Saltend Chemicals Park-owner PX Group has been awarded an operations and maintenance (O&M) contract for the Tees Renewable Energy Plant (Tees REP). The facility, which is located in Tees Valley, is one of the world’s largest purpose-built pellet biomass power plants, according to PX Group’s announcement. It has the capacity to generate 299 MW of electricity, or 2.3 TWh per year, equivalent to powering 600,000 homes. Tees REP is owned and operated by MGT Teesside, which was acquired by Australian investor Macquarie Group and Danish pension fund PKA in 2016 on a 50:50 basis. On its website, MGT says the plant uses co-products from timberland that is primarily for growing saw-timber for its biomass pellets. In order to meet sustainability criteria regulated by Ofgem the biomass is traced from point of origin, though the website does not provide further details. However, previous announcements from several years ago have said that the feedstock would be sourced from sustainable forestry projects developed by the MGT team and partners in North and South America, as well as the Baltics. US-based Enviva Wilmington Holdings firmed up a 15-year offtake agreement with Tees REP in 2016 for nearly 1m tonnes per year (tpy) of wood pellets. The plant was initially expected to enter service in 2020 but ran into delays during construction. Although it is reported to have begun generating electricity in 2022, it subsequently experienced technical challenges that have led to outages at the facility. PX Group, a portfolio company of private equity firm Ara Partners, is taking over O&M at Tees REP following a prior collaboration through its PX Engineering division, which provided consultancy services to the plant during its commissioning phase. PX operates the St Fergus Gas plant in Peterhead and the Teesside Gas processing plant on behalf of owners, North Sea

New Jersey’s residential customers face electricity bill hikes of up to 20% beginning in June based on the results of a just-held electricity supply auction, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities said Wednesday. The results of the “Basic Generation Service” annual auction are mainly driven by the PJM Interconnection’s most recent capacity auction, according to Christine Guhl-Sadovy, BPU president. Increasing electricity demand and a lack of new power supplies due to lagging generation interconnection are also factors in the auction’s results, she said in a press release. The Basic Generation Service auction helps set the cost of electricity for most New Jersey residents and many businesses for a 12-month period starting June 1, the BPU said. PJM’s capacity auction in July cleared at record-setting prices, according to Brian Lipman, director for the Division of Rate Counsel, which represents utility ratepayers. “While some of that is due to an anticipated increase in the demand for electricity, most of the increase is due to PJM’s failure to fix its market rules or timely interconnect new generation supply,” Lipman said in the press release. “The Board’s authority is limited at the federal and regional level, but must carefully examine every state-level filing before it with an eye towards affordability.” PJM’s last capacity auction sparked complaints at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by ratepayer advocates and others as well as proposals by PJM to change its capacity auction rules and to bring more power supplies online. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy joined other governors in pressing PJM for rule changes that would protect ratepayers from rising costs in upcoming capacity auctions.  The BPU estimates that monthly electric bills for Public Service Electric and Gas residential customers will increase by 17.2% on average as a result of the agency’s electricity supply auction. The agency

State-owned energy company Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) completed its first sale of very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) with 24 percent renewable content in the Asian bunker market. The company said in a media release that it sold the VLSFO with Golden Island, a licensed bunker supplier in Singapore, noting that the sale was made in early February, for delivery before the end of the month. The product sold by Petrobras Singapore consists of a mixture comprising 76 percent mineral fuel oil, primarily obtained from Petrobras refineries, and 24 percent used cooking oil methyl ester (UCOME), a biofuel created from the processing of used cooking oil (UCO) sourced locally, the company said. It added that Petrobras Singapore holds the ISCC EU certification, “which guarantees that its product meets the strict sustainability criteria that accompany the biofuel logistics chain involved in the process”. For the formulation, Petrobras said it used the facilities of the Jurong Port Universal Terminal, where it has a lease agreement for fuel oil and B24 tanks. The process of supplying bunkers with renewable content adheres to the same operational procedures used for 100 percent mineral bunkers, primarily utilizing smaller vessels to load the product at the terminal and deliver it to the consuming ship, Petrobras said. “The commercialization of VLSFO with 24 percent renewable content in the Asian market is in line with Petrobras’ strategy of developing new products towards a low-carbon market, innovating to generate value for the business, and enabling solutions in new energy and decarbonization”, Claudio Schlosser,  Petrobras’ Director of Logistics, Commercialization and Markets, said. The first VLFSO sale in the Asian bunker market comes only days after the company reported that it had hit all its production targets for the year 2024, set out in its 2024-2028+ Strategic Plan, within the ±4 percent

