SunEdison Awarded 33 MW Deal to Modernize the Grid in Southern California with Solar

SunEdison was awarded contracts to build 33 MW of rooftop solar with Southern California Edison (SCE). SCE will purchase the electricity from 17 rooftop solar systems through 20-year PPA. TerraForm Power intends to acquire these projects from SunEdison upon completion. Operation and maintenance of the solar power plants will be performed by SunEdison Services. The solar power plants are scheduled to be operational in 2016.

Duke Energy, LG Chem, Greensmith to Build Fast-Response Energy Storage System in Ohio

Duke Energy, LG Chem and Greensmith teamed up to build a battery-based energy storage system in Ohio, designed to enhance reliability and increase stability on the electric power grid. The new 2-MW storage project will assist in regulating electric grid frequency for PJM, the transmission organization that powers much of the eastern U.S. The system will be built at Duke Energy's retired W.C. Beckjord coal-fired power plant in New Richmond, Ohio, and is expected to be operational by late 2015.

ITC Files Permit Application with Canada's National Energy Board for the Lake Erie Connector Project

ITC Lake Erie Connector, a wholly owned subsidiary of ITC Holdings Corp., filed a major permit application with Canada's National Energy Board (NEB) for the ITC Lake Erie Connector transmission line. The ITC Lake Erie Connector is a proposed 1000 MW, bi-directional, HVDC merchant transmission line that will provide the first direct link between the markets of the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) and PJM Interconnection (PJM).

KYOCERA TCL Solar Completes Construction of Third Floating Solar Power Plant

Kyocera TCL Solar completed construction of its third floating mega-solar power plant in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. The 2.3-MW plant will generate an estimated 2,680 MWh per year. This marks the third floating installation completed by the company, in addition to 1.7MW and 1.2MW plants which began operation last month at two different sites in Hyogo Prefecture. The company is also developing a 13.4MW installation on a dam reservoir in Chiba Prefecture, Japan.

APS Completes One of the Largest Transmission Construction Projects in the West

Arizona Public Service completed work on one of the largest transmission construction projects in the west - a 500-kV power line that connects Phoenix to Yuma. The 110-mile transmission line runs from the Hassayampa substation (near the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station) to the North Gila substation in Yuma. Called HANG2, the $200 million project is the second route connecting the Valley to Yuma. Construction planning for the HANG2 line began more than a decade ago, as Southwest Arizona's population began to rapidly expand.

SunEdison Brings 14 MW of Solar Power to Long Island as Part of New York State Initiative

SunEdison signed agreements with five municipal entities on Long Island to build seven solar power plants totaling 14 MW. The electricity from these power plants will be sold to the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) through separate 20-year power PPAs. The contracts with the Town of Southold, Town of Easthampton, Nassau County, Suffolk County and the Suffolk County Water Authority were awarded as part of the LIPA 100 MW Clean Solar Initiative Feed-in Tariff program.

Siemens Will Provide the First H-Class Power Plant Technology in Mexico

Siemens was awarded a contract to supply two SGT6-8000H gas turbines and two generators to Mexico. The components are to be installed at the Empalme I Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCPP) in Sonora, Mexico. The plant will have an installed power generating capacity of 770 MW in total. The customer is a consortium led by SENER which will act as turnkey EPC contractors for the project. The end customer and operator of the plant is the state owned utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) in Mexico.

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas Receives Order for 3 M501J Gas Turbines Virginia Electric Power Company

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas (MHPSA) received an order from Virginia Electric and Power Company (VEPCO) for the supply of three M501J gas turbines to be installed at VEPCO's Greensville County Power Station. The three gas turbines have a projected completion date of year-end 2018 and will produce approximately 1600 MW. This order is the third MHPSA advanced design gas turbine order placed by VEPCO over the last 5 years.

State Utility Commissioners at Ground Zero

At issue in this new environmental paradigm is whether the states will take the lead, or the federal government. And nowhere is that more relevant than the EPA's Clean Power Plan.

State utility commissioners in all 50 states are under a lot of stress. First, they must formulate and plan for the future of their states’ electrical grids and at the same time, keep their eyes on the developments in Washington and on the EPA whose Clean Power Plan (CPP) is the elephant in their room. It could be argued that they have a job far worse than the Maytag repairman: Instead of having nothing to do, they have everything to do. Currently, they may have the most difficult job in the US.

That Old Musk Magic

Plenty of people do, judging from the reaction to Elon Musk’s media event announcing “Powerwall,” a home battery system. Powerwall would join SolarCity in Elon’s double trouble for the utility industry (when he isn’t building cars and colonizing Mars).

Do you believe in magic?

Plenty of people do, judging from the reaction to Elon Musk’s media event announcing “Powerwall,” a home battery system. Powerwall would join SolarCity in Elon’s double trouble for the utility industry (when he isn’t building cars and colonizing Mars).