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Private jet carrying eight crashes at Maine Airport
The Federal Aviation Administration reported that a private jet with eight passengers on board crashed as it took off from the 'Bangor International Airport in Maine, Sunday evening. A government official?briefed about the incident said that there was an important?fire following the crash. An official from the government said that the?plane arrived in Maine after a flight to Texas. The FAA reported that the twin-engine turbojet Bombardier Challenger 600 crashed as it took off at the Bangor Airport around 7:45 pm (0045 GMT on Monday). The FAA announced that it would investigate the crash with the National Transportation Safety Board. Reporting by Disha Mishra, David Shepardson, Steve Gorman, and Suzanne McGee, in Providence, Rhode Island. Editing and production by Christian Schmollinger and Sergio Non.
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Delta reduces its schedule due to winter weather
Delta Air Lines said that it is operating a reduced flight schedule due to the winter weather which continues to affect many U.S. areas. It will also be closely monitoring the conditions in Atlanta and its hub at Atlanta. Delta said that the current schedule of flights is being operated 'as planned' due to proactive adjustments in the schedule. Winter Storm As ice, snow and strong winds sweep across major hubs and airports in the South and East of the U.S., airlines are cancelling flights, warning of delays and issuing 'travel waivers'. Delta on Saturday Winter storm Fern has caused additional flight cancellations at Atlanta, along the U.S. East coast and in its hubs of Boston?and New York. The National Weather Service has warned that the combination of freezing rain, snow and sleet could cause a mixture of 'travel hazards, power outages, and tree damage?across Southeast.
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Greenland's capital restores heating and power after storm damage
Greenland’s capital, Greenland’s capital, restored power early on Sunday after a'storm' damaged a transmission line and left thousands of people without heat and electricity through the winter night. Witnesses reported that the electricity was suddenly cut off in Nuuk on Saturday night. Nukissiorfiit, which supplies power to?Nuuk through the Buksefjord Hydropower Plant southeast of the capital, said that the power was restored around?4 :30 am (0630 GMT). Greenlanders have become accustomed to power outages caused by severe weather. The cable that runs across two fjords and through rugged terrain is often damaged. The government released updated recommendations three days before the scheduled power cut. Prepare for a crisis In the wake of tensions relating to 'U.S. Donald Trump has demanded that the Danish territory be acquired. Reporting by Jacob GronholtPedersen, Editing by Chizu nomiyama and Andrew Heavens
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France arrests Indian captain of suspected Shadow Fleet Tanker
According to the Marseille prosecutor's office, on Sunday, the captain of an oil-tanker intercepted and detained by the French navy was being investigated for operating under a fake flag. On Thursday, the vessel Grinch was intercepted in the Mediterranean, and then diverted off to the French port of the city on suspicion that it is part?of a shadow fleet which allows Russia to export oil despite sanctions. In a statement in which they did not mention Russia, the prosecutors stated that the captain, a 58-year old Indian, had been detained during?the preliminary investigation. French authorities said that the?vessel sailed?under the Comoros flag from Murmansk, a Russian port, in early January. The statement added that other crew members who are also Indians remain aboard the ship as investigators check the validity of the flag, and the navigation documents. The EU has imposed sanctions on Russia in 19 different packages. However, Moscow has adopted most of these measures and continues selling millions of barrels to countries like India and China at discounts. A large amount of?oil comes from what is known as the shadow fleet, which operates outside the Western maritime industry. The Boracay was detained by France in October and released after a few short days. (Reporting and writing by Marc Leras; editing by Andrew Heavens).
