Plants

NextEra Energy Resources LLC (NER), a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc., said one of its subsidiaries has agreed to sell its interest in four natural gas power plants to an LS Power affiliate for $1.05 billion. The facilities are the 507 MW Blythe Energy Center in Blythe, CA; the 668 MW Calhoun Energy Center in Eastaboga, AL; the 98 MW Cherokee Energy Center in Gaffney, SC; and the 879 MW Doswell Energy Center in Ashland, VA. An NER affiliate will initially continue to operate the facilities through service contracts. Closing is expected during 4Q2011, pending approval from regulators and third parties.

Although previously committed to replacing its coal-fired power plants with natural gas generation in Colorado, Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy said Thursday it is buying another 200 MW of wind-generated electricity supplies as part of efforts to meet the state’s 2020 renewable portfolio standard (RPS) goal of 30%.

Expanded use of combined heat and power (CHP) systems, which recover and make use of waste heat from power generation, could be a means of growing demand for Marcellus Shale natural gas, according to the Commonwealth Recycled Energy Economic Development Alliance (CREEDA).

Unconventional gas supplies around the world, particularly those from shale basins, “may hold the key to expanding the long-term role of gas in the global energy mix,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new report released Monday.

Power generation developers may be taking new looks at added natural gas- and coal-fired plants as an outgrowth of the reaction to the continuing disaster unfolding at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear generating plant, according to the CEO of NRG Energy Inc.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is ordering water treatment plants in the state to immediately test for radioactivity and other contaminants from Marcellus Shale wastewater.

The pace of infrastructure development to serve producers in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas continues with two separate projects targeting services for crude oil and condensate.

Whether wastewater from natural gas drilling sites will be more extensively analyzed for radiation levels still is an unknown, but some Pennsylvania water systems don’t plan to wait and will step up radiological tests, officials said this week.

While it recently beefed up its California holdings by acquiring several natural gas-fired generation plants, Princeton, NJ-based NRG Energy Inc.’s long-term strategic plan in the West is centered on robust renewable development that will increase the value of baseload gas-fired power as a balancing agent, CEO David Crane said at the recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch Investment Conference in San Francisco.