ORUD has announced its new president and general manager, Jeff Patterson.
Patterson has been an employee of ORUD for a long time, the natural gas provider said in a press release Wednesday.
The ORUD Board of Commissioners made the announcement on Wednesday, February 24, after its monthly board meeting. Patterson succeeds Sue Kristjansson, who left in December 2020.
ORUD has provided natural gas in Anderson and Roane Counties for nearly 70 years.
[Read more…]The Tennessee Valley Authority has released a draft version of a plan that evaluates its options to meet its power generation needs during the next 20 years, and it is accepting public comments.
Under development since early 2018, the draft of the Integrated Resource Plan was released for public review on Friday.
The Integrated Resource Plan is a power planning roadmap, TVA said in a press release Wednesday. It examines a variety of economic, regulatory, and market-driven scenarios and strategies—both within and outside TVA’s control—to help the public utility respond to changing energy demands while continuing to provide reliable power at the lowest possible cost, the press release said.
“The 2019 IRP emphasizes the importance of flexibility in our generation in response to the changing energy marketplace,†said Laura Campbell, TVA vice president of enterprise planning. “TVA looked at a wide range of possible futures, and flexibility is important in every case to ensure a reliable power supply.†[Read more…]
The coal-burning Bull Run Fossil Plant in Claxton and Paradise Fossil Plant Unit 3 in Kentucky are not economical to operate, and retiring them will offer a savings of about $320 million and avoid more than $1 billion in capital costs, the Tennessee Valley Authority said Thursday.
The TVA Board of Directors voted 6-1 to close Paradise Unit 3 and unanimously agreed to close Bull Run during a meeting in Chattanooga on Thursday. Paradise could close by December 2020, and Bull Run is expected to close by December 2023.
The Bull Run and Paradise closures will be the first 1,700 megawatts of coal plant retirements of the 2,600 megawatts that could be retired through 2033 under a 2015 integrated resource plan, TVA President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson told the board.
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Image courtesy ORUD
The Oak Ridge Utility District is asking natural gas customers to reduce their gas use after a pipeline ruptured in Smith County, Tennessee, on Saturday.
The rupture in the natural gas transmission line cut off all supply from the pipeline to many utilities in East Tennessee, ORUD said.
“We have been advised by Enbridge, the company that owns and operates the pipeline, that repairs to the impacted section could last into early- or mid-January,” ORUD said.
“We are working each and every day to ensure we have enough gas to serve our customers through various other sources and ask that our customers consider reducing gas usage as much as possible as we work through this incident,” ORUD said. [Read more…]
Gerd Duscher, left, of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Alexander Papandrew, of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. (Photo courtesy University of Tennessee)
KNOXVILLE—One of the key holdups in the march toward more efficient sustainable energy could soon be answered, thanks in part to researchers at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
The College of Engineering’s Alexander Papandrew and Gerd Duscher are part of a broader Oak Ridge National Laboratory-led team that recently received a $2.75 million U.S. Department of Energy grant for work on improving fuel cells, $1.4 million of which went to their project.
The basic premise of their work is to find a far more efficient way to turn chemical energy—in this case natural gas—into electrical energy. [Read more…]
Businesses around the former Kroger grocery store on South Illinois Avenue were evacuated on Tuesday afternoon after a gas leak was reported.
If it had exploded, the 8,500 cubic feet of natural gas that leaked into the former Kroger grocery store on South Illinois Avenue on Tuesday could have had a devastating impact on the shopping center and blown out windows in nearby businesses, possibly even across the street, a city official said Wednesday.
“Had it exploded, we would have been on national news,†Oak Ridge Fire Department Chief Darryl Kerley said. “It could have been devastating for all the businesses in that complex.â€
Authorities suspect that the gas slowly flowed into the 30,000-square-foot grocery store starting Tuesday morning through an uncapped gas line that was once connected to an oven.
By the time emergency workers responded to a report of a gas leak on Tuesday afternoon, Kerley said, “the store was almost completely filled with a dangerous concentration of natural gas.†[Read more…]
A shopping center was evacuated on Tuesday afternoon after a gas leak was reported at the former Kroger grocery store on South Illinois Avenue.