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Kazakhstan's main export pipeline returns to full capacity after mooring points repaired - CPC
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Kazakhstan's main oil export pipeline, returned to full capacity on Sunday at its terminalon the Russian Black Sea Coast after maintenance was completed at its three moorings points and a crude tanker was loaded, according to the pipeline. Kazakhstan, the 12th largest oil producer in the world, has been facing a number of challenges in recent months. These include an attack by a Ukrainian drone on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) in late November, which caused the pipeline to pump at below capacity, and a shutdown in production earlier this month at the vast Tengiz field. Since a Ukrainian drone damaged the single mooring point 2 (SPM-2), which is a floating buoy that connects tankers for oil loading, the CPC terminal has been working below capacity. This?attack only left one?mooring-point -- SPM-1 -- operational, while a third, SPM-3 was under maintenance. CPC has now confirmed that SPM-3 was back in service and loaded a vessel on Sunday. CPC, a company with Russian, Kazakh, and U.S. shareholders said that the repair work on the SPM-3's mooring point was completed at the CPC sea terminus. Sunday, it was reported that the SPM-3 had recently been repaired. CPC stated that the underwater hoses were also replaced and tested and that a container was currently being loaded. CPC stated that "in?this regard we stress that the fulfillment of oil ships' requests according annual plans is guaranteed with the simultaneous operation of two SPMs." Three SPMs, located approximately 5 km (3 miles) away from the Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka CPC Terminal near Novorossiysk, are used to load offshore tankers; usually two of them are active and one is a backup. Tengiz, which is the primary source of CPC Blend may continue to limit shipments. Tengizchevroil, operated by Chevron and affecting CPC Blend, has issued a force majeure for the grade after the fire. CPC's 1,500 km pipeline is owned jointly by Kazmunaygas of Kazakhstan, Lukoil of Russia, Chevron, and ExxonMobil. Guy Faulconbridge, Guy Faulconbridge (reporting)
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Winter storm in the U.S. leads to 100,000 power outages and thousands of cancellations.
On Saturday, more than 4,000 flights in the U.S. were cancelled - ahead of a winter storm which has already affected over 100,000 utility customers as far as Texas and threatens to paralyze states to the east with heavy snowfall. Forecasters predicted that dangerously cold temperatures would accompany a combination of sleet, freezing rain and snow in the eastern two thirds of the country on Sunday. Donald Trump, who called the storms "historic", approved federal disaster declarations on Saturday in South Carolina (South Carolina), Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina (Maryland), Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana Mississippi, Indiana and West Virginia. "We will monitor and keep in touch with every state in the path this storm. Trump posted a message on Truth Social titled "Stay Safe and Stay Warm". The Department of Homeland Security has declared weather emergencies in 17 states and District of Columbia. Tens of thousands have lost electricity in the affected states of the South. Utility crews are working as quickly as possible to restore power, DHS Secretary KristiNoem stated late Saturday afternoon. Power outages continue to increase. According to PowerOutage.com, as of 6:30 PM ET, more than 130,000 U.S. consumers had lost power, with the majority of those in Texas and Louisiana. The U.S. National Weather Service has warned of a?unusually large and long-lasting winter storm which will cause widespread heavy ice to accumulate in the Southeast U.S., citing "crippling or locally catastrophic impacts." The weather service predicted that dangerously low wind chills and record-breaking cold temperatures would continue to descend on the Great Plains region in the U.S. as of Monday. FlightAware, a flight tracking website, reported that as of 6:42 pm EST on Saturday, over 4,000 U.S. scheduled flights had been cancelled. The website also indicated that more than 9,000 U.S. flight originally scheduled for Sunday have been cancelled. Major U.S. Airlines warned their passengers to be alert for sudden flight cancellations and changes. Delta Air posted an update to its website Saturday, stating that it was "continuing to make schedule changes due to Winter Storm?Fern." Additional cancellations were expected in the morning in Atlanta, along the East Coast and at Delta hubs located in Boston and New York City. The airline announced that it would be transferring experts from its cold weather hubs in order to assist the de-icing teams and baggage teams of several southern airports. JetBlue announced that as of Saturday morning, it had cancelled?about 1,200 flights until Monday. Additional cancellations are possible as JetBlue is "closely" monitoring the forecasts. On Saturday, U.S. grid operators increased precautions in order to prevent rotating blackouts. Dominion Energy's Virginia operations, which include the largest data center collection in the world said that if the ice forecast holds, it could be one of the biggest winter events ever to impact the utility's operation. Noem warned Americans about taking precautions at a press conference on the preparations of the U.S. Government for this storm. Noem warned, "It will be cold." We encourage everyone to stock up fuel and food. We will all get through this together.
