By Amanda Durish Cook
FERC last week approved Wabash Valley Power Association’s acquisition of a 5% interest in two 800-MW coal-fired units at the Prairie State Energy Campus for $57 million — less than a quarter of what seller Peabody Energy paid (EC16-62).
Wabash Valley, an Indianapolis-based generation and transmission cooperative, said the transaction will add 83 MW to its 1,105 MW of generation capacity, most of which is in MISO.
Peabody Energy, which had paid $246 million for its share in Prairie State, agreed to sell to Wabash Valley following a competitive bidding process, part of a restructuring that has resulted in the sales of almost $500 million in assets since last year. Nevertheless, Peabody, the world’s largest private-sector coal company, said last month it may have to file for bankruptcy protection because of its inability to meet debt payments.
The city of Martinsville, Va., a customer of American Municipal Power, which has a 23% interest in Prairie State, filed a comment expressing concern that the sale would diminish the value of the southwestern Illinois facility and result in increased rates for its customers. The city said the sale price values the facility at about 80% less than the indebtedness for which the communities are liable under their power sales agreements.
The commission declined Martinsville’s request to conduct an inquiry into whether the sale would create a hardship for the communities paying debt service, saying it was outside the scope of its merger review authority. In addition, the commission said that the commenters “fail to explain [how the sale] might result in increased rates for wholesale customers.”
“With the entry of NV Energy, [CAISO] transfer capacity with PACE has gone from around 200 MW to 571 MW,” Eric Hildebrandt, CAISO director of market monitoring, said during an April 6 Regional Issues Forum held in Portland. “This has really been a game changer.”
MISO is revisiting the merits of developing a 
“The vast region covered by Entergy’s multiple operating companies hardly complies with the usual understanding of ‘local,’” the court acknowledged. “But ‘local’ need not retain its usual understanding when used to designate the service area of a giant electrical transmission entity. It is a relative term; New York City is a huge city yet as a matter of scale is ‘local’ relative to New York state, or to the Northeast. Entergy’s retail distribution service territories can be said to be ‘local’ for a different reason: the separate operating companies actually operate as one and have so operated for more than 50 years.”
According to the report, which covered December 2015 through February 2016, wind generation accounted for 17.7% of SPP’s energy, a 43% increase from last winter. Wind generation accounted for 12.4% of energy production last winter and 10.2% during the winter of 2014.
SunEdison, saddled with nearly $10 billion in long-term debt, is at risk of filing for bankruptcy protection, one of its affiliates said.
The two largest coal mines in the U.S., both in Wyoming, announced massive layoffs last week. Peabody Energy cut 235 people, or 15% of the workforce, March 31 at North Antelope Rochelle. Arch Coal said the same day it was cutting 15%, or 230 people, at its Black Thunder Mine.
PacifiCorp has abandoned plans to convert a coal unit at its Naughton Plant in southwestern Wyoming to natural gas, saying it will now retire the unit at the end of 2017. The company said the move is a result of declining electricity demand and reflects the costs of installing environmental upgrades to meet federal haze requirements.
Aerojet Rocketdyne, Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. and Ouachita Electric Cooperative Corp. formally commissioned a 100-acre solar project in southern Arkansas last week. The 12-MW array located in an industrial park will supply power to Aerojet’s nearby facility.
DTE Energy is proposing the development of a 10-acre solar array on a former playground in Detroit, which the utility said “could be one of the largest urban solar arrays in the U.S.”
Consumers Energy has reported that its natural gas commodity price has fallen to its lowest level in 18 years.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, together with the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, has awarded 16.7 MW of solar capacity to four local power companies for projects expected to generate enough electricity to supply more than 1,300 homes.
Duke Energy is seeking permission to modernize its Markland Hydro Station on the Ohio River near Florence, Ind. The company wants to replace three hydroelectric turbines, generators and related equipment.
SandRidge Energy, an Oklahoma City oil and gas exploration company, has informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has talked with advisers about the possibility of filing for bankruptcy. Plunging natural gas prices and depressed energy demand have left a number of energy companies with onerous debt burdens.