January 15, 2007

Global Monitor (January 2007)

POWER digest

British fuel cells report test results. British fuel cell developer Ceres Power (www.cerespower.com) reports that its fuel cell stacks have passed tests that suggest its technology can meet the demands of the markets it is targeting: combined heat and power, off-grid generation, and auxiliary power units.

The company, formed in 2001 to commercialize fuel cell technology developed at Imperial College over the prior decade, said it has met the following milestones:

• Completion of more than 7,500 hours of fuel cell stack testing.
• Testing of more than 50 stacks of up to 1-kW output with repeated cycling between room temperature (70F) and operating temperatures (1,100F) without performance degradation.
• Testing on a range of commercial fuels, including natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and propane.
• More than 1,000 stack subassemblies constructed with a zero failure rate.

Alstom wins big U.S. contracts. French engineering giant Alstom SA has won three contracts worth $513 million to supply pollution control equipment at 10 coal-fired stations in Texas, Kentucky, and South Carolina.

Alstom will provide TXU with equipment for controlling SO₂, particulate, and mercury emissions from eight new 858-MW units the utility has planned for Texas. According to Alstom, SO₂ emissions from the units will be 80% lower than from the average U.S. coal-fired plant. The plants are scheduled to begin operating in 2009. The contract is worth $359 million.

Alstom also will supply a flue gas scrubber for the 340-MW Unit 1 of East Kentucky Power Cooperative's H.L. Spurlock Power Station in Maysville, Ky. Alstom earlier won the contract to supply a scrubber for Unit 2. The new contract, which is worth $103 million, anticipates that both scrubbers will be in place and working by 2009.

In South Carolina, working with AMEC and Zachry Construction Corp., Alstom will supply a NO_x control system for South Carolina Electric & Gas Co.'s Cope Power Station, an existing 430-MW pulverized coal-fired plant. The deal is valued at $64 million, and Cope is scheduled to be operating with the new gear in January 2009.

Alstom executive Philippe Joubert said, "Coal is really back, particularly in the U.S.

Plum Point project fully subscribed. LS Power of St. Louis says it has signed a 30-year power-purchase agreement with Southwestern Electric Cooperative Inc. (SWECI), a distribution cooperative serving 20,000 customers in southwestern Illinois. SWECI will be buying 70 MW of LS Power's 665-MW Plum Point independent power project in Osceola, Ark.

The SWECI deal closes out the subscription for the Plum Point project. Three public power agencies and one investor-owned utility each have signed on for 30 years of its capacity. The other contracts are with Empire District Electric Co., South Mississippi Electric Power Association, and the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission (MJMEUC).

LS Power broke ground on the pulverized coal-fired plant last March. In addition to the power supply contracts, the company has sold ownership shares to East Texas Electric Cooperative Inc., MJMEUC, Empire District, and the Municipal Energy Agency of Mississippi. The plant is being built by Plum Point Power Partners, a joint venture of Zachry Construction Corp., Black & Veatch, and the Kiewit Construction Co. affiliate Gilbert Central Corp.