Under the agreement, B&W has received limited notice to proceed (LNTP) for the project. Notice to proceed for the full contract is expected in the fourth quarter of 2024, the company said.

B&W will convert the currently unspecified plant’s two coal-fired boilers – totaling more than 1,000 MW – to use natural gas fuel. B&W’s full scope would include the design and installation of new burners, air systems, fans and other equipment necessary to implement the fuel switch.

“Utilities across North America and throughout the world are evaluating options to extend the life of their thermal power generating assets,” said Chris Riker, Senior Vice President, B&W Thermal. “Replacing coal or oil with cleaner-burning fuels like natural gas, biofuels or hydrogen is often a cost-effective way for plant owners to lower emissions while maintaining reliable power generation capacity.”

Babcock & Wilcox said it will begin engineering and design work under the LNTP immediately with support from its affiliate, FPS. Babcock & Wilcox Construction will perform the construction portion of the project under an intercompany agreement when a full notice to proceed is received.  

A handful of Democratic legislators are opposed to a plan to build a natural gas power plant in Chesterfield, a proposal that Virginia’s largest utility said will ensure electric grid reliability during expected surges in power demands over the next 15 to 25 years.

Seven delegates and two senators representing the greater Richmond area signed a statement Wednesday issued by the office of Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Richmond. The project proposal “runs counter to the measures the Commonwealth has taken recently to lower carbon emissions and to diversify energy production and storage,” it reads.

In 2020, the Democratic-majority General Assembly passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act, a policy that requires the state’s electric grid to decarbonize by 2045 by transitioning to renewable energy sources and retiring fossil fuel generation sources. 

That same year, Virginia passed the Environmental Justice Act, which requires the state to promote “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of every person, regardless of race, color, national origin, income, faith, or disability” when developing, implementing or enacting environmental laws, regulations and policies.

The legislators’ opposition to the Chesterfield plant cites projections from Dominion’s long-term planning documents that say the utility’s carbon emissions would increase. The utility produced 21.8 million metric tons in 2021 and estimated it would emit 36 to 43.8 million metric tons by 2048. The proposed 1,000 megawatt Chesterfield plant, which would be sited next to the utility’s now-closed coal-fired plant, is included in Dominion’s estimates. 

About 20,000 people live within a three-mile radius of the proposed plant; 36% of them are low-income, and about 48% are people of color, according to information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency included in the lawmakers’ statement.

The opposing legislators also question the cost of the project, which was $600 million in a 2019 iteration of the proposal, but hasn’t been disclosed in the current plan. Dominion’s customers would bear those costs.

“With the VCEA stipulation that most polluting plants be shut down by 2045, the construction of a new and costly power plant makes little fiscal sense,” the statement reads. 

Dominion proposed the natural gas plant last summer as part of its non-binding, long-term planning document, called an Integrated Resource Plan, as a way to meet an expected increase in electric grid load growth, largely due to data center development in the state, more electric vehicle use and efforts to boost homes’ energy efficiency. This type of facility is commonly referred to as a “peaker plant,” because of its intended use during periods of peak demand for electricity.

A challenge of relying solely on renewable technologies like wind and solar during the energy transition is that they’re limited to producing electricity on an intermittent basis, when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member Mark Christie, a former member of the State Corporation Commission that regulates Dominion, echoed that concern in remarks last May.

When it comes to grid reliability,, “the problem generally is not the addition of intermittent resources — primarily wind and solar — but the far too rapid subtraction of dispatchable resources, especially coal and gas.”

About 95% of the energy generation sources in Dominion’s IRP is from carbon-free sources, including 2,600 megawatts from offshore wind, about 800 megawatts a year from solar and long-duration energy storage devices, which can provide power for over 100 hours instead of the traditional four-hour period, and small modular nuclear reactors, though they are largely unproven at the commercial level. The remaining 5% of new generation sources comes from the Chesterfield plant.

“Renewables alone cannot keep our customers’ power on 24/7, especially with power demand nearly doubling over the coming decades,” said Dominion spokesman Jeremy Slayton. “That is why we need an all-of-the-above, balanced approach that advances the clean-energy transition, but without sacrificing on reliability.” 

Still, community members have joined lawmakers in raising concerns about the planned power plant and some are calling for local action against it.

“Given the significant potential for harm to the community, we urge the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors to deny Dominion Energy’s zoning application to move forward with the gas plant,” said Aliya Farooq, a founding member of the group Friends of Chesterfield County that formed last year to oppose the proposed plant.

