EnergyOnline
Services

RSS FEED

EnergyOnline.com rss

News

ERCOT Announces Organizational Changes to Promote Grid Reliability, Rapid Demand Growth, and Innovation

LCG, December 12, 2025--Today, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. (ERCOT) announced strategic organizational changes designed to accelerate innovation, strengthen grid reliability, and support the unprecedented growth in the demand for electricity across Texas. To meet these objectives, ERCOT created two new organizations: Interconnection and Grid Analysis, and Enterprise Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The two organizations will formally launch in January 2026.

Read more

NextEra Energy Resources and Basin Electric Power Cooperative Announce MOU to Develop 1,450-MW Natural Gas-fired Power Plant in North Dakota

LCG, December 8, 2025--Basin Electric Power Cooperative (Basin Electric) and NextEra Energy Resources, LLC (NextEra) today announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore the joint development of the River Run Energy Center, a new combined-cycle natural gas-fueled generation facility in Basin Electric's North Dakota service territory. The proposed facility will have a planned capacity of approximately 1,450 MW.

Read more

Industry News

Xcel Announces Plans to Convert Electric Plant from Coal to Biomass

LCG, October 1, 2008--Xcel Energy Inc. yesterday announced plans to convert a coal-fired, electric generating unit to burn waste wood available primarily from forest harvesting operations. The unit will be the third converted to biomass at the Bay Front Power Plant in Ashland, Wisconsin.

Xcel will submit an application to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to upgrade its Bay Front Power Plant. The estimated cost to modify the 30-year old plant is $55 to $70 million. The project schedule calls for construction to commence in 2010 and for operations to begin as early as late 2012.

In that biomass is generally considered a renewable, carbon-neutral fuel, the conversion of the power plant from coal to biomass should reduce the carbon emissions from Xcel's facilities.

According to the Xcel, the biomass project will be the first to use a gasification technology in the conversion of a coal-fired boiler at an existing base-load power plant. In the gasification process, biomass will react with a controlled amount of oxygen at high temperatures to create a synthetic gas (?syngas?) that is then used as a fuel in the boiler.

Xcel's announcement follows a number of other announcements to construct electric generating facilities fueled by biomass. Most recently, Oglethorpe Power Corporation (OPC) announced plans to construct as many as three, 100-MW power plants fueled by woody biomass. The design for the projects includes conventional fluidized bed boilers and steam turbine technology. The planned fuel supply will primarily be a mixture of forest harvest residues, chipped pulpwood, and waste materials from sawmills.

In August Georgia Power submitted a request to the Georgia Public Service Commission for approval to convert an aging, coal-fired unit at its Mitchell Generating Plant in Georgia to use wood wastes. The modified unit would use a direct-fire, stoker technology for a design capacity of 96 MW.

The Austin City Council in August approved a 20-year, power purchase agreement (PPA) with Nacogdoches Power LLC for the electricity generated from a 100-MW facility using a fluidized bed design and fueled with woody biomass. The project site is in Nacogdoches County, Texas. Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) is discussing a similar, 100-MW project with Nacogdoches Power LLC that could be constructed at the existing Deerhaven Generating Station near Gainesville, Florida.
Copyright © 2025 LCG Consulting. All rights reserved. Terms and Copyright
UPLAN-NPM
The Locational Marginal Price Model (LMP) Network Power Model
Uniform Storage Model
A Battery Simulation Model
UPLAN-ACE
Day Ahead and Real Time Market Simulation
UPLAN-G
The Gas Procurement and Competitive Analysis System
PLATO
Database of Plants, Loads, Assets, Transmission...
CAISO CRR Auctions
Monthly Price and Congestion Forecasting Service