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Southwest Power Pool

AEP Taps Siemens to Modernize HVDC System Welsh in Texas

Submitted by aburr on Wed, 2015-07-01 13:37

American Electric Power (AEP) chose Siemens to modernize its HVDC back-to-back link at its 600-MW Welsh HVDC station in Titus County, Texas. Siemens will upgrade its 20-year-old system by installing new control and protection technologies, replacing the cooling, heating and ventilation, and incorporating new harmonic filters and shunt reactors. This will be the first Siemens mid-life control and protection HVDC modernization in the United States.

Public Power Road Show

Sue Kelly’s ‘world tour’ brings APPA home.

There’s no one in the energy industry – and I mean absolutely no one – who is more on-message than Sue Kelly, now winding up her first year as CEO of the American Public Power Association.

Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Xcel Energy Powers Up 200-Mile Transmission Project

Submitted by aburr on Wed, 2014-10-01 13:06

The TUCO-to-Woodward 345-kV transmission line between Xcel Energy's TUCO Substation was energized when a connection was made with an Oklahoma line segment built by Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OG&E). Xcel Energy built the line from TUCO to just east of the Texas-Oklahoma boundary in Beckham County, Okla. The OG&E segment connects from the Beckham County site to Woodward, Okla.

Her Next Hurdle

ITC’s Linda Blair on where to build tomorrow’s grid.

Linda Blair, executive v.p. and chief business officer for grid giant ITC, discusses how ITC plans to navigate the new transmission landscape and where ITC might turn for its next major transmission project.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Invoice Enclosed

Having lost Entergy to MISO, the Southwest Power Pool seeks its pound of flesh.

Welcome to the age of RTO competition: region vs. region, grid vs. grid. It could well outdo the choice wars between retail energy suppliers that we thought were in our future.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Sound and Fury

How NIPSCO feels leaned on.

Northern Indiana Public Service, the MISO member sandwiched between PJM’s Ohio territory and its noncontiguous Chicago outpost, feels particularly aggrieved by the failure of the MISO-PJM Joint Operating Agreement, approved by FERC in 2004, to facilitate cross-border grid projects to relieve constraints along the ragged and interlaced seam that separates the two regions.

Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Cross-Border Bargaining

Interregional grid planning under FERC Order 1000.

Territorial fights emerge in the interregional transmission plans proposed for compliance with FERC Order 1000.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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The Fortnightly 40 Best Energy Companies

The dash to gas brings volatility in shareholder performance.

Fortnightly’s 2013 ranking of shareholder value performance shows substantial changes, with gas prices weighing on some utilities and elevating others.

Byline: 

Michael T. Burr

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Digest

Abengoa and BrightSource Energy agreed to jointly develop, build, and operate what the companies say will be the world’s two largest solar power towers. GE began operating a prototype of what it calls the world’s most efficient high-output wind turbine. Hawaiian Electric Co. dedicated the new 5-MW Kalaeloa solar farm in West Oahu, Hawaii. And more...

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Bridging the Seams

Interregional planning under FERC Order 1000

With no single entity in charge, transmission planning has plagued projects that span multiple regions. A new framework offers a solution.

Byline: 

J.P. Pfeifenberger, J.W. Chang, and D. Hou

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