POWER

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) last week detailed its “FLEX” response strategy, a program that calls for more safety and emergency response equipment at each of the nation’s 104 commercial nuclear reactors. According to the trade industry group, “The initiative commits every U.S. company operating a nuclear energy facility to order or enter into contract for a plant-specific list of emergency equipment by March 31.”

A report released today by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) claims that though the U.S. solar power sector was hard hit by policy changes and plunging global prices of photovoltaic (PV) panel prices, it installed 1,855 MW of PV capacity last year—more than doubling the previous annual record of 887 MW set in 2010.

The Department of Energy has made $15 billion in loan guarantees and conditionally committed to another $15 billion, but its loan guarantee program lacks much-needed consolidated data on application status, which could make easier efficient management and program oversight, a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found. The report was released on Monday, just before Energy Secretary Steven Chu defended the Obama administration’s loan programs before a Senate committee.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) on Thursday introduced the Clean Energy Standard Act (CES) of 2012, a bill that could require some utilities around the nation to ensure at least 24% of all power sold in 2015 could be defined as “clean energy.” Under the bill, by 2020, that percentage would grow to 39%, by 2025, 54%, and by 2035, 84%.

A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that Albuquerque, N.M.–based PNM could not delay enforcement of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandate that would force it to install pollution controls at its 1,800-MW coal-fired San Juan Generating Station near Farmington, N.M., while the issue is considered by the court.

Edison International last week said it was unable to secure financing for more than $700 million in scrubbers and other air pollution equipment required by state and federal regulations to continue operating the beleaguered 1,884-MW Homer City Generating Station Pennsylvania. The news comes on the heels of the announced closure of the firm’s two Chicago coal-fired power plants by 2014.

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) on Tuesday submitted a revised open access transmission tariff to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), addressing situations that occur mostly in the springtime when the Columbia River surges and there is too much power available for delivery.

A new report released last week by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) finds that loss of reactive power is the most likely outcome from a severe solar storm centered over North America.  Significant losses of reactive power could lead to voltage instability, and, if not identified and managed appropriately, power system voltage collapse could occur, the report concludes.

A report presented to China’s legislature on Monday by Premier Wen Jiabao could have positive implications for the country’s centrally owned grid and nuclear firms, but they could leave "thermal generators out in the cold," experts said.

In the keynote address to the CERAWeek 2012 conference in Houston on Tuesday, Helge Lund, president and CEO of Norway-based Statoil, urged the oil and gas industry to embrace a greater sense of responsibility in facing its current and future challenges.

Three Memorandums of Agreement (MOA) between the U.S. government entities and private companies signed on Friday will seek to leverage Savannah River’s land assets and energy facilities near Aiken, S.C., to support potential private sector development, testing, and licensing of prototype small modular reactor (SMR) technologies.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Thursday announced a planned six-year $180 million initiative—including an initial commitment of $20 million this year—to accelerate the deployment of four offshore wind power projects in the U.S. The funds are subject to congressional appropriations.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., March 4, 2012 — Conflating climate and energy policy in the U.S. over the past several decades has produced incoherent policy in both areas, along with considerable confusion and loss of focus, argues economist Denny Ellerman in the current issue of Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, the journal of […]

A universal reality for U.S. power generation developers is the challenge of obtaining funding in today’s tight credit markets.

Progress Energy has adopted an emergency worker callout program that has eliminated manual dialing, improved work acceptance rates, and increased the speed of worker reporting. The standardized process also complies with union work rules that require equality in overtime opportunities, by seniority. The business case for automating the worker callout process is compelling.

The EU has poured billions of dollars in support of the development of wind and solar projects over the past decade. Have the Europeans now lost their appetite for all things green?

Plants can no longer sweep coal dust under the rug and ignore the health and safety hazard it presents, because a single spark can cause a dust explosion that could put a plant out of service, perhaps permanently. Managing dust in a power plant begins with good housekeeping, followed by retrofits using properly designed equipment.

Air Liquide introduced Scott brand 72.2 Certified ZAM (zero air material) to meet 40 CFR Part 75 regulations, which call for a continuous emission monitoring (CEM) system to be exposed to “zero air material” during testing protocols in order to qualify the accuracy of the instrument. Air Liquide achieves a balance between regulatory compliance certainty […]

American Electric Power’s Field Services Regional Service Organization augments resident power plant maintenance teams to provide outage support and non-outage balance-of-plant support. The augmentation approach adds significant value to the maintenance process, with the greatest benefits coming in the areas of expertise, cost, productivity, and ownership.

KIMA Echtzeitsysteme’s fill-level measuring device, used for ball mills in the cement industry for over seven years, has now been adapted and developed for use in coal mills. A new fill-level sensor enables reliable fill-level measurements, even with fluctuations in coal quality or moisture levels. Tested over a period of several months, the SmartFill for […]

President Obama’s Jan. 24 State of the Union address did not convince me that the nation should, in his words, “double down” on future clean energy investment. America’s abundance of oil and gas should be the foundation upon which to build a comprehensive national energy policy, not subsidies for government-favored energy technologies and overreaching energy regulations.

Well-organized operations and maintenance (O&M) and outage efforts enable power plants to reduce overall operating costs, improve equipment reliability, and increase long-term productivity. Experienced contractors can help plant staff maximize the success of their outages and O&M endeavors.

Silicon Designs, a designer and manufacturer of highly rugged industrial-grade MEMS capacitive accelerometer chips and modules, has introduced a ±5 g model to its 2011 industry best-selling 2210 accelerometer series. The low-noise, single-axis model 2210-005 accelerometer module incorporates high-quality MEMS capacitive sensing elements. Sensing elements are packaged within a compact, lightweight, anodized epoxy-sealed aluminum housing […]

New coal and nuclear power plants aren’t the only ones facing opposition. Several countries that are struggling to alleviate chronic power shortages are facing hurdles as they attempt to build new hydropower plants. Here are some massive projects riddled with setbacks caused by everything from social and environmental protests to funding collapses.

METTLER TOLEDO’s Process Analytics Division announced the 2300Na sodium analyzer, which can be used in pure water treatment and power generation applications. The design of the METTLER TOLEDO Thornton 2300Na sodium analyzer is based on extensive instrumentation experience and is optimized to handle measurement challenges. Features of the sodium analyzer include fully automatic, unattended calibration, […]

Chinese state entity State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC) and battery maker BYD in January said they had finished construction on what they call “the world’s largest battery energy storage station”—a project in Zhangbei, Hebei Province that combines 100 MW of wind and 40 MW of solar capacity, a smart power transmission system, and 36 MWh of energy storage in arrays “larger than a football field.”

The new CNGmass Coriolis flowmeter series from Endress+Hauser is approved by the National Type Evaluation Program (NTEP) in the U.S. and five other international standards organizations for custody transfer of compressed natural gas (CNG) and for fueling vehicles with CNG. Available in three common sizes from 3/8 inch to 1 inch, the CNGmass measures mass […]

The past two years have seen a dramatic escalation of global natural gas liquefaction capacity.

Manufacturer of heavy-duty industrial vacuums and vacuum systems VAC-U-MAX introduces its updated Model 1020 Continuous Duty Industrial Vacuum. The VAC-U-MAX Model 1020 features a powerful positive displacement pump designed specifically for high-volume recovery of up to 5 tons per hour. It is also used in the recovery of heavy materials, including steel shot, foundry sand, […]

A new project planned by RWE and partners Nexans, the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), and Jülich is poised to mark another milestone for high-temperature superconductor (HTS) cable technology, which transports electricity without losses when cooled down to about –200C (–392F).