Last year in this department, we ran a three-part series on “Competitive Maintenance Strategies” (March, April, and May 2010, available in our archives at https://www.powermag.com). We began that series with…
Power
Monthly Issue | April 1, 2011
Bobcat’s launch of the new 700 Series compact loaders adds three new models to the company’s family of new-generation loaders. The new loaders, all with vertical lift path design, offer…
Imagine this scenario: Two separate power plants experience a bowing problem greater than 18 mils with a steam-turbine rotor. The turbines are from the same manufacturer and several repair options…
The recent tensions in the Middle East and their impact on oil and gasoline prices remind us that the U.S. remains heavily dependent on foreign nations—some of them unstable—to meet…
In December 2010, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a decision with considerable fanfare that was intended to provide for the development of 1,000 MW of additional new renewable…
Located on the scenic Japanese coastline, Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc.’s new 446-MW Sendai Thermal Power Station Unit 4 is a combined-cycle plant that replaces three 175-MW coal-fired units that…
One of the main criticisms of renewable energy facilities is that they are unable to dispatch electricity when it’s needed. The great game-changer is low-cost energy storage, which would enable…
As early as the first century A.D., wind energy was harnessed for practical purposes. Since then, turbine designs have come a long way from the archetypal post-mounted four-bladed devices. Today’s…
Electricity grids are slowly getting smarter. Simultaneously, the use of distributed generation is increasing. Though smart grid advocates tout the ability of a smarter grid to enable greater deployment of…
Biomass cofiring has the potential to cut emissions from coal-fueled generation without substantially increasing costs or infrastructure investments. Research shows that when implemented at relatively low biomass-to-coal ratios, energy consumption,…