USA Compression Partners LP reported a net income of $25.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, doubling the net income reported in the corresponding quarter a year prior. The company noted that its revenues hit a record high in the fourth quarter of 2024, reaching $245.9 million, which compares to $225 million reported in Q3, 2023. “Our fourth-quarter financial results included another consecutive quarter of record-setting revenues and Adjusted EBITDA, as well as record-setting Distributable Cash Flow and Distributable Cash Flow Coverage. These financial results were driven by improved operational efficiencies as we again achieved record average revenue per-horsepower of $20.85 and record revenue-generating horsepower of 3.56 million, which continues to reflect the tight contract compression service space”, Clint Green, USA Compression’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said. USA Compression’s adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) for the fourth quarter of 2024 reached $155.5 million, versus $138.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. “We believe the macro backdrop continues to be favorable in the near- and medium-term. We expect the price of oil to remain constructive and continue to drive growth in associated gas volumes, particularly in the Permian”, Green said. “We believe our assets in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana will benefit from anticipated growth in natural gas volumes necessary to support increased LNG and pipeline exports along the Gulf Coast, as well as the electrification of everything, driven by AI and data center demand”, he added. According to Green, USA Compression anticipates an expansion capital range of $120 million to $140 million with a refocus on contracted new horsepower unit additions that will be largely back-end loaded for the year. “Additionally, we expect the Energy Transfer shared services model to begin taking effect at the outset of 2025 and anticipate a reduction in back-office

Dive Brief: Carrier Global Corp. saw 6% year-over-year sales growth in the fourth quarter of 2024, led by an 11% organic increase in HVAC sales, the company reported Tuesday. HVAC sales in the Americas saw growth in the high teens, driven by continued strength in commercial and North America residential, which were both up double digits and partially offset declines in its light commercial segment, Carrier said in its report. Carrier, like many other HVAC and cooling providers, is also pushing into the data center market and is expecting $1 billion in sales during 2025, CEO David Gitlin said on its Feb. 11 earnings call. “The idea for hyperscalers and certainly the [co-locators] is to say, ‘You worry about running the data centers; let us worry about all the cooling you need by having optimized integrated cooling systems,’” Gitlin said. Dive Insight: Carrier’s global commercial HVAC grew in the mid-teens compared with last year, “positioning [Carrier] for another year of double-digit growth in 2025 in the business,” Gitlin said on the call. Commercial HVAC and aftermarket sales were also up by double digits year-over-year for the fourth consecutive year, according to the company’s earnings presentation.  HVAC in the Americas increased by low-teen percentages year-over-year, Gitlin said. The company has also worked to improve manufacturing capacity in the Americas, increasing output of its facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, by about 50%. In addition to a new facility the company is building, “we can more than double our output for North America and the demand has been great,” Gitlin said.  Within the U.S., Carrier is working with utilities to provide an end-to-end integrated battery heat pump solution with automated controls that can run the system using stored energy during peak hours, while recharging during the trough of energy grid usage, Gitlin said.

Dive Brief: The pipeline of data centers and and other “high density load” projects in Exelon utilities service territories more than doubled to 17 GW from a year ago, Calvin Butler, Exelon president and CEO, said Wednesday during an earnings conference call. Exelon expects its load will grow by 1.3% over the next four years starting this year compared with a 0.4% decline over the previous eight years, according to an earnings call presentation. Amid concerns that load growth in the PJM Interconnection may outstrip electricity supply, Butler called for non-market approaches to ensuring the grid operator has adequate and affordable generating capacity. “It’s clear that states are and should be proactively involved in supply solutions that complement the markets,” Butler said. “A variety of solutions across regulated and merchant participants is necessary.” Dive Insight: “It’s clear as we face rapid and significant load growth we need enhanced solutions at PJM, and we also need other approaches complementary to PJM that can meet those evolving customer needs as cost effectively as possible,” Butler said. Exelon officials are consulting with stakeholders on 45 state bills that affect supply or demand-side solutions, according to Butler. Exelon supports states taking a more direct role in oversight of energy security through solutions that complement the markets and deliver supply cost-effectively, the Chicago-based company said in the presentation. Options states are considering include expanding demand-side solutions, building power lines, state involvement in obtaining supply, including regulated utility participation, and revising clean energy goals, according to Exelon. Highlighting Butler’s concern about electricity prices, New Jersey utility regulators on Wednesday said they expect electricity bills will increase 17.3% for Exelon’s Atlantic City Electric utility subsidiary and up to 20% for other utilities in the state based on the results of a just-held electricity supply auction. Exelon expects