Utility News

Harrisburg Patriot-News:

Electricity generated by the Three Mile Island nuclear plant saves state consumers about $288 million a year on their electric bills.

That is the conclusion of a study performed for TMI owner Exelon Nuclear by a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm. TMI is seeking to extend the plant’s operating license by 20 years.

Without TMI, the state would need to generate more electricity with more costly coal and natural gas, the study said.

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The New York Times:

The phone service provider Embarq Corporation reported on Tuesday that first-quarter revenue and access lines dropped, but lower expenses helped lift its net profit.

Embarq, the wireline spinoff from Sprint Nextel, also lowered its revenue outlook for the full year.

The company said its quarterly operating revenue fell to $1.57 billion, from $1.59 billion a year ago, while access lines decreased 7.3 percent.

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The New York Times:

After struggling with soaring heating costs through the winter, millions of Americans are behind on electric and gas bills, and a record number of families could face energy shut-offs over the next two months, according to state energy officials and utilities around the country.

The escalating costs of heating oil, propane and kerosene, most commonly used in the Northeast, have posed the greatest burdens, officials say, but natural gas and electricity prices have also climbed at a time when low-end incomes are stagnant and prices have also jumped for food and gasoline.

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Southerm Maryland Online:

Constellation Energy and the state of Maryland are moving forward on plans to add a third reactor to the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant, which Constellation hopes will be on line by 2015. The state of Maryland needs that power desperately: a report by the Public Service Commission late last year predicted a state energy shortage and rolling blackouts as early as 2011.

Slipped into a settlement of Constellation Energy’s recent legal battle with Maryland is an affirmation that the company will add a reactor to Calvert Cliffs.

The state hopes that adding more capacity to its section of the electrical grid that powers the Mid-Atlantic region will alleviate its expected shortages.

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AP via Forbes:

Shares of utility companies opened lower Tuesday as investors appeared unimpressed by a rush of quarterly results from bellwethers like AT&T Inc., DuPont and McDonald’s Corp.

Here is how some utilities are trading:

American Electric Power Co. Inc. fell 27 cents to $44.10

Pepco Holdings Inc. fell 22 cents to $25.11

Consolidated Edison Inc. fell 21 cents to $41.32

Southern Co. fell 10 cents to $36.64.

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Harrisburg Patriot-News:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold two hearings May 1 to take comment on environmental concerns.

The hearings are part of a detailed NRC review of AmerGen Energy Co.’s petition to extend its operating license for the Unit 1 reactor at TMI to 2034.

TMI’s 40-year license expires in 2014.

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AP via Topix:

Vermont’s love-hate relationship with its lone nuclear power plant is coming to a head: Lawmakers have to decide next year whether to shut down the reactor in 2012 as scheduled or keep it humming for another two decades.

Vermont is as known for its green living as its green landscapes, and some environmentalists in the state have come to appreciate nuclear power for its low greenhouse gas emissions, said Steve Terry, a former journalist who covered the construction of the Vermont Yankee plant in the late 1960s.

But the plant’s benefit ‘comes in a clash with a rather determined minority that has opposed nuclear power for basically radiological safety issues,’ said Terry, who went on to become vice president of Green Mountain Power Corp., one of the 36-year-old plant’s first owners.

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AP via Forbes:

Traditional wireline provider Embarq Corp. is offering a new cordless home phone that includes Internet-powered features it hopes will help it hold on to customers…

The Embarq eGo, which the company began selling Tuesday, works like a regular landline phone but has a video screen and can hook into the customers’ high-speed Internet connection.

Customers can use it to check weather and sports and general news culled from Internet sites, access an online local business directory and scroll visually through voice mail and lists of frequently called numbers.

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AP via Legal Intelligencer:

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a dispute in which utility companies seek to reinstate an industry-supported environmental requirement for power plants.

At issue is a regulation that power companies must minimize environmental harm when they pull in cooling water from rivers and lakes at existing electric generating facilities. The process kills aquatic life.

A provision the power industry wants the Supreme Court to revive would enable utilities to conduct cost-benefit analysis when deciding how to comply with the regulation.

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Baltimore Sun:

Constellation Energy Group and lawmakers may have resolved their legal dispute over utility rebates, but the high-stakes debate over how Maryland’s energy industry will buy and sell power in the future is just getting started.

Even as they voted in favor of a $2 billion settlement with the company Monday night that provides a one-time $170 rebate to consumers, key lawmakers were discussing the possibility of returning to Annapolis in a year to undo electric deregulation. The outcome of their deliberations could alter the financial landscape at a time when Baltimore-based Constellation and others are considering whether to invest billions of dollars in new power plants to help solve Maryland’s projected energy shortfall.

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