A shopping center was evacuated Tuesday afternoon after a gas leak was reported at the former Kroger grocery store on South Illinois Avenue.
Emergency workers remained on the scene for several hours and were still there as of about 7 p.m. Tuesday.
The gas leak was reported at about 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, and Oak Ridge emergency workers quickly evacuated surrounding stores, including China Wok, Nixon’s Deli, Mr. K’s Used Books and CDs, and Big Kmart. They also closed off the surrounding parking lot.
An employee at Mr. K’s smelled gas inside the store Tuesday afternoon, evening manager Kelly Smith said. The staff initially thought it might be coming from NIxon’s, the deli next door. But then they learned that Nixon’s doesn’t use natural gas. A walk around the shopping center’s parking lot determined that the gas was probably coming from the former Kroger store, Smith said.
The odor was getting stronger and stronger, he said. [Read more…]
Matt Ballard, chairman of APGA’s board of directors, presenting the APGA SOAR award to PCUD President Rob Neil. (Submitted photo)
Submitted
At its 2014 Annual Meeting, the American Public Gas Association presented Powell-Clinch Utility District with the prestigious APGA System Operational Achievement Recognition, or SOAR, distinction, which recognizes excellence in operating natural gas utilities.
Public natural gas systems are entrusted by their customers to deliver clean and affordable natural gas through a safe and reliable distribution pipeline system. To accomplish this mission, a forward-thinking natural gas utility constantly strives to improve its operating capabilities, overcome challenges, and adapt to its changing environment.
Out of over 700 APGA members nationally, PCUD was the only gas system selected in East Tennessee and was one of 21 selected for SOAR distinction by its peers on the APGA Operations and Safety Committee. The SOAR award is based on demonstrated excellence in the four areas of system integrity, system improvement, employee safety, and workforce development. [Read more…]
Richard McIntosh, recipient of the Tennessee Gas Association Silver Flame Award, with his wife Joan and their family. (Photo courtesy PCUD)
Powell-Clinch Utility District Vice President Emeritus Richard McIntosh was awarded the Tennessee Gas Association’s 2014 Silver Flame Award, the state natural gas industry’s highest honor. The award is in recognition of McIntosh’s distinguished service, community involvement, and pioneering efforts in the state gas industry during his 41-year career. McIntosh retired from PCUD in 2013 after 28 years of service. Under his leadership, PCUD grew from 3,500 customers to more than 17,000, a press release said.
The Tennessee Gas Association represents the state’s gas utilities, pipelines, and affiliates who provide natural gas service to more than 1.2 million customers in Tennessee. TGA’s mission is to promote the value and growth of the natural gas industry in Tennessee by enhancing the overall performance, safety, competitiveness, and public awareness of its members and their products and services.
“PCUD congratulates Richard McIntosh for receiving the state gas industry’s most prestigious award and extends its heartfelt thanks to McIntosh for his leadership, vision, dedication, and hard work for PCUD and its customers,” the release said.
A scanning electron microscope image illustrating mineralogy and texture of an unconventional gas reservoir. Note that nanoporosity is not resolvable with this image. SANS and USANS analysis is required to quantify pore size distribution and interconnectivity. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Gas and oil deposits in shale have no place to hide from an Oak Ridge National Laboratory technique that provides an inside look at pores and reveals structural information potentially vital to the nation’s energy needs.
The research by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy laboratory could clear the path to the more efficient extraction of gas and oil from shale, environmentally benign and efficient energy production from coal, and perhaps viable carbon dioxide sequestration technologies, according to Yuri Melnichenko, an instrument scientist at ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor. [Read more…]
The Broadway Apartments on East Madison Road were evacuated Friday morning after a pickup truck rolled down a small hill and ruptured a two-inch gas line. (Photo by Tom Scott)
Emergency workers started evacuating about 100 people at an apartment complex and day care center on Friday morning after a pickup truck ruptured a two-inch natural gas line in central Oak Ridge.
The apparently unoccupied pickup truck, which might have popped out of gear, rolled down a small hill at Broadway Apartments on East Madison Road and into a gas meter, which was attached to the gas line, Oak Ridge Fire Chief Darryl Kerley said.
“It made a pretty significant leak,” he said. [Read more…]
