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Tampa Electric Will Convert Big Bend Coal Plant to Natural Gas

January 14, 2018

An executive with the parent company of Tampa Electric said the utility plans to seek regulatory approval to convert its Big Bend Power Station in Florida, the oldest and last major coal-fired facility in its fleet, to natural gas.

Rob Bennett, speaking at a breakfast gathering in Tampa on January 12, said an engineering analysis of the switch has been underway for a few years. “It’s a big decision,” said Bennett, who was named CEO of newly formed Emera Technologies last month after overseeing Emera Inc.’s integration with TECO Energy, which Emera Inc. acquired in July 2016. TECO has operated Tampa Electric for many years. “It has to work. It has to make sense for 35 or 40 years,” Bennett said of the plan.

Big Bend has four coal-fired units, the first of which came online in 1970; Unit 4 began operation in 1985. The 1,730-MW plant in Apollo Beach, south of Tampa across Tampa Bay, has a troubled history; most recently, five workers at the plant, including a senior plant manager and four contract workers, were killed in an accident June 29, 2017, which occurred as the workers were trying to clean hardened slag, a by-product of burning coal, from the bottom of a tank where slag cools.…

CPUC Backs PG&E Plan to Retire Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant

January 12, 2018

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California regulators have approved Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E’s) application to retire the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant by year-end 2025, ending a protracted battle over the generating station that pitted local economic interests against environmentalists and other opponents of nuclear power.

The state Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on January 11 voted unanimously to accept PG&E’s request to decommission the two reactors at the plant near Avila Beach when operating licenses for the units expire in November 2024 and August 2025, respectively. The 2,256-MW plant is the lone remaining operating nuclear facility in California.

The CPUC also authorized PG&E to recover from ratepayers $ 241.2 million in costs associated with the retirement: $ 211.3 million to keep employees until the plant in closed; $ 11.3 million to retrain displaced workers; and $ 18.6 million for operating license renewal costs.

CPUC President Michael Picker, the commissioner assigned to today’s proceeding, said “Diablo Canyon has been a source of reliable and clean electricity, and employment, in San Luis Obispo [County] for many years now.…

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.…

Oman Starts Power Plant as Part of New Energy Development

December 16, 2017

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Oman recently began operating a Wärtsilä-built power plant in the northern part of the country, part of more than $ 1 billion in power and energy projects being developed in the Arab nation. The Musandam Independent Power Project (IPP) is a 120-MW natural gas-fired plant (Figure 1) that can use light fuel oil as a secondary fuel. It is the first plant to be inaugurated as part of the Musandam Power Company (MPC), a consortium of Oman Oil Company (OOC)—which holds 70% of MPC shares—and LG International Corporation, a South Korean energy supplier and developer. The MPC was created to encourage energy-related development in Oman through both foreign and domestic investment.

Salim Al Hashmi, project director for MPC, at a mid-November ceremony officially opening the IPP said “This plant is a central part of the major integrated development of the Musandam Governorate. The project will play a significant role in meeting the power needs of the region’s current and upcoming industries, while at the same time benefiting the local community.”…

Another Coal-fired Plant Will Close in Wisconsin

December 4, 2017

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WEC Energy Group continues to move away from coal-fired power in its portfolio. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based utility in November gave WEC investors more details about the plan for Wisconsin Public Service (WPS), a WEC subsidiary, to close the Pulliam Power Plant in Green Bay, Wisconsin, as early as next fall.

WEC subsidiary We Energies last week said it will close its coal-fired Pleasant Prairie plant in the second quarter of 2018. WEC also in 2016 signed an agreement to replace coal units at the its Presque Isle plant in Michigan with natural gas-fired generation; Michigan regulators approved that plan in October of this year. That plant in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is operated by WEC subsidiary Upper Michigan Energy Resources.

Plans for the Pulliam plant’s eventual closure were first announced in October 2016, according to Matt Cullen, a spokesman for WPS. The plant began service in 1927, and at one time had eight coal-fired generating units; it operates two today. The plant is located at the mouth of the Fox River in Green Bay.…

India Launches Probe of Power Plant Blast; Death Toll at 36

November 14, 2017

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India’s Power Ministry has established a committee to investigate the November 1 explosion at NTPC’s thermal power plant in Unchahar. The death toll from the blast is at 36, and dozens more workers at the plant were injured when flue gases and steam were released from a 500-MW coal-fired unit at the plant. Several remain hospitalized with severe burns.

The investigative panel was created November 6 by order of the Power Ministry, under a provision of the country’s Electricity Act 2003. It is led by P.D. Siwal, a thermal power expert from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). The Power Ministry said it wants a report from the committee within the next month, and would like a report on the cause of the blast within the next week. The agency also asked the committee to “fix responsibility for lapses, if any,” and “to suggest remedial measures to avoid recurrence of such incidents in future.”

Other members of the investigating committee are Subir Chakraborty, director of projects for Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd.…