The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, the sole nuclear power plant in Massachusetts, will close by June 2019, according to its owner Entergy Corp.
Entergy is an integrated energy company headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. Entergy is one of the leading nuclear generators in the U.S., with nearly 10,000 megawatts in nuclear generating capacity as well as about 20,000 megawatts of other electric generating capacity, as well as serving retail utility customers in
Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
The company's Entergy Wholesale Commodities business owns and operates five nuclear power units located in the northern United States, and sells
electricity produced by those plants to wholesale customers. Those units include Pilgrim Station's Unit 1, a boiling water reactor with a maximum dependable capacity of 688 megawatts. The Pilgrim Station unit was installed in 1972, and is currently licensed through June 8, 2032.
Today Entergy announced plans to close Pilgrim Station by June 2019. In its press release, Entergy cites "poor market conditions, reduced revenues and increased operational costs." In Entergy's view, low current and forecast wholesale energy prices "brought about
by record low natural gas prices, driven by shale gas production" hurt Pilgrim's revenues; wholesale energy market design flaws mean merchant nuclear power plants are inadequately compensated, while "unfavorable state
energy proposals ... subsidize renewable energy resources at the
expense of Pilgrim and other plants." Entergy also cites "increased operational costs and enhanced Nuclear
Regulatory Commission oversight" following a recent NRC decision to give Pilgrim a higher level of scrutiny.
The announcement resembles a 2013 decision by Entergy to close the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, a plant similar in vintage to Pilgrim Station. Entergy announced Vermont Yankee's closure in 2013; that plant ceased commercial operation at the end of 2014, and Vermont Yankee's decommissioning is now underway. In announcing the Vermont Yankee closure, Entergy pointed to financial factors including a "natural gas market that has undergone a transformational shift in
supply due to the impacts of shale gas, resulting in sustained low natural
gas prices and wholesale energy prices", high plant cost structures, and wholesale market design flaws.
According to Entergy, it has notified regional electric grid operator ISO New England Inc. of its intent to exit the region's capacity market. Entergy said the exact timing of plant shutdown will be decided in the first half of 2016.
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Showing posts with label Entergy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Entergy. Show all posts
Super Bowl 2013 power outage
Monday, February 4, 2013
The National Football League held Super Bowl XLVII last night at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The game was interrupted by a power outage just after the second half started, which caused many of the stadium lights and systems to go dark. Play was delayed for 34 minutes as workers scrambled to resolve the problem. What happened to the lights at the Super Bowl?
Electric utility Entergy supplies electricity to the Superdome. According to a statement issued jointly with Superdome manager SMG, load-monitoring equipment sensed "an abnormality in the system". To protect systems and isolate the issue, that equipment opened a breaker and partially cut the power feed to the facility. While backup generators kicked in, the backup supply was insufficient to fully power the Superdome's lights and systems.
The Mercedes-Benz Superdome is a significant consumer of electricity. Statements issued by the Super Bowl New Orleans Host Committee suggest that energy usage for major Super Bowl venues including the Mercedes Superdome, Morial Convention Center, Team and NFL hotels, will consume up to 4,600 megawatts of electricity. (Note that this statement is improbable - it should likely read 4,600 kilowatts or 4,600 megawatt-hours. 4,600 megawatts would be about 15% of Entergy's 30,000 MW total generating capacity, and represents more power than 4 typical nuclear power plants can produce. In any event, the Superdome clearly drew a lot of power from the grid.)
The Super Bowl power outage will focus attention on professional sports' approach to energy. NFL teams and stadium owners have been exploring alternative energy for some time; for example, last year the Philadelphia Eagles considered developing solar panels and wind turbines on their stadium. Even the Superdome has invested in energy efficiency, developing an efficient exterior LED lighting system in 2011.
While alternative energy efforts can reduce operating costs and environmental impacts, they are unlikely to completely displace reliance on the utility electric grid. Stadiums' significant power demands during games far outstrip their electricity consumption at other times. This means that stadiums would need to install sizable distributed generation to be self-reliant, but would only need to run that generation for a limited number of hours per year -- making the economics of a distributed generation project challenging.
Traditional, utility-supplied power may remain the most cost-effective basis for large stadium electricity supply for now -- but leaves stadiums, players and fans reliant on their public utilities to keep the lights on. Team and stadium owners eager to avoid the embarrassment and cost of an outage will continue to look for solutions, including more backup generation and more robust grid connections.
