Santee Cooper Board Approves Purchase of Natural Gas Combined Cycle Plant
April 21, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 21, 2023
The Santee Cooper Board of Directors on April 21 approved the purchase of Cherokee County Cogeneration Partners LLC, a natural gas combined cycle power plant in Gaffney, S.C.
The planned $17 million purchase also requires approval by the South Carolina Public Service Commission and the legislative Joint Bond Review Committee.
The 98-megawatt Cherokee plant will help Santee Cooper reliably meet increased customer demand caused by new and expanded industries in the state and a fast-growing residential and commercial base in areas served by Santee Cooper, its municipal wholesale customers and the state’s electric cooperatives, Santee Cooper said.
“We need a quick power supply for new industry and new people, and that’s a great problem to have,” said President and CEO Jimmy Staton. “Cherokee offers an existing, in-state solution that matches well with our generating portfolio and will help provide the reliable, affordable power our customers have come to expect.”
Cherokee was built in 1998 and sold to LS Power in 2011. Santee Cooper began taking the Cherokee output under a purchased power agreement in early 2022.
Owning the actual unit will provide additional reliability to Santee Cooper’s customers. The purchase has been endorsed by Santee Cooper’s largest customer, Central Electric Power Cooperative, which intends to seek formal support from its board in May.
The Cherokee purchase helps address a near-term need for additional power, Santee Cooper noted.
Santee Cooper, the state-owned public power utility in South Carolina, is continuing its comprehensive, long-term resource planning process and intends to submit its proposed Integrated Resource Plan to the PSC on May 15. That process is focused on planning for generating resources beginning later this decade.
Southeast Coalition Submits Bid for Clean Hydrogen Hub to DOE
April 13, 2023
by APPA News
April 13, 2023
A coalition of Southeast utilities submitted an application to the Department of Energy for funding to build a green hydrogen network that would span six states.
The Southeast Hydrogen Hub includes Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities, Southern Company, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and Battelle Memorial Institute, a private, non-profit science and technology development company that is the lead entity in the coalition.
The goal of the Southeast Hydrogen Hub coalition is to develop a regional energy ecosystem that would allow members to deploy green hydrogen as a decarbonization solution for customers and communities, the group said in a statement. A Southeast hydrogen hub could assist in decarbonization efforts in the Southeast and help bring robust economic development benefits and jobs to the region, the group added.
The Department of Energy has made $8 billion available for the formation of regional clean hydrogen hubs under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Department of Energy is expected to make final funding decisions this fall.
The Southeast Hydrogen Hub was one of 79 potential hubs to submit initial concept papers to the Department of Energy in 2022. In late December, the Department issued notices to 33 applicants encouraging them to proceed with their submissions.
“We are heartened by the Department of Energy’s encouraging notification in response to the coalition’s concept paper and urge the Department to select the Southeast Hydrogen Hub coalition for funding,” a group of Southeast lawmakers led by senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), said in a letter to the Department of Energy in February. “We stand ready to provide long-term support for the Southeast Hydrogen Hub’s implementation and growth,” they wrote.
Recently, a group of seven Northeast states announced they submitted a bid for a Northeast Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub.
Seven Northeast States Submit Bid for Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub
April 11, 2023
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
April 11, 2023
A group of seven Northeast states has submitted a bid to compete for a $1.25 billion share of the $8 billion in federal funding for the Department of Energy’s clean hydrogen hub funding made available as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Specifically, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont submitted their joint proposal for a Northeast Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub.
Together with the federal portion, the northeastern states’ proposal represents a $3.62 billion investment and includes over 12 projects across the seven states. The projects are designed to advance clean electrolytic hydrogen production, consumption, and infrastructure projects for hard to decarbonize sectors, including transportation and heavy industry.
The multi-state group said its strategy is to create an ecosystem that connects hydrogen producers and users and associated safety experts, equipment manufacturers, researchers, and labor representatives that will work together to prioritize electrolytic production of hydrogen without creating greenhouse gas emissions by using clean electricity and water.
