Weekly News Digest

Check out the latest high voltage industry trends in this week's news digest from around the web. Here are some of the top headlines from this past week.

N.J. Regulators Approve Settlement on Atlantic City Electric Power Grid Upgrades

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approved a stipulation of settlement authorizing Exelon’s Atlantic City Electric to invest $79 million in a five-year capital investment plan to improve distribution grid resiliency under the company’s “PowerAhead” program.

Colorado Utility Regulators Are Putting a Dollar Value on Carbon Emissions’ Impact and Will Ask Xcel to Account for It

Colorado utility regulators have waded into new political and economic waters with a vote that requires the state’s largest utility to put a dollar figure on the impacts from carbon emissions tied to future power sources. In the next few years, when Xcel next assesses how it plans to meet demand, a new coal-burning plant will be nearly impossible to justify and it will make natural gas turbines less competitive against wind, solar and other power generation sources with zero emissions.

National Grid, GE, 3M Make Power Grid Greener With Gas-Insulated Switchgear

National Grid, working with GE Grid Solutions and 3M, has commissioned gas-insulated switchgear using an alternative to sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). Used around the world for decades, SF6 is a powerful insulation gas that allows high voltage electricity switchgear to take up less space. However, while leakage rates are extremely low, SF6 is also a potent greenhouse gas, 23,900 times worse for the environment than carbon dioxide.

NV Energy's Rebuild of 60-Year-Old Transmission Line

Back in 1956, Sierra Pacific Power Co. constructed a new 60-kV transmission line from the town of Minden, Nevada, to Stateline, California, to serve the growing customer loads on the southeast shores of Lake Tahoe. Flash forward to 2016, and Sierra Pacific Power is now NV Energy, and the line that served its purpose for so many years has to be rebuilt.

Disappearing Demand is a Real Issue for New Infrastructure Projects

After six years of analysis and public involvement, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) announced in May that that it is cancelling the I-5 Corridor Reinforcement Project, which involved more than 79 miles of 500-kV line at an estimated cost of $460 million. In its announcement cancelling the project, BPA cited non-wire alternatives including grid management and energy storage options as the most economical alternative. Administrator Mainzer stated, “The outcome is much bigger than a decision to build or not build this line: We are transforming how we plan for and manage our transmission system and commercial business practices region-wide.”

USDA Awards Loans to Build and Expand Rural Electric Infrastructure

Acting Deputy Undersecretary for Rural Development Roger Glendenning recently announced that USDA is providing more than a quarter billion dollars in loans for rural electric infrastructure improvements. “These loans will help improve the delivery of reliable electricity, and will help ensure that rural areas nationwide can prosper economically and benefit from today’s technologies to meet tomorrow’s needs,” Glendenning said.

Owner Says Three Mile Island Plant to Shut Down in 2019

The owner of Three Mile Island, site of the United States' worst commercial nuclear power accident, said Monday that it will shut down the plant in 2019 without a financial rescue from Pennsylvania. Exelon Corp.'s announcement comes after what it called more than five years of losses on the single-unit power plant and its recent failure in a capacity auction to sell Three Mile Island's power into the regional grid.