Electric utility Entergy supplies electricity to the Superdome. According to a statement issued jointly with Superdome manager SMG, load-monitoring equipment sensed "an abnormality in the system". To protect systems and isolate the issue, that equipment opened a breaker and partially cut the power feed to the facility. While backup generators kicked in, the backup supply was insufficient to fully power the Superdome's lights and systems.
The Mercedes-Benz Superdome is a significant consumer of electricity. Statements issued by the Super Bowl New Orleans Host Committee suggest that energy usage for major Super Bowl venues including the Mercedes Superdome, Morial Convention Center, Team and NFL hotels, will consume up to 4,600 megawatts of electricity. (Note that this statement is improbable - it should likely read 4,600 kilowatts or 4,600 megawatt-hours. 4,600 megawatts would be about 15% of Entergy's 30,000 MW total generating capacity, and represents more power than 4 typical nuclear power plants can produce. In any event, the Superdome clearly drew a lot of power from the grid.)
The Super Bowl power outage will focus attention on professional sports' approach to energy. NFL teams and stadium owners have been exploring alternative energy for some time; for example, last year the Philadelphia Eagles considered developing solar panels and wind turbines on their stadium. Even the Superdome has invested in energy efficiency, developing an efficient exterior LED lighting system in 2011.
While alternative energy efforts can reduce operating costs and environmental impacts, they are unlikely to completely displace reliance on the utility electric grid. Stadiums' significant power demands during games far outstrip their electricity consumption at other times. This means that stadiums would need to install sizable distributed generation to be self-reliant, but would only need to run that generation for a limited number of hours per year -- making the economics of a distributed generation project challenging.
Traditional, utility-supplied power may remain the most cost-effective basis for large stadium electricity supply for now -- but leaves stadiums, players and fans reliant on their public utilities to keep the lights on. Team and stadium owners eager to avoid the embarrassment and cost of an outage will continue to look for solutions, including more backup generation and more robust grid connections.
Pilgrim nuclear plant down temporarily
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Massachusetts, was shut down temporarily yesterday due to an apparent malfunction. Media reports suggest a problem with a condenser, a piece of equipment that converts the steam produced by the plant back into water.
Nuclear power plants typically produce electricity by using fissile nuclear material to produce heat. This thermal energy vaporizes water into steam. In turn, this steam spins one or more turbines, each of which is connected to an electric generator. In this regard, nuclear power plants' reliance on steam resembles other thermal power plants such as those fired by combustion fuels like coal or biomass.
As with many other steam-based power plants, nuclear power plants often include steam condensers. A steam condenser takes the steam that is passed through the turbines and converts it back into liquid water. This enables the turbines to extract more energy from the flow of steam, and improves plant efficiency. It appears that a condenser at the Pilgrim station stopped working, leading to a shutdown of the plant.
Any time major equipment at a nuclear power plant sales or malfunctions, operators typically take it very seriously. Plant owner Entergy has reportedly said that it will not restart the plant until it figures out what went wrong.
Pilgrim Station is a relatively large generating facility, capable of producing up to 688 megawatts of power. The plant was reportedly operating at 30% of its capacity prior to yesterday's shutdown. As result, the short-term impacts on electricity markets in New England may be relatively minimal. However, if the plant continues to be down for an extended period of time, particularly as temperatures heat up and air-conditioning loads increase, the region may experience marginally higher power pricing as result of the shutdown.
The Pilgrim plant is also undergoing a relicensing process through the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Nuclear power plants typically produce electricity by using fissile nuclear material to produce heat. This thermal energy vaporizes water into steam. In turn, this steam spins one or more turbines, each of which is connected to an electric generator. In this regard, nuclear power plants' reliance on steam resembles other thermal power plants such as those fired by combustion fuels like coal or biomass.
As with many other steam-based power plants, nuclear power plants often include steam condensers. A steam condenser takes the steam that is passed through the turbines and converts it back into liquid water. This enables the turbines to extract more energy from the flow of steam, and improves plant efficiency. It appears that a condenser at the Pilgrim station stopped working, leading to a shutdown of the plant.
Any time major equipment at a nuclear power plant sales or malfunctions, operators typically take it very seriously. Plant owner Entergy has reportedly said that it will not restart the plant until it figures out what went wrong.
Pilgrim Station is a relatively large generating facility, capable of producing up to 688 megawatts of power. The plant was reportedly operating at 30% of its capacity prior to yesterday's shutdown. As result, the short-term impacts on electricity markets in New England may be relatively minimal. However, if the plant continues to be down for an extended period of time, particularly as temperatures heat up and air-conditioning loads increase, the region may experience marginally higher power pricing as result of the shutdown.