Clean hydrogen projects developed by the group would include hydrogen production for use in transportation, high-temp industrial thermal applications, and heating for utilities. The projects would also be designed to form strategic connections with other clean hydrogen hubs.
A group that includes the Tennessee Valley Authority is pursuing federal funding for a Southeast Hydrogen Hub. Four western states, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, have signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of a regional clean hydrogen hub. And Salt River Project, along with several partners in Arizona, is working on a Southwest clean hydrogen initiative.
If selected by the Department of Energy, awardees would develop projects in four phases over the course of 10 to 12 years. Each phase would have a set of milestones to complete regarding technical data and analysis, community engagement, engineering, permitting and safety, business development, procurement, and construction, before advancing to the next phase of development.
Oversight of the Northeast group’s projects would be done through coordination and collaboration between the Department of Energy, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority as the prime awardee, along with partners in other states and project partners in communities across the region.
New Report Says U.S. is on Track to Close Half of Coal-Fired Capacity by 2026
April 10, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 10, 2023
In 2026, half of the coal-fired generation capacity in the U.S. will have closed since it peaked in 2011, according to a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
This is now the earliest date for this milestone since IEEFA began closely tracking coal-plant retirements, and it has moved up despite high prices for natural gas and construction delays for renewables largely caused by pandemic-induced supply disruptions.
By another measure — actual electricity generation — the U.S. has cut coal use even faster, producing less than 50% of coal’s 2011 power level in both 2020 and 2022.
Based on current announcements from utilities, coal capacity will fall to 159 gigawatts by the end of 2026, down from 318 GW in 2011, IEEFA said.
With more than 80 GW of power plants set to stop using coal between 2023 and the end of 2030 — a figure that includes mostly closures, with a limited number of conversions from coal to gas — total coal-fired capacity will fall to just 116 GW by 2030.
“And actual coal use is likely to continue falling even faster, as aging units face higher operation and maintenance costs, and utilities increasingly favor the responsiveness of gas generation and battery storage to complement the variable output from solar and wind, both of which continue to be built at a rapid clip,” it said.
By the end of this decade, more than 200 GW of the 318 GW of peak coal-fired power will have been retired, based on current announcements. By then, coal consumption by the power sector could fall to just half of this year’s expected level, to about 200 million tons, IEEFA estimates.
Click here for the report.
Advanced Nuclear Reactors Could Add Jobs to Regions with Coal Retirements
April 5, 2023
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
April 5, 2023
Advanced nuclear technology, particularly small modular reactors, could bring a net increase in local jobs to communities hard hit by the retirement of coal plants, according to a report from the Bipartisan Policy Center.
According to the report, Can Advanced Nuclear Repower Coal Country?, the coal power plant industry lost 12 percent of its workforce between 2019 and 2022, and another one quarter of the nation’s coal plants are scheduled to retire by 2029. The report also noted that 77 percent of coal plant jobs are transferable to nuclear plants with no new workforce licensing requirements.
The report estimated there could be a net increase of more than 650 jobs in regions where small modular reactions replace retired coal plants. In addition, workers at nuclear plants earn higher wages compared with workers at coal plants, which could provide a boost to local tax revenues.
The report’s authors highlight that several recent developments lend support to a coal-to-nuclear transition, specifically the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s issuance of a final rule certifying NuScale Power’s small modular reactor design.
In addition, they noted the Inflation Reduction Act includes tax credits that make advanced nuclear projects and new energy investment in coal communities more attractive to investors, and the Fission for the Future Act, included in the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, authorizes $800 million to support coal-to-nuclear projects. And some states have overturned bans on new nuclear projects, including Montana, West Virginia, and Connecticut.
By design small modular reactors have many characteristics that make them well suited to replace coal plants, for instance, their modular design allows for flexible electrical output and gives them the ability to match the output of a retiring coal plant, the report’s authors said.
