Welcome to Grid Brief! Today, we’re looking at power generation in America’s traditional monopoly areas with relevant news items.

Monopoly Area Monday

Here’s a snapshot of generation nation-wide:

Natural gas and nuclear were the top two generators in America, with wind, coal, and solar all spending time in the second and third spots.

And here’s a map to orient you as we move through the areas:

Carolinas

Nuclear, natural gas, and coal were the top three generators in the Carolinas, with solar punching into the top three several times.

TVA

Nuclear was the top provider in the TVA with natural gas, coal, and hydro trading places for second and third.

The TVA will soon decide on building a new gas plant. “Tennessee Valley Authority expects to decide in March on that it will spend $2.2 billion to replace its aging 1.5-GW Kingston, Tenn., coal-fired power plant with an equal-sized gas-fired facility it says could burn 5% hydrogen, coupled with a new 122-mile natural gas pipeline and 100 MW of battery storage,” reports Engineering News-Record.

The TVA debuted its “solar flowers” last week.

Southeast

Natural gas, nuclear, and coal were the top three in the American Southeast.

Southern’s Vogtle Unit 4 reactor has officially connected to the power grid. “Connecting to the grid is a key step on the path to placing the unit, known as Unit 4, into service. The development comes about two weeks after the company began a self-sustaining fission reaction inside Unit 4′s reactor, a stage known as ‘initial criticality,’” reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “In a release, Georgia Power said operators will continue testing the unit as they raise its power to 100%.”

Florida

Natural gas, solar, and nuclear kept the sunshine state humming.

Florida’s Polk County is becoming a hotbed for solar farms. “Every year, a land conference in Florida is hosted by Lakeland-based commercial real estate broker Dean Saunders for updates on the various land-use trends and tabulations of large land transactions in Polk County and across Florida,” reports The Ledger. “And for nearly the past 10 years, the conference has shown astronomical growth in one type of land sale: large agricultural tracts sold for solar power generation.”

Northwest

Hydro, wind, natural gas, and coal all spent time in the Northwest’s top three.

Southwest

Natural gas, nuclear, wind, coal, and solar all grappled in the Southwest’s top three.

New Mexico has a new solar project on its way. “US and Canadian utility the Edmonton Power Corporation (EPCOR) has entered a partnership with solar developer SynerGen Solar to develop and build a 90MW PV project in New Mexico, US,” reports PV Tech. “Under the partnership, EPCOR will develop a roughly 485-acre tract of land to the south of the city of Clovis, New Mexico, upon which SynerGen will develop, build, own and operate the 90MW PV site.”

IsoEnergy is reopening one of its uranium mines in Utah. “The Saskatoon-based company will reopen underground access at the Tony M uranium mine in Utah during the first half of this year, with the goal of restarting uranium production operations in 2025, should market conditions continue as expected,” reports World Nuclear News.

Upgrade to Grid Brief Premium to get extra deep dives into energy issues all over the world.

Conversation Starters

• Rosneft to sell off German refinery assets. “Rosneft PJSC has begun a sales process for its German unit that owns assets including an oil refinery and would favor Berlin keeping the business in trust until that happens, Germany’s economy ministry said. Germany seized Rosneft Deutschland GmbH not long after the war in Ukraine began and put it into trusteeship. A more recent idea was to nationalize it, a step that the Kremlin was opposed to,” reports Bloomberg. “‘We will announce any decisions in good time, including a possible extension of the trusteeship,’ a spokesperson of the economy ministry said in a statement. ‘Rosneft Russia has now stated that it has started a sales process and wants to finalize this during the period of a further trusteeship extension.’

• Chinese LNG imports rose last month. “China’s liquefied natural gas imports for February jumped to the highest ever level for that month, as a drop in spot prices spurred additional purchases of the fuel,” reports Bloomberg. “Deliveries rose to more than 5.5 million tons, a 15% increase from a year earlier, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the first time China’s monthly imports have broken a record since 2021, before the global energy crisis sent prices surging and as virus lockdowns dashed demand.”

• The US House passed a pro-nuclear bill. “The nuclear energy industry faces steep regulations and restrictions that, importantly, are prohibitively expensive for operators pushing to get new types of reactors on the grid. New projects must endure lengthy timelines, deep environmental and technological reviews, and high fees,” reports Ignition. “A bipartisan bill to address some of those challenges, the Atomic Energy Advancement Act, passed in the House yesterday by a vote of 365-36 […] The Atomic Energy Advancement Act would direct the NRC to take a stronger stance on encouraging young nuclear energy companies to grow.” 

Crom’s Blessing

Share Grid Brief

We rely on word of mouth to grow. If you're enjoying this, don't forget to forward Grid Brief to your friends and ask them to subscribe!