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As tensions over Iran escalate, airlines reroute and cancel flights
As tensions between Iran and the United States escalate, airlines have been rerouting or cancelling flights in the Middle East. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the U.S. was sending an "armada", towards Iran. Senior Iranian officials Friday Iran will treat an attack as "an all-out battle against us" ahead of the arrival of the U.S. aircraft carrier strike group in the Middle East and other assets. On January 16, the European Union's aviation regulator advised its airlines to stay away from Iran's airspace, as tensions grew over Tehran's violent crackdown on anti-government protests and U.S. intervention threats. Air France KLM, the Dutch subsidiary of Air France KLM, said that Airline KLM would avoid flying over large parts of the Middle East 'until further notice' due to the rising tensions in the region. A KLM spokesperson stated that, as a precaution due to the geopolitical climate, KLM would not fly in the airspace of Iran and Israel, nor will it fly over several countries within the Gulf region. Air France Air France resumed its service from Paris to Dubai after it was suspended a day earlier. The airline said that they were monitoring the situation "in real-time" in the Middle East. Air France said that it "continually monitors" the geopolitical conditions of the countries served by its aircraft and those overflew. LUFTHANSA Lufthansa announced on January 14 that it will bypass Iranian and Iraqi Airspace until further notice and only operate day flights between January 14-19 to Tel Aviv or Amman. In a press release issued that same day, the company said some flights may be cancelled as a result. BRITISH AIRWAYS British Airways suspended its flights to Bahrain temporarily on 16 January as a precautionary step. The airline said it "continued to closely monitor the situation in the area". On January 24, flights to Bahrain were again available on the BA website. A spokesperson for the carrier said that all of its scheduled flights would be carried out. FINNAIR Finnair announced in a statement on 16 January that it has stopped flying over Iraqi airspace and is instead traveling to Doha or Dubai via Saudi Arabia. For security reasons, the carrier avoided Iranian, Syrian and Israeli skies. WIZZ AIR A spokesperson for Wizz Air said that in January, the company avoided Iraqi airspace and Iranian airspace. The representative explained that some flights departing from Dubai or Abu Dhabi will be required to stop in Larnaca (Cyprus) or Thessaloniki (Greece) for refueling and crew changes. (Compiled by Jan Harvey, with additional reporting from Leigh Thomas and Michael Holden at London and Paris; editing by Sharon Singleton).
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Italy protests and recalls its ambassador to Switzerland following the release of a New Year's barfire suspect
Italy protested formally on Saturday against the bail release of the owner a Swiss bar that was engulfed by a deadly fire New Year's Day and it recalled its ambassador in Switzerland. The court's ruling had been criticized in both countries. Jacques Moretti, his wife Jessica and the owners of Le Constellation in Crans-Montana are being investigated for negligent homicide, as well as other crimes, linked to a fire that claimed 40 lives and injured over 100 others, including many teenagers. Jacques Moretti, who was arrested on 9 January but released on bail last Friday, has been detained since then. PM MELONI?CALLS THE DECISION "AN INSULT" TO VICTIMS FAMILIES Giorgia Melons, the Italian prime minister, called Moretti’s release “an insult to the families of those victims and an insult to their memory”. Six of the six dead and 10 injured in the bar fire were Italian. In a statement released on Saturday, Meloni and Antonio Tajani, Italy's Foreign Minister, instructed the ambassador to contact Beatrice Pilloud in Switzerland's Valais Canton, Chief Prosecutor, to express Italy's "strong anger" at Moretti's freedom. The court added that it had made the decision despite seriousness of alleged crime and the possibility of evidence being compromised. The statement read: "The entire country of Italy is demanding truth and justice and respectful measures in the wake this disaster that take into account the suffering and the expectations of the families." Meloni & Tajani also ordered Ambassador Gian Lorenzo Cornado to return Rome to determine the next steps to be taken, it stated. Swiss prosecutor Pilloud confirmed that she was contacted by the Italian Ambassador but explained that another court had ordered Moretti’s release. "I don't want to be held responsible for any diplomatic incident that may occur between our countries." "I will not be influenced by any pressure from the Italian authorities. That is why I told the ambassador to speak to the Swiss political authorities," said she. The spokesperson for the Swiss Foreign Affairs Ministry was not available to comment immediately. "ANOTHER SLAP", SAYS THE FATHER OF A TEEN VICTIM AFTER RELEASE Moretti was released on bail, which included a payment of 200,000 Swiss Francs ($256.377) and an instruction to report to the police station daily. Lawyers representing the families of victims and lawyers for those who were injured in the fire said that they could not understand the court order. They also expressed concern about the disappearance of evidence. Andrea Costanzo's comments in Italian newspapers published on Saturday said, "It's another slap to a wound that will never heal." Both the Morettis and their children have expressed their sorrow over this tragedy, and they both said that they will cooperate with the prosecutors. Their lawyers stated that they will "continue to obey all requests" from the authorities following Jacques Moretti’s release.