The project still needs approvals from the Department of Environmental Quality for its air permit, Chesterfield County for its land use permit and the SCC for its Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity. If all of these are acquired, construction of the plant would begin in 2026 and it’s slated to become operational by the end of 2028.

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence.

The refueling will result in a carbon intensity reduction of 70% by 2030 compared to 2018 levels, AES Indiana said. The coal-to-gas conversion is expected complete by the end of 2026, which would make AES Indiana the first investor-owned utility in the state to cease burning coal.

AES Indiana says converting Petersburg Units 3 & 4 aligns with its 2022 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). In addition to repowering, the Company’s portfolio includes adding approximately 1,300 MW of wind, solar and battery storage through competitively bid projects.

Last week, AES Indiana announced it acquired the Hoosier Wind project, a 106 MW wind farm in Benton County, Indiana. Earlier this year, AES Indiana received IURC approval for a 200 MW, 4-hour standalone battery energy storage system, the largest in the MISO region.

Petersburg Units 3 and 4 each have a nameplate capacity of 690 MW and came online in 1977 and 1986, respectively. AES Indiana retired the 230 MW Petersburg Unit 1 in May 2021 and the 415 MW Petersburg Unit 2 in June 2023.

The project is aimed at improving resilience and reliability for communities and industries along the coast. Situated atop a barge across from a substation in Leeville, the power station would play a role in supporting areas like Port Fourchon, Golden Meadow, Leeville, and Grand Isle through a microgrid system.

Key components of Entergy Louisiana’s overall project would include the construction of Bayou Power Station, expansion of the Leeville substation, and transmission connections. The microgrid system would provide backup power during outages, serving a mix of residential, commercial, and industrial customers, including industries located at Port Fourchon.

Hundreds of companies use Port Fourchon, which services 95% of the Gulf of Mexico’s deepwater energy production and handles 10-15% of the nation’s domestic and foreign oil, as a base of operation. Meanwhile, the strip from Golden Meadow to Grand Isle serves as a hub for the seafood industry. There are also many companies in the area that provide manufacturing and other services to both the energy and seafood industries.

Entergy Louisiana says the addition of Bayou Power Station would complement projects that have been completed over the past few years to build resilience into the electric system near the coast. Examples of these projects include the Caminada substation, which was elevated 20 feet off the ground on a concrete platform; upgrading around seven miles of transmission lines with about 80 steel structures between Cut Off and Golden Meadow; and undergrounding around eight miles of distribution lines along Louisiana Highway 1 from Leeville to Grand Isle and taking strategic steps to fortify the overhead electric system in the area.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey lawmakers wanted to ask voters whether to ban new fossil fuel-fired power plants.

And then they added a loophole big enough to drive a fleet of oil trucks through.

A state Senate committee on Monday advanced a bill that would authorize a public referendum on amending the state’s Constitution to ban construction of new power plants that burn natural gas or other fossil fuels.

But the measure was changed to allow the construction of such plants if they are to be primarily used as emergency backup power sources.

The so-called “peaker” plants would operate only sporadically, including in times of emergency or when the power grid is experiencing stress.

Scientists say the burning of natural gas and other fossil fuels is one of the leading causes of climate change.

Sen. Bob Smith, chairman of the environment and energy committee, began by talking about the urgent need to address climate change.

“We have just gone through the hottest year in human history,” he said. “Texas is currently burning down. Two years ago we had New Jersey citizens dying from (Tropical Storm ) Ida. We are in big, bad, serious trouble.”

But the bill was being amended to exempt backup power plants from the ban. Such proposals are among the most contentious in the state.

Among them is a backup power plant proposed for a sewage treatment facility in Newark. Nearby residents are trying to prevent the backup from being built, saying they are already overburdened by multiple sources of pollution.

Smith said utilities are still too reliant on these backup plants to suddenly ban new ones. (The original bill would not have affected existing power plants.)

“Right now all the experts I talk to say you’ve got to have a peaker,” he said. “The citizens of New Jersey will not tolerate us getting in the way of the electricity they need.”

Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said there are 26 power plants in New Jersey that burn fossil fuels, along with two nuclear power plants. The state no longer has coal-fired power plants.

The question is being debated around the country. In 2021, Whatcom County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Seattle, changed its land use laws to prohibit the construction of new oil refineries, coal-fired power plants, and facilities that transport fossil fuels.

Numerous states have banned coal power plants, and many say they are working toward 100% clean-energy economies.

Yet there is opposition as well. At least 15% of counties in the U.S. have prohibited new utility-scale wind or solar power projects, according to USA Today.

