Nuclear

Citing prolific natural gas supplies from the Appalachian Basin that have eroded profits from power sales, FirstEnergy Corp. (FE) subsidiaries FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. and affiliates, along with FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. (FENOC), have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Continuing a decade-long trend, Florida Power & Light (FPL) this month pushed ahead with plans for natural gas-fired and solar electricity generation facilities, but it intends to delay plans for two units at an existing nuclear plant.

In keeping with a long-term goal to reduce nuclear and natural gas-fired power generation, San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) has begun to wind down its reliance through distributed renewable and energy efficiency projects in Oakland.

New England’s electric generation stack will increasingly rely on natural gas, with accompanying risks associated with access to firm supplies, and the region will likely say goodbye to coal-fired power by 2025, according to Morningstar Commodities Research.

FERC has set aside the Department of Energy’s (DOE) controversial notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) that would have subsidized the coal and nuclear industries, but the debate about electric grid reliability, resiliency and fuel mix continues.

Concurring opinions from two commissioners supported FERC’s unanimous rejection Monday of a controversial proposal by the Department of Energy (DOE) to subsidize the coal and nuclear industries, but a third, Commissioner Neil Chatterjee, still sought an end-around to keep the idea alive.

The ongoing shift away from coal and nuclear power generation and toward natural gas and renewables brings with it “a unique set of challenges and opportunities to maintain the system’s inertia and other essential reliability services,” according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).

PJM Interconnection this week unveiled a proposal to reform wholesale electricity pricing that it claims would better reflect the “true costs” of producing power and keep its system more reliable by solidifying revenues for faltering baseload nuclear and coal generators that have been undermined by low natural gas prices.

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) proposed rulemaking to implement reforms on the reliability and resiliency of the electricity grid opened an overdue debate, but the proposal itself isn’t of much value, according to a quintet of former FERC commissioners, including three former chairmen.