NuScale Power [NYSE:SMR], the nation’s most mature purveyor of small modular nuclear power plants, has lost its only valid customer, raising doubts about the Oregon company’s continued existence. The company announced Wednesday (Nov. 8) that Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) has cancelled its contract for the “Carbon Free Power Project” after being unable to… More Is NuScale Headed for Collapse?
Voters in Maine yesterday (Nov. 7) resoundingly rejected creating a statewide public power system to replace the Pine Tree State’s two investor-owned electric distribution utilities, CMP and Versant. Question 3 on the statewide ballot would have created Pine Tree Power Co., a state-wide transmission and distribution retail utility governed by an elected board. The new… More Mainers Chop Down Pine Tree Power
Texas and Maine voters tomorrow (Nov. 7) face contested energy-related ballot initiatives with billion dollar price tags. In Texas, Proposition 7 would amend the state constitution to create a $10 billion Texas Energy Fund, administered by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, to build and refurbish gas-fired electric generating plants, a response to the state’s… More Texas, Maine Face Billion Dollar Ballots Tuesday
In a long-running environmental dispute between the federal government and the state of Alabama, Alabama Power, a Southern Co. utility, is facing potential costs of billions of dollars to clean up its coal ash ponds. Disposing of coal combustion residues is a problem going back decades, and Alabama Power is likely to become the most… More Alabama Power, TVA Face Big Coal Ash Cleanup Costs
Georgia Power, the largest of Atlanta-based holding company Southern Co. utilities, has unveiled an updated integrated resource plan (IRP) almost certain to generate new controversy for a utility mired in controversy for more than a decade over its investment in large, new nuclear units. The company’s push for new natural gas generation will generate new… More Georgia Power Goes Big on Gas
Electric vehicles, which many have viewed as a key to a low-carbon future, have seen their sales and financial conditions booming for the past several years. Now the bright EV prospects are fading a bit. Bears are ravaging Tesla’s stock. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has fallen 50% from its all-time highs, which rose over 116% from its… More Is the Accelerating EV Business Slowing Down?
San Francisco’s Pacific Gas & Electric – devastated by recent wildfires – is looking to bury some 10,000 miles of electric transmission lines over the next decade in order to prevent its often elderly overhead equipment from starting fires, at a cost of $15 billion to $30 billion, according to NBC Bay Area News. The… More Transmission Tales: PG&E Underground, Texas Transmission Autarky, State Interconnection Rules
“Perhaps the single greatest risk to a successful energy transition during the 2020s is the risk that the nation fails to site, modernize, and build out the electrical grid.” That is a conclusion of a major National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report released last Friday (Oct. 19). The report added, “Except where new… More National Academies: No Transmission, No Transition
Despite the vilification and the billions of dollars being spent on alternative supplies of energy, fossil fuels are far from vanquished. Oil and gas are doing well in the U.S., and coal is holding its own. This morning (Oct. 20), Chevron announced it is buying Hess Corp. in an all-stock deal worth $53 billion ($171/share).… More Fossil Fuels Flexing Muscles as Chevron Buys Hess
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission yesterday (Oct. 19) moved to make the conversion from direct current based renewable generation seamlessly integrated into the alternating current electric transmission grid. FERC’s new rule, according to an agency news release, “directs the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to develop a suite of new or modified reliability standards that… More FERC Mandates AC-DC Matchmaking