Dominion Energy fires up Greensville County Power Station
RICHMOND, Va. -- Greensville County Power Station has officially joined Dominion Energy Virginia's fleet of natural gas-fueled electric generating units.
Located a few miles west of Emporia, the station can generate 1,588 megawatts of electricity, producing enough power to light, heat and cool nearly 400,000 homes. It is the largest power block of its kind in the world, using three combustion turbines to produce electricity and steam, which is used to make even more electricity. Environmentally, especially in terms of carbon emissions, Greensville is one of the cleanest natural gas-powered stations in the country. The station's air permit has the strictest CO2 limits in the nation.
In 2016, the company opened its $1.1 billion, 1,360-megawatt Brunswick County Power Station located just a few miles away. Both power stations are already served by a natural gas pipeline and will be connected to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline when it is completed.
For more information, visit www.dominionenergy.com.
Tenaska Power Plant in Pennsylvania begins commercial operation
SMITHTON, Pa. -- Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station, a new natural gas-fueled power plant in southwest Pennsylvania, is now operational.
Located near Smithton in South Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County, the 940-megawatt (MW) plant can generate enough power for about 940,000 homes in the PJM Interconnection market, which coordinates the delivery of reliable power in all or parts of 13 eastern states, including Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia.
Owned by Tenaska Pennsylvania Partners LLC, Tenaska Westmoreland is the 17th power project the company has brought on line. The current Tenaska operating fleet includes 11 natural gas-fueled and renewable power plants able to generate approximately 8,000 MW combined.
For more information, visit www.tenaska.com or call (402) 691-9500.
Entergy nuclear plants contribute to Louisiana's bright future
BATON ROUGE, La. -- The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has renewed operating licenses for Entergy's two nuclear plants in Louisiana: River Bend Nuclear Station and Waterford 3 Steam Electric Station.
The license renewals allow for continued operations of Waterford 3 through 2044 and River Bend through 2045, two additional decades past the original licensing dates.
The 974-megawatt River Bend facility and 1,159-megawatt Waterford unit are the largest sources of carbon-free power in Louisiana. Together, the plants generate more than 16 percent of the state's electricity.
The license renewals are a result of intensive reviews and assessments to ensure the plants can continue to operate safely and reliably to protect the environment during the 20-year period of extended operations.
For more information, visit www.entergy.com or call (917) 379-2260.
Changes in coal power sector lead to lower SO2, NOx emissions
WASHINGTON -- Annual U.S. electric power industry emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) have declined by 88 percent and 76 percent, respectively, between 1997 and 2017. During this period, coal-fired generation was responsible for 90 percent of SO2 emissions and 76 percent of NOx emissions from the U.S. electric power industry. Among other factors, declining coalfired generation and implementation of environmental regulations under the Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) of 1990 have both contributed to the decrease in electric power industry SO2 and NOx emissions.
In addition to burning less coal to generate electricity, the rate at which coal-fired power plants emit SO2 and NOx has also declined during the past two decades, primarily as a result of complying with the CAAA. In 1997, each megawatt-hour of coal-fired electricity generation produced 14.6 pounds of SO2 and 6.4 pounds of NOx. By 2017, those rates had fallen to 2.4 and 1.5 pounds per megawatt- hour, respectively.
For more information, visit www.eia.gov or call (202) 586-8800.
FERC proposes to ease regulatory burden for power sellers
WASHINGTON -- FERC has proposed to revise the horizontal market power analysis required for electric power sellers seeking to obtain or retain market-based rate authority in certain organized wholesale power markets. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) would ease the regulatory burden for certain market-based rate sellers.
The NOPR has its origins in Order No. 697, in which FERC codified two indicative screens for assessing horizontal market power for market-based rate sellers. The NOPR would relieve sellers of the requirement to submit those indicative screens in any organized wholesale power market that administers energy, ancillary services and capacity markets subject to FERC-approved monitoring and mitigation.
For more information, visit www.ferc.gov or call (866) 208-3372.
