Vermont

Customers of Colchester, VT-based Green Mountain Power (GMP) now have the opportunity to enroll in the electric utility’s Tesla Powerwall or Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) home battery storage programs. GMP serves 265,000 residential and business end-users. After receiving approval from the Vermont Public Utilities Commission, GMP became the first utility in the country to…

Entergy Corp. has agreed to sell the now-closed Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee power plant and transfer its U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licenses to subsidiaries of NorthStar Group Services Inc. The move will accelerate the planned decommissioning of the plant by decades, Entergy said Tuesday.

Lake Charles LNG Export Co. LLC and Lake Charles Exports LLC have applied to the U.S. Department of Energy for authorization to export from the planned Lake Charles LNG terminal in Louisiana up to 121 Bcf/year to countries with and without free trade agreements with the United States. The companies are currently authorized to export 730 Bcf/year from the terminal. The additional authorization sought is intended to align the total authorized export volume with the planned production capacity of the terminal as approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see Daily GPI, Dec. 17, 2015).

Vermont regulators have agreed to allow Vermont Gas Systems Inc. to complete construction of a 41-mile natural gas pipeline extension in the western part of the state, after the utility agreed to cap the amount it would recover from ratepayers for the project. The cost of the project has increased more than 78% since it was approved two years ago.

Towns across the region continue to push for connection to the natural gas grid.

Cheap natural gas might not be the biggest nail in the coffin of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Vernon, VT, but it’s in there, Entergy Corp. said in announcing the shuttering of the plant, mainly due to low power prices in a poorly designed wholesale power market.

FERC recently rejected a complaint filed by Vermont Public Power Supply Authority (VPPSA) asking the Commission to order PG&E Energy Trading-Power LP. to resume supplying power to it after PG&E Energy Trading last month filed for Chapter 11 protection and suspended delivery of electricity to VPPSA.

Citizens Utilities agreed to sell all of its electric utilityoperations in Arizona and Vermont to Cap Rock Energy Corp. and itsKauai (Hawaii) electric division to Kauai Island Electric Co-op.The total sales price was $535 million and the transactions areexpected to close within twelve months. The operations serve atotal of 119,000 customers. Citizens’ electric utility operationsare the second group of the company’s Public Services businesses tobe sold. Citizens’ water and wastewater operations were sold inOctober 1999 for $835 million. Still to be finalized are the salesof Citizens’ gas distribution businesses. The proceeds from the allof the divestitures will be used to permanently fund Citizens’announced acquisitions of nearly one million telephone accesslines. Citizens Utilities provides telecommunications services andpublic services including gas distribution, electric distribution,water distribution and wastewater treatment services to 1.9 millioncustomers in 22 states.