Tag: Dominion
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Solar Farm 101
A book entitled “Solar Farms for Dummies” would never sell. Once constructed, solar farms are so simple to maintain that the biggest job is cutting the grass. by James A. Bacon Does anyone wonder how a solar farm works? From an electro-mechanical standpoint, it’s remarkably simple — nothing like a gas-fired power plant with its…
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What’s Driving the Sudden Influx of Independent Power Producers?
by James A. Bacon The 1,400-megawatt power plant proposed in Chesapeake by Matex Virginia Power last week is only one several natural gas-fired generating units under development by independent or out-of-state power producers. Panda Power Funds is constructing a 778-megawatt natural gas-fired plant in Loudoun County, while Southern Power has purchased 300 acres in a Pittsvylania County…
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Who Saw This Coming? Matex Proposes Gas-Fired Power Station in Chesapeake
by James A. Bacon Matex Virginia Power LLC has filed for permits with the City of Chesapeake to build a natural gas-fired power plant near Dominion Virginia Power’s defunct Chesapeake Energy Center, reports the Virginian-Pilot. The combined-cycle facility, which would use gas to fire three combustion turbines and waste heat to power a steam turbine, would generate…
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Pay a Man’s Electric Bill, and You Keep Him Warm for a Month. Weatherstrip His Home, and…
Dominion Virginia Power is expanding its Energy Share program from the poor and elderly to veterans and the disabled. by James A. Bacon Mary Jones has lived in her house on Petersburg’s Warren Street for 36 years. Since the death of her husband three years, she’s lived there alone — “just me and the lord,”…
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Consumer Group: Halt Spending on North Anna 3
by James A. Bacon A Virginia consumer advocacy group has petitioned the State Corporation Commission to forbid Dominion Virginia Power from spending more money on its proposed $19 billion North Anna 3 nuclear unit without obtaining formal approval from the SCC. Dominion has spent $600 million on the project, mainly for engineering and regulatory expenses, but…
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Burning Waste Coal to Restore the Land
by James A. Bacon The Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center (VCHEC) is one of the cleanest-burning coal-fired power plants in the country. Its circulating fluidized bed technology meets strict federal standards for air emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, particulates and mercury. But it also has been instrumental in cleaning river water — by helping reclaim the 500,000-ton,…
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Dominion to Recover $140 Million for Burying Electric Lines for Outage-Prone Customers
by James A. Bacon The State Corporation Commission ruled earlier this week that Dominion Virginia Power can recover up to $140 million on what it has spent to bury about 400 miles of electric distribution lines. By putting the overhead tap lines of the 6,000 most outage-prone customers underground, the electric company hopes to significantly reduce time spent…
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More on the Oceana Solar Plant: Expensive but No Cost to Virginia Rate Payers
More details dribbling in about the Oceana Naval Station solar power plant… According to Dominion Virginia Power’s SCC filing, the project is expected to cost $39.6 million, excluding financing costs, or $2,252 per kW. That is roughly three times the up-front capital cost per kW of Dominion’s newest gas-fired power plant under construction in Greensville…
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More Information, Please, about Oceana’s New Solar Facility
by James A. Bacon The Department of the Navy is collaborating with Dominion Virginia Power and the Commonwealth of Virginia to build a 21-megawatt solar energy facility at the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach. The 100-acre facility, housing 179,0000 solar panels and scheduled for completion in late 2017, will supply enough electricity at peak…
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Guarding the Grid
by James A. Bacon It’s easy to spin nightmare scenarios leading to the collapse of the electric grid. North Korea detonates a nuclear weapon a mile overhead, sending out a super-charged electro-magnetic pulse that melts down transmission lines and blows out substations. The electricity overload races ahead of anyone’s ability to control it in a…
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In Hampton Roads, Life Is Not a Gas
Hampton Roads and other Tidewater communities see proposed natural gas pipelines in Virginia as a boon to economic development. by James A. Bacon While debate rages in western Virginia over the economic impact of natural gas pipelines on property values and local economies, we hardly hear a peep from the low country areas of Virginia and North…
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Sierra Club’s Coal Ash Gambit
by James A. Bacon The Sierra Club has filed a lawsuit charging that coal ash stored at Dominion Virginia Power’s shuttered coal plant in Chesapeake is leaking arsenic into the Elizabeth River. The environmental organization wants the U.S. courts to compel Dominion to scrap plans for burying the coal ash in place at four power stations around the…
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Maryland Drops Coal Ash Appeal
The state of Maryland has dropped its appeal of permits granted to Dominion Virginia Power for discharging treated water from its Possum Point Power Station coal ash ponds into Quantico Creek and the Potomac River. “Maryland is supportive of recent agreements in Virginia to increase wastewater treatment protections and monitoring protocols,” Ben Grumbles, Maryland’s secretary…
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Activists Pressure McAuliffe on Environmental Agenda
by James A. Bacon Governor Terry McAuliffe is getting heat from his far left flank for endorsing the construction of natural gas pipelines in Virginia, supporting offshore drilling and supporting Dominion Virginia Power’s plans for disposing of coal ash. While crediting McAuliffe for “small steps” in supporting solar power, energy efficiency and coastline resiliency in…
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The Tradeoffs of Burying Electric Power Lines
by James A. Bacon Anyone who regards the State Corporation Commission as a wholly owned subsidiary of Dominion Virginia Power really isn’t paying attention. SCC commissioners have their own priorities, and they aren’t necessarily those of Dominion. An example was on display yesterday when the commission held hearings on a Dominion request to spend $140…