Utility News

AP via Forbes:

A federal judge on Friday issued a permanent injunction against Internet phone carrier Vonage for use of rival Verizon Communications Inc.’s patents.

Judge Claude Hilton said that an injunction, which followed a jury’s decision earlier this month that Vonage had infringed on three Verizon patents, is required because simply providing monetary damages “does not prevent continued erosion of the client base of the plaintiff.”

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Leader Times:

A church here may need some divine intervention with a staggering $2 million water bill from the borough.

Council agreed, at a public meeting Thursday night, to send the Second Baptist Church on Fourth Avenue a bill for water used as a result of a waterline break that occurred inside a vacant building the church owns at 422 Fifth Ave., not far from the church…

Dominion Peoples shut off gas service to the building last summer to change a meter. The gas was never turned back on…

The cold weather caused the water pipes inside the unheated building to freeze and burst.

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North American Windpower:

PECO, a Philadelphia-based utility and subsidiary of Exelon Corp., has filed a petition with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) to purchase the equivalent of 240 MW of alternative energy credits for five years.

According to the company, the proposal would help meet Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act, which requires the utility to provide 3.5% of its energy from renewable sources by 2011 and 8% by 2020.

“By purchasing the credits now, and banking them to meet future requirements, we can take advantage of current market prices,” says Denis O’Brien, PECO’s president.

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AP via The Hartford Courant:

Nine state attorneys general, including Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal, have asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to change its rules to allow consideration of a potential terrorist attack on a reactor when it decides whether to extend a plant’s license…

The letter from attorneys general in Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and Vermont followed by one day an NRC decision affirming and earlier ruling that Massachusetts could not raise the potential for terrorism in hearings on the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant’s request for a license renewal.

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The Energy Daily:

Ameren announced today that the company’s Renewable Energy Department is working with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the University of Illinois-Chicago to study the feasibility of using methane gas from hog manure to generate heat and power at The Maschhoffs Inc. in Carlyle, Ill…

Manure collected from the Maschhoff farm would be stored in the digester. Methane gas would then be siphoned off the manure and used to power the generator, which may have the potential to produce between 200 and 400 kilowatts of electricity. The electricity would be used by the farm, which has a peak electric demand of over 700 kilowatts. The heat created by the generator would be used to heat the digester.

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AP via AOL Money News:

Duke Energy estimated it would cost $1.53 billion to build a single coal-fired power unit at its Cliffside power plant in western North Carolina, the state Public Utilities Commission disclosed Wednesday.

Duke Energy Corp. provided the estimate when seeking permission from the commission to build a pair of generators, estimated at $3 billion, at its Cliffside Steam Station. In a brief ruling issued in February, the commission said it would allow the Charlotte-based utility to build only one of the 800-megawatt coal-fired generators.

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New York Newsday:

HARTFORD, Conn. — Two regional phone companies have asked state regulators to drop or delay their investigation into whether the companies released calling records from thousands of customers to federal authorities.

AT&T and Verizon also asked the state Department of Public Utility Control on Tuesday to dismiss a request by the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut for an investigation.

AT&T said no state regulation or law prohibits the telephone company’s disclosures of customer information. And it said there is no allegation that it violated any state law over which DPUC has jurisdiction.

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AP via SFGate.com:

A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a decision by the Federal Communications Commission that barred states, including Minnesota, from regulating Internet-based phone services.

A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the FCC’s determination in 2004 that companies like Vonage Holdings Corp. of Edison, N.J., provide an interstate service that puts them outside state control.

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UPI via Science Daily:

The American Electric Power Co. is being praised for starting the first commercial carbon dioxide utility capture and geologic storage project.

The chief of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy, Thomas Shope, said the action underscores the value of joint venture research and development by industry and government…

AEP plans to capture up to 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year at its coal-based Mountaineer Plant in West Virginia and to store it on site in a deep saline reservoir.

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UPI:

U.S. scientists say dwindling supplies of nuclear power plant fuel might limit the expansion of nuclear energy in many nations.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology report commercial and government inventories are nearly depleted and uranium production meets only about 65 percent of reactor requirements.

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