Chevron

Europe’s largest battery-storage project was officially opened in England; CODA Energy announced operation of the largest behind the meter lithium-ion energy storage system in the Los Angeles basin; FERC approved construction of Constitution Pipeline’s natural gas pipeline to New York and New England markets; FERC approved a facilities construction agreement for Minnesota Power’s Great Northern Transmission Line; General Electric received an order from the Tennessee Valley Authority for two high-efficiency 7HA.02 gas-fired turbine generators; A Renewable Energy Southern Company subsidiary plans to develop a 131- MW PV solar project in Georgia; GE Global Research and others partnered on a research project to improve reliability and resiliency of electricity delivery in northern New York; Duke Energy Renewables acquired the Halifax Solar Power Project from Geenex and ET Solar Energy;  Dominion Resources agreed to purchase Carolina Gas Transmission from SCANA Corp.; and others...

ONEOK Partners completed its acquisition of assets from Chevron affiliates for about $800 million; Dominion Resources agreed to purchase Carolina Gas Transmission from SCANA Corp. for about $492.9 million; Entergy subsidiaries acquired the Union Power Station for $948 million; ALLETE Clean Energy acquired a 108-MW wind generation facility; Duke Energy Renewables acquired the Halifax Solar Power Project from Geenex and ET Solar Energy; Pattern Energy Group acquired the 200-MW Logan’s Gap Wind project in Texas for about $113 million; An affiliate of Starwood Energy Group Global agreed to acquire a 369-MW portfolio of three natural gas facilities from Lakeside Energy; NextEra Energy and Hawaiian Electric Industries agreed to combine.

(May 2012) Entergy Louisiana starts construction on gas-fired power project; Virginia Commonwealth University and Dominion partner on a test site for efficient energy technologies; Burlington Electric Department selects Siemens for meter data management platform; IKEA commissions four Blink electric vehicle charging stations; Edison Mission Energy, TIAA-CREF and Cook Inlet Region Inc. form partnership, and others.

America needs an energy policy today that will bring together our best and brightest, harness the limitless capabilities of our research institutions, and invest whatever it takes to ensure America’s leadership in clean energy technologies. The result will be to create billion-dollar industries and millions of new jobs.

(June 2011) Duke and ATC team up to build transmission lines; AEP installs bioreactor to control selenium emissions; NextEra buys 100 MW of wind from Google; Ocean Power Technologies awards contracts for wave power array; Kansas City picks Elster; BC Hydro picks Itron; plus contracts and developments involving Tres Amigas, Ioxus, Opower and others.

Anyone who’s been watching the solar power industry for more than a few years can’t help but be impressed by the recent explosion of large-scale projects. It seems akin to the rapid scale-up of wind in the late 1990s and early 2000s—when megawatt-scale turbines became standard-issue, and the definition of a “large” wind farm changed from a capacity of 20 MW to something more like 200 MW.

In some states, transmission projects have slowed to a halt as regulators attempt to substitute their own need determinations for those of RTOs. The federal framework encourages cooperation, but Congress and the courts have given FERC clear authority over interstate transmission systems.

When FERC decided in February, in Order 890, to lift the price cap for electric-transmission customers seeking to resell their grid capacity rights in the secondary market, it cautioned against expecting a quid pro quo for gas. Was the commission just teasing?