Why power restoration to southern Appalachia has been so slow

GRID: Nearly 50,000 utility workers from around the U.S. push through flooded and mud-and-tree-blocked roads to repair about 370 flooded substations in Duke Energy’s territory and restore power to communities across southern Appalachia. (E&E News, New York Times)

ALSO:

• South Carolina officials say more than 6,650 distribution lines were damaged by Hurricane Helene, slowing the restoration of power to roughly 425,000 homes and businesses in the state. (Greenville News)
• A Santee Cooper transmission line collapses into a river as flows reach some of the highest levels ever reported in the wake of Hurricane Helene. (WIS)
• A new report finds Texas’ standalone grid is among several in the U.S. that will require ​“significant investment in new effective capacity” in coming years. (Utility Dive)

HELENE:

• Hurricane Helene’s death toll rises to more than 160, making it the second deadliest U.S. hurricane in the last 50 years. (CNN)
• Hurricane Helene delivered a direct hit to Florida’s sparsely developed Big Bend region, a largely lower-income part of the state where many people live in substandard housing and local governments have little capacity to contribute to rebuilding. (Grist)

SOLAR:

• A national green bank program funds its first project, providing a $31.8 million loan to build 18 solar arrays for the University of Arkansas. (Canary Media, KHBS)
• A company secures tax equity to support a 232 MW solar farm in Texas. (Renewables Now)

OIL & GAS:

• Appalachian Power tells Virginia regulators it’s considering converting two West Virginia coal-fired power plants to natural gas, though such a plan would require West Virginia regulatory approval and likely meet resistance from the state’s still-powerful coal industry. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
• A judge finds the Tennessee Valley Authority adequately studied the environmental effects of building a gas-fired power plant in Tennessee, turning back a challenge by the Sierra Club. (Bloomberg, subscription)
• North Carolina beekeepers worry that Transco’s plans to add another natural gas pipeline alongside existing ones that already cross their property could cause them to lose their hives. (Inside Climate News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power prepare for increased demand from the power grid to support Virginia’s planned shift to electric vehicles. (Virginia Mercury)

HYDROPOWER: The Tennessee Valley Authority manages an enormous volume of water from Hurricane Helene through its dams downstream of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

UTILITIES:

• West Virginia regulatory staff slam Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power for failing to meet minimum electric reliability targets, and urge a state commission to deny the utilities’ request for more leniency in metrics measuring outage duration and frequency. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• Environmentalists criticize the Tennessee Valley Authority for a ​“bias against renewables” in its new long-range plan that depends largely on construction of new gas-fired power plants. (PV Magazine)

POLITICS: Donald Trump downplays climate change and talks up fossil fuels as he visits hurricane-ravaged Georgia. (Guardian)