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Report Says More Nuclear Plants in Financial Trouble

May 15, 2018

A report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) says the financial struggles of U.S. nuclear power plants continue to increase, and it is likely more plants will be faced with early retirement. It’s another acknowledgement of the tough operating environment for nuclear facilities as gas-fired and renewable energy sources continue to grab more power generation market share in an era of lower electricity costs and slowing demand for electricity.

Nicholas Steckler, an analyst with BNEF, on May 15 said 24 of the more than 60 U.S. operating nuclear power plants are either set to close or will not be able to cover their operating costs through 2021. Steckler wrote in his report that those sites have total generation capacity of 32.5 MW, which is nearly a third of the nation’s total nuclear nameplate generation capacity of just above 100 MW, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

A 2016 POWER magazine report detailed the nuclear retirement picture at that time, and several more units have announced plans for premature closures over the past several months.…

PJM: More Than 3,600 MW Will Retire in 2018

April 5, 2018

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Data from regional transmission organization (RTO) PJM Interconnection shows about 630 MW of power generation will be taken offline in the grid operator’s territory in April, with more than 3,600 MW scheduled to be retired this year, according to the organization’s website. This month’s deactivations are scheduled to begin April 16.

Last week, Ohio power company FirstEnergy said its competitive arm would close four uneconomic nuclear units in PJM with generation capacity of 4 GW by year-end 2021. Then over the weekend, FirstEnergy’s coal and nuclear generation divisions filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

FirstEnergy Solutions (FES), FirstEnergy’s power plant subsidiary, on March 29 wrote a letter to Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Rick Perry, asking Perry to “find that an emergency condition exists” in PJM, and wanting the grid operator to compensate coal and nuclear plants in the RTO for their “fuel security and diversity” benefits—akin to the outline of the DOE’s “Grid Resiliency Pricing Rule” proffered last fall that directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to require that independent system operators (ISOs) and RTOs “establish just and reasonable rates for wholesale electricity sales” for power plants that show “reliability and resiliency attributes.”…

FPL Will Build New Gas Plant, Adds More Solar

March 5, 2018

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Florida regulators on March 1 approved Florida Power & Light’s (FPL’s) plan to build a new $ 888 million natural gas-fired power plant, replacing an existing gas- and oil-fueled plant on the same site in Dania Beach that is being retired this year. The utility on Thursday also announced the opening of four new solar power plants in Florida, joining four others that FPL opened in January of this year.

The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) supported FPL’s plan for the new 1,163-MW Dania Beach Clean Energy Center. The PSC said reusing infrastructure from the existing Lauderdale plant at the site was the most cost-effective way to lower emissions and meet rising demand for electricity in the region. The new facility will use the same gas infrastructure, substation, and transmission lines as the existing plant, and emissions will be 95% lower for nitrogen oxide and 22% lower for carbon dioxide, according to the PSC. Water used by the plant will drop by more than 1 million gallons a day, the PSC said.…

More Coal Units Being Mothballed in Indiana

February 27, 2018

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An Indiana utility has confirmed it will close three coal-fired power units, replacing that generation with a proposed natural gas-fired facility along with additional solar power.

Evansville, Indiana-based Vectren Corp., a holding company whose assets include Vectren Energy Delivery of Indiana-South, on February 20 released its Smart Energy Future strategic plan, designed to reduce Vectren’s carbon emissions by at least 60% from 2005 levels to comply with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations.

Vectren first talked about retiring coal-fired units in late 2016, a surprising move in a state that has long relied on coal for the bulk of its power generation, ranking second behind Texas in total coal consumption as recently as 2016, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). However, EIA notes how coal’s share of the state’s total electric power generation has fallen in recent years, and after decades of receiving more than 90% of its power from coal—as much as 98% in 1998—Indiana now receives about 71% of its electricity from coal, according to EIA data from 2016.…

FPL Closes Coal Plant, Brings More Solar Online

January 10, 2018

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Florida Power & Light (FPL) began the new year by opening four new solar power plants, along with officially retiring one of its two remaining coal-fired plants in the state.

The utility on January 8 said the four solar plants began operating on January 1, 2018. They are the Horizon Solar Energy Center, in Alachua and Putnam counties; the Coral Farms Solar Energy Center in Putnam County; the Indian River Solar Energy Center in Indian River County; and the Wildflower Solar Energy Center in DeSoto County. Each has a generation capacity of 74.5 MW.

The utility plans to add four more 74.5-MW solar plants to its generation fleet by March 1, 2018, sited in Brevard, Indian River, Hendry, and St. Lucie counties. FPL has installed more than 3.5 million new solar panels in the state over the past two years. It expects to have more than 10 million solar panels in service by 2023.

“The truth is progress like this doesn’t happen by accident,” Eric Silagy, FPL’s president and CEO, said in a statement.…

Two More Japan Nuclear Units Will be Decommissioned

December 24, 2017

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Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) announced it will permanently close two older nuclear reactors in Japan, rather than invest nearly 100 billion yen ($ 900 million) to bring the units up to the country’s new safety regulations. Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) created new standards for the country’s nuclear plants after the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March 2011.

KEPCO on December 22 said it will decommission reactors No. 1 and No. 2 at the Oi facility in central Japan over the next year. Each unit has a generation capacity of 1,175 MW. The reactors, which came online in March 1979 and December 1979 respectively, will be the largest decommissioned in the country since the Fukushima disaster, which occurred when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake caused a massive tsunami that flooded the Fukushima plant in the northeastern part of the country. The resulting release of radiation was the largest since the Chernobyl meltdown in Russia in 1986.

Japan idled all 50 of its remaining nuclear units after the Fukushima incident.…