing discussions with Ohio legislators around restructuring the state's electricity market. <br> <br> In late June, meanwhile, Exelon notified state and federal regulators that it plans to close the two-unit, 1,880-MW Quad Cities in Cordova, Ill., by June 2018. The company warned that its Three Mile Island plant, which didn't clear in the PJM capacity auction for the 2019 to 2020 planning year, might be at risk of closure. It said it would also close the 1,098-MW Clinton, Ill., single-unit reactor in June 2017, even though it cleared the MISO capacity auction. According to Exelon, Quad Cities and Clinton have lost a combined $ 800 million over the past seven years, “despite being two of Exelon’s best-performing plants.” <br> <br> Pictured: Exelon's 1,871-MW Quad Cities station <em>Courtesy: Exelon </em> <strong>6. MISO. </strong><br> <br>Dynegy in May said it will shut down three coal units at two Illinois power plants—more than 1,800 MW—because they failed to recover basic operating costs at a MISO capacity auction. Just months before, the company said it would retire another 465-MW uneconomical Illinois coal plant. <br> <br> Meanwhile, Detroit-headquartered DTE Energy in June said it would retire eight small coal-fired units at three sites in Michigan within the next seven years due to "age and projected future costs." <br> <br> Pending closure of Exelon's 1,069-MW Clinton nuclear plant for economic reasons, meanwhile, complicates MISO's planning efforts. The grid operator projects a generation shortfall of 300 MW, 800 MW, and 1.2 GW in parts of Michigan, Missouri, and Illinois, respectively. <br> <br>Pictured: DTE Energy in June 2016 said that it will retire the last unit at its Trenton Channel Power Plant in Detroit by 2023, along with seven other units in its fleet. <em>Courtesy: DTE Energy </em> <strong>7. ERCOT.</strong> <br> <br>A September 2016 report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) projects that seven aging coal-fired power plants in Texas—a total 8.1 GW that represents about 40% of coal-fired capacity in ERCOT—will likely be retired due to their inability to compete in the Texas electricity market. Among "forces arrayed against coal-fired generation" that suggests the plants' retirement is likely are increases in natural gas generation, increased competition from new wind and solar resources, and generally, "low energy market prices in ERCOT's deregulated wholesale markets,” IEEFA said. Another consideration is a federal regional haze rule that could force generators to install $ 2 billion in pollution controls, rendering them uneconomical. <br> <br> But coal plants aren't the only ones in trouble. NRG Energy mothballed all units at its Bertron Natural Gas Plant and Unit 5 at its Greens Bayou natural gas plant (at total 1,098 MW) this summer. The 45-MW Aspen Lufkin biomass plant was also mothballed this summer for economic reasons. <strong>8. CAISO. </strong><br> <br>In California, where generation from hydropower and renewables soared this summer, thermal generation (almost all from natural gas) in CAISO dropped 20% compared to last summer, according to the Energy Information Administration. The biomass sector has suffered the most notably. According to the California Biomass Energy Alliance, more than a dozen of its members’ 34 operating solid-fuel biomass plants have been idled, struggling to compete with low natural gas prices. <br> <br> Under a recently passed bill (SB 859), however, electricity retailers will be required to enter into five-year contracts for 125 MW of biomass power from facilities built before 2013 that generate energy from wood harvested from high-fire hazard zones, reported <em>Biomass </em> magazine in September. <br> <br> Pictured: Thermal Energy Development Partnership, a 20.5-MW woody biomass power plant in Tracy, in San Joaquin County, Calif., has been idled. <em>Courtesy: Greenleaf Power</em>

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7. ERCOT.

A September 2016 report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) projects that seven aging coal-fired power plants in Texas—a total 8.1 GW that represents about 40% of coal-fired capacity in ERCOT—will likely be retired due to their inability to compete in the Texas electricity market. Among “forces arrayed against coal-fired generation” that suggests the plants’ retirement is likely are increases in natural gas generation, increased competition from new wind and solar resources, and generally, “low energy market prices in ERCOT’s deregulated wholesale markets,” IEEFA said.

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