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Big Green Gears Up to Oppose Duke’s NC Gas-Fired Power Plants

Duke Energy is a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., and is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. Last summer, Duke announced plans to build a new gas-fired power plant in Person County, NC. The company recently announced it wants to double it — build a second big gas-fired plant at the same location (see Duke Energy Seeks to Build 2 Massive Gas-Fired Power Plants in NC). Both proposed plants would generate 1,360 megawatts (MW) of electricity each, and both would eventually be able to run on hydrogen or a gas/hydrogen mix. Big Green is beginning to pitch a fit…
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Duke Energy Seeks to Build 2 Massive Gas-Fired Power Plants in NC

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Duke Energy is a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., and is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. Duke’s electric utilities serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, and it collectively owns 50,000 megawatts of energy generating capacity. Duke’s natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, and Kentucky. The company employs 28,000 people. Last summer, Duke announced plans to build a new gas-fired power plant in Person County, NC. The company just announced it wants to double it — build a second big gas-fired plant at the same location.
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Duke Energy Building 100% Hydrogen Fuel Peaker Plant in Florida

DeBary, Fla., a city located just north of Orlando with a population of just over 20,000, is a whole lot more brave than we are. Duke Energy announced the city is allowing the company to build a “demonstration project” in the city that will burn up to 100% hydrogen (so-called green hydrogen) to generate electricity when needed “on demand.” The peaker plant will also be able to use natural gas and a hydrogen/natgas blend. But the aim is to use up to 100% hydrogen in the plant. The dangerous part is that Duke plans to produce its “green” hydrogen by electrolyzing water right there at the plant and then store the highly explosive and flammable hydrogen in tanks (which Duke calls “reinforced containers”) on site. We wouldn’t want to live near that.
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DOE Gives Duke Energy & Williams $1M to Monitor for Methane Leaks

The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) is giving utility giant Duke Energy (mega profitable) and one of its natural gas suppliers, Williams (i.e., the Transco Pipeline, also mega profitable) $1 million of taxpayer money to do their jobs of monitoring for methane leaks. Dontcha love corporate welfare? Of course, if the government is going to blow taxpayers’ money on energy projects like uncompetitive and unreliable renewables, why not give a little love to fossil energy too, right? Still, it bugs us.
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EQT Joins Open Hydrogen Initiative Aimed at Producing Low-CO2 H2

Hydrogen energy is the new savior that will keep the world from toasting itself out of existence. So goes the current faddish meme. But not just any old hydrogen (or H2) can be used. No, no, no! Hydrogen has to be “low carbon” hydrogen (i.e. produced by means that is low or no-carbon), or it is persona non grata. It reminds us of when “low fat” was all the rage in diets–until it wasn’t. But we digress… The Open Hydrogen Initiative (OHI) was convened earlier this year to measure and map the emissions footprint of “clean” (low or no-CO2) hydrogen. Earlier this week, a number of prominent energy companies joined OHI, including EQT, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. (focused 100% on the Marcellus/Utica).
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OH Supremes Rule Duke Energy Can Build 14-Mile Cincinnati Pipeline

Pipeline route (click for larger version)

In early March MDN told you that Duke Energy had begun work on building a 14-mile natural gas pipeline near Cincinnati, OH to replace an old pipeline built in the 1950s (see Duke Energy Finally Begins to Build 14-Mile Cincinnati NatGas Pipe). It seems no sooner had work begun than another frivolous lawsuit by antis brought it to a halt. This latest case, argued before the Ohio Supreme Court, was decided yesterday. In a unanimous decision, the court rejected antis’ arguments. The pipeline can finally get built beginning this month.
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Duke Energy Converts 8 North Carolina Coal Plants to Burn NatGas

Utility giant Duke Energy Corp. is in the process of modifying eight of its biggest coal-fired electric generating plants in North Carolina to burn natural gas instead. The work will cost Duke roughly $283 million. Work is already complete on six of the eight plants, with the final two slated to be done later this year. There is a tie-in with the Marcellus/Utica.
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Antis on Tirade Against Duke Energy Plan to Build Gas Power Plants

Duke Energy has plans to build multiple new clean-burning natural gas-fired power plants to supply its grid over the next 15 years–some 4.7 gigawatts of new gas-fired plants (see Duke Energy Plans Lots of New Gas-Fired Plants in NC/SC/Elsewhere). Of course, anti-fossil fuel wackos are objecting. They have a “better” plan in mind for you…
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Duke Energy Finally Begins to Build 14-Mile Cincinnati NatGas Pipe