The Pilgrim plant is also undergoing a relicensing process through the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
The Schork Report predicts gasoline will break $3 per gallon by summer.
US DOE has updated its website listing energy-efficient appliance rebate programs available through state implementations of the Energy Star label.
The Obama administration approved $1.37 billion in federal loan guarantees to help build the world's largest solar power complex in California. The Department of Energy has offered to backstop the loans of BrightSource Energy, the developer of three proposed solar-energy plants in the Mojave desert. If completed, the three BrightSource projects could power 140,000 homes, and nearly double the amount of solar power generated in the United States. Despite a recent scale-back to address environmental concerns, the Ivanpah Valley project is still budgeted at 392 MW. BrightSource estimates that construction will employ about 1,000 people, with operation creating 86 permanent jobs. Bechtel, the engineering and construction contractor for the project, signed a project labor agreement in December 2009 with the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California (SBCTC) and the Building & Construction Trades Council of San Bernardino and Riverside counties to secure benefits to the local workforce from the project. The project is estimated to provide $400 million in tax revenues to state and local government, and produce $650 million in wages, over the next 30 years. The project will come online in 2012 and 2013.
Worth noting: US Secretary of Energy Chu's Facebook page, focused at the moment on "why we need nuclear".
Bloom boxes still buzzing.
More fallout and analysis of Google's approval for market-based rate authority (MBRA) from FERC. Donald Campbell of Pitt News suggests that Google secured MBRA so it could more effectively buy green power: "Combined with some offshoot ventures previously spawned by Google, energy trading can assist Google in increasing the amount of energy it consumes from renewable sources." Other sources note that Google doesn’t intend to resell energy, but to procure power only for its own use to help it manage energy costs as a whole. Interestingly this 2/22 interview with Google's "green energy czar" Bill Weihl doesn't mention MBRA as a strategy.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Edward G. Rendell has released over $5 million in funding for 13 new solar energy projects (link to Governor's office DOC). Thes projects are receiving funds from the $650 million Alternative Energy Investment Fund that Rendell signed in 2008. They were approved for funding by the Commonwealth Financing Authority.
Entergy, operator of the leaking Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, has apparently admitted that there have been prior tritium leaks into groundwater its reactor, including one in 2005.
US DOE has updated its website listing energy-efficient appliance rebate programs available through state implementations of the Energy Star label.
The Obama administration approved $1.37 billion in federal loan guarantees to help build the world's largest solar power complex in California. The Department of Energy has offered to backstop the loans of BrightSource Energy, the developer of three proposed solar-energy plants in the Mojave desert. If completed, the three BrightSource projects could power 140,000 homes, and nearly double the amount of solar power generated in the United States. Despite a recent scale-back to address environmental concerns, the Ivanpah Valley project is still budgeted at 392 MW. BrightSource estimates that construction will employ about 1,000 people, with operation creating 86 permanent jobs. Bechtel, the engineering and construction contractor for the project, signed a project labor agreement in December 2009 with the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California (SBCTC) and the Building & Construction Trades Council of San Bernardino and Riverside counties to secure benefits to the local workforce from the project. The project is estimated to provide $400 million in tax revenues to state and local government, and produce $650 million in wages, over the next 30 years. The project will come online in 2012 and 2013.
Worth noting: US Secretary of Energy Chu's Facebook page, focused at the moment on "why we need nuclear".
Bloom boxes still buzzing.
More fallout and analysis of Google's approval for market-based rate authority (MBRA) from FERC. Donald Campbell of Pitt News suggests that Google secured MBRA so it could more effectively buy green power: "Combined with some offshoot ventures previously spawned by Google, energy trading can assist Google in increasing the amount of energy it consumes from renewable sources." Other sources note that Google doesn’t intend to resell energy, but to procure power only for its own use to help it manage energy costs as a whole. Interestingly this 2/22 interview with Google's "green energy czar" Bill Weihl doesn't mention MBRA as a strategy.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Edward G. Rendell has released over $5 million in funding for 13 new solar energy projects (link to Governor's office DOC). Thes projects are receiving funds from the $650 million Alternative Energy Investment Fund that Rendell signed in 2008. They were approved for funding by the Commonwealth Financing Authority.
Entergy, operator of the leaking Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, has apparently admitted that there have been prior tritium leaks into groundwater its reactor, including one in 2005.
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