Dave Pringle of the Empower NJ environmental group, said New Jersey’s proposed ban does not go far enough.

“The only projects this will ban will be new gas power plants of a very large nature,” he said. “Clearly, economics dictates that those will not happen.”

In October, a Maryland-based energy company dropped plans to build a second gas-fired power plant next to one it already operates in Woodbridge, New Jersey. Competitive Power Ventures said market conditions had deteriorated to the point where the project was no longer economically feasible.

Anjuli Ramos-Busot, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said existing peaker plants are particularly dirty, adding the ones already in existence should be sufficient for near-term future energy reliability needs.

The most hotly fought power plant proposal in the state is happening in Newark. There, the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission wants to build a gas-fired backup power plant to avoid a repeat of what happened when Superstorm Sandy knocked out power in 2012, causing nearly a billion gallons of untreated sewage to flow into area waterways.

The state’s public transportation agency, NJ Transit, scrapped plans for a similar backup plant last month in nearby Kearny, saying resiliency improvements to the electrical gird made the project unnecessary.

Business groups said near-term energy needs require continued use of fossil fuels.

“It is short-sighted to cut out fossil fuels,” said Dennis Hart, executive director of the Chemistry Council of New Jersey. “Our nuclear plants are 60 years old; you don’t know how long they’re going to be there.”

The bill still needs multiple layers of approval before a referendum could be placed on the November general election ballot.

Smith said the measure will be further amended in coming weeks to clarify that small backup or portable generators such as those used by homeowners or small businesses during outages also would not be subject to a ban.

This order allows NV Energy to move forward with ceasing coal operations at North Valmy Generating Station and transition to a natural gas-fired plant by the end of 2025. North Valmy is the company’s final coal plant in its portfolio. The two-unit, 522 MW facility is jointly owned by NV Energy and Idaho Power.

Unit 1, which went into service in 1981, produces 254 MW with a Babcock & Wilcox Boiler and Westinghouse turbine/generator. Unit 2 came online in 1985 and generates 268 MW with a Foster Wheeler Boiler and GE turbine/generator. Coal for the plant is shipped via railroad from various mines in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado.

PUCN also approved NV Energy’s plan to build additional transmission infrastructure to support continued growth in the state, including in the Apex area in the city of North Las Vegas – a growing center of economic development in Southern Nevada.

NV Energy also received conditional approval to begin developing the Sierra Solar project, a 400 MW solar site with a four-hour battery storage system in Northern Nevada.

While regulators approved the project, they expressed concern about its cost and said there would need to be ratepayer protections in the case of cost overruns.

The commission capped Sierra Solar’s construction costs at $1.5 billion and said NV Energy would need to pay credits to customers if the project doesn’t meet its completion goal of April 2027. Sierra Solar would be “the most expensive project ever proposed to be built or owned by NV Energy.”

The state of Nevada is aiming for a renewable portfolio of 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it is delaying planned rules to curb emissions from existing natural gas plants that release harmful air pollutants and contribute to global warming.

The agency said it is still on track to finalize rules for coal-fired power plants and new gas plants that have not come online, a key step to slow planet-warming pollution from the power sector, the nation’s second-largest contributor to climate change.

But in a turnaround from previous plans, the agency said it will review standards for existing gas plants and expand the rules to include more pollutants. The change came after complaints from environmental justice groups, who said the earlier plan allowed too much toxic air pollution which disproportionately harms low-income neighborhoods near power plants, refineries and other industrial sites.

“As EPA works towards final standards to cut climate pollution from existing coal and new gas-fired power plants later this spring, the agency is taking a new, comprehensive approach to cover the entire fleet of natural gas-fired turbines, as well as cover more pollutants,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.

He called the new plan a “stronger, more durable approach” that will achieve greater emissions reductions than the current proposal. It also will better protect vulnerable frontline communities suffering from toxic air pollution caused by power plants and other industrial sites, Regan said.

Still, the plan was not universally welcomed by environmentalists, who said the new approach will likely push rules for existing gas plants past the November presidential election.

“We are extremely disappointed in EPA’s decision to delay finalizing carbon pollution standards for existing gas plants, which make up a significant portion of carbon emissions in the power sector,” said Frank Sturges, a lawyer for the Clean Air Task Force, an environmental group.

“Greenhouse gas emissions from power plants have gone uncontrolled for far too long, and we have no more time to waste,” he said.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, called EPA’s decision “inexplicable,” adding: “Making a rule that applies only to coal, which is dying out on its own, and to new gas power plants that are not yet built, is not how we are going to reach climate safety.”