Power plant failures in the East of US increase amid limited gas supplies and freezing weather
On Sunday, power plant outages swept across the east coast of the United States as constrained natural gas supplies and frigid temperature cut the 'electricity output' of the region’s generation fleet.
PJM Interconnection (the largest U.S. regional network that serves 67,000,000 people in the East & Mid-Atlantic) reported that nearly 21 gigawatts were lost due to?generation failures, and that most of this capacity was forced offline. Those outages accounted for about 16% of PJM’s Sunday afternoon demand, which was 127.4 GW.
PJM issued a pre-emergency directive on Sunday afternoon, mandating that certain customers participating in its curtailment programs reduce their electricity usage. The program pays customers to reduce their electricity use during critical times.
PJM’s order was intended to reduce the demand spike in PJM’s territory, while also asking generator operators to conserve their runtime for colder weather or higher electricity demands later in week.
Pieter Mul is a grid specialist and an associate partner in PA Consulting's Energy and Utilities practice.
The estimated domestic demand for natural gas is 146.7 Bcf/d. This is 3.6 Bcf/d less than Saturday. It ranks No. 10 all-time.
Matthew Palmer, head of Americas Gas Research for S&P Global Energy, said that the US winter storm is so far less severe from a natural-gas production and price perspective than previous storms like Uri and Elliott in 2021 and 2022. However, the risk of sustained cold is not over.
Mul stated that PJM outages were higher than planned. Mul added that the PJM grid is less flexible than it was a few year ago due to power?plant retirements, and a surge of demand from data centres.
PJM territory is also affected by bottlenecks on its high-voltage transmission lines that hinder the transfer of power from east to west. PJM could not use cheap electricity in Illinois, which was sometimes at negative prices due to wind energy.
Cloud cover increased in the afternoon as snow and sleet fell on the major cities, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. This caused the grid to lose access to solar energy.
Grid operators reported that power?prices for PJM, New York, and New England increased between $400 and $700 a MWh on Sunday afternoon. Grid operators reported that the increases were due to a demand that is exceeding their forecasts.
ISO New England (which serves six states including Boston and Hartford) reported a demand of 20.2 gigawatts at 1:45 pm EDT. This is higher than the projected peak load of 19 GW later in that day.
Due to the limited access to natural gas, New England's grid produced nearly 40% of its output from oil-fired plants. Natural gas, which is usually the grid’s primary fuel source, only accounted for 30% of grid power plant fuel.
Mul pointed out that New England's diesel fuel oil supply can run low and is not easy to replenish during winter weather conditions. ISO New England’s excess?capacity has dropped from several gigawatts to 1.1 GW.
ISO New England had issued an alert on "abnormal circumstances" earlier in the day, asking operators of power plants not to schedule maintenance or do anything that could affect grid reliability.
Dominion Energy territory in Virginia, outside Washington D.C. has seen real-time wholesale prices of electricity rise to $1,800/MWh by early Sunday morning, from $200/MWh Saturday morning. Virginia is home to the largest cluster of data centres in the world. These centers are used for artificial intelligence, and the rising prices and power demand in large parts of the United States have been attributed to this.
Winter Storm Fern swept parts of the nation, and PJM data shows that the spike in demand began late Saturday evening. PJM expects a record-breaking winter demand on Tuesday due in part to the electricity requirements of data centers. Dominion said that extended cold temperatures and heavy snow this week could be the biggest winter event to impact the utility.
PJM forecasts demand at 147.2 Gigawatts which would surpass the current winter electricity demand record of?143.7 GW, set in January 2025.
As regional grids struggle to meet the surge in demand, spot wholesale electricity prices have been raised across the U.S. throughout the weekend. Utility companies may be forced to increase spot electricity prices when demand exceeds forecasts.
Local distribution lines bring electricity to homes, businesses and regional grids. According to PowerOutage.us these local power lines have been disrupted, and nearly 1 million people were without power Sunday. More than 300,000 of them in Tennessee, and over 100,000 in each Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana. Kentucky, Georgia Virginia, and Alabama were also affected.
Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the main grid operator in Texas, has forecast a peak demand of 85,1 GW on Monday morning. This compares to a seasonal capacity of almost 100 GW. According to ERCOT, day-ahead prices suggest that the price of electricity could reach $1,000 per MWh on Monday morning. Tim McLaughlin, Liz Hampton, David Gregorio and Nick Zieminski edited the story.
(source: Reuters)