The state of Maryland is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court decision last June that labeled as unconstitutional a state order requiring utilities to support construction of a 725-MW power plant in Waldorf.In a Nov. 26 petition to the high court, state regulators contend that the ruling impedes Maryland's ability to manage its power supply.The Maryland Public Service Commission in 2012 required state-based utilities to sign 20-year contracts with Competitive Power Ventures, the plant’s developer, to support construction of the project.Two utilities, PPL and Public Service Enterprise Group, challenged the commission order in federal court.The

The Data Centers LLC Data center that was set to be built at Delaware university campus included a 279-MW power plant that residents opposed. Related Links: University of Delaware Scraps Plans for Data Center and Powerplant UD terminates Data Centers project for STAR Campus The Data Centers website Newark Residents Against the Power Plant Website A Pennsylvania firm that aims to build large data centers, powered by off-grid powerplants from 212 MW to 310 MW in size, hopes to site one soon, despite the University of Delaware's decision this summer to scrap plans for a 900,000-sq-ft data center and an

The Tennessee Valley Authority this week plans to begin pouring the concrete foundation for a 12,000 sq ft building that the designer is calling a “finger of God build.”The reinforced concrete building is meant to withstand a 10,000-year earthquake. “We hope we don’t see it tested, but if it is we hope it stays,” says Robert Feiel, project engineer for Mesa Associates, Knoxville.The diverse and flexible coping capability building, or FLEX, was developed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from the lessons learned in nuclear plant safety as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011. It provides an

Photo Courtesy of MESA Associates The NRC is requiring containment structure for Watt's Bar reactor before licensure. The Tennessee Valley Authority was set to begin pouring the concrete foundation in late August for a 12,000-sq-ft reactor containment structure at its Brown's Ferry nuclear powerplant in Alabama that is being designed to withstand a 10,000-year earthquake and 300-mph winds. Specifications for the building, known as FLEX, were developed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from lessons learned after the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan."It's an entirely new layer of protection to be used for a beyond-design flood, earthquake or tornado," says

PPL Electric Utilities, Allentown, Pa., unveiled plans on July 31 for a 725-mile, 500-kV transmission line that would carry shale-gas-generated power from western Pennsylvania's Marcellus region into New Jersey and New York and south to Maryland. The project could cost between $4 billion to $6 billion in construction, said PPL.The project has a number of potential benefits, including improved reliability, added substation security and reduced congestion in the region, PPL President Gregory Dudkin said during a conference call with analysts.He noted that the project also would reduce the cost to connect potential generation built in the region to the transmission

A Maryland environmental agency and the state's Public Service Commission staff have recommended the once problem-plagued 755-MW Keys Energy Center be built near Brandywine in Prince George’s County.The natural-gas-fired plant was first proposed in 2012 as a 735-MW unit that would use recycled water for cooling. Problems siting the water line and the natural-gas pipeline delayed the project.Developer Genesis Power resolved the pipeline issues last spring in an agreement with Pepco to follow Pepco's right-of-way for most of the route. The firm also fixed the cooling issues by changing the unit to include an air-cooled system, says President Robert Place.In

Fishermen's Energy Company officials say state regulators misinterpreted the cost of power produced by the planned project. Related Links: Fishermen's Energy Website Another Industry Setback: N.J. Whacks Fishermen's Offshore Wind Demo Project New Jersey Developer Awarded State Permit for Offshore Farm Danish Pension Fund Invests in Cape Wind Project The developer of a 25-MW pilot offshore wind project, sited three miles from Atlantic City, N.J., plans to challenge state regulators’ unanimous decision on March 20 to deny it energy credits to support construction and financing costs.The state's Board of Public Utilities (BPU) said the estimated $200-million project would need state

State regulators in New Jersey and Maryland are appealing federal court decisions that have challenged the constitutional authority of the states to subsidize the construction of new power generation in their jurisdictions.The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) appealed on Nov. 20 to a federal appellate court in Philadelphia an October district court ruling that had deemed unconstitutional a New Jersey law that allowed the state to subsidize construction of 2,000 MW of natural gas-fired power plants.Board President Robert Hanna would not comment on the appeal because the agency does not comment on pending litigation, said Greg Reinert, a

Related Links: After Dike Failure, TVA Cleans Area Near Kingston Coal Plant Cleanup from TVA Coal Ash Disaster Breaks New Ground The Tennessee Valley Authority should implement a groundwater protection plan to minimize the degradation of aquifers near its coal-fired plants, the Environmental Integrity Project says in a Nov. 6 report. The group credited the federal power producer for its decision to phase out ash ponds and replace them with landfills, which TVA did after about 5.4 million cu yd of wet ash from the 1,456-MW Kingston, Tenn., plant flowed over about 300 acres and into the Emory River in

Related Links: TVA Aims To Expedite Projects Using Lease-Purchase Deals NRC Will Rule by Month's End on TVA Nuclear Plant's Safety Status A former Tennessee Valley Authority chairman wants the federal utility to scrap its plan to invest billions in scrubbing old coal-fired units. Instead, he recommends the TVA complete unfinished nuclear units and add a gas-fired plant via a public-private partnership.Dennis Bottorff, a private-equity firm partner, proposes the P3 approach to finish TVA's 1,256-MW Bellefonte-1 unit in Alabama. TVA approved the $4.9-billion completion in 2011 but said work could begin only after the Watts Bar-2 unit in Tennessee was