But some environmentalists hailed the decision, saying the new plan would ultimately deliver better results.

“We have always known that the fight for a clean power sector wouldn’t be a quick one,” said Charles Harper of Evergreen Action. “EPA’s first order of business should be finalizing strong and necessary limits on climate pollution from new gas and existing coal plants as quickly as possible.”

“We are glad that EPA is committed to finishing the job with a new rule that covers every gas plant operating in the U.S.,” Harper added.

“Tackling dirty coal plants is one of the single most important moves the president and EPA can make to rein in climate pollution,” said Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice. “As utilities propose new fossil gas plants, we absolutely have to get ahead of a big new pollution problem.”

EPA issued a proposed rule in May 2023 that called for drastically curbing greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal and gas-fired plants, as well as future gas plants planned by the power industry. No new coal plant has opened in the U.S. in more than a decade, while dozens of coal-fired plants have closed in recent years in the face of competition from cheaper natural gas. The Biden administration has committed to create a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035.

The EPA proposal could force power plants to capture smokestack emissions using a technology that has long been promised but is not used widely in the United States.

If finalized, the proposed regulation would mark the first time the federal government has restricted carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, which generate about 25% of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution, second only to the transportation sector. The rule also would apply to future electric plants and would avoid up to 617 million metric tons of carbon dioxide through 2042, equivalent to annual emissions of 137 million passenger vehicles, the EPA said.

Almost all coal plants — along with large, frequently used gas-fired plants — would have to cut or capture nearly all their carbon dioxide emissions by 2038, the EPA said. Plants that cannot meet the new standards would be forced to shutter.

Much of the EPA plan is expected to be made final this spring and is likely to be challenged by industry groups and Republican-leaning states. They have accused the Democratic administration of overreach on environmental regulations and warn of a pending reliability crisis for the electric grid. The power plant rule is one of at least a half-dozen EPA rules limiting power plant emissions and wastewater treatment.

The National Mining Association warned of “an onslaught” of government regulation “designed to shut down the coal fleet prematurely″ when the EPA proposal was announced last year.

Regan has denied that the power plant rule is aimed at shutting down the coal sector, but acknowledged last year that, “ we will see some coal retirements.”

Coal provided just over 16% of U.S. electricity in 2023, down from about 45% in 2010, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Natural gas provided about 43% of U.S. electricity. The remainder comes from nuclear energy and renewables such as wind, solar and hydropower.

Peggy Shepard, co-founder and executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, a New York-based group, said she was pleased that the concerns of environmental justice communities will be factored into EPA’s rulemaking.

“The power sector is one of the top sources of carbon emissions and pollution,” she said. “With this pause to take a deeper dive into developing the most comprehensive and thoughtful rulemaking for existing gas plants, we have an opportunity to do this work correctly and effectively to protect the human and environmental health of the most overburdened, neglected and vulnerable people across the country.”

The EPA’s revised plan was first reported by Bloomberg News.

The Mountain Peak Power (MPP) plant will be built in Weld County, Colorado and is expected to come online in 2025. The 162 MW plant is will be operated by Kindle Energy and serve the United Power electric cooperative.

Each LM2500XPRESS power package includes an LM2500 aeroderivative gas turbine, a distributed control system (DCS) and a Dry Low Emissions (DLE) combustion system, which can reduce emissions without the use of water, a scarce resource in northeast Colorado. 

GE said the units can perform multiple daily starts and stops and start in as little as five minutes from cold iron. These units will be assembled at the company’s Gas Power Manufacturing Excellence Center in Veresegyhaz, Hungary.

In addition to the power generation equipment, GE has provided co-development funding to speed up development and construction.

Colorado has committed to reducing overall GHG emissions 50% below 2005 levels by 2030 and 90% by 2050. This includes exiting coal by 2031. As of early 2023, seven coal-fired electric power generating facilities were operating in Colorado — until one was retired and converted to natural gas. The remaining plants are scheduled to either close or be converted to natural gas to provide peaking power.

“In a region with an increasing power demand due to planned coal-fired plants retirements and increased renewable energy generation, a mix of flexible and efficient energy sources will be necessary to achieve the carbon emissions goals of Colorado, while ensuring the reliability of power supply,” said Lee Davis, CEO of Kindle Energy.

GE Vernova said the MPP plant is the company’s second dispatchable peaking project in Colorado.

