S&P predicts stable outlook for utilities after tax reform
S&P Global Ratings recently published its "Industry Top Trends 2018" reports, covering North America's regulated utilities and merchant power sectors. Key findings are listed below:
- Ratings trends remain mostly stable, supported by stable regulatory oversight and largely flat demand.
- This year, regulated utilities can expect slightly lower credit ratios and modest demand and revenue growth.
- 55 percent of merchant generators have stable outlooks.
- In 2018, S&P expects modest growth and flat margins, as well as largely flat capacity prices.
- Disruptive forces such as improving energy efficiencies, exposure to coal-fired generation, the still-depressed natural gas price and advancing battery storage technologies are the key market risks.
For more information, visit www.stan dardandpoors.com or call (877) 772-5436.
Advanced Power completes Carroll County Energy Facility
Advanced Power has completed the Carroll County Energy Facility (CCEF) in Carroll County, Ohio. The 700-megawatt natural gas-fueled combine-cycle power facility will supply electricity to up to 700,000 homes in the region using advanced emissions-control technology, making CCEF one of the most efficient plants in the U.S.
The facility will provide critical electric generation capacity in a region that has experienced the retirement of more than 700 megawatts of Ohio' s conventional coal-fired generating capacity, allowing for natural gas to provide a cleaner form of energy. Additionally, 700 jobs were created during construction, and more than 25 long-term jobs will support plant operations.
For more information, visit www. advancedpower.ch or call (617) 456-2200.
API: Natural gas critical to reliable electric power system
API recently released the following statement highlighting the positive impacts natural gas brings to power generation and corrected the record following testimony by nuclear energy advocates at a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing.
"Our nation's electric grid is as reliable as it has ever been," said API Market Development Group Director Todd Snitchler. "Advocating for subsidies that benefit one fuel type over another only hurts efforts to improve the reliability and resilience of the electric grid.
"Natural gas is critical to the reliability of our nation's electric power system. This affordable and abundant resource provides the flexibility needed to meet the ever-changing demands put on our power system. As the resilience discussion continues, we look forward to actively participating in the conversation to ensure that consumers across the country can keep receiving the benefits of clean, reliable, affordable natural gas."
For more information, visit www.api. org or call (202) 682-8114.
NRC introduces clearer fee invoices for fiscal 2018
Beginning this year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is incorporating a number of positive changes in the fee invoices it distributes to licensees, bringing more accountability and transparency to the process by which the NRC charges for the inspection, licensing and special project services it provides.
The changes are part of a four-year "Fees Transformation" project to simplify how the NRC calculates its fees, increases transparency and improves the timeliness of the NRC's communications about fee changes. They were proposed by the NRC's CFO in August 2016 under the agency's umbrella Project Aim initiative to improve the "effectiveness, efficiency and agility of the NRC."
For more information, visit www.nrc. gov or www.nei.org.
Future U.S. power generation mix to depend on nat gas prices
The mix of fuels used to generate electricity in the U.S. has changed in response to differences in the relative costs of electricity-generating technologies and, for those technologies that consume fuel, the cost of fuel. Several cases in the Energy Information Administration's (EIA's) Annual Energy Outlook 2018 (AEO2018) show fuel price patterns could continue to affect projected generation and capacity, particularly for natural gas. In a sensitivity case with low natural gas prices, natural gas would provide more than half of U.S. electricity generation by the mid-2040s.
The natural gas share of U.S. electricity generation largely depends on natural gas prices. The price of natural gas delivered to electric power plants averaged $3.47 per million Btu in 2017 and is projected to be $5.42 per million Btu in 2050. Higher extraction costs and lower resource availability would result in less natural gas production, increasing the natural gas price for power plants to nearly $10 per million Btu.
For more information, visit www. eia.gov or call (202) 586-8800.