Hannah Murphy, Apr 13, 2021 Millions of “internet of things” devices using software from groups including Siemens and Microsoft contain security flaws that could be used to compromise government servers or hospitals, new research has found. Read more
Transmission strategy takes shape as Congress, FERC press ahead with reforms
Zack Hale, 12 Apr 2021 A package of far-reaching reforms to expand the nation’s high-voltage electric transmission system is coming into focus as congressional Democrats begin drafting legislation in line with U.S. President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure vision. Read more
US fusion company expects commercial fusion power plant by the end of the decade
12 April 2021 California-based TAE Technologies said on 8 April that it had raised an additional $280 million for its reactor-scale demonstration fusion facility to support the final step toward its commercialisation. The private fusion energy company announced a technology milestone by producing stable plasma at more than 50 million degrees…
Texas’ new set of electricity regulators begins to take shape in wake of deep freeze, power outages
By Robert T. Garrett, Apr 12, 2021 A new set of Texas electricity regulators began to take shape Monday, as Gov. Greg Abbott nominated a finance expert to be the next chairman of the Public Utility Commission while his earlier choice of a PUC member moved toward Senate confirmation. Read more
Global wind market sets records for new installations and orders in 2020
Global wind market sets records for new installations and orders in 2020 Energize Weekly, April 14, 2021 Wind turbine orders and installations soared to new records in 2020, despite the pandemic, according to new market reports from BloombergNEF and Wood Mackenzie. Orders for wind turbine capacity reached nearly 100 gigawatts…
7 Big Winners From Biden’s American Jobs Plan
By Alex Sirois, Apr 6, 2021 President Joe Biden introduced his American Jobs Plan on March 31. The plan outlines $2.251 trillion of estimated spending to improve the country and jobs for Americans. It is divided into four major sectors: infrastructure at home, transportation infrastructure, research and development (R&D), workforce development and manufacturing, and…
Records reveal Entergy’s role in stalling MISO transmission planning
Daniel Tait • April 5, 2021 Entergy coordinated closely with Mississippi Public Service Commission staff and the Commission’s outside consultants to stall regional transmission projects, potentially blocking its customers’ access to lower-cost wind energy from outside Entergy’s service territory and placing them at greater risk of future power outages. Read more
New partnership announced to build nation’s first advanced nuclear reactor in Tri-Cities
by Samantha Spitz, Thursday, April 1st 2021 Energy leaders announced a new partnership for the development of the country’s first advanced nuclear reactor, right here in the Tri-Cities. Energy Northwest, Grant County Public Utility District (PUD) and X-energy LLC are working together to build a Xe-100 advanced nuclear power plant…
FPL, Gulf Power detail gas-fired, solar and energy storage plans for decade
By Rod Walton – 4.2.2021 NextEra Energy utilities Florida Power & Light and Gulf Power are taking steps to cut down their carbon emissions dramatically this year through 2030, but they are not forsaking fossil or conventional generation completely. Read more
U.S. cities and towns made deals for a record 3.7 gigawatts of renewables in 2020
Energize Weekly, April 7, 2021 Cities and towns across the U.S. installed or purchased a record 3.7 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity in 2020, a 23 percent increase over 2019, according to the clean energy consultant, RMI. The RMI analysis was based on data from the Local Government Renewables Action…
Manufacturing Firms Learn Cybersecurity the Hard Way
3/29/2021, Robert Lemos Although 61% of smart factories have experienced a cybersecurity incident, IT groups and operational technology groups still don’t collaborate enough on security. Read more
Biden administration plans major reboot for U.S. offshore wind power
March 29, 2021 By Josh Lederman The offshore wind industry is getting a major boost from the Biden administration as the White House aims to reinvigorate a potential source of renewable, emissions-free electricity that has never fully taken off in the United States. Read more
Utilities continue to increase spending on the electric transmission system
