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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 […]
IEEFA
S&P Global Market Intelligence ($): Mississippi Power Co. must study the early retirement of 950 MW of fossil-fueled generation in its next integrated resource plan, or IRP, as Mississippi regulators find the utility needs to reduce excess capacity. “The evidence in this docket suggests that [Mississippi Power’s] current reserve margin is projected to be higher […]
IEEFA
S&P Global Market Intelligence ($): 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
The Guardian: A Nordic hedge fund worth more than $90bn (£68.6bn) has dumped its stocks in some of the world’s biggest oil companies and miners responsible for lobbying against climate action. Storebrand, a Norwegian asset manager, divested from miner Rio Tinto as well as US oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron as part of a new […]
IEEFA
Greentech Media: Legal challenges halted several major pipeline projects across the U.S. in recent days, underscoring a seismic shift facing the U.S. utility industry: the rise of renewables as a potentially less costly and risky alternative to fossil fuels. Over the weekend Dominion Energy and Duke Energy, two of the country’s biggest utilities, canceled their Atlantic […]
IEEFA
Utility Dive: Plant Scherer in Georgia — for years, the highest capacity coal-fired plant in the U.S. — will lose one of its four units to retirement, a sign that even the largest coal power plants are not immune to the economic pressures driving down coal’s standing in the U.S. generation mix. On Friday the […]
IEEFA
Greentech Media: It will be feasible to power the U.S. on 90 percent clean electricity by 2035 thanks to stunning declines in the costs of renewables, a new study finds. In just a few years, decarbonizing the grid went from a solar-lover’s pipe dream to something many major American utilities have committed to, from Southern […]
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 […]