Using a retired coal site for an advanced nuclear plant also has cost advantages, the report said. Small modular reactors can reuse coal plant transmission infrastructure, reducing construction cost and avoiding some permitting challenges. A retired coal plant’s electrical equipment and steam-cycle components, as well as its transmission and administrative buildings, can be repurposed, cutting construction cost by 17 to 35 percent, the report said.
There are, however, challenges that would have to be overcome to accomplish a nuclear-to-coal transition, the report’s authors said. For instance, coal plant retirement and small modular reactor operation dates would have to be aligned for a smooth workforce transition and to prevent existing transmission and water infrastructure from being utilized by another project.
New Nuclear Unit in Georgia Generates Electricity for the First Time, Connects to Grid
April 3, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 3, 2023
Georgia Power on April 1 reported that the generator at Vogtle Unit 3 has generated electricity for the first time, and the unit has successfully synchronized and connected to the electric grid.
Vogtle 3 and 4 are new nuclear units under construction at a nuclear expansion project near Waynesboro, Ga. Vogtle Unit 3 is adjacent to the operating Units 1 and 2, near Waynesboro, Georgia. Unit 3 and 4 are two 1,100-megawatt Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactors being constructed in Burke County, Ga.
Connecting to the electric grid is part of ongoing startup testing for Vogtle Unit 3, and operators will continue to raise reactor power for electricity generation while performing tests at various power levels.
This Unit 3 milestone follows initial criticality, reached on March 6, when operators safely started the nuclear reaction inside the reactor, generating nuclear heat to produce steam. Once all startup testing is successfully completed and the unit is available for reliable dispatch, the unit will enter commercial operation.
Meanwhile, at Vogtle Unit 4, nuclear operators began hot functional testing last month. Both achievements represent significant steps toward operations.
At Unit 4, hot functional testing, which began last month, marks the last series of major tests underway for the new nuclear unit ahead of initial fuel load.
The testing is being conducted to verify the successful operation of reactor components and systems together and confirm the reactor is ready for fuel load. As part of the testing, the site team will begin running Unit 4 plant systems, without nuclear fuel in the reactor, and advance through the testing process towards reaching normal operating pressure and temperature. Nuclear operators will use the heat generated by the unit’s four reactor coolant pumps to raise the temperature and pressure of plant systems to normal operating levels.
Once normal operating temperature and pressure levels are achieved and sustained, the unit’s main turbine will be raised to normal operating speed using steam from the plant. During these series of tests, nuclear operators will be able to exercise and validate procedures as required ahead of fuel load.
The in-service date for Unit 3 is projected during May or June 2023. Vogtle Unit 4 is projected to enter service in late fourth quarter 2023 or first quarter 2024.
Southern Nuclear will operate the new units on behalf of the co-owners: Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities.
TVA, Others to Advance Global Deployment of Small Modular Reactor Technology
March 24, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
March 24, 2023
Tennessee Valley Authority, Ontario Power Generation, Synthos Green Energy and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy are teaming up to advance the global deployment of a small modular reactor, they announced on March 23.
Through a technical collaboration agreement that was announced in Washington, D.C., TVA, OPG and SGE will invest in the development of the GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy BWRX-300 standard design and detailed design for key components, including reactor pressure vessel and internals.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy is committed to standard design development and anticipates a total investment of around $400 million associated with the development.
Each contributor has agreed to fund a portion of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s overall cost and collectively will form a design center working group with the purpose of ensuring the standard design is deployable in multiple jurisdictions.
The long-term goal is for the BWRX-300 design to be licensed and deployed in Canada, the U.S., Poland and beyond.
Site preparation is now underway for a BWRX-300 at OPG’s Darlington New Nuclear Project site in Clarington, Ontario, with construction expected to be complete by the end of 2028. This will be the first grid-scale SMR in North America.