MARCH 26, 2021 Annual spending by major U.S. electric utilities on the U.S. electric transmission system has increased from $9.1 billion (2019 dollars) in 2000 to $40.0 billion in 2019. This spending includes investment in new transmission infrastructure as well as the operation and maintenance of existing transmission systems. Read…
Nebraska utility could slash emissions at little or no added cost, studies show
by Karen Uhlenhuth, March 29, 2021 Nebraska’s largest electric utility could dramatically reduce carbon emissions over the next three decades at little or no cost to ratepayers, according to a pair of recent reports prepared for the utility’s board of directors. The path — and cost — of completely eliminating emissions…
Biden Looking to Big Infrastructure Spending Deal
By Ken Bredemeier March 23, 2021 With money from the $1.9 trillion U.S. coronavirus relief deal beginning to course through the world’s biggest economy, President Joe Biden’s economic advisers are preparing an even bigger economic stimulus, a possible $3 trillion package to repair the country’s aging infrastructure and — they…
BMW and PG&E team up to prepare the electric grid for millions of EVs
Aria Alamalhodae • March 22, 2021 BMW Group and California utility Pacific Gas & Electric are rolling out the next phase of a pilot that aims to test — and learn — how electric vehicles could support the integration of renewable energy on the electric grid. Read more…
Bills to defend Wyoming’s coal industry clear House, head to Senate
Camille Erickson, Mar 22, 2021 An effort by lawmakers to defend Wyoming’s leading industry gained ground Monday after a pair of bills aimed at slowing coal plant closures cleared the House. Read more
State Regulators Announce Limits to Eversource Cost Recovery
BY BRENDAN CROWLEY MARCH 20, 2021 Eversource will be prevented from recovering a large portion of the costs of Tropical Storm Isaias, state utility regulators announced Friday evening in a draft decision based on an investigation into widespread and lengthy power outages stemming from the August storm. Read more
U.S. set a record for solar installations in 2020, a record poised to fall in 2021
Energize Weekly, March 24, 2021 Solar installations in the U.S., even in the face of the pandemic economy, set a record in 2020 with 19.2 gigawatts (GW) of capacity – a 43 percent increase over 2019, according to an industry market report. “The year 2020 was a record-setting year for…
Pacific Gas & Electric surpasses Californiaʻs renewable energy standard
Published on March 11, 2021 by Dave Kovaleski Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) delivered more than 35 percent renewable energy to customers in 2020, exceeding the goal of 33 percent established by the California Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS). More than 88 percent of the electricity PG&E delivered to its customers…
The cost of power grid independence
Jim Redden, March 15, 2021 Being a leading producer of any commodity means little if you’re unable to faithfully distribute it to your customers. The state of Texas failed that elementary business principle in spectacular fashion during February’s historic deep freeze. Read more
Ohio House votes to kill scandal-tainted nuclear bailout
Jim Provance, Wed, March 11, 2021 The Ohio House on Wednesday voted 86-7 to repeal provisions of a law now tainted by scandal that would have financially benefited Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. as well as two northern Ohio nuclear power plants. Read more
U.S. Congress launches probe into multibillion-dollar ‘clean coal’ tax credit
By Tim McLaughlin, MARCH 15, 2021 The U.S. Congress is investigating a multibillion-dollar subsidy for chemically treated coal that is meant to reduce smokestack pollution, after evidence emerged that power plants using the fuel produced more smog not less. Read more
Electric grid threatened by climate change, federal agencies need to do more, GAO says
Energize Weekly, March 17, 2021 Climate change – the heat waves, flooding, droughts, and hurricanes it may bring – poses a multibillion-dollar threat to the country’s aging electric grid, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Without significant efforts to upgrade the grid and make it…
House E&C Democrats question ERCOT CEO over response to Texas winter storm, outages
Published on March 08, 2021 by Chris Galford Leaders from the House Energy and Commerce Committee (E&C) have written to Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) President and CEO Bill Magness seeking answers about the organization’s failures during the recent deadly winter storm. Read more
