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Vogtle Nuclear Expansion Price Tag Tops $30 Billion

May 10, 2022

An updated financial report from one of the owners of the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion in Georgia shows the cost to build two new reactors has now topped $ 30 billion, more than double the original price tag expected for the project.

The Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG), one of four groups with an ownership stake in the Vogtle expansion, on May 6 raised its total cost forecast for the project to $ 7.8 billion, up from $ 7.5 billion. The group’s updated figures, when combined with cost estimates from the other owners, push the cost to build two new 1,100-MW reactors at the site in Waynesboro, Georgia, to at least $ 30.3 billion.

The owners’ updated cost estimate does not include the $ 3.68 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid to the project’s owners after Westinghouse declared bankruptcy, putting total spending for the expansion in the range of $ 34 billion.

More Cost Overruns

MEAG, which provides power to city-owned utilities, owns 22.7% of Vogtle.…

Power Restoration Continues After Ida; Storm’s Death Toll Tops 60

September 5, 2021

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The post Power Restoration Continues After Ida; Storm’s Death Toll Tops 60 appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Power restoration efforts continue along the Gulf Coast and in the U.S. Northeast, as utilities work to bring electricity back to areas in Louisiana hit hard by Hurricane Ida, and around New York City and New England due to heavy rainfall from remnants of the storm.

The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) in a Sept. 3 update said just more than 900,000 customers remained without power early Friday, with more than 90% of those in Louisiana, most located in the area in and around New Orleans.

Ida made landfall in the early afternoon of Aug. 29 near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, as a Category 4 hurricane. Officials have said Ida tied for the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the U.S. mainland.

The storm weakened as it moved inland over the next few days, but produced heavy rainfall that resulted in flash flooding in the Northeast on Sept.…

GE Tops MHPS, Siemens in 1Q Turbine Orders

May 15, 2019

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General Electric, Siemens, and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems confirmed their gas turbine sales for the year’s first quarter, with GE taking the top spot with six orders for its advanced HA-class unit.

The three companies on May 14 confirmed the numbers to Reuters. GE, which had no sales in the same period a year ago, said its total includes three units purchased by Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co. Those units were not included in the company’s first-quarter earnings report, but were noted in the industry’s closely studied “McCoy Power Report,” which was published Tuesday. McCoy has not commented on the report.

Sources told Reuters, and the companies confirmed, that MHPS had five turbine orders in the first quarter, while Siemens had four.

The three companies have struggled to book turbine orders in recent years as the power industry moves toward renewable generation resources such as wind and solar. Each company has rolled out new, more-efficient models in an effort to gain market share.…

Gas Now Tops Coal in PJM, but Nuclear Still No. 1

March 20, 2019

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A report from an independent market monitor for PJM Interconnection shows that natural gas-fired power generation topped coal-fired output in PJM in 2018, the first time that gas has topped coal in the history of the largest U.S. grid operator.

The “2018 State of the Market” report from Monitoring Analytics LLC, which includes Volume 1 and Volume 2, was released March 14. It showed that while nuclear power continues to lead PJM electricity production, at 34.2%, natural gas-fired generation accounted for 30.6% of PJM’s power mix last year, while coal-fired units provided 28.6% of the region’s power.

The report showed that gas-fired generation in PJM rose by more than 18% in 2018. Coal generation dropped by 6.6%, and nuclear generation fell by 0.5%.

PJM serves 65 million people in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia.

“This winter confirms what we have been seeing in PJM recently,” said PJM President and CEO Andrew L. Ott in a March 18 news release.…

MHPS Tops GE, Siemens in Gas Turbine Market

May 5, 2018

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A report from Barclays Plc said Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) received more than half of all global orders for gas-fueled turbines in the first quarter of 2018, the company’s best-ever performance in a market that has seen traditional gas turbine manufacturers struggle in recent months.

The market report from the London, UK-based multinational investment bank was released May 3. It said Germany-based Siemens AG had 26% of global orders in 1Q2018, with Boston, Mass.-based General Electric (GE)—long the leader in worldwide turbine sales—seeing its share drop to 14%. GE CEO John Flannery, who took the reins of the company last year and immediately set out to restructure its operations, has said GE was slow in recognizing slowing demand for gas-fueled turbines. Flannery has changed the leadership of the company’s struggling Power division and said the group needs a “right-sizing” for market structure, including changes to portfolio, supply chain, and supply base by 2020.

Flannery’s outline for changes came at almost the same time in November 2017 as Siemens announced it would consolidate its power divisions and cut 6,900 jobs.…