TVA is preparing a construction permit application for a BWRX-300 at the Clinch River site near Oak Ridge, Tennessee and exploring additional sites in the TVA service area for potential SMR deployments.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., recently visited the Clinch River site that has been designated as the location for a TVA small modular reactor. Lee and Fleischmann were accompanied on the tour by Jeffrey Lyash, CEO of TVA.
ORLEN Synthos Green Energy, a joint venture between SGE and PKN Orlen, and its partners have started the pre-licensing process in Poland by submitting an application to the National Atomic Energy Agency for assessment of the BWRX-300.
ORLEN Synthos Green Energy has initiated a site selection process for its proposed first BWRX-300 and intends to deploy this first unit by the end of this decade with the future potential for a fleet of BWRX-300s. ORLEN Synthos Green Energy has initiated a site selection process for this first unit.
The BWRX-300 is being designed to reduce construction and operating costs below other nuclear power generation technologies. Specifically, the BWRX-300 is being developed to leverage a unique combination of existing fuel, plant simplifications, proven components and a design based on an already licensed reactor.
SMR Project Being Developed by UAMPS Moves Forward
Participants’ governing boards in the Carbon Free Power Project being developed by Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems are moving forward with the development and deployment of a small modular reactor project, UAMPS reported on Feb. 28. With the commitments, the CFPP Project Management Committee approved a new budget and plan of finance.
NPPD Launches SMR Siting Study
Meanwhile, the Nebraska Public Power District is beginning the process of studying sites that could have the potential to host advanced small modular nuclear reactors, it said on Jan. 13.
Under Nebraska legislative bill 1014, the State of Nebraska allocated $1 million of American Rescue Plan Act funding to complete a siting study for small modular reactors.
Small Nuclear Reactors Could Efficiently Charge Heavy Duty Electric Trucks
March 24, 2023
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
March 24, 2023
There is “significant” market potential for using small or micro nuclear reactors to charge heavy duty electric vehicles, according to a report by the Idaho National Laboratory.
The report, A techno-economic analysis of distributed energy resources versus wholesale electricity purchases for fueling decarbonized heavy duty vehicles, used simulation models to analyze 219 hypothetical electric vehicle trucking stations across the United States. The researchers used two options for each station. One used distributed energy resources, including solar, battery storage and small modular reactors. The other used centralized power that would require building transmission lines to tap into the electric grid. The study applied to both electric trucks and hydrogen-based heavy duty vehicles.
The distributed energy resource option considered all three forms of distributed resources together, but gave precedent to the least cost resource to determine the level of investment in each resource. The analysis found that small modular reactors and microreactors would comprise more than 99 percent of total deployed distributed energy capacity. Using distributed energy resources for heavy duty electric vehicle charging also provides benefits by ensuring that charging electric trucks does not overwhelm the grid, the authors said.
For purposes of the study small modular reactors are defined as 60 megawatts in capacity and microreactors can be as small as 10 megawatts.
The study is the first to consider small modular reactors and other distributed energy resources as a competing energy source, the authors said, adding that most similar studies assumed heavy duty electric vehicles would be charged via connections to the grid.
The study projected the deployment and operation of distributed energy heavy duty vehicle charging stations to the year 2040 for fleets of 100 percent electric heavy duty vehicles to fleets that are 60 precent electric and 40 percent hydrogen fueled.
In the models, distributed energy resources were deployed at between 78 percent and 95 percent of all charging stations to meet between 24 and 30 percent of total heavy duty vehicle energy demand. Under the least cost guidelines of the study, the remaining vehicle demand would be met with purchased electricity from the grid.
Investments in distributed energy resources for electric truck charging would reduce annual costs by $647 million to $1.9 billion across all stations, compared with the cost of charging from the grid while individual stations could save $20 million to more than $100 million annually compared with the cost of charging from the grid, the study found.
