Utility News

Forbes:

When lawmakers reconvene next week, they will take up new energy legislation designed to promote energy independence and curb greenhouse gas emissions. But the debate over whether the government should put in place a so-called renewable portfolio standard is likely to be a significant flash point in the discussions.

The RPS would require utilities to use a minimum percentage of clean power–such as wind, hydropower or solar energy–in their overall fuel mix, or it would require electric companies to buy renewable credits from each other.

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U.S. News & World Report:

Studies by government and utilities agree that cities and towns will need to spend $250 billion to $500 billion more over the next 20 years to maintain the drinking water and waste-water systems we equate with modern living. The only debate is how to pay for it, in a country accustomed to paying about $2.50 per 1,000 gallons—the lowest price for tap water in the developed world.

“There’s a very widespread perception that water is a free good,” says Steve Maxwell, a Boulder, Colo., consultant specializing in water and environmental issues. “It falls out of the sky—why should we pay for it? What’s lost is the fact that we have to treat it, move it around, store it, and distribute it to homes in a process that costs a heck of a lot of money.”

Maxwell is among those who believe it will take a catastrophic infrastructure failure causing widespread illness or death to spur action.

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AP via York Dispatch:

Federal regulators are revising work rules to help keep security guards at nuclear plants alert and not sleepy, recognizing that fatigue can also be an enemy for workers who must be prepared to make life-or-death decisions.

For years, industry watchdogs have complained that low staffing has increased the workload for guards and made them more prone to “inattentiveness” — a catchall term nuclear operators use to describe napping and other behavior that can distract them.

Now, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission hopes changes in fitness-for-duty rules approved last month will address growing worries about fatigue among plant security workers.

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The Scranton Times Tribune:

Electricity rates may increase at least 30 percent then, as the state requires the utility to purchase power on the open market after a decadelong process of deregulation.

State-imposed rate caps have long sheltered ratepayers from open-market electricity prices, allowing PPL Electric Utilities Inc. to charge rates below the national average.

The caps come off at the end of 2009, leaving consumers facing a sudden hike.

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Bloomberg:

Natural gas in New York fell, erasing earlier gains, as ample supplies offset concerns over potential supply disruptions and a forecast for hot summer weather

Inventory levels are sufficient to meet demand, which will push prices lower, said David Pursell, research analyst with Pickering Energy Partners Inc. in Houston.

Gas for June delivery declined 13.1 cents, or 1.6 percent, to settle at $7.944 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, the price surged to $8.23, the highest since Dec. 4, when it reached $8.289.

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AP via Atlanta Journal Constitution:

The gray, sandy mix of turkey droppings and other bits and pieces flowing through Greg Langmo’s fingers back onto the floor of his barn isn’t just funky dirt, it’s fuel.

With 16,000 hens gobbling around him, Langmo is standing on a 15-inch layer of turkey litter —- some 750 tons of the stuff —- that represents a new source of energy.

It will help fuel a $200 million power plant due to begin full-scale production next month. The 55-megawatt Fibrominn LLC plant will be the first poultry litter-fired power plant in the United States, tapping a novel source of renewable energy to produce enough power for 50,000 homes. Its developers are planning similar plants in other major poultry states.

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The Daily Times:

State officials reluctantly approved a 50 percent rate increase Wednesday for the 1.1 million residential customers of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., saying they had “little legal option” to defer or reduce the utility company’s proposal.

The increase goes into effect next Friday. The Maryland Public Service Commission was critical of the way the transition to market rates had been handled, and PSC Chairman Steven Larsen said he was disappointed an alternative couldn’t be found.

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Nashua Telegraph:

The city’s purchase of common stock in Pennichuck Corp. has emerged as an alternative way to settle the five-year battle over whether to take over the Nashua-based water utility.

Nashua legislators from both political parties, city officials and executives with Pennichuck all urged a House committee Wednesday to change state investment law and allow Nashua to buy a stock ownership position in Pennichuck’s parent company or its subsidiaries.

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Reuters via Topix:

Consolidated Edison, Inc and American Superconductor Corporation have agreed to put a superconducting power line under midtown New York that should lead to a sturdier power grid able to withstand extreme weather and attacks.

The move is part of an effort by Con Ed to upgrade the power grid in New York. A power outage in Queens, New York last summer, and the August 2003 blackout that hit parts of the U.S. Northeast, Canada and the Midwest, have raised concerns about power delivery in New York’s financial district, seen as vital to the nation’s economy.

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SeaCoastOnline:

Nearly 3000 local residents gathered Tuesday to protest Verizon’s proposed transfer of its landline business to FairPoint Communications.

If the transfer takes place, Verizon will merge its wire-line local exchange and long distance businesses in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont with FairPoint. That proposal is leading many residents to question whether the state’s telephone and high-speed Internet service will suffer.

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