DTE Energy approved to build $1B Michigan natural gas plant
DTE Energy has been approved by Michigan regulators to build a state-ofthe- art natural gas-fired power plant of about 1,100 megawatts on existing company property in East China Township, Michigan, that will provide affordable and reliable power for 850,000 homes beginning in 2022.
The almost $1 billion project will be built at a cost of approximately $860 per kilowatt and is scheduled to break ground in 2019, creating about 500 Michigan jobs during construction.
DTE selected the East China Township site for its new natural gas plant because it already has in place electric, natural gas and other infrastructure, experienced employees and a supportive community. DTE has operated the St. Clair and Belle River coal-fired power plants there for many decades.
For more information, visit www. newlook.dteenergy.com or call (855) 383-4249.
NETL creates first infrastructure failure prevention database
The first-ever database inventory of oil and natural gas infrastructure information from the top hydrocarbon- producing countries in the world is now available online. The database was born from a massive information acquisition, evaluation and resource integration project led by the Office of Fossil Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). NETL has now released the database on the Energy Data eXchange (EDX), an online collection of capabilities and resources that advances research and customizes energy-related needs.
The database, known as the global oil and gas infrastructure (GOGI) inventory, identifies more than 4.8 million individual features like wells, pipelines and ports from more than 380 datasets in 194 countries. It includes information about the type, age, status and owner/operator of infrastructure features.
The GOGI inventory offers an economic, environmental, and health and safety tool for researchers, industry representatives and government regulators to help prevent infrastructure failures, improve economics of energy production and address fugitive methane emissions.
For more information, visit www. netl.doe.gov or call (412) 386-4984.
Study: Grid operators have sufficient 'blackstart' capability
Operators of the nation's power grid have sufficient capability to quickly restore their systems using "blackstart" resources in the event of widespread outages, according to a new report by staff at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC).
The study is a follow-up to a 2016 joint FERC-NERC-Regional Entity staff review that assessed the plans of utilities for restoration and recovery of the bulk power system following a widespread outage or blackout. That review identified for further study issues dealing with availability of blackstart resources -- generating facilities that can be started without support from the grid or that are designed to remain energized without connection to the grid, which are critical to maintaining transmission reliability and resilience.
The study evaluated blackstart resources and planning by nine utilities registered with NERC and identifies sufficient blackstart resources in their system restoration plans.
For more information, visit www. ferc.gov or call (202) 502-6088.
DOE provides $60 million to support advanced nuclear R&D
DOE has selected 13 projects to receive approximately $60 million in federal funding for cost-shared R&D for advanced nuclear technologies. These selections are the first under DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy's U.S. Industry Opportunities for Advanced Nuclear Technology Development funding opportunity announcement (FOA), and subsequent quarterly application review and selection processes will be conducted over the next five years. DOE intends to apply up to $40 million of additional FY 2018 funding to the next two quarterly award cycles for innovative proposals under this FOA.
For more information, visit www. energy.gov or call (202) 586-5000.
IEA holds high-level workshop on future of electricity
The future of electricity will be the "fuel" focus of the next World Energy Outlook (WEO), the International Energy Agency's (IEA's) flagship publication, to be released in mid-November. As part of an agency-wide effort on this WEO electricity focus, IEA recently hosted a high-level workshop for decision-makers and leading experts from around the world to provide strategic guidance on the analysis.
The future looks bright for electricity, which is set to grow at twice the rate of overall energy demand through 2040. In 2016, total power sector investment surpassed that of oil and gas for the first time.
For more information, visit www. iea.org or call +33 1 40 57 65 00.