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TEPCO Exec: Daini Plant Will Be Decommissioned

June 15, 2018

A Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) executive on June 14 said the utility is prepared to decommission the four idle units at its Fukushima Daini nuclear plant in Japan. The comments come as TEPCO continues to struggle with large compensation payments and cleanup costs associated with the March 2011 accident at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

TEPCO President Tomoaki Kobayakawa’s remarks today are the first public statements from the company regarding the Daini plant, known as Fukushima No. 2, which escaped damage in 2011 but which is among dozens of Japanese nuclear plants that have remained offline for more than seven years in the wake of the Daiichi disaster. Kobayakawa at a news conference in Fukushima said local opposition to restarting the Daini units is partly behind his company’s decision to permanently close the plant.

The Daini plant is about 7 miles south of Daiichi. Some of its reactors lost cooling functions during the 2011 incident but none of the four units experienced a critical situation.…

GE Will Cut Jobs, End Manufacturing at Virginia Plant

June 13, 2018

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General Electric’s (GE’s) power unit has said it will end manufacturing operations at its plant in Salem, Virginia, next year, with more than 260 workers losing their jobs, according to union officials. Officials noted that 42% of the affected workers are eligible for retirement.

The plan announced June 8 said the Salem plant, which opened in 1955, would continue as an engineering center staffed by some 200 employees. GE is among the largest employers in the Salem region, and the plant at one time had about 3,500 workers.

The company said the Salem manufacturing work would move to other GE locations or be handled by supplier partners. GE has struggled along with other turbine manufacturers over the past year as global demand for the units has fallen. CEO John Flannery in May told a Florida electrical products conference that the company is trying to stem the tide of business losses, but said he is “being deliberate” with moves to reorganize GE even as the company’s stock price has been hammered in the past year.…

Chicago Company Preparing Offer for Navajo Generating Station

June 11, 2018

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A suburban Chicago-based energy company executive on June 7 told Arizona officials his group is putting together a proposal to purchase the Navajo Generating Station (NGS), the largest coal-fired power plant in the western U.S. The plant’s current owners have said they will close the 2,250-MW facility by year-end 2019 unless a buyer is found.

Workers, their family members, union representatives, and tribal leaders had rallied Wednesday in Phoenix, asking state officials to slow the process of closing the plant, which employs hundreds of Native Americans along with the nearby Kayenta Mine that supplies coal for the plant. Joe Greco, senior vice president of Middle River Power in Chicago, told the Central Arizona Water Conservation District board on Thursday that his company could operate the plant efficiently and economically.

The water board was meeting Thursday to consider bids for the future power supply to pump water for the Central Arizona Project (CAP), which supplies some of the state through an aqueduct system from the Colorado River.…

Puerto Rico Power Restoration Effort a Focus of EEI Convention

June 7, 2018

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The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), an industry association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies, made a point during its annual convention of recognizing the mutual assistance workers who labored tirelessly to restore power to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.

Nearly 200 personnel, who had worked on the ground in Puerto Rico, gathered on stage during the opening session of the EEI event in San Diego, California, on June 5. Even though the actual number of workers involved in the effort was far greater—Tom Kuhn, EEI president, said more than 3,000 lineworkers, support personnel, and company representatives were part of the historic mutual assistance response and restoration effort—a gasp could be heard from the crowd when the group of 200 stood to make their way to the stage.

EEI Chairman and PNM Resources Chairman, President, and CEO Pat Vincent-Collawn said, “The expertise, the creativity, and the leadership that was brought to bear, along with the sacrifices of so many of you who answered the call for help, were extraordinary.…

[UPDATED] Trump Administration to Force Purchases of Coal, Nuclear Power

June 5, 2018

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A draft memo circulated by the Trump administration before the National Security Council urges federal action to force grid operators to buy power from uneconomic coal and nuclear plants.

Bloomberg on May 31 first pointed to the existence of the 41-page memo, which is dated May 29 and distributed Thursday. The memo outlines plans for a directive by the Department of Energy (DOE) under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act (FPA) to “direct the operators to purchase electricity or electric generation capacity from at-risk facilities.”

The draft memo, which is tagged “Privileged & Confidential, Attorney-Client Privilege,” says that regulatory and economic factors have prompted the premature retirement of “fuel-secure” plants—which include nuclear and coal, but also oil-fired and dual-fuel units with adequate storage. “Although the lost megawatts of power often are replaced by new generation from natural gas and renewable energy sources, this transition comes at the expense of fuel security and resilience,” it says.

The memo reasons that because premature retirements of fuel-secure baseload plants reduce resilience to fuel supply disruptions, and because this “crisis” is caused by regulatory and economic actions, federal and state regulatory bodies as well as the private sector must act promptly “to achieve a lasting solution that meets the needs of both national security and the efficient operation of energy markets.”…

Swift (and Angry) Reaction to Trump Move to Save Coal, Nuclear Plants

June 3, 2018

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Reactions from U.S. energy and legal and regulatory groups began pouring in minutes after the White House confirmed on June 1 that President Trump has directed the Department of Energy (DOE) to act immediately to stop the loss of uneconomic coal and nuclear plants.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a June 1 statement that President Trump believes in “total energy independence and dominance, and that keeping America’s energy grid and infrastructure strong and secure protects our national security, public safety and economy from intentional attacks and natural disasters.”

Because “impending retirements of fuel-secure power facilities are leading to a rapid depletion of a critical part of our nation’s energy mix, and impacting the resilience of our power grid,” the president has directed Energy Secretary Rick Perry to “prepare immediate steps to stop the loss of these resources, and looks forward to his recommendations,” she said.

The White House confirmation comes hours after the leak of a Trump administration draft memo outlining a plan for federal action to prop up coal and nuclear plants that were unable to compete in wholesale power markets and faced retirement.…