THE BIG PICTURE: Pumped Storage
The post THE BIG PICTURE: Pumped Storage appeared first on POWER Magazine.
Vogtle, V.C. Summer Project Owners Buy More Time to Mull Fate of Nuclear Units
The owners of the Vogtle and V.C. Summer nuclear expansions separately secured a few more weeks to allow work to continue onsite at each project while they decide how to proceed with the half-built AP1000 reactors after Westinghouse’s financial debacle.
In Georgia, owners of the project to expand Plant Vogtle extended an interim assessment agreement with Westinghouse until May 12. But Georgia Power’s parent company Southern Co. also revealed it is negotiating a new service agreement that could engage Westinghouse to provide design, engineering, and procurement services in the event Southern Nuclear Operating Co.—Southern Co.’s nuclear unit operations arm—takes over management of construction at Units 3 and 4.
And in South Carolina, owners of the project to expand V.C. Summer extended a similar agreement through June 26. The project owners detailed their concerns and options in a recent ex parte briefing at the South Carolina Public Service Commission (PSC)
Vogtle Agreement Extended Until May 12
Georgia Power and Vogtle’s other owners on April 28 extended an interim assessment agreement with Westinghouse before it was set to expire, giving them until May 12 to assess the project.…
D.C. Circuit Halts Clean Power Plan, Mercury Rule Litigation
In two separate actions over the past 24 hours, the D.C. Circuit granted the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) request to suspend cases challenging the Clean Power Plan and the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).
The orders are the latest in a series of similar actions over the past month by the D.C. Circuit that paused other major cases challenging Obama-era environmental rules to give the Trump administration more time to review them.
On April 11, the court granted the EPA’s motion to indefinitely delay a decision on challenges to the agency’s 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone in Murray Energy Corp. v. EPA (No. 15-1385). On April 24, it shelved oral arguments in challenges to the EPA’s rule that requires 36 states to revise emissions exemptions in their state implementation plans for startup, shutdown, and malfunction events at power plants and other facilities. That case, Walter Coke, Inc., et al v. EPA (No. 15-1166), may be reopened depending on the action the EPA decides to take.…
Drought Has Big Impact on California Power Market
Rain and snow has returned to California, ending the record-setting drought with record-setting precipitation.
The drought led to forest fires, dead orchards, and brown lawns. It also took a big bite out of ratepayers’ wallets and increased global warming emissions, due to the loss of low-cost, zero-emission hydropower.
In a study released April 26 by Peter Gleick—a noted water expert at the Pacific Institute in Oakland—researchers found that lower hydropower production cost California ratepayers almost $ 2.5 billion in higher power prices, and may have raised power sector carbon dioxide emissions 10%, due to increased output from gas-fired generators (see Figure 2). Gleick’s team used data through September 2016 to calculate the figures.
Courtesy: Pacific Institute
California has 14 GW of hydro capacity, with little growth in recent decades due to environmental, economic, and political constraints. While hydro typically supplies about 18% of California’s power, the drought dropped production to as low as 7% in 2015, the driest year of the drought.…
Trump’s EPA Signals Changes for Power Plant Mercury Rule
The Trump administration is “closely” reviewing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) final cost consideration finding for its Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) to determine whether it should reconsider the rule or some part of it, it said in an April 18 federal court filing.
The EPA filed a motion with the D.C. Circuit urging the court to delay oral arguments scheduled on May 18 for a case filed by an assortment of coal producing and generating companies, which are challenging the agency’s “Supplemental Finding That It Is Appropriate and Necessary To Regulate Hazardous Air Pollutants From Coal- and Oil-Fired Electric Utility Steam Generating Units.”
Delay and Deflect
In its court filing, the agency said that it needs more time as it “intends to closely review the Supplemental Finding, and the prior positions taken by the Agency with respect to the Supplemental Finding may not necessarily reflect its ultimate conclusions after that review is complete.”
The Obama administration’s EPA issued the final supplemental finding a year ago after a divided Supreme Court in June 2015 (in Michigan v.…
Maryland Passes Energy Storage Tax Credit
Maryland on April 10 became the first state in the nation to pass legislation enacting a tax credit for residential and commercial energy storage installations.
The measure passed unanimously in the state Senate, and with a 101–11 vote in the House. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) is expected to sign SB 758 into law.
The bill offers up to $ 5,000 for residential installations, $ 150,000 for commercial installations, or 30% of the total cost of installations. Credits can only be claimed for systems installed between January 2018 and December 2022. The tax credit applies to all energy storage technologies.
Earlier this week, Maryland also passed HB 773, which calls for an energy storage technology study to determine how Maryland can use energy storage to open the path to a more reliable electric system.
According to the Energy Storage Association, in 2016, commercial deployment of energy storage systems grew more than 100% over the previous year and installed system costs plummeted another 30%.…