Kindle Energy currently manages and operates nearly 10.2 GW of generation located in Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey and Ohio, according to the company’s website.

The New Jersey-based company is currently building a 700 MW natural gas-fired combined-cycle plant in Iberville Parish, Louisiana. The Magnolia Power Generating Station will provide electricity directly to five rural utility cooperatives across the state starting in May 2025.

The Magnolia Power Project would include a GE 7HA.03 gas turbine, a GE STF-A650 steam turbine and a triple pressure with reheat Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG). The company’s Mark VIe control system would provide turbine generator control, data collection and performance visibility.

GE has also said the Magnolia plant would have the eventual ability to blend up to 50% hydrogen.

The testing took place this week at ESG’s 4 MW power generation site in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Using calibrated humidity sensors positioned at both the beginning and the end of the exhaust stream, ESG says the results exceeded the modeled forecast of 83% that was developed during the initial design phase of its carbon capture process.

“This will work to our benefit as we scale to meet the demands of fossil fuel consumption in small and large power facilities, and eventually the transportation industry,” said Nick Scuderi, president of ESG Clean Energy.

ESG has plans to build a second gas-fired plant in Holyoke. The 4.2 MW plant would also be powered by Caterpillar engines.

ESG Clean Energy says it plans on implementing its CO2 capture technology across all its planned facilities and has licensed the technology to a subsidiary of Camber Energy for all of Canada and multiple locations in the United States.

The company says its system treats the exhaust stream to remove the water vapor before it is treated for capturing CO2. The system consists of a ceramic membrane that has been incorporated into a mechanical cooling system.

There’s a problem with traditional carbon capture, ESG Clean Energy says: separting and capturing carbon dioxide from a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and water vapor can be difficult, and while some materials have been developed that can “selectively attach or react with the CO2 while letting the other gases pass by,” the water vapor remains. Water molecules interfere with the carbon capture process, ESG Clean Energy says, citing several scientific studies showing how water negatively affects CO2 capture.

In 2023, New England had nearly 400 dispatchable generators and about 30,700 MW of generating capability, with 99.3% of electricity provided by natural gas, nuclear, hydropower, and imported electricity (mostly in the form of hydropower from Eastern Canada) and renewables. About 40,000 MW of new capacity is proposed to be built, the report said, and more than 7,000 MW of generation have retired since 2013 or may retire in the next few years, composed of mostly coal-fired, oil-fired and nuclear power plants. The region’s remaining two zero-carbon-emitting nuclear facilities, Millstone and Seabrook, supply a quarter of the electricity New England consumes in a year.

New England also had about 3,800 MW of of demand capacity resources (DCRs) and about 350,000 distributed solar power installations totaling 6,500 MW, with most installed behind the meter.

This number was calculated by adding total electricity generation and price-responsive demand reduction within New England to net imports from and exports to neighboring regions. The energy used to operate pumped storage power plants is then subtracted from that sum. Numbers are preliminary, pending the resettlement process.

Output from solar installations increased by 6% from 2022, rising to 3,851 GWh or 3% of the NEL. Wind power was relatively steady from year to year at 3% of NEL.

Oil-fired resources produced less electricity in 2023 than in 2022, accounting for 322 GWh, or 0.32% of the NEL, compared to the previous year’s 1,844 GWh. Production from coal-fired resources decreased from 320 GWh to 182 GWh, accounting for .16% of NEL for 2023.

All six New England states have renewable portfolio standards, which require electricity suppliers to provide customers with increasing percentages of renewable energy, ISO-NE said. Because large-scale renewable resources typically have higher up-front capital costs and different financing opportunities than more conventional resources, they have had difficulty competing in the wholesale markets. Therefore, the New England states are promoting, at varying levels and speed, the development of specific clean-energy resources to meet their public policy goals.

Several states have established public policies that direct electric power companies to enter into ratepayer-funded, long-term contracts for large-scale carbon-free energy that would cover most, if not all, of the resource’s costs.

About 97% of resources currently proposed for the region are grid-scale wind, solar and battery projects. As of January 2024, about 40,000 MW have been proposed in the ISO New England Interconnection Request Queue.

Energy storage represented 46% of the projects in the Interconnection Request Queue as of January 2024, and solar power accounted for 10%. Most solar power in New England is connected behind the meter directly at retail customer sites. Because such projects do not follow the ISO interconnection process, they aren’t reflected in the Interconnection Request Queue numbers.

The region had a total of about 350,000 distributed solar power installations as of December 2023 with a combined nameplate generating capability of approximately 6,500 MW.