The U.S. Grid Isn’t Ready For A Major Shift To Renewables
By Irina Slav – Mar 03, 2021 The blame game for the massive power outages in Texas last month continues. The dominant argument is that renewables had an ignorable part to play in the crisis, with natural gas and coal the indirect culprits due to their reduced availability resulting from infrastructure freezing…
Bill Gates’s next-gen nuclear plant packs in grid-scale energy storage
By Loz Blain, March 08, 2021 Wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, wave energy … Renewable sources are a crucial pillar of any plan to decarbonize the world’s energy generation industries and eliminate fossil fuel use. But for many reasons – intermittency, location dependency, land requirements, and others – they can’t do…
Alabama Power hailed as national model for innovative broadband partnerships, expansion efforts
Sean Ross, March 2, 2021 Alabama Power Company in recent days was the focus of a joint webinar organized by the Edison Electric Institute and the National League of Cities (NLC), as the kick-off to NLC’s Emerging Tech Webinar Series. The webinar featured a remote panel discussion moderated by John Smola,…
The $7 Trillion Cost Of Upgrading The U.S. Power Grid
By Leonard Hyman & William Tilles – Feb 25, 2021 We have just witnessed the damage caused by poorly designed energy grids—rolling blackouts, skyrocketing electricity prices, people sleeping in their cars and in one insulated room to keep warm. At the same time a weaponized right wing media swings into action blaming…
Georgia Power Issues Sustainability Bond: First for a US Utility
MARCH 1, 2021 BY EMILY HOLBROOK Georgia Power has announced its first sustainability bond, and the first sustainability bond for a domestic utility in the United States. Bond proceeds will be allocated to fund the company’s environmental, renewable, and social initiatives. The 3.25% coupon represents the lowest 30-year coupon for a publicly traded bond ever…
Xcel Energy plans to transform its Colorado grid, boosting renewables and closing coal plants
Energize Weekly, March 3, 2021 Xcel Energy – in one of the country’s most sweeping initiatives to reconfigure a gird – has announced an $8 billion plan to double its renewable energy generation and storage in Colorado, add transmission and close all its coal-fired power plants in the state by…
Hitachi ABB Power Grids Drives Power Sector Upgrades with Smart Digital Substations
FEB 23, 2021 The Smart Digital Substation answers rising demand and complexity from distributed energy resources. Read more
Utilities seek $19.2 million pollution control for Columbia coal plant, set to close by 2025
Chris Hubbuch | Wisconsin State Journal, Feb 18, 2021 The owners of the Columbia Energy Center are proposing to spend $19 million to prevent groundwater contamination as they move to close the coal-fired power plant near Portage in the next four years. Read more
Collapse of the natural gas system from wellhead to turbine fueled Texas’ blackout
Energize Weekly, February 24, 2021 The near collapse of Texas’ electric grid was caused in the main by a failure of the natural gas system from the wellhead to pipeline to gas turbine, according to an analysis by the International Energy Agency (IEA). “Texas has a power shortage because it…
New reports affirm cybersecurity war is not being won
By Phil Hall, February 16, 2021 Despite the best efforts by technology experts, the cybersecurity war continues to rage and digital miscreants still have the upper hand in their assaults on corporate, government and individual targets. Read more
Texas’ power grid crumples under the cold
JOHN TIMMER – 2/15/2021, 12:59 PM Monday morning, as a jet stream brought frigid air south to the central United States, Texas residents found themselves facing rolling blackouts as the statewide grid struggled to meet demand amid a large shortfall in generating capacity. Read more
No abnormalities found at Fukushima nuclear power plants
ANI, 14th February 2021 Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide on Sunday said that no tsunami accompanied the earthquake that struck Saturday Fukushima Prefecture and no abnormalities were found at nuclear power plants in the affected region. Read more
California Utilities Will Buy More Energy, Hike Rates to Avoid Blackouts: CPUC
