utilities

Cooling towers at a Georgia coal-fired power plant.

In the Southeast, where big utilities rule, calls for a real power market persist

BY: - May 8, 2023

A report prepared for the South Carolina legislature and released April 28 determined that a range of electric market and transmission reforms — including creating a new independent organization to run the electric grid or joining an existing one — would bring  “substantial benefits” for customers, potentially as much as $362 million a year.  The […]

Scott Anderson, a researcher at the Idaho National Laboratory's Irradiated Materials Characterization Lab, works with materials in a "glovebox" as part of the lab's research into how exposure to radiation alters reactor components. The lab's research is aimed at understanding how materials and fuels respond to radiation, which is crucial data as licenses for existing nuclear reactors are extended. (Robert Zullo/ States Newsroom)

With decarbonization, advocates see a bright future for nuclear after decades of dormancy

BY: - April 24, 2023

IDAHO FALLS, Id.  — At the sprawling array of laboratories and test facilities in the southeastern Idaho desert where the U.S. nuclear power industry was born more than 70 years ago, past, present and future are converging. Not far from where the first reactor to ever produce usable electricity made history in 1951, Idaho National […]

Workers install the foundation for a transmission tower at the CenterPoint Energy power plant on June 10, 2022, in Houston, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Inside the battle over who gets to build the grid of the future

BY: - April 10, 2023

The U.S. Department of Energy issued a draft report in February that found a “pressing need” for new electric transmission infrastructure across the country to improve reliability, connect a rapidly growing number of solar, wind and battery storage projects, supply increasing electric demand and alleviate scattered pockets of consistently high prices across the country. To […]

A tree made top-heavy by ice tumbled into the side of a house in Pulaski County, Arkansas, during the winter storm of Jan. 31-Feb. 3, 2023. The tree was uprooted as soils became saturated. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)

Arkansas seeks federal disaster relief after winter storm earlier this year

BY: - March 20, 2023

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has asked President Joe Biden to issue a disaster declaration for 13 counties that experienced the worst of a four-day winter storm that hit the state in late January and early February. The request for federal public assistance covers 11 counties in southern Arkansas — Bradley, Calhoun, Cleveland, Dallas, Desha, […]

Republican Sen. Jonathan Dismang of Searcy (at lectern) gestures toward Sen. David Wallace (R-Leachville) as Dismang presents Senate Bill 295 on Tuesday, March 7, 2023. The bill will establish new financial rules for utility customers who sell excess solar-generated electricity to the grid maintained by large utilities. (Photo by Wesley Brown/Arkansas Advocate)

Arkansas Senate passes amended net metering after companion bill stalls on House floor

BY: - March 7, 2023

A thrice-amended bill that opponents say would upend the state’s burgeoning solar industry easily passed the Arkansas Senate on Tuesday. Senate Bill 295, sponsored by Sen. Jonathan Dismang (R-Searcy), passed on a vote of 24-9 and was immediately sent to the House, where a twin bill awaits on the lower chamber’s floor that will likely […]

Rep. David Whitaker and Farmington School District officials smile for a photo beside a giant entegrity solar lightswitch

Bill sponsors, stakeholders reach compromise on Arkansas solar legislation

BY: - February 22, 2023

A press release mentioned in this story came from the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association. An editing error in an earlier version of the article gave an incorrect name. After a testy all-day hearing on an amended bill opponents say would kill Arkansas’ burgeoning solar industry, sponsors of House Bill 1370 reached late-hour agreement that is […]

As Southeast states warm, TVA criticized on preparations for dealing with climate hazards

BY: - February 2, 2023

WASHINGTON – Extreme weather patterns have sparked several improvements to the climate resiliency of Tennessee Valley Authority electrical infrastructure over the past two decades. However, a report from a government watchdog found the huge utility still has work to do in mitigating climate hazards to the regional power grid. “TVA has taken several steps to […]

Workers install solar power modules for producing electricity on the roof of a house in Wessling, Germany. The German government introduced a feed-in tariff with its Renewable Energy Act in 2000 that guarantees homeowners a minimum rate for selling electricity from renewable energy sources into the nation's electricity grid. (Photo by Alexandra Beier/Getty Images)

Arkansas energy stakeholders begin talks on new net-metering compensation bill

BY: - January 18, 2023

Negotiations have begun on legislation intended to give Arkansas residential solar energy users extra cash on any excess power generation that goes into the energy grid. Under HB 1047, filed Jan. 3, so-called “net-metering” retail customers in Arkansas would be compensated for any excess solar generation. For residential utility customers with solar panels or other […]

COMMENTARY
A child joins his father at a food pantry in the Bronx, New York City in September 2022. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Congress knows how to slash child poverty. It just needs to do it.

BY: - November 22, 2022

If you could prevent millions of children from falling back into poverty, would you? Most of us, I imagine, would answer “yes” without hesitation. But not Congress. For nearly a year, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have dithered as the policy directly responsible for a dramatic decline in poverty last year lapsed. It’s time for Congress […]

As utilities spend billions on transmission, support builds for independent monitoring  

BY: - November 21, 2022

An aging electric grid, fossil fuel power plant retirements and a massive renewable electricity buildout are all contributing to a boom in transmission and distribution wire projects by electric utilities across the country.  In 2020, investor-owned electric utilities spent $25 billion on transmission, up from $23.7 billion in 2019, figures that the Edison Electric Institute, […]

A house is seen near the Gavin Power Plant on Sept. 11, 2019, in Cheshire, Ohio. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

Coal plant operators shirking responsibilities on ash cleanup, report contends

BY: - November 7, 2022

In the wake of major coal ash spills from power plant containment ponds in Tennessee and into the Dan River along the North Carolina-Virginia border, the federal Environmental Protection Agency in 2015 laid out the first federal rules for managing the ash, one of the nation’s largest waste streams, and the toxins it contains.   But […]