In September 2016, local utility company Duke Energy filed a plan to build a critically-needed natural gas pipeline near Cincinnati, OH to replace an old pipeline built in the 1950s. Duke needs to replace the pipe or some of the half-million Duke customers in the region won’t get natural gas anymore. Following multiple revisions to the plan to satisfy anti-pipeline wackos (who will never be satisfied), in November 2019 the Ohio Power Siting Board gave Duke final approval to build the Central Corridor Gas Pipeline Project along an alternative route (see Ohio Approves Duke Energy 14-Mile Cincinnati NatGas Pipe). Duke announced yesterday they have finally begun work on the project.
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Dominion Files Plan with FERC to “Undo” Atlantic Coast Pipe Work

Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) had laid 30 miles of pipeline and had cut trees for 222 miles along the 600-mile route before Dominion decided last summer it no longer wanted to be in the interstate pipeline business, canceling ACP (see Dominion Cancels Atlantic Coast Pipe, Sells Pipe Biz for $9.7B). Earlier this week Dominion filed a plan (full copy below) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to clean up and “undo” the project.
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Dominion Cancels Atlantic Coast Pipe, Sells Pipe Biz for $9.7B

Dominion Energy has decided to exit the natural gas pipeline and storage business, selling off its vast network of pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica (and beyond) to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway for $9.7 billion ($4 billion in cash, the rest in assumed debt). In a related announcement, Dominion said it is throwing in the towel and canceling the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project that would have stretched from West Virginia to North Carolina. We are in grieving. This is a tremendously sad day–not only for Marcellus/Utica drillers and landowners, but for the families of pipeline workers who will now remain out of high-paying jobs. You have the Sierra Club and other radicalized green groups to thank.
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Duke Energy’s Asheville, NC Gas-Fired Elec Plant Ready to Start

Duke Lake Julian site (click for larger version)

Duke Energy is ready to start up a new 560-megawatt natural gas-fired electric generating plant at its Asheville, North Carolina Lake Julian site in western NC. Duke will close down its coal-fired plants at the same site come January. The new gas-fired plant contains two 280 MW units. The new gas plant will be fed by a pipeline built by Public Service Company of North Carolina Inc. (PSNC Energy), a division of Dominion Energy. We can’t prove it, but our educated guess is that the gas that will flow to power this plant will come from the Marcellus/Utica region.
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Ohio Approves Duke Energy 14-Mile Cincinnati NatGas Pipe

Credit: Duke Energy

Duke Energy has a plan to build a critically-needed natural gas pipeline near Cincinnati, OH to replace an old pipeline built in the 1950s. Duke needs to replace the pipe or some of the half million Duke customers in the region won’t get natural gas any more. A group calling themselves NOPE–Neighbors Opposing Pipeline Extension, tried their best to defeat the project. We call them DOPEs–Dummies Opposing Pipeline Extension. The good news is that the DOPEs lost. Yesterday the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) gave Duke final approval to build the alternative route proposed by Duke for the project.
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Duke Energy Plans Lots of New Gas-Fired Plants in NC/SC/Elsewhere

Duke Energy loves natural gas-fired electric plants. Duke plans to build up to 4.7 gigawatts (GW) of new natural gas electric capacity in North and South Carolina between 2029 and 2034. In Florida, Duke plans to increase the amount of gas in its electric generation mix to 77% in 2027, up from 64% in 2017. And in Indiana, Duke wants to build a new natural gas plant in 2028, and another in 2034. Duke’s VP of state energy policy, Diane Denton, recently sang the praises of natgas at an Energy Bar Association meeting–saying natural gas “is critical to decarbonization strategy.”
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NC Regulators File Objection to Williams PA Leidy South Pipeline

This story is befuddling–we’re still trying to wrap our heads around it. The North Carolina Utilities Commission has filed a protest with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) objecting to Williams’ Leidy South expansion project, a project that is being built 100% in Pennsylvania! Why are NC regulators objecting to work being done in another state 500 hundred miles away?
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Duke Energy Making “Plan B” if Atlantic Coast Pipe Doesn’t Happen

When we spotted a headline about Duke Energy, joint venture partner with Dominion Energy in the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project, investigating “Plan B” for what to do if ACP doesn’t get built, we thought, “Oh oh. This is a sure sign the project is in trouble and the principles are giving up.” But we should have known–it’s Bloomberg! It’s Biased news with a capital B.
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