Job fair comes back to the Ohio Valley Mall – Martins Ferry Times Leader
Job fair comes back to the Ohio Valley Mall Martins Ferry Times Leader
“job” – Google News…
Your Source for Energy Jobs & Industry News
Job fair comes back to the Ohio Valley Mall Martins Ferry Times Leader
“job” – Google News…
Ohio lawmakers on April 12 announced a plan to provide financial support to the state’s two nuclear power plants by adding a surcharge to customers’ electric bills. The bill’s supporters said it also would generate as much as $ 300 million annually for clean power generation in Ohio, though the measure calls for abolishing mandates for renewable energy.
House Speaker Larry Householder (R), leader of the state’s Republican-controlled House that is backing the bill, said the proposal—called the Ohio Clean Air Program (OCAP) —would do more than save the nuclear plants. About half the money raised by the surcharge would go to Davis-Besse nuclear plant near Toledo and the Perry plant near Cleveland.
The nuclear plants are scheduled to close by 2021 unless operator FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) can find a buyer for the plants or financial relief to keep them open. FES sought bankruptcy protection in March 2018, just after the company notified regional transmission organization (RTO) PJM Interconnection that it would close four uneconomic nuclear units—a total of 4 GW, including the two Ohio plants—in the RTO’s footprint.…
American Electric Power (AEP) this week confirmed it will close its coal-fired Conesville Power Plant in Ohio earlier than originally planned. An AEP spokesperson in an email to media confirmed the plant’s workers were told October 5 that the plant will close by May 31, 2020.
AEP said Units 5 and 6 at the plant, which were originally scheduled to shut down in 2022, will likely close in May 2019. Unit 4 is scheduled to close in May 2020. Those three units began commercial operation between 1973 and 1978.
The first unit at the plant began operating in Coshocton County in 1957, with Unit 2 starting up in 1959, and Unit 3 in 1962. The plant celebrated its 60th anniversary last year. Those three units were decommissioned between 2005 and 2012.
The company said the decision to close the remaining units earlier than planned was made after the plant did not clear the PJM market capacity auction for 2021 to 2022, and only partly cleared the auction for 2020 to 2021.…
Ohio-based FirstEnergy’s plan for a rescue of its two uncompetitive Ohio nuclear plants took a nosedive May 17, as the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee suspended action on the company’s proposal to charge its customers a fee to subsidize the plants.
FirstEnergy’s plan mimics programs adopted in Illinois and New York to create “zero energy credits,” or ZECs, allowing the company to make competitive bids into the PJM regional wholesale market.
The chairman of the House committee, William Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican, suspended further hearings on the measure (House Bill 178). “We have heard over 10 hours of testimony on this bill. I have given proponents and opponents a chance to make their case. I am not sensing a keen desire on the part of the House members to vote on this and doubt that we will have more hearings in the near future unless something cataclysmic happens,” Seitz said.
Cleveland newspaper The Plain Dealer suggested “cataclysmic events might include a decision by FirstEnergy Solutions to seek bankruptcy protection from its creditors or a decision by the company to immediately close its four nuclear power plants.”…
AES subsidiary Dayton Power & Light (DP&L) confirmed on March 20 that it will close two of its coal-fired plants by 2018 because they have become uneconomic.
The Ohio utility announced its intent to close the two plants in January as part of a settlement over its future reliability planning. The plan had been contested by a variety of parties and environmental groups. DP&L agreed to close the plants and shift its power mix toward more renewable energy. Monday’s announcement makes the move official.
AES purchased the two plants, J.M. Stuart Station and Killen Station, from Duke’s merchant generation arm in 2014. Killen is a single-unit, 618-MW plant in Wrightsville that began operations in 1982. Stuart, a four-unit, 2,318-MW plant in Aberdeen, first came online in 1969. DP&L owns 35% of Stuart and 67% of Killen.
According to local media, the closure may not quite be a done deal. Coal mining firm Murray Energy, which supplies coal to the plants and stands to lose a substantial amount of business if they shut down, is contesting the settlement with the Ohio Public Utilities Commission.…
In an effort to become a fully regulated power company, American Electric Power (AEP) has agreed to sell four Midwestern power plants—representing a total of 5.2 GW—to a newly formed joint venture of Blackstone and ArcLight Capital Partners for about $ 2.17 billion.
AEP will sell:
All generating capacity is located in the region served by PJM Interconnection.
The sale is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017, but it is subject to regulatory approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, and federal clearance pursuant to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, AEP said.
Moving on Out
Efforts to formalize a power purchase agreement that would have supported continued operation of AEP and FirstEnergy generation capacity in Ohio were punctured by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on April 27, though the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) had blessed the deal just a month before.…