Energy storage is a hot topic in California, where lawmakers are mandating that the state’s three biggest utility companies provide 33% of their electrical energy from renewable sources by 2020. Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric are mandated to buy a total of at least 1300 MW of energy storage to help make the plan work.
In a move that appears to have surprised power-market observers, the U.S. Supreme Court last month agreed to decide whether a state can offer subsidies for powerplant construction to provide needed capacity—without infringing on the authority of federal regulators and distorting the wholesale price of electricity.
Entergy Corp. says it would be premature to discuss the contract delivery method or whether the New Orleans-based energy firm would request competitive bids for decommissioning work at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass.
Officials of both the buyer and seller are mum about the construction required to restore to full operation Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Torrance, Calif., oil refinery, which lost 80% of its capacity in a February 2015 explosion.
The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corp. has agreed to provide as much as $400 million in aid for a $700-million, 100-mw solar thermal power project in South Africa.
The first of the 4,764-MW Medupi coal-fired powerplant's six units commenced commercial operations in South Africa in September, almost six months after it was synchronized to the national grid and three years after it initially was set to be operational.
Canada's National Energy Board is evaluating Kinder Morgan's application to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline, but Burnaby, British Columbia, has asked that the environmental permitting and review process — meant to set the stage for the $5.4-billion project — be scrapped completely because of the recent appointment of Steven Kelly, a former Kinder consultant, to the NEB.
Two major transmission projects to boost renewable-energy delivery in the West and New England moved forward this month, as one market analyst forecast a steady market ahead, albeit with some obstacles.
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