By Olga R. Rodriguez • Published February 12, 2021 Utilities will be allowed to buy extra energy and pass on the costs to customers in order to avoid a repeat of rolling blackouts that kicked in last summer when demand outpaced supply, California regulators said Thursday. Read more
Telecommunication companies must provide backup power during PSPS outages, CPUC says
By JESSE KATHAN, CORRESPONDENT, February 14, 2021 Requirement is intended to protect elderly and disabled customers when wildfires disrupt service. Read more
European oil companies changing names and shifting their focus to alternative energy
Energize Weekly, February 17, 2021 European oil companies are continuing their push to reorient and rebrand themselves as comprehensive energy companies and not just producers of oil and natural gas. On Feb. 9, French oil company Total announced it was changing its name to TotalEnergies to reflect a broader strategy…
LiveEO Performs Satellite-Based Vegetation Risk Analysis of Entire U.S. Electric Transmission Grid
T&D World, FEB 08, 2021 For the first time in history, vegetation encroachment risk to the entire publicly available U.S. transmission grid has been analyzed from space by the Berlin-based start-up LiveEO. The analysis covers the detection of vegetation along the transmission grid, as well as the identification of grid segments…
Coal and COVID-19: How pandemic is accelerating the end of fossil power generation
ANI, February 09, 2021 COVID-19 has not only caused a temporary drop in global CO2 emissions, but it has also reduced the share of power generated by burning coal – a trend that could, in fact, outlast the pandemic. This is the key result of a new study by a team of economists…
U.S. energy consumption will take years to rebound from pandemic, EIA says
Energize Weekly, February 10, 2021 It will take years for U.S. energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions to return to 2019 levels after the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country’s economy and the global energy sector, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). Energy consumption in…
Nuclear Backers Already Like Joe Biden
BY CAROLINE DELBERT, FEB 1, 2021 Scientists say rejoining the Paris Agreement is a good start. Where else does nuclear fit under the president’s energy plan? Read more
Coal to Exit From U.S. Power System by 2033, Morgan Stanley Says
By Will Wade, February 1, 2021 Coal is on track to disappear from the U.S. power grid by 2033 as the push for a carbon-free electricity system gains strength, according to Morgan Stanley. The fossil fuel will be supplanted largely by renewables, which will supply 39% of U.S. electricity in 2030 and…
SPP launches Western Energy Imbalance Service real-time balancing market
Energize Weekly, February 3, 2021 Regional transmission organization (RTO) Southwest Power Pool (SPP) launched its Western Energy Imbalance Service (WEIS) on Monday, Feb. 1. The WEIS includes parts of Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The real-time balancing market is expected to decrease wholesale electricity costs, increase price…
La Plata Electric Association joins contract buyout lawsuit in Adams County
By Patrick Armijo Education, business & real estate reporter, Jan. 24, 2021 1:30 PM La Plata Electric Association has joined a civil lawsuit initially filed by United Power of Brighton claiming Tri-State Generation and Transmission broke Colorado law by adding three nonutility members so it would become federally regulated. Read more
Energized Leadership: 7 Leadership Books That Will Revolutionize Your Office
By Katherine Rundell, January 27, 2021 Leadership is a characteristic surrounded by myths – the best leaders give off an aura of permanence and solidity that can make it seem like they were born that way, designated leaders from birth. In truth, leaders are made, not born and increasingly we’re…
U.S. wind and solar generation set to soar in 2021, as coal-fired and nuclear plants close
Energize Weekly, January 27, 2021 The U.S. electricity generation fleet will continue its transformation in 2021 with wind and solar dominating new installations and nuclear and coal-fired plants steadily being retired, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). Power plant developers and utilities are planning for 39.7 gigawatts (GW)…
Duke Energy Florida proposes plan to revamp energy grid
By Malena Carollo, Published Jan. 16 Duke Energy Florida is asking regulators for permission to begin implementing a sweeping plan centered around renewable energy. Filed late Thursday, its proposal would revamp its energy grid and hasten the retirement of its coal plants. Read more
