Rocky Mountain Power Inc. has applied to the Nevada Public Utilities Commission for a permit to build a segment of PacifiCorp’s 1,900-mile, $6-billion Energy Gateway Transmission Expansion Project. On May 21, PacifiCorp’s Salt Lake City-based division applied to build 77 miles of 500-kV transmission and ancillary facilities in Clark and Lincoln counties, Nev. Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp’s Energy Gateway, announced in 2007, is envisioned as a network that will branch to the west and southwest from Windstar substation near Casper, Wyo., with north-to-south links between the branches in Utah and a separate segment between Washington and Oregon. The Federal Energy Regulatory

A self-described “geothermal wildcatter” from Oregon intends to use a waste byproduct of oil and gas production to generate electricity along the Texas coast. Geo Texas Co., a Eugene, Ore.-based startup company led by geothermal pioneer Steve Munson, will pay Texas $386,000 a year for leases up to 30 years on 128,758 acres of state land off the coasts of Brazoria and Matagorda counties, near Galveston, to produce geothermal energy. The company will pay more if it produces energy. Munson plans to build a 20-MW, $50-million demonstration plant on land within two to three years. Research has uncovered an estimated

If you’re not in the electricity business today, you may be soon. Developments in generation technologies, regulatory policies, industry standards and digital communication are blurring the distinction between customers and utilities. Renewable-energy generation, primarily solar photovoltaic panels installed on privately owned rooftops throughout the country, is serving load under the roofs, with surplus power being sold into the grid. Utilities also are leasing rooftop real estate on warehouses and big-box stores to site their own PV panels. Slide Show Photo: Southern California Edison Warehouse rooftop will generate 2 MW for Southern California Edison’s grid. Related Links: Smart Grid Will Give

In the Gulf of Mexico, in underwater terrain akin to a mountain range in waters reaching 10,000 ft deep, Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Shell plc, its partners and an extensive team of contractors are setting records for ultradeep oil and gas engineering, construction and development. At 7,817 ft, the Perdido project will be the deepest spar platform in the world as well as the deepest drilling and production facility. It also will have the deepest producing subsea well, at 9,627 ft, and will deploy the first commercial-scale subsea oil-and-gas separation plant. Photo: Shell Oil Co. Perdido’s topsides were towed to the

Brilliant minds—Nikola Tesla, Thomas A. Edison—and great engineers produced the marvel of the electric grid. It has united and fed the vast complex that is modern industrial and post-industrial society. But like the Scarecrow in Oz, the grid lacks a brain. Advances in electronics, communication and information technology now are enabling engineers to give the grid a brain. In the last decade, grassroots initiatives have sprung up around the country to create what has come to be called the smart grid. In a smart grid, sensors can anticipate system disturbances and respond to them before they cripple the system. Communication

Just over a year into a long-term partnership with the U.S. Dept. of Energy to transform Hawaii into a model clean-energy economy, 1,000 MW of alternative-energy projects are in the works along with an undersea-cable transmission project to deliver power among the state’s islands. One goal of the partnership is to offer Hawaii’s experience as a test bed for island economies globally as they make the transition to clean energy. Photo: Castle & Cooke Hawai’i Castle & Cooke’s La Ola solar station recently began generating 1.2 MW. The Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI) was launched in January 2008 with a

Electric-utility executives are cheering the announcement that the federal government will promote standards for interoperability and security of a “smart grid” and that Energy Dept. grants for smart-grid investments and demonstration projects will be greatly enlarged. On May 18, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced the first set of 16 standards required for smart-grid implementation. DOE also will provide $10 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to the National Institute of Standards and Technology to support development of the standards. DOE’s maximum award of ARRA funds for the Smart Grid Investment Grant Program

Wind-power owners, developers and suppliers are preparing to soar under a new round of federal incentives. The news had 23,200 visitors—78% more than last year—blowing into the world’s largest conference on wind-generated electricity. On tap was February’s passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which boosts production tax credits (PTCs) to reduce owners’ tax burden for the first 10 years of operation. Wind PTCs are extended two years, through Dec. 31, 2012. Developers also can claim an alternate investment tax credit (ITC) or Treasury Dept. grant to recoup 30% in the first year. Photo: Sarah Klose / ENR John

As a standard-bearer for French plans to control one-third of the global nuclear powerplant market, Finland’s Olkiluoto project falls short of expectations. Delayed and mired in contractual disputes, the project is the world’s first to include new Franco-German reactor technology on which Paris-based Areva NP is hanging its ambitions. Slide Show Photo: TVO First Franco-German EPR reactor for Finland’s Olkiluoto plant is late. Olkiluoto’s third unit (OL3) is the first of a kind, say Areva officials, in explaining some of the project’s difficulties, hinting that the joint venture may have bid too optimistically for the turnkey contract. Now in arbitration,

Sempra Generation believes in solar power’s bright future: The dust had barely settled at the company’s five-month-old 10-MW photovoltaic power generation plant near Boulder City, Nev., when it announced an expansion to quintuple capacity. The company claims it will create North America’s largest thin-film photovoltaic installation. Photo: First Solar Solar plant is next to Sempra’s 480-MW gas-turbine plant. The unit of San Diego-based Sempra Energy “won’t start construction until we have a [power sales] contract in hand,” says a Sempra spokesman. “We hope to start construction later this year.” Potential buyers could come from neighboring states, all of which have