Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois (ATXI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Ameren Corporation, received approval from the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) to build the majority of its nearly 400-mile, approximately $1.1 billion Illinois Rivers transmission project. The project consists of a new 345-kV transmission line crossing the Mississippi River near Quincy, Ill., and continuing east across Illinois to the Indiana border.

NRG Energy acquired Energy Curtailment Specialists (ECS), one of the largest, private demand response providers in North America. ECS offers business customers ways to contribute to energy load reduction during times of peak demand. Energy Curtailment Specialists currently manages more than 2,000 MW of demand response across the country for over 5,000 customers.

NRG Energy closed on the acquisition of the Gregory cogeneration plant in Corpus Christi, Texas. NRG paid approximately $244 million in cash for the plant, exclusive of adjustments relating to working capital. The Gregory cogeneration plant provides steam, processed water and a small percentage of its electrical generation to the Corpus Christi Sherwin Alumina plant. The majority of the base-load generation is available for sale in ERCOT. The current operator, DPS Gregory, will continue to operate the plant until a transition to NRG operations is completed.

Duke Energy Renewables acquired the 4.5-MW Sunset Reservoir Solar Power Project, the largest solar generation facility in San Francisco, from Recurrent Energy. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) will purchase the energy under a 25-year PPA. The facility provides electricity for the city and county of San Francisco's municipal services and facilities. 

Calpine began commercial operations at its Russell City Energy Center and Los Esteros Critical Energy Facility, both located in the San Francisco Bay area. Together, the two plants bring on-line more than 900 MW of combined-cycle natural gas-fired power generation capacity. The full power output of both plants will be delivered to Calpine’s customer, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), which will also supply the natural gas fuel, under 10-year power purchase agreements.

Mainstream Renewable Power closed a deal to sell its 7.65-MW Carrickeeny Wind Farm to IKEA. Mainstream has commenced construction of the project which is located in Leitrim in the North West of Ireland and it is expected to be operational in early 2014 at which point IKEA will purchase the plant. As part of the deal Mainstream will continue operate and maintain the wind farm on behalf of IKEA for its 20-year lifespan. This acquisition will increase the total number of wind turbines that the IKEA Group has committed to owning and operating to 137.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) broke ground on construction of the federal government’s largest wind farm. NNSA awarded a contract to Siemens Government Technologies (Siemens) to construct and operate the Pantex wind farm. The newly constructed wind farm will consist of five 2.3 MW turbines located on 1,500 acres of government-owned property east of the Pantex plant.

ABB delivered the East West Interconnector, the world’s highest capacity HVDC light underwater power link, to EirGrid, the Irish transmission system operator. The 500-MW transmission connection establishes a link between the Irish and U.K. grids, enabling cross-border power flows and enhancing grid reliability and security of electricity supplies. The new link also facilitates power trading between the two countries and connects Ireland to the European grid.

Sensus was selected to provide the core communications technology to support the UK government’s plan to put smart meters in millions of homes and small businesses by 2020. Sensus technology will support the rollout of electric and gas smart meters to ten million locations in the northern region of Great Britain, subject to contract. The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced that communications company Arqiva has been selected to provide the smart metering communications service for Northern England and Scotland.