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Wall Street Journal ($): The only nuclear-power plant under construction in the U.S. is facing delays and additional costs. Again. Earlier this week, an engineering expert working for the Georgia Public Service Commission testified that the startup of the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant would likely be delayed until the summer of 2022 and […]
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Bloomberg ($): The red-and-white flue stacks of the James M. Barry Electric Generating Station tower over the Mobile River, belching steam into the Alabama sky. The sprawling complex of coal and natural gas plants already spews more than 7.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent every year. Now it’s about to get even bigger, with […]
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S&P Global Market Intelligence: Nearly one-third of the power generation resources planned to come into service in the U.S. in 2021 is located in the Electric Reliability Council Of Texas Inc. market, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis. Overall, 63,667 MW of new resources are projected to come into service, while 10,693 MW […]
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E&E News ($): Southern Co.’s Mississippi Power subsidiary will close the last of its coal-fired power plants, as well as aging, inefficient natural gas ones, as part of its first-ever comprehensive long-term energy plan released Friday. The move followed a directive from the Mississippi Public Service Commission, which told the electric company to cut 950 […]
Press Release and Dennis Wamsted
More realistic estimates would undercut case for new gas-fired generation
February 3, 2021 (IEEFA) — Forecasts used by Duke Energy that predict steadily rising demand for electricity in the Carolinas ignore the company’s sales history in the past 15 years, which have been essentially flat, and should be challenged by state regulators, according to a new study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial […]
Press Release and Dennis Wamsted
Combined-cycle plants would be forced to retire well before end of operating life to meet 2050 net-zero goal
January 26, 2021 (IEEFA) — A pair of integrated resource plans (IRPs) for Duke Energy’s two North Carolina utilities rely heavily on the construction of gas-fired power plants that would have to be retired long before the end of their life span, according to a new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial […]
Dennis Wamsted
Unneeded projects, if they go forward, will likely end up as stranded assets
Investors should think twice before putting any money into two proposed natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plants in central Virginia. The rapidly moving transition to non-fossil generation resources is almost certain to turn the two plants, which would be only a mile apart, into stranded assets well before the end of their normal life expectancies. The […]
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S&P Global Market Intelligence ($): Mississippi Power Co. must study the early retirement of 950 MW of fossil-fueled generation in its next integrated resource plan, or IRP, as Mississippi regulators find the utility needs to reduce excess capacity. “The evidence in this docket suggests that [Mississippi Power’s] current reserve margin is projected to be higher […]
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S&P Global Market Intelligence ($): Long-term credit risks to natural gas infrastructure investments are rising, as the public’s growing focus on decarbonization threatens to reduce gas use through 2050, according to Moody’s. Pipeline permitting obstacles, local electrification efforts and state climate goals are all raising operating risks and the cost of capital requirements, Moody’s said […]
Dennis Wamsted and Seth Feaster
Bowen and Scherer, the two largest coal-fired power plants in the U.S., lost out to cheaper—and greener—alternatives
Fresh data from the Energy Information Administration points to the monumental nature of the transition under way in the U.S. utility sector and localizes it dramatically in Georgia, where utility-scale solar and hydropower for the first time generated more electricity than coal during the first half of the year. This is of special note because […]
IEEFA U.S.: Duke IRPs overstate likely future demand growth
More realistic estimates would undercut case for new gas-fired generationFebruary 3, 2021 (IEEFA) — Forecasts used by Duke Energy that predict steadily rising demand for electricity in the Carolinas ignore the company’s sales history in the past 15 years, which have been essentially flat, and should be challenged by state regulators, according to a new study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial […]