Dominion will at the end of next year close the 515-MW State Line Power Station in Hammond, Ind. The coal-fired plant has two units: The first fired up in 1955 and the second, in 1962.

On Sunday, Mexico’s labor secretary, Javier Lozano, announced that the bodies of all 14 miners had been retrieved from a coal mine in northern Mexico that collapsed last Tuesday after a methane explosion.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., May 8, 2011 — Anyone who has followed energy politics in the U.S. for the past 15 years or so knows that Bill Richardson is a buffoon. Back in August 2003, following the mammoth Northeast blackout, Richardson famously said, “We are a major superpower with a third-world electrical grid.” Richardson […]

Tomorrow is the last day to preregister and save $200 for ELECTRIC POWER 2011! ELECTRIC POWER 2011 is more than a conference and trade show. Just look at all of the colocated events (for more details and registration, visit the ELECTRIC POWER website): Power Plant Management Institute: Plant managers attend this two-day event free of […]

Make the most of your time in Rosemont, Illinois at ELECTRIC POWER. The conference runs May 10 to 12, but Monday, May 9 offers several preconference workshops for in-depth professional advancement. Topics include: PRB Foundation (Conveyor Safety) Course Combustion Optimization in Utility Boilers—Performance Improvements and NOx PRB Combustible Dust—How to Perform a Process Hazard Analysis […]

See the latest power generation technology solutions by visiting the Exhibit Hall between sessions and during special show floor events. You’ll find more than 500 exhibits in one place, at one time. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to evaluate prospective suppliers. The Exhibit Hall is also a great place to network and catch up with […]

Don’t miss the most important generation industry event of the year! State of the Industry speaker confirmed: John Shelk, President & CEO, Electric Power Supply Association, will deliver the State of the Industry speech before the Executive Roundtable, Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m. What you’ll hear on Tuesday morning alone is worth the price of […]

During the show, you’ll find brief reports on selected sessions and presentations in this space. It’s no substitute for attending the sessions, but we know you can’t get to them all, so we give you a taste of tracks you might have missed. To help you plan your time at ELECTRIC POWER, consult the online […]

The ELECTRIC POWER Exhibit Hall is the real-world meet-up for the power generation industry. It’s where everyone comes together between sessions, for lunches, for receptions-and, of course, to visit a wealth of exhibits and industry vendors. Here’s just a glimpse of what you’ll find on the Exhibit Floor… Tuesday, May 10 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 […]

In the latest of a string of mergers in the utility sector, Exelon on Thursday said it would buy Constellation Energy in a $7.9 billion deal. The agreement would bring together Exelon’s large nuclear fleet and Constellation’s “customer-facing” business, creating a platform for growth, the companies said in a joint statement.

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) plans to conduct a large-scale grid security exercise later this year that will involve bulk North American power system owners and operators.

The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) on Tuesday filed draft rules with the state Legislature that could require large wood-burning power producers to meet strict greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards before they can receive state financing. The rules were modeled on conclusions reached in a June 2010 study that burning forest trees for power is not carbon neutral.

A law signed by Governor Chris Gregoire on Friday phases out coal-fired power production in Washington State with the closure of two coal boilers at TransAlta’s Centralia power plant.

In the past week, Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano separately rejected suggestions that Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) could be exempt from liability for damages at its crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant caused by the magnitude 9 quake and 14-meter tsunami wave on March 11.

Workers are scrambling to contain highly radioactive water and prevent another explosion at the quake-devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, the situation—which still remains “very serious,” according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—has improved only incrementally, the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) told lawmakers.

Seventeen industry groups, including the Biomass Power Association (BPA) and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, last week petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to put on hold rules for industrial boilers while the agency reconsiders them.

ELECTRIC POWER conference tracks are programmed by a 100-member industry committee to ensure that session content is substantive, practical, and timely. It’s information you can use presented by people who have been in your shoes. To help you plan your time at ELECTRIC POWER, consult the online conference grid. You’ll have complete session details when […]

Do you have limited time, or do you just want to visit with hundreds of North American and international industry exhibitors? Then the Expo-Only Special Package is for you: See the latest power generation technology solutions at more than 500 exhibits. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to evaluate prospective suppliers. Attend the Keynote and CEO […]

May 6 is the last day to save by registering for ELECTRIC POWER online! Register online today and save $200. Stay in the middle of the action. Book your hotel room now. ELECTRIC POWER has discounted hotel rooms at several different hotels, but time is running out, so make your reservation today. When you register, […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., May 2, 2011 – The Obama administration’s response to current high gasoline prices is so 1970s…or 1980s…or 1990s…or 2000s. Been there, done that, dead end. Washington seems to be perfumed with a silliness pheromone that gets loosed in the Nation’s Capital whenever gasoline prices go up. As pump prices climb, […]

The People’s Republic of China’s Congress approved a much-anticipated draft of the country’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2011–2015) on March 14. Along with key objectives that included boosting its gross domestic product (GDP) by 7% annually on average, the country for the first time in a five-year plan established targets to tackle climate change. It plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 17% from 2010 levels by 2015 and to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 16% from 2010 levels by 2015.

Many large utility-scale units with copper alloy condensers and feedwater heaters lose generating capacity when copper and copper oxide deposits develop on high-pressure (HP) steam turbine blading. It is not unusual for a 400-MW unit to lose 10% of its generating capacity over a six-month period when water treatment processes aren’t properly tuned to prevent copper transport in the steam and condensate systems. In fact, one utility reported that it lost 20 MW of capacity in one month because of such deposits. The financial implications of such deposits, particularly in power markets where plants are pushed to their generating limits, are tremendous.

Wish you could get inside your customer’s head? If so, forget data and go to the source.

Subsidized by the Dutch government, a number of Dutch utilities, the European Membrane Institute at the University of Twente, and Dutch consulting firm KEMA have, for over a decade, been testing membrane technology that promises to directly convert water vapor from power and other industrial plants’ flue gases into drinking water. The technology could provide a new source of large volumes of potable water.

This series of articles focuses on the nuts and bolts of predictive maintenance (PdM), also known as condition-based maintenance. A well-defined and well-executed PdM program saves time and money by reducing unneeded time-based maintenance tasks and by identifying and fixing problems before they cause equipment failure or plant shutdown. In this article, we begin introducing condition-monitoring techniques commonly in use at power plants.

Regulators are asked to balance a societal need with the cost burden placed on those who pay for the service. Sometimes they forget that it’s other people’s money at stake.

Competition among offshore wind turbine vendors vying for market share went into overdrive in the first three months of 2011 as several key players announced gigantic new turbine models.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently dealt another setback to the use of Section 216 of the Federal Power Act, which gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) “backstop” authority to site electric transmission lines. Although enacted in 2005, this authority has never been used by FERC, and it can be questioned whether it ever will be used.

It’s not just hard finding good help these days. It’s hard finding honest help, too.

A major technical advance in hydroelectric dam safety was achieved this March as Alstom’s Chinese arm, the Tianjin Alstom Hydro Co. (TAH), delivered what it called “the world’s first self-closing electronic ring gate control system” to the Ahai hydropower project in China.