Department Of Energy Reports Set Pathways for Scaling Clean Energy Technologies
March 23, 2023
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
March 23, 2023
The Department of Energy recently unveiled a set of reports aimed at accelerating the commercialization and deployment of clean energy technologies, particularly clean hydrogen, advanced nuclear, and long duration energy storage.
The Department of Energy says its Pathways to Commercial Liftoff initiative underscores the critical role the agency plays in enabling widespread commercial adoption of the clean energy technologies essential to meeting President Joseph Biden’s goals of achieving 100 percent clean electricity by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
To meet the administration’s long-term decarbonization targets, cumulative investments in the clean hydrogen, nuclear, and long duration energy storage sectors need to increase from about $40 billion to $300 billion by 2030 with continued acceleration until 2050, the Pathways reports concluded.
The clean hydrogen market is among the best poised to reach full-scale commercialization, according to the report on that sector. Clean hydrogen production for domestic demand has the potential to go from less than 1 million metric ton per year to about 10 million metric ton per year in 2030, the report said. It noted that most of the near-term demand will come from transitioning existing end-uses away from the current carbon-intensive hydrogen production such as from natural gas in favor of water electrolysis, but that would require up to 200 gigawatts of new renewable energy sources by 2030, the report said.
The technology is progressing thanks to programs such as the Department of Energy’s clean hydrogen hubs and the tax incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act, but more work is needed to address demand uncertainty, workforce development, and other challenges before clean hydrogen can realize its full potential, the report said.
The report on energy storage noted that long duration energy storage is still maturing but has the potential to improve grid resilience, increase the adoption of renewable power generation, and strengthen energy security. Continued development of long duration energy storage will require further cost reductions and an increase in public and private investment, the report said.
The grid may need between 225 gigawatts and 460 gigawatts of long duration energy storage to achieve a net zero carbon economy by 2060, representing $330 billion in cumulative capital investment, the report said. It noted, however, that long duration energy storage could yield $10 billion to $20 billion in annualized savings in operating costs and avoided capital expenditures by 2050 compared with scenarios that do not use long duration energy storage.
Advanced nuclear technology has the potential to provide clean, firm power that can reliably complement the buildout of renewable energy resources, and it has the potential to create long-term, high-paying jobs and to deliver economic opportunities for traditional energy producing communities that already have pre-existing power generation infrastructure, such as coal communities, the report on the sector said.
According to decarbonization models, the United States will need between 550 gigawatts and 770 gigawatts of additional clean, firm capacity to reach a net-zero economy by 2050, regardless of level of renewables deployment, according to the report. Nuclear power “is one of the few proven options that could deliver this at scale, while creating high-paying jobs with concentrated economic benefits for communities most impacted by the energy transition,” the report said.
Advanced nuclear technologies could drive United States nuclear capacity from about 100 gigawatts in 2023 to about 300 gigawatts by 2050, the report said.
NRC to Start Technical Review of NuScale Power’s Second Standard Design Approval Application
March 20, 2023
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
March 20, 2023
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on March 17 announced that it will begin the technical review of NuScale Power’s second Standard Design Approval application.
NuScale submitted the application in late 2022, which is based on a six-module power plant configuration powered by an uprated 250-megawatt small modular reactor design.
The design reflected in this application features the same fundamental safety case and passive safety features approved by the NRC in 2020, with a focus on the power uprate and select design changes to support customers’ capacity needs and further improve economics, NuScale said.
In other recent news, NuScale on March 9 announced that at the end of 2022, as scheduled, it placed the first upper reactor pressure vessel long lead material production order with Doosan Enerbility.
The order is for materials essential to commence manufacturing of the first NuScale power modules that are scheduled to be in commercial operation at the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems’ Carbon Free Power Project as early as 2029, NuScale said.
UAMPS recently reported that participants’ governing boards in the Carbon Free Power Project are moving forward with the development and deployment of a small modular reactor project.
With the commitments, the CFPP Project Management Committee approved a new budget and plan of finance.