Energy News for week ending August 3, 2018

Pilgrim to be sold | “base hit” | Competitive Pricing | Don’t get complacent

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First up, the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant to be Sold After 2019 Shutdown (CapeCod.com). “The company that owns the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth will sell the plant, spent fuel, land and decommissioning trust fund to an energy technology company after the upcoming shutdown next year. A statement from Entergy issued Wednesday said Pilgrim and another plant in Michigan will be sold to Holtec International for what’s described as an ‘accelerated decommissioning.’…The sale, pending regulatory approval, will include the transfer of licenses and spent fuel. Holtec said most of the decommissioning could be complete within 8 years. Holtec expects to move all of the spent nuclear fuel out of the spent fuel pools and into dry cask storage within approximately three years of the plant’s shutdown.”

Massachusetts legislature OKs ‘base hit’ clean energy bill at end of session (MassLive) “An energy bill that emerged from conference committee Monday night represents modest progress in Massachusetts’ transition to clean, renewable power, environmental groups said…‘Lawmakers could have knocked it out of the park. Instead, they only got a base hit,’ said Ben Hellerstein, director of Environment Massachusetts. While the compromise bill leaves most of the Senate provisions behind — including a piece that would put a price on carbon — it does include several provisions that won praise from clean energy advocates. Notably, it gets ride of a “demand charge” that the Department of Public Utilities had allowed for new solar adopters in Eversource territory…The bill modestly raises the renewable portfolio standard…The bill could double the state’s offshore wind capacity… the legislation establishes an energy storage target of 1,000 megawatt-hours by 2026.”

Bruce Mohl at Commonwealth Magazine writes, Offshore wind prices look competitive. “The developer of the nation’s first major offshore wind farm is promising to deliver wholesale power to Massachusetts at prices that are far below what Cape Wind was offering nearly a decade ago and not much more expensive than hydro-electricity just procured from Canada. According to contracts filed with the state Department of Public Utilities on Wednesday, Vineyard Wind agreed to deliver electricity at an average price of 8.9 cents a kilowatt hour over the 20-year life of the contract, or a total levelized price of 6.5 cents. While those prices are above the average wholesale price of electricity in New England (3.4 cents a kilowatt hour during 2017), they include the value of environmental attributes that are not included with electricity generated using natural gas. Taking those into account, Baker administration officials said, the offshore wind contract is very competitive with other types of power generation and will slightly lower bills for ratepayers over the 20-year life of the contract.”

Last up for this week is an article from today’s Wall St. Journal, Don’t Get Complacent About Natural Gas. “The first week of August seems like an odd time to fret about a frigid winter, but perhaps not for people who buy, sell and store natural gas. Following Thursday morning’s weekly report from the Energy Information Administration, the amount of gas in U.S. underground storage will be at around 2.3 trillion cubic feet and should keep rising for the next three months. Yet that cushion now stands 24% below where it was this time last year and 20% below the five-year average…But what seems like ample supply could set the market up for panicky winter buying. The last time that happened was in the winter of 2013-2014.”

That’s the recap for this week. Have a great weekend.

Natural Gas/Oil/Pipeline/Drilling

Don’t Get Complacent About Natural Gas, Wall St. Journal

Soil Testing For Proposed Natural Gas Power Plant In Burrillville Angers Opponents, Rhode Island Public Radio

FERC Flooded with Comments on Pipeline Permitting, RTO Insider

FERC Clarifies New York TOs’ Cost Recovery, RTO Insider

Town resolution backs locked-out workers, blocks National Grid, Arlington

National Grid gas workers still locked out, Eagle-Tribune

Renewables/Climate Change/RGGI

Massachusetts legislature OKs ‘base hit’ clean energy bill at end of session, MassLive

Clean Energy Industry Group Commends Legislature for Moving Clean Energy Forward in Massachusetts, NA Clean Energy

Compromise energy bill criticized as too weak, The Recorder